Friday, January 20, 2017

Isn't the "not my president" sentiment counter-productive? - Jeff Wiersma

If you're among those saying "not my president" about Trump, could I politely ask you to reconsider?

I'm as anti-Trump as they come and have been since before he even announced his candidacy (birtherism, his fear-mongering in the case of the Central Park Five, etc.)

He is a despicable, disgraceful man who is woefully unqualified to be president and represents everything I teach my sons not to be. His misogyny, fear-mongering, bullying, sexual assaulting, greed, narcissism, and prosperity gospel idolatry are unacceptable and should not be tolerated.

As a student of history and politics and as an advocate for justice, I'm highly exasperated, discouraged, and concerned by all of this. I will continue - in radical solidarity with those Trump demonizes and scapegoats - to resist and oppose him.

Yes, his election is far different than ones in the past where the candidate I did not prefer ended up winning (I was rooting for Trump to lose, not for Hillary to win). Yes, he represents a credible, existential threat to our republic. I will not "get over" that.

HOWEVER ... isn't the "not my president" sentiment counter-productive? Yes, he is not kind of person that many of us want to be the President. Yes, many of us can plainly see that he has no business being the President.

But he is our president.

Once that is acknowledged, we need to work within the mechanisms of democratic society to quarantine Trumpism for the good of our republic.