The Sky is Falling….or Not

When the acorn dropped on his head, Chicken Little’s anxiety issues led him to conclude the sky was falling and the world coming to an end.  In his panic, he ran around telling friends who, coincidentally, also had rhyming names like Henny Penny and Ducky Lucky – but I digress…  The point is, the little chicken and his pals believed the world was ending and, in their terror, lost touch with reality.  This lapse of judgement ultimately led to their unfortunate demise at the hands of yet another name-rhymed character, the evil and cunning Foxey Loxey.  A similar, and far from humorous, doomsday scenario is playing out in real time in this country today with the inauguration of President Donald Trump.

Rather than celebrating the grand American tradition of the peaceful transfer of power to a new President and a different political party, millions are wringing their hands and screaming that the world is ending.  Words like ‘racist’ and ‘NAZI’ are used with abandon.  Worst case scenarios playing out in the blogosphere and social media would have one believe we are entering an era of mass deportations and 21^st Century concentration camps.  While a peaceful, bipartisan ceremony celebrating the new administration was taking place at the Capitol, protesters were destroying property and threatening supporters in other parts of DC.  The following day, millions of women across the globe took to the streets in protest out of fear that they are about to become second-class citizens in America.  President Trump, his administration, and voters (which count as half of the country) are being characterized as the most hate-filled, vile people ever to inhabit planet Earth.

What is fueling this hatred?  What is the source?  Much of it started before the election when it became clear that Trump was going to become the Republican nominee, but since the election it has escalated to the point of the absurd.  No one can deny that Trump has a less than stellar past and some of his comments and actions are inexcusable.  Yet, Trump easily won the electoral vote – the only vote that really matters under our Constitution – with two-thirds of the states supporting him.  Seriously, would that many people vote for someone they believed to be a white-supremacist, homophobic, Islamophilic, misogynistic oaf?  Hardly!

There seems to be a disconnect here.  With that many voters supporting the new president, why is there so much loathing?   Part of it can be blamed on ‘fake news’ that seems to be popping up everywhere.  Some of this fake news, like the infamous ‘Russian Dossier’, is truly false and put out only to discredit the new president.  Much of the so-called fake news is actually faux fake news’, verifiably true, but labeled as ‘fake’ simply because it goes against the reader’s core beliefs and therefore, cannot be true.  For example, Trump-haters refuse to believe he is a compassionate individual, even when stories abound of his charitable giving to people in need and his being awarded the Ellis Island Medal of Honor in 1986, along with Rosa Parks.

Hollywood and the media continue to fuel the fires of hatred.  The endless parade of stars lining up to mock and delegitimize the new administration has become tiresome.   From boycotting the inauguration and threatening to leave the country, to calling for outright anarchy, they have been spewing their hatred nonstop since Florida and Ohio were called for Trump.  The mainstream media, is blatantly showing disdain and continue to deride the current administration by reporting only the negative side of new programs and proposed legislation.  When President Eisenhower warned of the Military-Industrial Complex, he could not have foreseen a far more dangerous threat to democracy coming from the collusion of Hollywood and the news media for dissemination of misinformation.

While half the country suffers from collective anxiety about the new president and his plan for our future, the rest of us have accepted the fact that Donald Trump is our President, duly elected along with a majority of Republicans in the House and Senate, state legislatures, and governors’ seats.   Whether this turns out to be a good thing or not will be evident during the next four years.  If their programs prove to be good for the country, they will be reelected.  If not, voters can give them the boot in the next election.  Unlike Chicken Little and his buddies who let their angst lead them into the fox’s den, our Constitutional system clearly provides a way for us to turn things around when it seems like the sky is falling.   It’s called the electoral process and if this country is to survive, we need to let it play out as the founders intended.