Team USA needs Trump’s fans and foes
President Donald Trump’s inaugural address will be remembered for its unvarnished manner of delivery that reiterated the angry populism of his supporters but with little mention of solidarity for our diverse nation. As he spoke to the crowd from the West Front of the U.S. Capitol, Trump actually sounded like he was still in campaign mode stumping through the Midwest.
With bringing back manufacturing jobs as one of his predominant promises and his repeated pledge to rebuild our country with “American hands and American labor,” Trump has taken one step toward what he believes is necessary to fulfill this undertaking by signing an executive order to withdraw from the TransPacific Partnership. I’ll leave the impending TPP debates to the policy wonks, but I’ll be paying close attention to how the Trump administration is shifting the cultural tenor of the country. Our nation desperately needs healing from the combativeness of the 2016 election, and the White House should be taking the lead in this process.
Trump made a meager attempt during his inauguration to speak about being on one accord by quoting the New International Version of Psalm 133:1: “How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity.” Now it’s always noble to reference the Bible, but Trump appears clueless regarding the severity of the dissonance across our land.
Many folks are irate, scared and still in shock regarding Trump’s election two months later. While most of us have been taking in the analysis of talking heads on various news programs, the best television show that I have seen that illustrates our divisions is last year’s “Black-ish” episode titled “Lemons.” Just as Saturday Night Live’s “Black Jeopardy” skit brilliantly depicted what African Americans and Trump backers have in common, “Lemons” delves into the intricate political schisms along racial, gender, generational and class lines.
The episode begins with the soulful backdrop of Marvin Gaye’s “What’s going on” and mentions classic American upsets: James “Buster” Douglas’ defeat of Mike Tyson and North Carolina State’s electrifying 1983 men’s basketball championship win over Houston, to name a few. We are then fast-forwarded to the solemn mood in the Johnson household — an upper middle class African-American family living in a wealthy Los Angeles suburb.
A pregnant Rainbow Johnson is slouching on one of her kitchen stools clothed in social justice memorabilia, sporting a Black Lives Matter pin and Habitat for Humanity sweatpants. Her son Andre Jr. is practicing Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I have a Dream” speech for a healing rally at his private prep school and becomes, as young Black Lives Matter activists say, “woke” when he learns about King’s “marvelous new militancy.” However, it is the advertising firm where Junior’s father Dre works that provides a comprehensive look at the conflicting reactions to Trump’s presidency.
The most intriguing of Dre’s colleagues is a young white woman named Lucy who confesses that she voted for Trump. The abhorrence piles on Lucy as her co-workers go off with a litany of Trump’s misogynistic diatribes, but her response to their attacks is quite genuine. Lucy explains that she voted for Barack Obama twice and persuaded her Republican parents to do so, but eight years later her father was still unemployed and her hometown’s economy had tanked. She simply thought Hillary Clinton did not offer the alternative her family needed.
“Lemons” conveyed that in our ongoing Trump debates framed around race and gender, a lot of us have not given serious thought about the Lucys. In a moving plea for unity toward the end of the show, Dre points out that not all Trump supporters can be generalized as racists, sexists or just plain “nuts.” “They felt something,” Dre said, and he maintained the opposing partisan side needs to listen.
I believe that many of us are willing to civilly engage with the other side, but Trump has not demonstrated that he will be an effectual mediator. His constituents are reveling in his victory, but unlike sports upsets, when presidential elections are over we’re supposed to be on the same team.