By Irwin Redlener
At some point on Tuesday night, as it became clear that Donald J. Trump and his team would be returning to the White House on January 20, 2025, I couldn't help thinking about the people Karen and I spoke with while "door knocking" in Coatesville, PA over the weekend. So many of the folks we met were marginalized and poor. Yet they were excited about Kamala Harris, who, we imagined, gave them permission to cautiously dream of a better America where anybody could make enough to get by and where their children would have a genuine shot at achieving whatever they defined as "success” limited only by their ambitions, abilities and drive.
And I thought about how our country is on the precipice of normalizing a significantly downgraded constitutional democracy, an erosion of the rights and privacy of women, a public disrespect for the military, and the social acceptability of leaders devoid of humanity who are comfortable with lawlessness, dishonesty, and authoritarianism. And I understand we will have to fight against an inexorable drift away from science and evidence-based decision-making across all aspects of governance.
And, too, beyond the impact of the election on Americans, the global consequences of a Trump- Vance Administration are unpredictable in the most worrisome ways imaginable. How will our allies in Europe and the world process the rise of an American authoritarian? What will happen to Ukraine? What will happen in the Middle East and Taiwan? Will the fight to control global warming be abandoned? Will the mad rush to "modernize" and expand nuclear stockpiles in America, Russia, and China put us at the greatest risk of a nuclear apocalypse since the Cuban missile crisis of 1962?
Still, at some point, we'll all need to accept the new reality and move on, politically and personally. For the millions of disappointed Democrats and independents, we'll need to focus on upcoming local elections, the midterms, and possibilities in 2028. You might want to try what I did early this morning and ask your favorite AI system what Democrats could do in the 75 days from now until the inauguration of the new administration on 1/20/25 to mitigate some of what may well be coming. (For instance, what can President Biden do in terms of executive orders?)
For me, I am also thinking of rural east Arkansas in 1971 when I was the medical director of a federally funded clinic in deeply impoverished, Klan-infested Lee County. That's where I met Karen who was a VISTA volunteer responsible for our pediatric screening and social service programs. And I'm thinking about our three decades of work with Paul Simon providing health care to homeless and indigent children and my own program focused, in part, on protecting vulnerable populations, including children, who are coping with large-scale natural disasters. And most importantly, I can't help thinking about our current initiative supporting Ukrainian children impacted by the endless war with Russian invaders.
And no matter what else we do, there are our own children and grandchildren around whom our own world turns.
But the big point is that regardless of the outcome of this era-defining election, we all must continue to find ways to support the work, the causes, the values, and the people that matter - especially our families, friends, and neighbors. There is value and goodness in all of it. It matters. We do need to look ahead politically, but we can't lose sight of what matters personally.
Also, take a look at what Malcolm Nance wrote in his Substack; it's an amazing piece.
https://malcolmnance.substack.com/p/a-trump-victory-if-so-break-glass
So sit Shiva for a while, then get up and keep moving forward. You're alive, the world is still here, and the future is loaded with good possibilities, even if they seem a bit far off on this dreary morning after the election.
