Voting decisions do speak to core values. We can't conveniently separate them out because they are difficult to reconcile with the people we know and a country we love.
Anyone who votes for a political candidate is endorsing that person and is making a statement that whatever flaws, issues, ugliness they exhibit is secondary to other things they (the voter) has determined are more important. This board can debate all day which issues are deal breakers and, like the country, we aren't going to agree, because our core values are different and that is exactly the problem and exactly why people fear for their safety and lives and those of their children and loved ones.
Though the majority of Americans did not vote for Trump, we can't deny that approximately 25% of eligible voters did. And, as one moderate Republican said recently, "Even if it makes us feel better to say that those who voted for Trump are not actively racist, homophobic, mysogynistic, xenophobic..., it cannot be denied that they were still willing to vote for someone who is." And many of those same people are now not grasping what it means to have a proudly self-admitted, and well-known white nationalists appointed to a Whitehouse position with top secret clearance. There is an ignorance or denial or something more sinister in this country that boggles the mind. Just how many examples of deplorable do people need? Just where is that tipping point for each of us?
And, yes, my husband would absolutely have killed our marriage had he voted for Trump. Betrayal is betrayal. And that action would have been a direct assault on D and me as women and humans of value, as well as who we are and what we value fundamentally. It would also have been a betrayal of the human rights, dignity, equality, and safety of others which I would not be able to respect and it would have made H untrustworthy to me given my core values. The betrayal and the loss of respect and trust would have destroyed my marriage if he voted for Trump, just as his betrayal of D and me, our friends, his change in core values, etc. destroyed our marriage in MLC. And H would have felt the same about me, if I voted for Trump, as our shared values were a fundamental part of what brought us together and made us attractive and partner and parent material to the other.
I'm not an alarmist, by nature, but anyone who works, or is an activist, in the area of human rights and dignity has seen this coming for a long time ---a wave of fear as the world and our country diversifies and people are faced with the unfamilar, the unknown and those they too often believe are competition for jobs and survival, or are a threat to their way of life and way of thinkng and worshipping. That is what this vote was about....fear. Fear of the "other." Fear I won't get mine if someone else gets theirs. Fear that some mythical America of yesteryear is disappearing. Fear that woman gaining equal footing emasculates men. Fear about global issues. Fear about the economy. Fear about Christianity being diluted.
This is the same exact fear that Hitler was able to manipulated and capitalize on and use to lull people into a sense of security that he had the answers and would save them and they followed all the way to their demise, the obliteration of their country and his accumulation of massive wealth and power. There is a tremendous arrogance or naivite in thinking that just because it's almost 2017 and this is America and we have a "free" press, and checks and balances, blah, blah, blah that this can't happen here. We have to wake up. We are no better and no different than other countries in which this has, or is happening, in modern times. All the same elements are in place as are the same lack of safe guards. America has been under the impression that certain things could never happen because they aren't "allowed." Now we are learning certain things never happened because our better angels prevailed or it was the practice of past administrations which was respected, in turn, by each new Administration... until now.
I won't stand by silentely or complacently while the country my daughter lives in teters on the precipice of fear and hate. We have time to do something. Time to not go down the path that other countries now find themselves on. Time to make our world truly better for all children and none are lesser because their parents are black or brown, Jewish, Muslim, Gay, Trangender, econonmically insecure... But our first step is in understanding that people who voted for Trump have fundamental values that allowed him to get this far. Now the question is how many of those same people will wake up and see this is not the direction they wanted or intended and stand with others in saying: This will not happen here. We will not let you take us backwards. We will not let you make us hate mongers. We will not allow the demeaning and abuse of others. We will not value another person's dignity and rights less than our own. We will not. We will not. That too is grace.
Phoenix
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US ELECTION #2