So, like many of you, I’ve been attempted to(and spectacularly failing at) process the events of the week. And I’ve watched many of you react to what happened on Tuesday and your reactions aren’t much different than the ones I’ve felt and experienced myself. But the reactions I’m seeing do not mirrior my reaction of this week. They do, however, emulate the reaction I had in 2016. Unfortunately, this week, my feelings on what happened are severely more muted compared to what I felt that year. And even then, that was a result of my personal failings than anything else. And yes, this might sound troubling or at least negligent to some, when I woke up Wednesday morning(from a fairly sound sleep), I checked my phone for approximately half a minute just to affirm what I already knew and then I went about my day. I did not unfriend anyone. I did not shout anyone down or browbeat them. Nothing I did in 2016, I did in 2024.

If you’re wondering how could I or why am I seemingly so nihilistic, I believe I can explain, in two stories. Which honestly, will also explain both who we are as a country… and where we are going.

The first story is one I’ve repeated recently to some in the last few weeks and months. And if you know me like you might, you have to know this story takes a deeply nerdy and bookish dive in history. Over 800 years ago to be exact. It was some 100 years after William the Conquer took over England. The monarchy was ruled by one of his successors, King Henry II. At the time, the English monarchy was still heavily linked to the Roman Catholic Church, which caused issue with those who ruled and how they ruled. It was an open debate about whose power superceded the other, the monarchy or the church. The king, who did not want his authority questioned clashed with the Archbishop of Canterbury, who had the authority of the church at his backing, which drove the king COMPLETELY up the wall. He hated it. He hated the Archbishop. He felt he was king and wanted to ACT like the king. So in a fit of rage he yelled out in his court to absolutely no one in particular “Will someone rid me of this turbulent priest?!” And that’s what happened. A few knights heard the king’s exclaimation, ran up to the Archbishop’s church and killed him. Historians have debated whether Henry II intended to have the Archbishop killed. He certainly wanted to be rid of the Archbhisop. But the knights that kiled the Archbishop, they did so attempting to follow the king’s demand as they saw it. Was it their fault that the king was so careless with his words?

However, history has told us of an affirmative. The knights that killed the Archbishop were run off and excommunicated from the church. Unfortunately, this was 12th Century England. Our present offers a different continunity.

Donald Trump is a vile person. We all see it. At the very least he is crass and deeply insolent. His supporters have called him a lighting rod and sees the virtue of him speaking without filter. This honestly, is exactly what detractors have faulted him for. Not simply for him having no filter, but more precisely, he doesn’t give thought to practically anything he says. He says things to play to a crowd, to get a reaction and has no regard to the implications of what he says. It’s the immediate reaction that concerns him. While this should be plenty alarming on it’s own, it’s also coupled with his instincts that seem to exclusively trend towards the most racially, culturally and socially insensitive. That’s putting it kindly and, to be fair, I kind of have to because he doesn’t possess the wherewithal or forethought to attribute the malice he’s often credited for. But make no mistake, it is indeed there. He will deny it. But those who follow him do not. They are his knights and we are the church that stands in the way from achieving what he truly wants. A different America.

Which begs the larger question that I don’t think I’ve had clarified by either those that voted for him or support him. And if you are one of these persons and are still reading this, first thank you. Seriously. But I have toask for you to give consideration to this question, if not, supply an actual answer.

If in your normal day-to-day walk of life, someone you knew, loved, befriended, cared for or otherwise acquainted with, if this person came to you and told you about an experience of racism or intolerance, bigotry or such afflicting behavior, do you ignore their experience? Are you able to discount it and move on? Or do you burden yourself with their troubles and empathize with their lived experience they shared with you? You might not share it, you might not understand it, but with it being the account of someone that you have a personal relationship with, does your concern extend to them? Especially when they are feeling particularly vulnerable? Do you compartmentalize the pain of this person when they are confronted with the wretchedness this world bears? Or can you stand with them when ignorance and depravity stands against them? Do you hear them? Do you see them? Do you accept what they are going through as real? Or do you ignore it?

I’ll give you an example.

Many of you know Marcus Calabrese. You might find him morally contemptable or perhaps even socially detestable. Sadly, he is much worse. Marcus Calabrese also abuses women, puts them in the hospital and thinks torturing someone physically weaker than him is actually funny. This is who he is. I’ve told this to people like former Delegate and friend Glenn Davis. However, my former friend decided to ignore this or accept such despicable behavior and continued to stand with Marcus Calabrese. So I no longer could stand with him. Because I strongly believe that’s what you do. When someone flagrantly violates basic human dignity you don’t stand with the violator!

But this is what I’m seeing happening in this country. However the failure I made wasn’t to acknowledge it now, but to see it, know it was there the entire time and to actually be hurt when I see it championed. It is very clear: This is who we are.

Now, here’s the second story. And if you know me as you might, this is a story that’s equally nerdy but instead of the realism of history, it’s of the fantasy that’s found in comic book fight’s most iconic fictional characters: Superman. And when you think of Superman’s-… well, Superman’s “enemies list”, on top of that list is the calculating and conniving Lex Luthor. However, the character that’s probably at the to of that list is the intergalactic alien Darkseid. He’s basically Supman’s Thanos. He’s as calculating as Lex Luthor but has superpowers greater than that of Superman, with his notable power bieng his “Omega Beam” that disintegrates whoever it hits, but because Superman is basically invulnerable, it just causes him intense pain at it’s lowest effect.

So as the story goes, Darkseid has deeply offended Superman and now Superman wants payback. He’s messed with him so bad that even the goody-two-shoes that’s Superman is out for blood and revenge. He goes to Darkseid’s lair, a planetary hellscape that’s actually called Apocalypse, where Darkseid rules a planet full of broken and beaten down slaves. Superman quickly dispatches all of Darkseid’s henchmen and confronts Darkseid inside his castle. Before the two get to blows, Darkseid tells him “I am many things Kal El but right now, I am your destroyer.” And the two of them absolutely rip into each other, hitting each other so hard that shockwaves from the impact thunders across the planet, causing all of the slaves to look in awe and horror. But the fight finally gets to the point where Darkseid is ready to finish off Superman and use his Omega Beam to its highest effect. But before he’s able, Superman turns the tables and covers up Darkseid’s eyes causing the beam to shoot back into his head popping it clear open like a ruptured volcano. Beaten and barely able to stand, let alone fight, Superman picks up Darkseid’s broken body and tossess it at the feelt of the slaves who have gathered. He announces “Darkseid is beaten. You’re free. Do to him what you will.” The slaves looked down at Darkseid, back up at Superman and back to Darkseid before going over to gently and carefully pick him up to carry him off for aid to help him. Superman, shocked at this not understand why these people wanted to help such a despotic tyrant, he’s interrupted when Darkseid stops the slaves and looks at Superman. He tells him, “I am many things Kal El, but here I am their lord and savior.”

For the life of me, I’ve never been able to understand the appeal of Donald Trump. I still can’t and frankly never will. The closest explanation I’ve received has very often little to do with policy. It’s almost exclusively personality driven. Which given the lack of character he displays, confuses me even more. But, like the Superman villain, his supporters don’t see a flawed character that is obvious and apparent to most of us. Darkseid is the same despot to Superman as he is to those he enslaved. But to them, he represents something that Superman, in his virtue, cannot see. They see in Darkseid what supporters see in Trump. They do not see the villain. What they do see is their America.

And this was crystalized to me when I woke up Wednesday morning. Again, that morning, I confirmed what I already knew. And that wasn’t the fact that Donald Trump won an election. But what it actually crystalized was realizing the America that I indeed lived in. The America I woke up to Wednesday morning was the same exact America I went to sleep to Tueday Night. The failure I neglected to acknowledge was that this was the same America we’ve been living in since well before November of 2016. You see, back then, I thought we were a different. I expected different. I thought we were no longer that America and I reacted like we were no longer that America. However, I now know what this country is and has always been. So I do regret that I am no longer shocked by it at all. The shocking part was that this election or any election against him is even close to begin with. In the America I thought we were in, it never would be.

But this is our America. And this is hard for many of us to square. But where we can very plainly and painfully see a wretched broken man, they don’t see that. What they see is the America that we have been and want to return to that country. We’re often told of two America, which usually dons the metric of rich and poor, the haves and the haves not. But the seperation that does make these two visions of America is one that is changed and one that has not. One America of that is who we are and another America of where we are going. And both sides don’t realize that they actually live in the other America. This is what they see and why it’s never something we can accept. They want an America that emulates a time where he was what this country was. They don’t want to make America great again. They want what “Make America Great Again” embodies. And he is their last best hope for a return. However, for those of us that do not live in that America anymore, those of us who are too often exposed to everything that he and that America he represents, we want a different America. We can’t see that America he represents because it is a America that we do not have a place in. And because of that, we have to move forward to a new America. A country that is about progress, not regress. A country that accepting of whatever identity we are born with and choose. That’s the America we’ve seen. And while it might have been a campaign slogan for the alternative, it is indeed a destination for our future.

We’re not going back.