Calm down, everyone. Calm down.
There are to be no tears, no emigrating, no ripping up of passports. Why such fear and angst?
Those negative emotions are exactly what caused this mess in the first place, only flipped on their ear. What we learned last night is this: We are, it seems very clear, in the minority.
Left-leaning views are not shared by most people in the country. If you dislike President Bush, if you are unhappy with the way the country is headed, if you feel that things are not what you would like them to be … you are not of the majority opinion.
That says a great deal. You can view it as an indication that you should leave the country, that we are “living a nightmare,” that everything is going to get worse. Or you can recognize that there is a lot of work left to do before 50 million other people share your opinion (and, assuming that half of them have at least one child, that brings it up to 75 million Americans who hold conflicting beliefs).
There is a long way to go before “our” views become mainstream — and, don’t forget, they never really have been. Even Kerry didn’t hold to many of the beliefs that are central ideologies of left-of-center Democrats.
“We” lost, fair and square. Frankly, it wasn’t even close. Millions upon millions of people believe President Bush’s idologies and moral stances (which proved to be the most important issue in the race — who knew?!) are closer to theirs than Kerry’s were.
If that scares you, imagine how “they” feel about “us.” They believe liberals, Democrats, homosexuals, minorities, immigrants and the like are scary. That we are a threat to them. That we are going to undo the progress they have made.
Which is exactly what “we” think about “them.”
Maybe we all have more in common than we care to admit.
What I am certain of personally is this: If this country continues to see things as “us” vs. “them,” as “we” and “they,” as “right” and “wrong,” then we have a huge rift that is only going to deepen. It does not matter who is president. Remember, if Kerry had won, there would still have been 50 million people unhappy with that decision, whether you think it would have been “right” or “wrong.” What matters is that people take this chance to recognize that there is a deep division in the U.S. that needs to be acknowledged before it can be filled in and we can all start coming together rather than staying on our opposite sides of the fence. Because all we’re doing at this point is making each other angrier, less tolerant (that goes for both sides) and more scared of trying to acknowledge and respect different views.
“Diversity” and “tolerance” work both ways.
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