fbpx
Politics Foreign Affairs Culture Fellows Program

Dispatch From The Real World

Heroic American man keeps head while all about him are losing theirs
shutterstock_89000932

A reader writes:

Just read your pieces regarding the reaction to President Trump of the snowflakes on campus, and please rest assured that these reactions are not contained to those spaces. I work at [deleted for privacy], so I interact and work with “elites” every day, both in the professional and educational worlds.

My office, which is largely staffed by people who are graduates of prestigious universities (Ivy League, public Ivies, etc.) is like a graveyard today. People legitimately look like they are holding back tears. One of my co-workers said she is “seriously depressed.” Another, who was certain of and quite cocky regarding HRC’s chances just yesterday afternoon somberly declared today “time for deep reflection for a lot of people.” A third refused to learn from the left’s mistakes and declared that Bush, McCain, and Romney were “slightly better, but really just as bigoted” as Trump. Yet another had to leave work early because she simply could not process what was happening (I’m not exaggerating). Finally, one stated that “I’m just glad that I don’t have a young child who I’m trying to teach that bullying is bad.” Funny enough, I don’t recall him reacting that way to the pizza place in Indiana that was brutally attacked in the most mean-spirited way possible during the Indiana RFRA, but hey, who’s keeping track?

I’m not that much older than all of these people, but I just cannot fathom this reaction or this way of life. It must truly be a miserable existence. I was bitterly disappointed by the elections of Barack Obama in ’08 and ’12, but I IMMEDIATELY WENT ON WITH MY LIFE. I went to classes, I did my job, and realized that, while the elections hadn’t gone my way, life goes on and neither this election nor any other is the end of history or politics. But I think that the self-absorption of millenials and their imbuing of every single political issue with maximum moral weight leads them to react the way they do. It is sad, dangerous, and ultimately destructive of the political fabric of the nation.

Let me just wrap this by saying that I am no Trump fan. I did not vote for him either in the primaries or in the general (I wrote in). I find him boorish, amoral, and woefully unprepared to assume the presidency. That being said, I am allowing myself a few days of schadenfreude at HRC’s loss and the ensuing pearl clutching by the left broadly and SJWs in particular before I return to the realization that, in the broader culture anyway, not all that much has changed and politics will not save us. I will react to this election the same way I did to the past two: I’ll go on with my life.

Good for you! I expected to wake up this morning to the reality of a coming Clinton presidency. Regular readers know that I dreaded it, primarily because of what I expected President Clinton II to do to religious liberty, via her executive orders and court appointments. But I was planning to get on with my life and my work. Well, now that we’re going to have President Trump, I’m feeling much less distressed about religious liberty, but I’m worried about other things — including the fear that conservative Christians will grow complacent about our place in post-Christian America, and fall victim to the delusion that all will be well now that a Republican is going to be the next president.

The decline continues, no matter who is in the White House. In some ways it has probably been slowed, in other ways, perhaps it has been accelerated. We will see. Whatever the case, life goes on, and we have work to do.

Advertisement

Comments

Want to join the conversation?

Subscribe for as little as $5/mo to start commenting on Rod’s blog.

Join Now