I choose to believe in the greater decency of the American people.
Elections are divisive. They bring us apart and make good people say terrible things.
This year was worse than usual. We saw a presidential election where racism, hatred, misogyny and intolerance toward gay people were key issues.
I choose to believe that the people who voted based on those issues are not the majority. They are vocal and they are terrifying, but they do not speak for America.
We are a nation of people and it’s time we stand up for our neighbors. Those with hate in their hearts may be the loudest, but I don’t believe they are the electorate. The majority of us may feel one way on macro issues, but when confronted with humanity, we actually do the right thing.
Most people who supported our president elect did not cast their ballots out of hatred. They wanted a better future for themselves, their neighbors, their friends, and their families. They voted for change and now they have it.
No matter what side of the aisle you stand on, you have a responsibility going forward. Support people not policies, humans not rhetoric.
That means supporting things you may not agree with. We need to protect the rights of everyone — gay, straight, black, white, Muslim, Jew, and any other group. We are a nation of immigrants who must remember that none of us come from here.
Donald Trump’s first presidential moment was when he first learned he was going to be president. Maybe this is a time where political parties fall away and we all move forward together.
Protect your neighbors. Stand together and fight for the rights of every American. We’re not gay, straight, or whatever religion we may or may not be — we are people and we are Americans. Throw down the hate, drop the fear, and embrace each other.
Be vigilant, but be willing to work with each other. Remember that protecting speech you don’t agree with and rights you don’t use is the core of our freedom.
Be better than we have been because we’re not ideas, rhetoric, or even hate speech. We are how we treat other. Remember that it could always be you and live with compassion.
From darkness, the day can emerge even brighter. I choose to believe in that America, the one where sports, politics, and so many other things pull us apart for moments, but our shared experience brings us back together.
I stand with gay people. I stand with our military. I stand with transgender people. I believe black lives matter. I’m a Jew who will protect the rights of Muslims and a man who will defend a woman’s right to choose.
We may not always agree, but we are better together. Elections pass and administrations change. At the core their are people and I choose to believe that most Americans live a life filled with love, tolerance, and a desire for better things for all of us.
November 9, 2016
I am not so optimistic. “Working together” these days seems to mean “getting what I (or my special interest group) want.” This is just as true of the liberals who see conservatives as hateful obstructionists holding up the brighter and better future they think their ideas would create as it is of the conservatives who abrasively (and with little care for respect / civility) decry liberals they see as enacting sweeping changes which at least re-define and re-cast, if not outright oppose, the values upon which America was founded. Parties using wings of the government – either the IRS or the FBI, in recent memory – as apparent tools for political suppression. The 1980s was a time of economic growth and unity behind the greatest leader the free world has seen in living memory – a practical peace-maker who, whatever his faults might have been, chose to act on optimism rather than fear, who believed in the America he helped create. We no longer live in that world, and I am not sure the Reagan interregnum was anything more than an exception in America’s long decline.