I tend to be an optimist. In life, in sports fandom, and even in political junkiedom. My team loses? We’ll get ‘em next time. Bad day today? Tomorrow is another day. I even remember reacting to George W. Bush’s re-election in 2004 by hoping (correctly, it turned out) that the next Democrat for president would be better than John Kerry.
Even after last Tuesday, my first instinct was to write a column about how there are silver linings in Trump’s victory.
But even so: This is bad. This is really bad. This is former-publisher-of-a-white-nationalist-white-as-top-advisor-to-the-president bad. 17 people ran for president on the Republican side this year- and the worst of them all ended up elected president. Well, second-worst, because I just remembered Mike Huckabee.
I want to say it’s going to be all right, that GOP infighting will prevent Trump from getting much done, that Obama achievements like Obamacare and the Iran deal will prove too difficult to undo, and that Trump’s presidency will be occasioned primarily by the chief executive slowly, inevitably, destroying himself. That is, I repeat, the best-case scenario.
But I don’t know that I could look a Muslim-American, or an undocumented immigrant, in the eye and tell them that it’s all going to be all right. And I’m certainly not going to get on my high horse and tell people not to protest. Since the election, supporters of one side have protested, supporters of the other have committed a whole bunch of hate crimes. I know which one I find more- what’s the word- deplorable?
America is strong. It has survived tyrants before, and ugly as things get, we’ll survive this one too. Journalists will do great work. So will activists, and so will artists. All deserve our support.
There’s a lot of blame to go around for Tuesday’s result, some small measure of it even belonging to people besides Debbie Wasserman-Schultz. But the important thing now, for people who care about this country, is to fight Trump, and resist him, and ultimately consign Trumpism into what one former president called “history’s unmarked grave of discarded lies.”
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As I mentioned last time, I started a new job last month with Frank Recruitment Group, and I’m really loving things so far. I especially love the team I’m working with- I know it was a good group by the end of the first week, when I quoted “Avenue Q” and everyone sitting near me got the reference.
I’m the social media and marketing manager for Anderson Frank, which handles recruitment for NetSuite developers, consultants and other professionals. You can help me out by following Anderson Frank on Twitter, liking it on Facebook and adding it on LinkedIn.
You can also read my first two blog posts: One is about NetSuite’s acquisition by Oracle, and the other an earlier preview of SuiteWorld.
Right before I started at FRG, I went up to Brandeis for the conference on the legacy of Lenny Bruce. Here’s my report, for Tablet magazine.
At Splice Today, I reviewed Moonlight, Arrival and Loving and Doctor Strange.
For Medium, I wrote about some irresponsible reporting on Teddy Bridgewater’s injury:
At Blasting News:
- I reported from outside that pre-election rally in Philly.
- I struggled to find some post-election silver linings.
- I’m not going to pretend my political predictions were any better than anyone else’s, but I was certainly right that neither Trump supporters nor neo-Nazis swarmed urban polling places.
- Why Jon Stewart deserves neither credit nor blame for the election result.
- Please don’t hate Cubs fans.
- Why Baylor deserves to never win another football game.
- Why The Walking Dead should not be censored.
- Why celebrities have a right to stay out of politics:
And at Screenrant:
- On Donald Glover as Lando Calrissian.
- That Dave Chappelle Walking Dead parody.
- It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia gets a return date.
- Ron Perlman says he’s running for president.
- Knocking down a particularly dumb Breaking Bad fan theory:
- News on the A Wrinkle in Time movie.
- A look ahead at Patriot’s Day.
- Could Will & Grace return?
As always, follow me on Twitter at @StephenSilver.
Stephen Silver, Writer 