The presidential election was agonizing enough to induce depression, especially in supporters of Hillary Clinton. Fortunately, there are several things that can be done to assuage pain and facilitate sleep.
I must include myself among those affected as I was among those expressing alarm about the possibility of a Trump presidency. I even forecast a Clinton victory on the basis of voting patterns from the 2012 election while anticipating even more votes by women and minority groups against Donald Trump than were cast against Mitt Romney.
But, like many of my betters, I was fooled by Trump supporters ashamed or embarrassed to come clean with poll-takers.
Yes, there will be meticulous election analyses conducted and reported through the next couple of weeks. Yet, no matter what reasons are given for Trump’s victory, it was a shock that will go down in history. A vain and pompous man, ignorant of the intricacies of domestic and world affairs, and possessed with multiple prejudices and hatreds, will strut through the halls of the White House for the next four years.
Such a prospect evokes hopelessness and unhappiness. Now I know how women of certain societies must feel when forced to accept an arranged marriage with an older man whom they abhor.
Even for many of us who have endured losing elections in the past, the depression after this one is not salvaged by a poignant regret or a feeling of what might have been, owing to the flaws in Clinton’s candidacy, to a torturous and flawed primary system that left us with unpalatable choices, and media which too often accorded the respect of a normal presidential candidate to someone who was anything but.
But please don’t despair.
First, you must debrief. Avoid TV, newspapers and social media for several days. Same with email, except from your closest contacts.
Second, occupy yourself with what’s best in your life: your spouse and children, your family and friends. Spend time with them outdoors, away from electronics and immersed in nature, attached to the most reliable and only permanent good in our universe, which is the land itself. No better time in our woods and waters than autumn in America.
And while holding your loved ones close is emotionally comforting, it is also intellectually edifying, since it gives us the proper perspective on what’s most important in our lives. For example, a state of the union speech or even a temporary government shutdown are all just dim and distant background noise when I’m looking into the shining eyes of my infant granddaughter Summer Allen.
Third, just cool it. Repeat the following verse from my favorite Tom Petty song: “Most of what we worry about never happens anyway.”
That’s because we live in a democracy, which enables us to correct and overcome mistakes, as we did after an eerily similar careless blunder in 1972, when we elected Richard Nixon to the presidency. It was at that time that another so-called “silent majority” put a questionable character in the Oval Office, in a kind of backlash to the ’60s revolution of civil rights, hippies and war protesters. Well-intentioned voters were persuaded that Tricky Dick had changed; but, of course, he could not, and his reign ended in resignation and disgrace after the media, the Senate and our justice system all did their jobs.
Because democracy involves us all, along with three levels of government, and an ever-learning, ever-evolving watchdog fourth estate, it usually maintains a level of normalcy in the way things operate, in spite of whoever is president. Trump will not be able to act on capricious whims, the way a Putin or Kim Jong can.
After your debriefing, ease back into your participatory political life. It will be a different kind of challenge and possibly even fun. I say that because, admittedly, while this last campaign was odious, it was seldom boring.
Many an evening at 5:30 p.m. sharp, I said to Marianne, “Time for the Trump Show.”
Now we will watch with a different purpose as members of the loyal opposition. Rightly or wrongly, he considered himself Superman, invulnerable to the media and the general public and accountable only to his staunch supporters. But as president of the United States, he will have enormous responsibility. And the whole world will be watching.
David McGrath lived in Hayward for 29 years, is a frequent contributor to the News Tribune Opinion page, is an emeritus professor of English for the College of DuPage in Illinois and is the author of “Siege at Ojibwa” and “The Territory.” McGrath can be contacted at profmcgrath2004@yahoo.com .
