Grieve, Reorganize, Strategize: My Response to America's Self-Destruction

Like other Harris-Waltz supporters, I was shocked to see how America voted in the presidential election. I didn’t go to bed anticipating Doomsday, but the voting was clearly not going our way. I woke up at three, checked the stats, and saw that Trump was going to win. I usually have very pleasant dreams, but my dreams were bad for the rest of the morning.

The txting among friends at six a.m. was not good. I txted that Trump was proof that God doesn’t exist, that I was going to shave my head, cover my face, and wear black for a year. I suspect that my Daily News Record commentators will be pleased by my discomfort.

I had an hour or so of black thoughts. Then I got up, hugged my dogs, wishing them good morning, went through my regular exercise routine, showered and shaved, and went off to play pickleball with my friends, a few of whom may have voted for Trump.

I’m an octogenarian. I’m not going to waste my remaining years in grief. Actually, not one minute—although when I wake up now, two days later, I have dark thoughts, Star Wars scenarios, good verses evil. But it doesn’t take me long to get over that. We lost. Where do we go from here?

We’re going to have a strange four years. People like me are not going to suffer. It will be women, minorities, transgenders, seniors dependent on social security, and the working classes. Ukraine will also be the big loser. This is a win for Putin, Trump’s role model who is ironically a communist.

The billionaire class will of course be the winners, which is obviously why people like Musk, Bezos, Thiel, Adelson, and Zuckenberg bankrolled Trump. They expected payback—and will get it. Professional, upper-middle-class, home-owners with guaranteed incomes or salaries of 100,000 plus will initially benefit from stock market increases.

Two years down the road, we might have a different scenario if Trump follows through on his economic plan. The dramatic tariffs, as the majority of economists testify, will increase inflation simply because imported goods will cost more, consequently giving domestic producers more room to increase their prices. Trade wars might spin out of control, and worker shortage through migrant oppression, particularly in the agricultural industries, will increase prices. The future exploding deficit, a consequence of Trump’s announced economic policies, has already fueled the bond market, which will in turn cause higher interest rates.

Actually, I worry more about our political system than the economic downturn (I know: I’m safe; not so with the working classes). I worry about the move in our country toward autocracy that the Trump victory represents. Will those people like Trump, Bezos, and Musk, who clearly do not believe in democracy, move us to the far right, theorizing that the people with wealth and power know what is best for the people?

I think that’s what Trump and his cohorts are up to. They want to dismantle our democratic heritage and restore governance by the few. I realize that I’m engaging in classic projection here, which is more the province of Trump and his acolytes. The question is, will our democratic experiment withstand this assault on the foundations of our country?

Here, I enter dark territory, which I would love to rescind if the Trump administration proves more responsible than it has so far presented itself through Project 2025. The origin of the elitist argument goes back to the 17^th Century philosopher, Thomas Hobbes (Leviathan,1651) and with a slightly different twist, Plato’s Republic, both of whom argued for governance by kings and the educated elite over the ignorant masses. Our constitution regrettably inherited a degree of this governance by the select few (women, unpropertied white males, and people of color were not allowed to vote).

I hope that we are not going there, but Trump’s rhetoric, mirroring Orbán’s and Putin’s, suggests we are. So we might be entering into a dark territory of oligarchic governance marked by oppression. 

I think of my experience in Madison, Wisconsin in the sixties when we opposed our country’s involvement in Vietnam (as well as other colonialist projects in Central and South America). We might have to regroup and go underground again. But what we don’t want to do: play the blame game; demonize our friends who voted for Trump; go back to bed and cover our heads, as I was wont to do. What we need to do: Grieve, Get Over It, Reorganize, Strategize.