Post election column

I’ve been interested in American politics and history all my life. Maybe the long-promised perspective of age is finally dawning on me, as my younger self would have been crushed by the results of the recent election. Almost immediately, I started jotting down some ideas about the path ahead, and perhaps it is good to share some of those musings. This piece is directed, mostly, to those on the center or leaning left on our political spectrum.

I counsel patience, both in the sense of watching events unfold and giving oneself and others time to work.  It is fine to be sad for a while and not to jump into fevered blaming  or lashing out in frustration. When down, we often move to extreme reactions. We have seen spates of gloating that has already mutated into  I have no problem with the protests concerning the election, but I do have resentment against the recourse to violence. I am willing to bet that many in the streets could not be bothered to vote at all, but they seem to have the time to go into the streets.

As time passes, we owe ourselves some space to reflect. We do well to rely on political scientists to drill deeply into the data to try to tease out answers to questions such as: how many votes were denied Sec. Clinton due to her gender?  Did Mr. Trump, the President –elect, receive or lose votes due to his personal qualities, for instance, his brashness?  What were the salient issues that impelled people to switch parties in their voting?

I would like to see how it is that Democrats have squandered their support in the working class during my lifetime, at least since 1968.  Put differently, how do Republicans get working class people to support a party that usually does not support their economic interests?

Part of the answer may lie in the image that the parties project. At times, liberals in this county are insufferably arrogant. They have taken on a mantle of intellectual and moral superiority to those who deign to disagree with them. In other words, they look down on the very people they claim to represent.

It is time for Democrats to start to recast some of their arguments for people to vote for them and not against opponents. We may well be at a new juncture on political opinion. It seems to me that we have a world of information at our disposal, but we choose to ignore it. Instead our reading of material, our interpretation, our narrative, as some call it, seems dispositive now. Of course, some facts are selected as being proof of a set of beliefs. To a large degree, we are ignoring facts and replacing them with mere opinion across the political landscape. In that light, how points of view are framed seem crucial.

At the same time, a basic role of a party is to recruit good candidates at all levels.  Knowing that the electoral maps change every ten years, Republicans have made huge gains at the state levels.  These  are vital  sources for future national candidates and testing grounds, laboratories, for different policy proposals.

Finally, the future is always uncertain. Instead of predicating doom find signs of hope. If opposition needs to arise, then may it be effective and civil. I do not trust my forecasting skills any more. I missed the wave of Tea Party activity as an emblem of the future. I predicted in the summer that Mr. Trump would garner no more than 38% of the vote.

After any election, I remind myself of the words of Max Weber,: politics is the slow boring of hard boards.