Vice President Kamala Harris lost the election. Former President Donald Trump will be the 47th President of the United States. What comes next?
There are not a lot of silver linings that come with this. In fact, I recommend mourning the loss of the election. It would be healthy to do so.
Like so many other Americans, it is OK to take the day and mourn. It is more than OK to be upset at the results. It is OK to be scared and sad. A lot of people are going to be in danger very soon.
So, how can we move forward?
Viktor Frankl, author of Man’s Search for Meaning, may have some wisdom for the fight ahead.
He writes, “It did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us.”
The path forward is a path that we have to pave for ourselves. There is no clear path yet. The battles will present themselves in due time, but when they do, it is our job to fight.
The election did not go well. Exactly why it failed is up for debate, but a likely reason is because the Democrats pushed aside its own voters in pursuit of voters who did not end up voting for them.
The Democratic party failed us, and it is up to us to pick up the pieces. It is up to us to continue the tradition of democracy and to fight when the time comes.
If President-elect Trump does everything he said he promised to do, millions of people will be deported. According to the American Immigration Council, this would cost $88 billion annually in tax dollars. Many agencies in the Executive Branch will be dismantled if not outright destroyed. If he implements tariffs, which are taxes that American companies pay to import materials from foreign countries, then it will drastically increase the prices of many things and consumers will suffer.
Predicting exactly what will happen is like predicting what the next Yellowstone eruption will be. It could be a little bit of lava flow, or it could be a massive explosion that wipes out half the United States. We must hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.
It is OK to mourn today, but tomorrow, we must fight. Check in on your friends. Get involved with your community. There are food pantries that need volunteers. There is litter that needs to be picked up. There are people in town that need help. We must start there.
Sociologist Immanuel Wallerstein once noted, “Small inputs have large outputs.” Starting within the community will have large waves of what happens outside the community. There are many things we cannot control, but getting involved is something we can control. That matters more than anyone can know.
There is a long fight ahead. Stay healthy and stay active. It’s all hands on deck from here on out.
