The US Election Nov 2016

Finally managed some thoughts on the election:

I have never unconsciously held my partner’s hand in public. Imagine that for a moment. That smallest of gestures, for me and many like me, has always been considered, calculated. Is it safe to do this here? Will the people walking towards us object? And maybe, on the days we're feeling strong and defiant, we’ll say, “To hell with it,” and do it anyway. But the point is that it is never casual.

My politics has always been resolutely of the left because the left has, broadly speaking, recognized this injustice and intervened to address it. For me, it is the left which says I shouldn’t have to make a calculation on the safety of my affections, and that the role of Government is to work to correct that disparity.

The US election, for me, came down to whether my dignity as an equal member of society would be embraced or disavowed. The despair I feel that so many people chose the latter borders on overwhelming.

It’s been tough for me to marshal my thoughts. For much of the campaign I was unconcerned at the prospect, believing that HRC would eventually win the day. That reason and empathy would sway people. That the extent of Trump’s vulgarity would prove too much. That fear of his temperamental problems would keep him away from the codes. I get that my day to day life, not living in the USA, may remain largely unaffected, but this did not feel like an election about the governing of a country. To me this was a cultural referendum on equality. And equality lost.

Lots of people have opined, more eloquently than I, about what we do now. Continuing the hate that was thrown around can’t be the answer. We all need ‘To Go High,’ regardless of what side of the political divide we are on. A grown up conversation needs to be had about participation in politics (I’m sorry, but if you have a candidate who you strongly object to and you don’t vote for another candidate who can actually win, you don’t get to absolve yourself of the final result). If you didn’t turn up and vote, you cannot lament the outcome.

We need strategies to work and exist in the Post Truth Era. Or even better, understand how we re-introduce evidence into politics.

But most of all, we need to keep reminding our societies that fairness, empathy and justice should be universal. And it is only by an accident of birth that you don’t look at your partner and wonder whether it is safe to hold their hand.