How did this happen?
The "liberals" never respected the threat of trump; The polls and common sense told them otherwise, leading to apathy. The "conservatives" let his hateful rhetoric become normalized and many "working class" people were led to believe he had their best interests in mind. The fact that he is deeply unqualified became secondary.
For us, this horrifying election result is the consequence of all of us choosing what reality we want to believe. A consequence of us creating a cocoon through social media and what news we seek, by letting ourselves be separated along class, gender, and race lines. People like trump have used this trend to their advantage, playing with "reality" however he chooses.
One way to take back power is to try to find ways to relate to and understand people who are different from you. There are far more similarities and common concerns between us than the internet, news agencies, and politicians want us to believe. Their motivations are ratings, power, wealth, and not our well being.
This can come across as naive, but love and empathy are the only ways out of this trap. Apologies if this comes across as preaching, but we need to get off our phones and out of our living rooms, and see each other for who we really are. We are not actually that divided.
Much Love
Beach House