Kareem Substack

Source: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Substack

"Trump is President

America fooled me. Just when I was optimistic that we had turned a corner against irrationality, hate, and greed, and were marching forward toward a new age of enlightenment. We hurtle backward in time to a dark place where we dance around a pagan fire like the deranged children in Lord of the Flies.

I don’t want this to turn into a bitter diatribe about my disappointment in the American people who selected a rapist, racist, and cognitively challenged buffoon as their leader. Who put all marginalized people’s lives and rights at risk. Who put the security of the country at risk. Who put our children’s futures at risk.

The next four years will be challenging as we are led by a man in serious mental decline who has surrounded himself with political dimwits and moralless thugs. Most of the prominent people he hired last time turned against him during this election to warn us of his ineptitude, pettiness, and greed. His closest advisors said he was incompetent. But his supporters thought they knew him better. So, here we are.

The next four years will be about survival. If his economic plans are instituted, economists warn that we face dire times. If his health insurance plans are carried out, many will be without insurance. If his plans to protect women against their will (leave it to a sexual predator to phrase it that way) are realized, women will slip further into second-class citizenry. Christianity will be shoved down our throats by the most unChristian man in the country.

How do we live with our friends, families, and neighbors who voted for a rapist, racist, and fraudster? We give them grace. We assume that, though their minds were clouded by their lack of critical thinking, in their hearts they still want a compassionate America that embraces all of its people and protects their rights. They made a mistake, like a child sticking its finger in an electrical socket. Let it go as that and be the person that maybe influences them to think better next time.

Take a day or week to mourn, those of you who still believe in our Constitution and the country we could be. Then roll up your sleeves and prepare for four years of battle to save our country from becoming the tyrannic state that Trump and his supporters envision. They expect us to be humbled and docile. We won’t be. We are better than this election. Let’s prove it.

Special Note: Aside from this opening about Trump’s election, today’s newsletter is deliberately designed to avoid election-related stories. Yes, I will be back commenting on all things political, social, personal, and cultural. But today, let’s just take a breath and look out a different window."


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