Congratulations we won, now what?

So, the United States of America elected a new President this week. While I don't know if new is the right word to use we definitely elected a DIFFERENT President. Congratulations, right now depending on who you voted for, you’re probably experiencing intense joy or bitter disgust. While this seems like a big change for both sides of the political scale, I feel like it’s definitely a positive election for both parties. Here are a few things we as a country need to do as we dive into 2021, to ensure the best future for our country.

Let me break this down by party.  

First off let’s talk to the Democrats.  

Number 1: Congratulations you should see this as a victory. Joe Biden, while not the ideal candidate, was at least good enough to defeat a republican candidate that dabbled in tyranny and is compulsively selfish. He will actually work with his Republican counterparts and help regain our respectability abroad. He’s not the Trojan Horse for socialism the right paints him to be and much of the left isn’t happy with his centrist ideals, but he’s a professional who knows how to do this job. At the very least he can begin the healing process we need so badly.  

Number 2: Calm down! Sure we will have a blue president for 4 years, however, the silent minority of this country has spoken and it's very obvious they are not ready for the progressive ideas that are currently being floated by a large portion of left-wing politicians.That doesn't mean this isn’t a shift in the right direction, it absolutely is, however what we should learn from this is that we have a long way to go. Force-feeding far-left agendas like, is not going to get us where both you and I think the country should go. Keep fighting the good fight, understand that there are people who will just not agree with you and that doesn't mean they're wrong it just means they have fundamentally different ideas of what this country is about. We’ve been finding middle ground for centuries, we can continue to do that in the 2020′s.

Next Let’s Talk To the Republicans, oh wait, I’m sorry, the GOP. 

Number 1: Congratulations you should see this is a victory. Sure you lost the presidency, however This election should serve as an opportunity for the conservatives of this nation to purge themselves of the Trump energy that has been driving their political landscape for 4 years. Conservatism, Republicans, and anyone who considers themselves “right wing”, are not inherently bad and the preference for small government and self-reliance is a respectable ideology that had a large hand in building this country. However, the Trump juice that has been fueling the red of states for the past 4 years has done more damage to the idea of conservatism than anything else in the past 30 years. This is your opportunity to move forward and re-establish yourself as a party for the people and not for a narcissistic pseudo billionaire that was only ever out to benefit himself and his friends. 

Number 2: Calm down! Sure we will have a blue president for 4 years, however thanks to the current Commander in Orange Julius, the Supreme Court is stacked in your favor for the next generation, and somehow the hatred for Donald Trump didn’t bleed over into the Congressional races. In fact, it looks like you're going to pick up some seats in both the House and Senate. Politically speaking, the conservative agenda is still alive and well in Washington, and arguably in the hands of smarter and more well-intentioned Americans than Donald Trump. Effectively, you guys are still in charge. When we inevitably have another conservative president, hopefully it will be someone that America can be objectively more proud of..

Now let me talk to both of y'all.

Please use this moment to galvanize the country. Media outlets, Public Figures and Social Media are actively pitting you against each other and while both sides believe it's to advance their agenda all it's really doing is crippling the whole system. Many people weren't voting FOR Trump they were voting against a liberal agenda that they fear, don’t understand or have been fed propaganda about. Do I want Universal Health Care? Absolutely! Do I want higher education to be more affordable? Absolutely! Do I want more wealth equality? You bet! Do I want to overhaul the entire criminal justice system? More than you will ever know! However, the current approach, and might I say “cancel culture” narrative that is so prevalent in liberal politics right now would doom any legitimate attempt at creating a better America through any one of these measures. 

Like it or not, conservatives aren't going anywhere. They make up nearly half of this nation, and for any social programs to truly work effectively, conservatives have to agree to put in a legitimate effort to back them. While I appreciate the gusto and energy that the modern liberal movements have been channeling, I don't see your current approach making any headway any time soon.

Conservatives, I get it, you don't like change. Our country, since its founding, has always adopted the more progressive mindset as generations pass, it's the natural progression of things. Whether you want to believe this, many of these “fringe liberal ideas'' are inevitable. Abolishing Slavery and Women’s Suffereage were once “fringe liberal ideas” and we see what happened with those. What you think is far left now, in 2-3 generations will be commonplace and considered moderate. The slow march to the inevitable progressive future isn't something you should be stopping, it should be something you are monitoring and regulating. Make progressive work within your ideals of individual freedom. Use your scepticism to ensure these progressive ideas are done right and fit in with amendments in the Constitution. The way I see it, Progressives are there to throw wild pro-citizen ideas at a wall, and Conservatives are there to adjust those things into a usable state. It’s the natural order of things. Both sides have to realize that at some point, you must reach across the aisle for anything to work. 

Side Note

I'm happy with the outcome, but the last 4 years have pulled a mask off of the American people in a way I never anticipated. A lot of our problems stem from inherent cracks in the foundation of our origins and we can’t ignore those cracks anymore. We aren’t a perfect nation, we never were and depending on the metric you’re looking at, one could argue that we've never even been that great. As a millennial, I've been told my whole life that America is the greatest country on Earth and that I can have anything I want if I just put my mind to it. We are the land of opportunity, and a beacon for the rest of the world to envy. As I’ve grown up, Millennials have gotten the reputation of an entitled generation that expects everyone to cater to their needs, often referred to as the “everyone gets a trophy generation.” That’s not who we are. Millennials are a generation of Americans that were sold a bill of goods only to find they were built on half-truths and hollow platitudes. Instead of just accepting it for what it is and letting the inevitable cynicism of adulthood take control we understand that we have a voice and that the bill of goods we were sold is obtainable. The fight for that may sound like entitlement, when in fact it's an optimistic hope that we can make things the way they should be. Don’t feed us propaganda and then be surprised when we believe it.

Once millennials are done, we will have the country you promised us, the way we were always told it would be and ironically, we will make America great, FINALLY.

On Diversity: A Snapshot of My America

My main job is taking pictures of homes for real estate agents.  While most of the homes I photograph are in the upper-middle to high-end price range, I do take pictures in what can be described as blue-collar, working class areas.  One of my shoots yesterday was in one of these neighborhoods.  A neighborhood where the average home price is below the local median average.  A neighborhood where people take pride in their homes even when they don't always have the time or money to make them look as nicely as they want.  It was in just such a neighborhood that I was reminded not only what has always made America great but just how wrong and dangerous modern-day conservatives are to what really makes America great.

As I pulled up to the house, it looked like a thousand others in the area, a nicely landscaped Cape Cod with an American flag softly waving in the breeze from a pole in the front yard and a black Ford F-250 parked in the driveway.  I fully expected the owners to be the typical white, blue-collar working class people who heavily dominate this particular part of town.  When they opened the door, all I could think of was, “Never judge a book by its cover.”  Instead of the white, blue-collar worker I'd expected to see, I was kindly greeted by a Muslim woman in her early 40s wearing a hijab.   She introduced me to her equally kind husband and the two of them proceeded to be more friendly and helpful than any home sellers I've interacted with in months.  They offered me water.  They offered me coffee.  They offered me cake.  They moved with me from room-to-room making sure bedspreads were straight, pillows were fluffed, blinds were pulled, lights were on...  Usually, I cannot stand sellers even in the house when I take pictures, let alone bird dogging me.  If other sellers were as nice and helpful as this couple, I'd completely change this attitude.   While how they treated and helped me stood out, I still couldn't stop thinking about the contrast of the “book” and the “cover.”  While the outside of their home said, “All-American,” the artwork, paint colors, Qurans, and back addition with Arabic seating area of the the inside said, “All-Muslim.”  As I was going from room-to-room taking pictures, I kept thinking about the contrast of the home's external to internal characteristics.  I've shot many a home where the outside was very traditional but the inside was very contemporary.   The outside not jibing with the inside is nothing new.  However, this was very different.  This wasn't a contrast between architectural/design styles.  The more I thought about this particular contrast, the more I loved it.  I loved the blending of cultures because this is exactly what America is supposed to represent.  From China Town in San Francisco to the Polish part of Detroit to the Irish parts of Boston to the Mexican neighborhoods of Los Angeles, America stands for people coming from other lands, becoming part of the whole but still maintaining a love and appreciation of their heritage.  

If all I had experienced was the contrast of the exterior to the interior of the home, that would have been more than enough to reaffirm my faith in what America is supposed to represent.  What happened as I was taking the exterior shots took these feelings of diversity, what America really represents, and just how dangerous and evil the rightwing hate machine are to the entire system.

While I was outside taking pictures, the owners came out to make sure things were picked up.  While they were in the front of the house straitening out a couple of chairs on the front porch, a couple of their neighbors who were out in their yards doing work came over to chat.  By the time I worked my way around to the front of the house, standing on the front sidewalk were the Muslim owners, an African-American man in his early 30s, and an older white man in his late 60s having a conversation that ranged from landscaping to auto repair to kids/grandkids to restaurant suggestions.  If I described the scene and read you the text of the entire conversation with a Texas accent, it would read like a “King of The Hill” script.

What really struck me wasn't the nature of their conversation, it was very similar to ones I heard growing up in rural Idaho.  It was very similar to ones I've heard in the neighborhoods of Chicago.  It was very similar to conversations that take place every day across the country from Girdwood Alaska to Mobile Alabama.  In spite of the diversity of the participants-their ages, their religions, their cultures, their backgrounds..., they had fundamental experiences, wants, needs, desires... in common.  What struck me was this scene being played out in an average-sized town in the Rust Belt is the direct opposite of what the right-wing and white nationalist hate machines spew out non-stop every day.

The scene I witnessed is what America really is all about and what modern-day conservatives and their very overlapping Venn Diagram counterparts, white supremacists fear the most.  They fear this kind of neighborly camaraderie.  They fear that diversity really isn't a problem because they are beholden to their ignorant beliefs and hate that have been passed down to them by their ancestors and meticulously cultivated by fear mongers and grifters.  White flight didn't happen because minorities moving into predominately white areas caused problems.  White flight happened because whites were afraid of people that didn't look like them, didn't have familiar sounding names, had different points of view.  When white flight wasn't an option, whites hemmed minorities into very specific areas through redlining policies and practices.  

The racist and bigoted fears Donald Trump tapped into to win the election are based on lies about minorities and about the natural status of whites.  The scene I witnessed on the sidewalk of a quiet, little neighborhood was perfectly natural.  It was a scene that is played out across the country every day between neighbors.  When it played out between only whites the reason isn't because minorities don't know how or want to participate but because they haven't been welcomed to the neighborhood/town.  The wants, needs, fears, concerns... of people who have similar economic situations don't vary from one another very much.  This isn't a revelation.  Many studies have been done showing that people who live in multi-cultural, diverse areas are much more tolerant and have less racist/bigoted views than those who live in less diverse areas.  People exposed to other cultures and heritages are not as overly protective of their own. As much as I admire and appreciate people celebrating their heritage, it is something I've never personally experienced. I'm an Anglo-Saxon mutt.  My heritage is mostly English and Scottish and my ancestors came to America many, many generations ago.  I personally feel no love or bond with this heritage.  I feel closer to the culture and people of Japan from living there for two years than I do to my Western European roots.  This could be because I truly lived and experienced the one and not the other.  The Japanese culture is more ingrained into my psychological matrix than something I only have a distant genetic connection to.   Like all people and cultures, the Japanese have great traits and serious flaws. Because I'm a pragmatist at heart, the one trait they have that I admired the most is their ability, as a culture, to take an idea or behavior from another culture that is good, incorporate it into their own culture while not losing who they truly are.  I call this Ala Carte Culture.  You pick and choose what you like from other cultures, leave the bad aspects of these cultures behind, and absorb the good into your own culture in a way that doesn't diminish who you are.   A good example of this in Japan can be found in the saying, “In Japan, you are born a Shinto, married a Christian, and buried a Buddhist.”  When I first heard this saying, being a typical American, I couldn't wrap my brain around it.  Imagine someone in America telling you, “My kids will be born Jewish, married Lutheran, and buried Mormon.”  If someone told you this, you'd stare at them wondering what the hell they were talking about. In Japan, their phrase gets no such reaction from other Japanese.  It is accepted as being true.  “In Japan, you are born a Shinto, married a Christian, and buried a Buddhist,” bothered me for months until someone explained it to me. “Shintoism celebrates being born. Christianity celebrates getting married.  Buddhism celebrates death. The best celebrations and parties are what the Japanese adopted into their culture for each of these events.”   I love this idea. Why not take the best of other cultures and incorporate it into your own?  It's an idea that should fit perfectly with a country like America which was founded on cultural diversity.  If a homogeneous, often isolated country like Japan can do this, a country that is the “Great Melting Pot of The World” should not only be able to do this easily, it should be aggressively doing it.  Unfortunately, the open, diverse, all people are created equal society is the one resistant to learning from other cultures and the where the dominant group fears and demonizes those outside their group who want to honor, cherish, and incorporate the best parts of their own cultures.

This resistance and fear of other ideas and cultures are at the root of America's long, unjustifiable history of racism and bigotry.  “If it's white, it's right,” is the default mindset for white America. Who is allowed to be called “white” has been arbitrary throughout our history.  Jews were once not considered white.  Neither were Italians.  Neither were Germans.  Neither were the Irish.  Only once a group has been accepted as “white” are their cultural ideas and celebrations accepted.  White suburbia now doesn't give a second thought to their kids celebrating St. Patrick's Day at school but if the school decided to celebrate Kwanzaa with as much enthusiasm, they'd lose their damn minds. Irish-Americans love and honor their heritage to the same degree as Mexican-Americans, Muslim-Americans, African-Americans...  The main reason we, as a country, don't care about or think twice about Irish-Americans or other “white” nationalities celebrating their heritage is because they have been accepted into the “white club.”  Celebrating and honoring one's heritage isn't the problem for racists and bigots.  It's who gets to do it.

In the America that claims to be the “Great Melting Pot,” where for the first time in history a government was formed on the idea that all people are created equal, where diversity is supposed to be our greatest strength, the tableau I witnessed represented everything America can and should be.  It was also stark counter-evidence to one of the main claims of white nationalists and the right wing that multi-culturalism can't work because non-whites won't/can't assimilate.  There are many problems with this claim: 1-it presumes white culture is the dominant one that everyone must assimilate to; 2-the entire notion of “white culture” is riddled with problems; 3-the evidence in diverse areas completely contradicts it.

My America is what I witnessed the other day on a sidewalk in a Rust Belt city.  My America isn't afraid of others celebrating their heritage.  My America isn't white-centric.  My America is the real America and no one will ever convince me otherwise.   The youth of my America know and feel this better than my peers.  This gives me hope for my children.  If only my generation gives them the opportunity to live up to what it means to be a real American better than my generation.