I believe I am coming to understand the election of Donald Trump. I still don’t like it, I still don’t agree with it; however I have no question that he is our President. Donald Trump ran on a platform of jobs, jobs and more jobs for American workers. Hillary ran on a platform of unity and how that unity makes us stronger. It is a wonderful platitude that does not help anyone. Like it or not, the majority of us were willing to look past that and vote for her anyway. The Trump team concentrated their efforts where they would do the most good and came out victorious where it matters, in the electoral college. The President also painted a picture of the world as a fearful place to live. If only we could secure our borders and get rid of all the people who don’t belong in our country, we might begin to feel safe in our own homes and cities and beyond. And with all of ‘those people’ out of the way we can finally have our jobs back. The fact that more American jobs have been lost to automation than to outsourcing or immigrants was never mentioned. A part of our fears of living in our current state of affairs is that the world is changing more quickly than we are able to adapt. Wouldn’t it be nice to go back to a time in which we each had a place and a role that was set in stone. Men went to work and earned enough to support a family. Women stayed home and kept the house and children in order. If a woman felt the need to work she could be a nurse or a teacher. Children were a wonderful addition to a home as long as they had any and all rambunctiousness out of their systems by the time dad got home at the end of a work day. We lived in neighborhoods populated by people with whom we shared most of our characteristics. Our neighbors shared our racial, ethnic, and economic status so we had a lot to talk about as we gathered in our back yards and on our patios. Since there were only three television networks, we could talk about what we watched with at least one third of our neighbors. Life was simple, at least as we look back on it. For many in the electoral majority, these times were a watershed moment in our lives. In the mid-1960s this dependability began to unravel. Women began to join the workforce. People of color became vocal in the desire to be treated with dignity, as human beings, as people of sacred worth. Even as we recognized the points as valid, we were caught off guard by how much change was required to accommodate these changes. There was a growing need for childcare as women went to work. Employers discovered they could pay each of us less since there were two workers in the family. Most of the time, women could be paid even less, just because. Schedules became unsettled as differing work hours made our clockwork lives impossible. As racial and ethnic minorities claimed a place next to us in our workplaces and neighborhoods we were forced to face our attitudes about ‘those people’ who were now a part of ‘us,’ however distant that connection may have been. As cable television became the standard, we had more choices and less in common with those around us. President Trump played on our fears, our feeling that as things change they are getting worse. And he did it well and convincingly. As President he continues to lead us as if the world is coming apart at the seams. Perhaps it is. We are not the only nation facing upheaval as the world grows smaller, as we are thrust into closer contact with a lot of ‘others.’ The only way we can protect ourselves is to build walls and battlements to keep ourselves from harm. It won’t work. Most of our illegal immigrants entered legally from India and China, overstayed their visas, suddenly making them illegal. They entered the country by airplane rather than walking or driving across the border. As for domestic terrorism, more people in this country are killed by other Americans than by ‘those people.’ So, yes there are compelling reasons to have voted for our current President. Many of my friends did just that. Their votes do not make them morons, racists, misogynists, among the insults hurled by those in the middle and on the left. I don’t pretend to know all the reasons folks may have voted as they did. I know that many of the people who voted for Donald Trump are good people and voted for him in good and clear conscience. There are folks who voted for President Trump that I do not want to spend time around, because they have shown themselves to be morons, racists, misogynists and other unpleasant kinds of folks. There are folks who voted for Hillary who are good people and voted for her in good and clear conscience. There are folks who voted for Hillary who are also toxic to be around for their attitudes that brand those not like them as disgusting and unwelcome in their circles. No matter how many of us vote for and long for a promised return to the stability of a former time; those times are past. We can only move forward. While some can imagine moving toward a stability based on what used to be normal, I can’t. We, as a world of people and nations, will probably take a few reeling steps sideways and backward as we look into the future with its uncertainty, chaos, even randomness, and we will lurch and stumble into the future as we have so many times before.