How The Hell Did We Get Here?

They are the questions my friends and I keep asking ourselves and each other. How did we go from the audacity of hope to the atrocity of hate? How did this country, our country, elect an elegant, intelligent and thoughtful man who sought to bring people together and then turn around and put a bigoted, polarizing pompous person into the highest office in the land? What happened? How the hell did we get here?

Could it be that maybe we are where we are supposed to be? Did we need a leader as pathological as Donald Trump to reveal the sickness of systemic racism that has plagued this country for more than 400 years? One could argue that if Hillary Clinton would have won the election it may have been business as usual with America sweeping its dirty little secret under the rug.

Ironically, without President Barack Obama, there would probably not have been a President Donald Trump. While Black folks, Democrats and progressives were celebrating President Obama’s election, a third or more of this country was losing their lunch. They couldn’t digest the reality that the Black man in the White House wasn’t the butler, he was the boss. They seethed at the sight of this sophisticate with a funny sounding name, unflappable temperament and Ivy League pedigree

While we were filled with great expectations and the excitement that came with the glimmer of hope that this country might finally live up to its promise of equality for all, they were plotting how to take “their” country back. They thought an arrogant outsider who challenged President Obama’s citizenship, was their ticket back to the good old days; that were never good for us.

Well, they got what they wanted. The problem is, so did we. They have spent the past four years trying to make America hate again by pitting rural against urban, Republicans against Democrats, immigrants against American citizens, and blacks against whites. Donald Trump is using the same fear mongering, lies and divisive politics this time around, but if public sentiment is any indication, it just might not work this time. It seems like many of those who voted for Trump may finally be seeing him for the bully he really is. He is a one trick pony who doesn’t have the leadership ability or compassion we desperately need.

My parents used to tell me that God works in mysterious ways. Could it be the devil named Donald has been trumped by a superior power? By showing us the evil that lurks within and giving others license to do the same, he has revealed something so vile, so objectionable that a new generation of young people won’t abide. So, maybe we had to sink to the depths of hell to rise higher than ever before. I am holding onto this belief and counting the days until November 3, 2020. On that day, and the days following, we will find out who we really are.