…you are missing Bo’s point.
These people aren’t imagining their lives are shit. Their lives are shit. They might not have lives as bad as other people. But without a real basis for comparison, why would that matter?
In NZ I followed along (as much as I could stomach) the elections on our National Radio on Checkpoint hosted by John Campbell. Campbell has always been an advocacy-journalist: he is respectful, he is hard hitting, and he always lends his voice to those without power and holds to account those that have it.
And it was interesting to hear how he covered the elections. In between running updates on totals the afternoon was punctuated with alternating interviews with Clinton supporters and Trump supporters. And there really wasn’t that much difference. The Trump supporters weren’t foaming at the mouth. They were worried about the economy, worried about crime, worried about jobs.
They had a choice between someone who kept confidential emails on their private server to someone who was going to smash the system and make America Great again.
Ultimately this election was decided over sound bytes. When I first heard about Clinton and her emails I took the time to google what was up, and finding out actually was going on was really quite difficult. But this article summed it up:
Its a comprehensive, extensive, well documented essay that lays out exactly why what Clinton did wasn’t a very big deal. It was also a thirteen minute read. I read it, nodded my head and then went back to doing my thing.
I was shocked yesterday when I read my facebook feed to read what a NZ 17 year old person had to say in defence of Trump:
“But i don’t like the things she’s done in the past. Her illegal use of a personal email server, accepting millions of dollars from foreign governments. Obviously trump has done so much shit in his past too.”
This person is a pretty cool person. I don’t know them that well: but they don’t strike me as either not intelligent or not engaged. But this person’s impression of Clinton was that she illegally used a personal email server and accepted millions from foreign governments. To get the truth you need to dig deep. But apart from twonks on messageboards like us, who is going to dig deep?
Before yesterday I still didn’t think the email thing was that big a deal. But this morning I realised that this was how Trump won the election. It wasn’t the email thing specifically. It was conceptualising Clinton’s entire campaign into one specific catch phrase. “Clinton illegally used a personal email server.” It could well have been “Don’t you think she looks tired.” I kept hearing the same thing over and over again from interviewers from Trump supporters. “Yeah, Trump has done some bad things. But Clinton has an illegal personal email server.” Over and over. And actually understanding what the email server thing was actually took effort: and even though I consider myself quite smart it was a heck of a lot of information to take in. The Clinton campaign never reconceptualized this. They allowed Trumps narrative to stand.
And in the end, from the admittedly anecdotal stories I have heard, was enough to turn the tide. Trump didn’t need everyone to believe the email narrative. He only needed a few. And those few that did aren’t necessarily bad people. They most probably aren’t privileged people. And they made a choice: a bad choice IMHO, but I’m not going to condemn them for it because right now there are more important things to worry about.
“That’s not the way the world really works anymore. We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors … and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.” -Karl Rove.
The Trump campaign won because they controlled the message. They created the narrative. They left everyone behind. They didn’t need an overwhelming victory. And they didn’t get an overwhelming victory. They needed enough people to swing their way so that the convoluted antiquated ridiculous voting system the United States has at their core could work in their favour. They didn’t rely on the polls, spend as much as the Clinton Campaign, or do many of the “traditional campaign things.” Trump decided he wanted to be president. SO HE JUST WENT OUT AND DID IT. He controlled the narrative and controlled the message. We mock him for how he used twitter. But twitter is “how the world works now”. In easily digestible 140 character sound bytes.
My predictions for the next four years can be summed up in one word:
Ugly.
The protests started yesterday. I don’t actually think they will stop. The next four years will have rolling protests, all the time, all over the country.
“Welcome to the new reality” America.
These protests are going to hasten the resolve of many of those who voted for Trump. Their TV screens will be filled daily with images of black people smashing things, stopping traffic, with cable TV anchors breathlessly giving us extended commentary and presenting talking heads from both sides who will stare at a computer monitor and then describe to the viewers verbatim what they see.
“Welcome to the new reality” world.
Both sides will be emboldened. Both will double down. What is that going to lead too? I don’t fucking know. But it scares the fuck out of me. The stories have already started popping up on my twitter feed and it is scary and upsetting and worrying.
The important thing to do right now is to stop the fucking blame game. Karl Rove summed it up. We are going to spend the next four years “navel gazing”, trying to figure out where we went wrong, who was to blame, how to fix it, and Trump will ignore that and continue to define the way the world will work from now on. Stop trying to understand what happened. It just happened. Nothing was going to stop this juggernaut. The republicans couldn’t stop it, Clinton couldn’t stop it, Bernie wouldn’t have been able to stop it, because everyone was playing by the old rules but those rules no longer apply. Agile has beaten waterfall.
America needs strong leadership now. When Obama gets out of office, he needs to play a part. Many Americans think of the Obama presidency as a “lame duck” presidency: but to many of the rest of the world he was the best President you have ever had who worked as best as he could do what he could in a system that is just fucked up. He is an inspiration to us. He represented everything that was great about America. And that vision of America has been shattered by what your voters and your system did when it allowed Trump to become president. You need Obama at the forefront to remind the rest of the world what America can actually be great.
And you need to start playing the game as it is played now. And be prepared because as technology changes, the rules of the game are going to shift. There isn’t a Democrat that I can think of that knows how to play this game. To beat Donald Trump you are going to need a Jon Stewart. And even Stewart would struggle against this command of the message that Trump has at the moment. But Stewart at least understands the game and can match Trump blow for blow. Either Stewart or Lisa Simpson. (Because in cartoon reality Lisa inherited the presidency after Trump: yes, THE SIMPSONS ALREADY DID IT)
But it needs to start now. The protests fit Trumps narrative and as right as the protesters are to protest (IMHO) it plays perfectly into Trumps hands. To fight it you need to re-write the narrative. So white people: get the fuck down to the protests and make your voices heard. Not just to show solidarity: but to fight the narrative that the Trump administration is going to create once they take office. It is no longer about convincing everyone. Its about convincing enough people to make change happen. Politics is now an agile process. Its gonna move rapidly and you need to understand how the narrative is going to be shaped and be prepared with a counter-narrative.
And someone start the #JonStewartforpresident hashtag. A couple of years ago the thoughts of this would have been an absolute joke. But we’ve just watched Trump demolish the Republican candidates and beat out Clinton and we live in a new world now. I can’t actually think of someone else who is a voice of rationality in the United States with the mana of Stewart. And he isn’t afraid to say “fuck.” But it would be interesting to hear some other thoughts on who else could fit the bill.
And that has been Banquet Bear’s thoughts on the elections. And I think I’m out now. I’m off to San Junipero. For the next four years. I hear its sunny over there. And the music is simply fantastic.