Election was a tale of two Americas

We bear the same blood, all of us, but not the same burdens. My friend and I have shared secrets, careers, cocktails. She woke up Wednesday and wasn't saddened by the news of the election results. America just showed its real face, she said. She is Black. Her lens is different from mine, but somehow acknowledging different viewpoints or considering others' concerns became a weakness. It was called "woke" by those who swaggered forth with pride in their offenses; mocking disabled people, showcasing their cruelties, demonizing marginalized people with outrageous and false claims of sexual depravity and crime. They did this while waving away all scrutiny of someone found liable for sexual abuse, depravity and crimes on his part. And the American people called it good. We know what he is like, so many voters said. We have heard for years now what he calls women, minorities, immigrants. We've heard him lie. We've seen him be convicted, indicted, fired. We've seen him fawn over our political enemies. We've heard his own people warn us that he is the most dangerous threat to our nation. Give us more, so many said. I heard a lot of it the morning after the election. Cousins I never hear from flocked to my social media and private messages to trumpet their victory. I thought that was odd for relatives I've not seen in 30 years, or have never met, people who don't know my children's names or bothered to reach out when my mother and father passed, to spend that much time on my page that day. You're going to have to accept God doesn't want gay people, one said. Another called others idiots, and yet another said that unlike Democrats, her party wasn't going to throw a riot "cause things didn't happen the way u want." When someone else reminded her of what happened on Jan. 6, 2021, you could hear the eye roll through the keyboard. "Of course U'd bring that up cause that's like the only thing u all fixate on," she wrote. I didn't hear one thing about how he is going to make this country better. I've been looking for signs. Post-election, we know the economy weighed heavily on voters. It's the gas and eggs argument that has been circulating in memes online for months, the baseline so many use to compare the end of President-elect Donald Trump's first term and now. I could understand that kind of thinking, if I didn't research that economic indicators — ones Trump likes to point to, like the stock market — are robust right now. If I didn't know that many complaints against the "economy" are rooted in the very actions that let the rich get richer and squeeze out the middle class. Trump has shown us them before and promises to bring them back. The corporate greed he not only has always personified, but promises to amplify. Again. But you were there last time. You remember. As a Christian, I've recoiled these past several years as I've watched a political ideology — then one man — become as much of a gospel as Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. I've studied Jesus under people who helped me build the framework of my faith and study scripture that are celebrating that the next president will be a man who couldn't pass a background check to work in their church. In the conservative rush to legally mandate a what they see as a morally upright society through banning books and checking gender-pronoun agreement, they watched a man simulate a sex act on a microphone and tipped him by letting him lead the free world. But gas and eggs. If this was really about simply disagreeing with Democrats, the party has a closet full of Republicans it could have chosen as the candidate. If this was about their stellar policies to do good for the American people, why did they do their best to keep quiet about them? What we heard, over and over, was the promise of a regime of retribution and escape from punishment if we'd just take him back. Many Americans said sure. Since the election, I've learned so much from others about preventative measures people are taking. Gay couples rushing to get married in case they lose that right. Women with no need for intrauterine devices having them implemented, in case they are ever raped. Young women are making sure they don't track their menstrual cycles through apps, and paying for birth control with cash only. Families with international ties are scared what will happen to their immigrant family members. They are all Americans too, but by Wednesday it didn't feel like their country any more. Is that what we were after? I have friends who've noticed a gain in their IRAs after the election, but are more worried about losing their desperately needed health insurance that they get through the Affordable Care Act. that. Republicans have stated their intent to dismantle it. That's why there is such a stark difference among the people of the United States to Tuesday's election. Name aside, there seemed to be two Americas: one jubilant and one fearful. We carry the same blood, but not the same burdens. Contact Chronicle-Telegram columnist Rini Jeffers at rinijeffers@gmail.com.