When I woke up Wednesday, and saw the sun rising over the trees, with so few clouds, I wondered if I had dreamed it all. I turned on my phone and checked. Sometimes the phone can be a reliable reality check instead of a slide into collective irreality. I had had such wonderful dreams. Would they turn out to be real?

 

It turned out even better than I thought when I went to bed. Tuesday night was a joyous night, maybe the best for years. It was exciting watching the wave form. Watching Democrats sweep Texas. Watching one after another Democrat defeat Republicans. So affirming to read of Democrats now having 54 seats in the Senate and maybe, hopefully two more coming. And controlling the House with a  total of approximately 250-260 seats, an historic margin.

 

Each announced win was a proclamation of humanity. We said to ourselves and the world: “I will not support hatred. I will not support cruelty as a political policy. I will not support the theft of my rights, the destruction of this nation, the undermining of healthcare, all in order to grift more money to the super-rich.” This is what I thought.

 

What I felt was relief. A deep sense of joy. Yes, there’s so much to do. DT is still President. We still have to be ready to act. But we’ve lived with so many political and personal threats; we’ve lived with the barrage of lies and the intentionally manufactured nightmare that DT could do anything, no matter how crazed, cruel, or corrupt it was.

 

So, when he was elected in 2016, and even more in 2024, I was afraid. Nobody knew what would happen once he took office, except that it wasn’t going to be good. My Dad died just after he was elected and warned me: Watch out for this man. He reminds me of Hitler. Since my dad had lived through World War II, his words hit home.

 

Of course, we never know what will happen. When he was first elected, I wondered if stormtroopers would march the streets, killing or arresting anyone who opposed the would-be Fuhrer. I wrestled with what I should do. Should I stay here and do what I could to oppose him, and to support an opposition? Or leave the country? The latter choice felt safer. The former meant living with fear.

 

Borrowing from the poet William Butler Yeats, I feared the center would not hold, that DT’s “blood-dimmed tide” was to be “loosed upon the land;” and the fraying strands of democracy would not stop DT’s war against it. But the longer I stayed, the more capable of facing the fear I felt.

 

For my wife, there was no choice. This was her home. Here was her garden, her friends, her history.

 

DT might still be in office, but for the moment at least, it looks like we stopped his “blood-dimmed tide.” So now, what will we do? What will Democrats do with their power? Many are new to Congress. We need to learn everything we can from the last two, or the last 10 years. We need to understand there are more people in this country from possibly all sides of the political spectrum who feel belittled and ripped off. And this is understandable. As Senator Bernie Sanders warns us, in our country, the richest country in the world, 60% of Americans live pay-to-paycheck. A tiny fraction of billionaires owns more wealth than the lower 50% of us combined. There’s more wealth inequality now than at any other time in our nation’s history. There are others who are so focused on revenge, power, or money they’d sacrifice a recognition of their shared humanity with others to steal whatever they could get away with.

 

We need to learn that no matter what, we must teach care, compassion, for ourselves and for others. To care about other’s lives makes our own richer, and more secure. This is the only way to defeat hate and greed. We cannot stand back from ourselves and our connection to others.

 

When I talked with friends and neighbors after the election, so many were as relieved as I was, excited, proud, hopeful. But I was, at first, shocked when someone said they felt no joy…

 

*To read the whole post, please go to The Good Men Project.