This morning as we awaken in a world many were unable to imagine, I am struck by how little I know, how much less I understand, and how wrong I can be.
The election of Donald Trump to the highest office in the United States of America is a sobering call to the disciplines of deep self-reflection and absolute humility.
Those of us who live in a little unreal bubble of educated, well-meaning, benign liberalism, failed to see something real in the world around us. We believed that our world-view would carry the day. We believed that, in the end, the majority would agree with us because we knew that we were so self-evidently and obviously on the right side.
We, who could not imagine a Donald Trump victory were wrong. We failed to see clearly. There must have been signs that we, or those we trust to know, refused to perceive.
There are so many questions.
Where were the experts who are paid to see and keep us informed?
Where were the scholars and commentators we trust to tell us what is really happening out there?
What is it that made it possible for Michael Moore to be one of the few people who saw the truth and never swayed from the truth he saw?
I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I gave it to you straight last summer when I told you that Donald Trump would be the Republican nominee for president.
I comforted myself with the conviction that Michael Moore was simply employing a strategy to get out the vote. Surely, he did not really believe in the inevitability of Donald Trump’s victory. This must be merely a ploy to rally the troops.
The most frightening thing on this morning after an unimaginable outcome is how easy it is to be deluded.
When we listen only to “our own kind, and refuse to take seriously people whose ideas, thoughts, and world-view differ radically from our own, we become unable to see what is really going on. When we stop listening to what people are really saying because their opinion is so different from ours, we miss the signs of the times and doom ourselves to living in a world that is not real.
Donald Trump and his supporters saw something I did not see. They tapped into a wave of energy, I was unwilling to take seriously. From my little myopic corner of the universe, I only took seriously those thoughts and opinions that were in line with what I believed to be true.
Why do we stop listening?
We stop listening because we think we know the answers. The arrogance of certainty blocks the possibility of hearing. I am unable to perceive when I believe that my reality is the only reality.
We stop listening because we focus too much on what appears to divide us and so feel compelled to affirm that I am right and your opinion is beneath consideration.
We stop listening because we become addicted to the adrenaline high of believing we are on the side of the righteous.
It frightens me to face the reality of how wrong I could be.
But, this is not a time for fear. It is a time to reclaim within myself that inner peace and equilibrium that were so deeply shaken by yesterday’s outcome. Today is a day to open more deeply to love, to commit myself more fully to living honestly. It is time to take up the challenge of listening more carefully and treating people with greater respect especially those who see the world so differently.
In response to last night’s election, I must double my efforts to open to viewpoints I do not share. I must renounce my tendency to stick with my tribe, believing that our view is the only possible opinion. I must hold on to the humility that is the ground in which empathy grows and real insight and awareness become possible. I must return to focusing on things that unite, rather than those that appear to divide.
Listening, respect and humility are the only way forward in this world I lacked the imagination to see on the horizon.
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further from the clear-eyed prophet Michael Moore today, although I don’t entirely support his entire agenda here. At this point I believe he is absolutely right:
Everyone must stop saying they are “stunned” and “shocked.” What you mean to say is that you were in a bubble and weren’t paying attention to your fellow Americans and their despair. YEARS of being neglected by both parties, the anger and the need for revenge against the system only grew.
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It seems Bernie Sanders saw clearly. Here is his statement made a year ago: :
Let me be very clear. In my view, Democrats will not retain the White House, will not regain the Senate, will not gain the House and will not be successful in dozens of governor’s races unless we run a campaign which generates excitement and momentum and which produces a huge voter turnout.
With all due respect, and I do not mean to insult anyone here, that will not happen with politics as usual. The same old, same old will not be successful.
The people of our country understand that — given the collapse of the American middle class and the grotesque level of income and wealth inequality we are experiencing — we do not need more establishment politics or establishment economics.
We need a political movement which is prepared to take on the billionaire class and create a government which represents all Americans, and not just corporate America and wealthy campaign donors.
In other words, we need a movement which takes on the economic and political establishment, not one which is part of it.
~ Bernie Sanders August 28th, 2015
In A Spacious Place 
9 comments
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November 9, 2016 at 6:38 am
Yvette Bird
I’m not sure we stopped listening…but we did not believe that so many people would forsake tolerance, sharing, valuing everyone for the sake of change. There is much wrong in our systems…..and when someone comes along promising to make it all better, we jump without asking…”at what cost?” We want our good old days, uncluttered, no ambiguity, no tension. We want clear lines of roles, responsibility, gender….the return of the supremacy of the white male, head of the household, employed at the same job for 35 years, with no environmental issues, no homeless, ….the list goes on…but the negation of global issues, social issues, gender issues, economic issues are at play in this electoral decision.
We need to look deeply into our own hearts and find the places where we want our lives fixed and ask….”at what cost”….
November 9, 2016 at 6:28 pm
Christopher Page
lovely wise and sobering reminder
November 9, 2016 at 11:14 am
Bruce Bryant-Scott
A couple of decades ago Canadian pollster Michael Adams came out with the book “Fire and Ice: The United States Canada And The Myth Of Converging Values”. One of his findings then was that there is a greater range of opinions and values in the United States than in Canada – compared to them, we’re relatively homogeneous, despite the presence of French Canadians, Newfoundlanders, and a high immigrant population. One of his other findings was that on some issues (“the male should be the head of the household” is the one that sticks out in my memory”) the most liberal region in the US – New England – was still more conservative than the most conservative region in Canada (which was Alberta, by the way).
So as Canadians we shouldn’t be surprised that we are surprised at the US result – we think Americans are like us, but in so many ways they are not. The US media (based on the coasts) and college-educated voters all tend to be more cosmopolitan than the rest of the population – more like us Canadians – and so they tend to be unconsciously biased towards reports that confirm their own opinions and hopes. Nate Silver of 538.com noted that Trump always had a chance, and towards the end it was at least a one in three chance. He saw that the supposed lead that Clinton had was in fact covered by the statistical error, and might be no lead at all. In the end that proved to be the case.
As Christians in a neighbouring country we are called to pray for the deeply divided peoples of the United States. It is not going to be an easy four years. I would not be surprised by a new economic recession, a roll back of human rights, a growth in inequality, an attempt to overturn the achievements of civil rights since the ‘sixties, and an undoing of federal social legislation that goes back to the New Deal. It’s going to look a lot like the South in the era after Reconstruction when American racist tried to undo the results of the Civil War. So, yes, we need to pray and to listen.
But as Christians we are also called to proclaim our values. Jesus Christ was a disenfranchised subject of an empire that summarily put him to death. The values he proclaimed were in opposition to that empire, and the power within him was greater than that which put him to death. So while I will mull over the implications of the US elections and while I’ll be interested in how politicians will be able to tap into the concerns of the electorate to achieve political victory, for the moment I will ground myself in the values of Christ and seek to translate those into action.
November 9, 2016 at 11:46 am
Christopher Page
Thank you Bruce. So nice to hear your wise thoughtful voice. Blessings
November 16, 2016 at 2:49 pm
Nancy Van Kirk
Thanks for this Bruce. Good to know about differences between us and American people, and will try to learn more. Wonder why our differences developed that way. Thank you also to you Christopher. Food for thought for many days to come.
November 9, 2016 at 2:42 pm
Middle Man
Christopher this is a wonderful post because it underlines what the Democrats were NOT listening to. Somehow the America living outside the bubble of the status quo was overlooked. Strangely, despite his obvious short comings, Trump was able to strategically appeal to those who sensed something was broken and that (according to Donald) they would remain disenfranchised unless the slate was wiped clean. You had the sense that campaigning FOR leadership that did not contain “Trumpisms” was necessary and I applaud you for being a champion of this cause.
Indeed this result is a call not to live in fear, but to ground ourselves in the final Truth as Bruce has outlined, and to proceed energetically in service of this.
November 9, 2016 at 6:27 pm
Christopher Page
Amen to that!!
November 9, 2016 at 9:57 pm
bymyword
from Yvette: “we did not believe that so many people would forsake tolerance, sharing, valuing everyone for the sake of change.”
The thing is that so many people – the very people who finally felt heard- were not tolerated, were not shared with, not valued and had seen too much change- change they did not ask for and did not control.
November 10, 2016 at 1:03 pm
klangley77
Christopher,
Thank you for articulating, with such perceptivity, what so many of us are struggling to understand.
Janice and I read and discuss your excellent blog offerings almost daily.
With appreciation,
Keith Langley