That’s a question that many Americans, about half of them, are asking themselves this morning in the aftermath of the November 5 Presidential Election that saw former president Donald Trump apparently elected for a second time.
As is most often the case, Vermont is the first state in the nation to have its presidential vote recorded. Ours was in the blue column as it generally is. So, there are lots of Vermonters, including the majority of voters in our Valley, who are wondering how so many others found Trump fit to hold the highest office in the land.
Who are we as a nation if we elect someone as president who has repeatedly stated that immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, are eating cats and dogs? How are we, in Vermont and elsewhere, supposed to square that with the reverence we have for the presidency?
Who are we as a nation if we elect someone who has been denounced by dozens of his former Cabinet members, his generals, his vice-president and a slew of prominent Republicans? Which Republicans are right? Who has the higher ground? How are we supposed to square these divisions within this party?
Who are we as a nation – a nation of immigrants – if we elect someone who promises, on day one, to round up, imprison and deport immigrants without due process, without regard for their immigration status and without considering the impact on businesses throughout the nation of removing so many willing workers.
Who are we as a nation when the vilification of those perceived as ‘other’ becomes a campaign slogan? And who are we as a nation when we fail to condemn sleights pawned off as jokes by a comedian that suggest our fellow citizens in Puerto Rico are a floating pile of garbage?
Is this really who we are? Or at least who half of us are? Is there really no behavior so rude, boorish, churlish, cruel, criminal, sexist, racist, petty, misogynistic and vile that it goes too far?
