Letter 29

I think it is important to remember, now and in the future that Trumpism won the election legitimately, or at least as legitimately as the current system allows. In a (perhaps nominally) democratic system, elections have consequences. This is what the American people voted for in the tens of millions.

I am entangled in the most painful, unsatisfying "I told you so" that I can imagine. I have been saying since the 1980s that the U.S., if it failed to change its political culture, would eventually vote in a fascist, Christian supremacist government that would usurp every vestige of the rule of law, backed by corporate money and secured by a corrupt and illegitimate Court system. I was dismissed as cynical by professors, bosses and colleagues as, to quote one of them in a grad school seminar evaluation, "having no faith in our democratic traditions and the common sense of the American people."

I was punished for my lack of faith, graded down, disinvited and even shouted down.

I'm not holding my breath waiting for an apology, or for my Cassandra status to be confirmed. But understand this: The Trumpists won this election, either despite, or because of January 6th, their well-documented bigotry, their horrific "policy" plans and the death of a million Americans due to Trump's inaction and conscious misinformation on COVID.

He, and his movement won the election. In a democracy, this has consequences. I don't care how narrow the result was, there have been far narrower. He won the popular vote, something few Republican candidates have done.

To resist them now would be to fight against my country, not for it. And that is something I am not willing to do.