MY HAPPY PLACE

It’s strangely unsatisfying to be so happy at a time of national sadness

I’m a white, gainfully employed, college educated 50-year-old, happily married, father of two living in Oregon. My health is near perfect, my family-life is truly enviable, I like my job and love the city and region in which I live.

I am comfortably middle – to slightly upper – middle class, own a very nice home and have zero debt. Further, my wife and I have a darn nice nest egg in savings which will be able to pay for both of my kid’s college education and a large chuck, if not all of our retirement. Speaking of the kids, they are truly special young people who get good grades, stay out of trouble and bring my wife and me true joy. 

Finally, we are in our 21^st year of marriage and things are as great as ever. She also has a job that she enjoys and provides a steady income. We are preparing for a family European vacation later this summer.

In short, If I am not the happiest man in the word, then I am a whole hell of a lot closer to him than to anyone truly miserable.

Ironically enough, I have never been sadder about the state of our nation and the occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

For I must add to my biographical information above that I am a liberal democrat, who greatly believes in diversity, equality, strong government, religious freedom, an independent press, a woman’s right to choose and tolerance toward all. And if you are all those things, you can’t help but practically weep openly not just at Trump and his cronies, but at the millions of fellow Americans who genuinely like the way he talks, acts and reacts.

So yeah, it’s weird. It’s weird to be so personally happy and to have so many blessings to be happy about – all in the shadow of the most regressive, repulsive and downright mean executive and legislative branches in my life.

My laptop these days is a schizophrenic collection of circuits, wires and plastic. One minute, my wife and I are booking rooms in really cool looking pensions in Munich for that trip of a lifetime this summer, and the next minute we are gaping slack-jawed at the latest constitutional crisis eagerly courted by the president. One minute we are celebrating the online postings of my daughter’s straight A report card, the next we are firing off angry letters to the editor.

My wife cried deeply on election night, I had a panic attack.  Three days later we were playing a rollicking game of monopoly with our kids and practically stumbling over the giddy domestic bliss of the scene.

In some ways if feels like winning the lottery and receiving a cancer diagnosis on the same day.  Thereafter, you are eagerly planning trips and purchasing dream cars, only to suddenly catch yourself and wonder, “but will I be around long enough to enjoy any of this?”

Recently, my place of business was bought be a larger entity. I joined with my colleagues for several days wondering if I was about to be laid off. I wasn’t. It turned out the new company likes my work and will keep me on. But not so, others.

This sets up a kind of survivor’s guilt at work.  I never talk about the new job afforded me, nor do I ask them about their status. We talk about the weather a lot and try and avoid deeper conversations.

It’s a little like that now with people I know who are or will suffer to a much greater degree than I am or will under Trump. As mentioned, I am white, I have a degree and a good job with good health benefits and substantial savings without debt. But I know a lot of people who are minorities, have debt, have deep reservations about their health insurance and are part of the LGBTQ community.

My family and I – at least in the short to medium term – will be fine under Trump. Yet, we will live in the same community, drive the same streets and breathe the same air as people who will decidedly not be fine under this president.

A few years ago we lived near an area that was devastated by fire. I remember touring the burned out neighborhoods with a friend and he pointed to a pristine house on a hill that was untouched by the blaze. All around it however, black earth and the smoldering wreckage of dwellings. He said how lucky that homeowner was, to be one of the few the fire left unscathed. Yes, I thought…sort of. But every day from now on, he will wake up and look out at a hell scape of destruction and wonder: “should I be happy that my house and stuff are safe, or should I be sad because everyone else’s is destroyed?”

Perhaps that might be the biggest difference between Red and Blue America today. Red America would chose to be happy because their home and all their possessions are intact. Blue America could not chose to be happy because of the isolation, loneliness and suffering visited unto others in the community.

I’m sorry, but there very much is an “I got mine” mentality emanating from Trump and his millions of supporters. Whereas, we progressives feel deep down in our hearts: “I can’t be truly happy if so many others are miserable.”

So I live like that person on the hill – reveling in the happiness of my near perfect bubble – yet knowing that right outside the window lies sorrow and bleakness.

It is indeed strange to be a happy little island in a sea of bleak. 

LEDGES

It’s been over two months since he won election and nearly a full week since he’s become the president. We’ve had a lot of time actually, to assess why millions of people voted for him. There is no lack of interviews with Trump supporters who’ve weighed in on why they voted for this, shall we say, unconventional candidate.

Here’s the funny thing I believe we've discovered about these voters: they are actually frightened by him as well.  If you look below the surface of their loud pronouncements and their “in your face” joy at his election, you can clearly see the fear in their words and hearts. Despite their overt boldness, you can really hear the apprehension in their voice – it is as if they can see the long dark descending tunnel of the Trump presidency and the hell to which it leads.

And so, they are metaphorically hanging on to precarious ledges of rationalization and justification that keeps them, temporarily, from the abyss.

This article does as good a job as any at allowing us to peer inside the mind of overtly supportive, yet secretly terrified Trump supporters. Now don’t get me wrong: all supporters of incoming presidents begin with a sense of hope. You hope that the person you voted for is going to do the things they said they were going to do when they were merely a candidate.  But if you read this article, and many, many more you come away with the inescapable conclusion that the vast majority of Trump supporters are clinging to hope the very same as they would in a Las Vegas casino.

Just like the rest of us, they literally have no idea how the Trump presidency will work out and right now, they are surreptitiously clenching their jaws and holding their breath as if life is standing perfectly still and they are watching a tiny ball skitter around a roulette table. Further, like typical dead-end gamblers hunched around the game, they’ve wagered more than they should and now all they can do is put on a brave face and helplessly watch as fate takes over. Like degenerate gamblers with their self-talk, so many of these people have shakily bet on a color and a number and told themselves, “This time, my number has to come up!”

But it probably won’t. And deep, deep down, they know it too. They know that if the shoe were on the other foot, that if somehow a Trump of the left had been elected, they would all right now be buying shotguns shells and bottled water and putting down payments on isolated cabins in the woods or bunkers dug into the sides of hills.  That in the Bizzaro political world where democrats behaved exactly like republicans, but still hoed toward their policy and candidate ideals, the nation and the world would be bracing for President Snoop Dog’s second week as thousands of terrified citizens held battered signs reading, “THE END IS NIGH!”

And so, they are metaphorically hanging on to precarious ledges of rationalization and justification that keeps them, temporarily, from the abyss.

What are these ledges? 

      The first ledge is the pronouncement that he will clean up his act once he settles into office. Especially from women supporters, we continually hear their belief that President Trump won’t be as vulgar and hateful as Candidate Trump. They clench their fingers to this slim outcropping and try desperately not to think about the prospect of a 70-year-old man of extreme privilege fundamentally changing his life-long personality.

·         The second ledge holds the minuscule promise that a complete outsider like Trump will be the tonic that cures the ills of our nation.  While the well-worn sod of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington holds some true appeal, they know deep down Trump was not the outsider they were looking for. A mediocre at best business man, who failed as much as he succeeded, with only one true skill – self-promotion – who’s spent more than half of his adult life as laughing stock is decidedly ill fit to be the outsider who restores the country to past greatness.

·         Third, we move onto the even narrower ledge which I will term the faith-based sill. That somehow because of his party affiliation, The Donald will help restore America to a moral and god-fearing place. Here we find our petrified supporters hanging on by their fingernails and wrapping their minds around the man’s record in all its pussy-grabbing, thrice married, Howard Stern fawning, abortion flip-flopping, daughter-ogling glory.

·         Slimmer and further down the dark tunnel is a millimeter thick crevice of rationalization which claims Trump “tells it like it is” and that his brutal honesty will set us back on track. Here, they swallow hard, hug the abyssal wall and refuse to look down knowing full well that the pit they fear has been literally carved by the thousands upon thousands of his lies.

·         And finally we get to the last ledge, a mere indentation almost too tiny to see with the naked eye: the dry mouth and palm sweat-inducing idea that Trump and Trump alone can put an end to political corruption. Unfortunately for the faithful, time didn’t stop and we are already neck deep in the Goldman Sacks – never to be released tax returns –conflicts of interest –Russian hacking – election fraud canard – lock her up faint – sleaze. This mere illusion of a ledge is already giving way and it won’t be long now until gravity takes them.

In a way, it’s tempting to feel sorry for this lot. Back in November, the abyss was a small crater almost completely out of sight. Their reasons and rationalizations weren’t ledges back them – they were safe and comfortable stepping stones to the voting booth. Perhaps, owing to Trump’s image as a TV personality, it didn’t quite seem fully real a couple of months ago.

Today however, the abyss looms large and menacing beneath their feet. Their trembling fear – like our own – speaks of a fall we and they can’t rebound from. To us, the people who saw this grave mistake materialize in the summer, that fall will show us how right we were. To them, the fall will show them how wrong they were. And there will be no winners. Perhaps the only saving grace is that as we all fall into the abyss - now devoid of ledges - we might be able to hold onto each other.

WHAT IF WE JUST IGNORE HIM?

Like millions of people, I think the presidency of Donald Trump is going to be an unmitigated disaster that has the potential to inflict profound and lasting damage to the United States and the rest of the world. After all, even if your ignore his racism, sexism and hyper-aggressive posturing, he still is a woefully unprepared man who’s personal and professional history show absolutely no evidence that he has the talent and experience to be an even below average president. In short, every other past commander-in-chief is playing for second place in the “Worst President in History” sweepstakes.

But as we gird for the nausea-inducing inauguration coming in January, I am finding a sliver of hope in how we all can survive the coming tsunami of regret, in a very unlikely place. For buried under the news about his ridiculous/dangerous cabinet choices, his stunning lack of basic international knowledge and his reliance on Russia for legitimacy, is the cascading number of A and B list celebrities refusing to perform at his inauguration.

Seemingly, none of these performers is making a big and public rebuke of The Donald – they are just simply declining the invitation as if it were an offer from Bob in accounting to attend his hastily thrown-together holiday party.

And that may be the secret for living under a Donald Trump administration – just ignore him.  Don’t engage with him on Twitter, don’t hold a press conference, and don’t protest at the Oscars if you are famous, or protest at Starbucks if you aren’t.  Just live your life as if Trump were still just a mediocre businessman and D-list celebrity.

Here is my rationale. A few years ago, I read an article when a physicist was explaining what the Higgs Boson, or God particle, does related to all other things. He said to think about Higgs Boson like the water in a swimming pool, and you, immersed in the water, are all other particles of matter swimming forward. The water is necessary to push against for propulsion.

For Donald Trump, his Higgs Boson is angry response to his rhetoric. He needs it to survive in the political realm. His incredibly shocking success in the campaign was 100 percent based on attacking his opponent, waiting for the response and then attacking with double the venom. And it worked, again and again and again. First with the wilting assemblage during the primaries and then with Hillary Clinton in the general election. Trump was most comfortable – and effective – when he threw out something provocative and then lured his adversary into a childish back and forth.

But right now, our brightest stars and entertainers are showing us a clear path forward. They are telling The Donald, thanks but no thanks. And current reports suggest that these simple and low-key acts of refusal are really getting to him.

I truly believe that is our best response to Trump world. When he says something purposefully provocative, mean spirited and stupid, just leave it alone. After all, we have to remember who and what he is.  He is a bully and deeply insecure man whose biggest fears in life are being neglected and forgotten. People like that need our anger and complaints to feed their insatiable hunger for attention.

Yes, I fully realize that failing to engage against his misdeeds in office would be extremely harmful and I am in no way advocating withdrawing from the political process. Indeed, all of us must vigorously fight against his mean-spirited wishes and overt attempts to destroy our liberal democracy.

What I am advocating is for all of us to ignore the man and fight against the acts.

If you are a democratic politician, women business leader, minority celebrity or any of his other favorite targets and he inevitably aims his twitter rage toward you; don’t respond. Let him seethe with unspent ammunition wasting away on his smartphone.

By all means, fight against his retro-policies and illegal legislation. Fight against his Supreme Court nominee and cabinet picks. Just don’t call him out by name. Don’t even mention his name.  Starve him of the thing he craves most – attention.

After a while, I think the man might actually have a change of heart. Is it inconceivable that after a year of aggressive national neglect Trump might recalibrate and try to recapture the spotlight by implementing policy that is logical, beneficial and well thought out?  Not because he suddenly develops a sense of morality, but because civility and integrity provide him with the only path toward the attention he so needs.

It seems obvious that Trump didn’t become president to serve his nation and his people – he became president to serve his ego. Yet, if his ego is ultimately not served while occupying the White House, we might actually force him into become a decent public servant after all.

COLLEGE COACHES ARE CEO’S, NOT MENTORS

The University of Oklahoma Football; Wells Fargo; Duke Basketball; Enron.

What do these four institutions have in common? Simple, they are (were) led by chief executive officers who are bound to one simple goal above all others – winning.

The job of all CEO’s – whether it is for a Fortune 500 company or a major college program - is to accomplish the following three tasks: 1.) Stay employed as CEO, 2.) Make money for your stakeholders, 3.) Wring the most profitability and efficiency as possible out of your employees. Accomplish these three tasks and you’re a winner.

And as such, fans and supporters of big-time college athletics would probably sleep better at night if they stopped believing in the fantasy that coaches and corporate CEO’s are re any different. They are not – and this is never truer then when controversy and scandal emerges. For a CEO and a big-time coach reacts to controversy and scandal in exactly the same way: first, protect oneself, second protect one’s operation, third protect one’s legacy.

The University of Oklahoma Football enterprise is run by its chief executive Bob Stoops – more commonly referred to by his ceremonial title – head coach. Same for CEO Mike Krzyzewsk at Duke. The title coach is bestowed upon these men because it is familiar to fans and steeped in the historic trappings of American sports going back more than a century. But make no mistake, these two famous and public men are chief executive officers in the exact same way that John Stumpf was CEO of Wells Fargo (before being force to resign amid scandal) and Ken Lay was CEO of disgraced energy giant Enron.

Currently, CEO’s Stoops and Krzyzewski are embroiled in scandals involving employees at their place of business. For Stoops the controversy surrounds his comments and actions related to an employee of the football program who punched a female student in the face and broke her jaw. That employee, Joe Mixon was disciplined a couple of years ago, but allowed to return to the football program because his value to the overall operation was deemed worthy of the public relations backlash of his actions. Exacerbating the controversy has been CEO Stoops’ comments related to the employee’s criminal behavior, saying that he deserved a second chance.

For CEO Krzyzewski, he is dealing with an employee, Grayson Allen, who has repeatedly tripped opponents during games and also acted petulantly on the bench. Krzyzewski, after conferring with his legal and public relations counsel, has suspended the athlete indefinitely; a strategic move allowing the CEO to modify the duration of the punishment dependent on public and stakeholder sentiment in the coming days and weeks.

CEO’s Stumpf and Lay also oversaw employees who perpetrated crimes and violated rules. The only difference between the businesses and the athletic programs is scale. Wells Fargo and Enron featured corrupt culture and employee misbehavior on a national level.

Similarly, when the scandals became public, Stoops, Krzyzewski, Stumpf and Lay all reached for their CEO playbook on how to handle a crisis which relies on a strategic balance of bold declaratives with flaccid silence. As such, you get congressional testimony and post-game press conferences which feature the following:

·         Virtuous proclamations about company/team culture (no acknowledgment of how this culture attracted and coddled said employees in the first place).

·         Forcefully declarations that any employee misbehavior will not be tolerated (deafening silence about how there is always a sliding scale of punishment based on an employee/players worth to the organization).

·         Vigorous assertions of how the company/team will move forward toward correction and healing (unanswered questions about how the misbehavior would have been allowed to continue were it not for outside discovery).

Indeed, it probably is for the best that we finally acknowledge that big-time sports tracks to the same amoral compass as big-time business. Corporations don’t exist to make our communities better, improve the lives of employees and provide outstanding products and services to customers. They exist to win and by and large we all accept that fact. So too is the reason why Oklahoma Football and Duke Basketball exist, to win. And the men in charge of those enterprises are hired and fired to ensure they stay in the winning column – broken jaws and tripped opponents be damned.

The only final sin of big-time college coaching and big-time corporate stewardship is to lose. For a losing record is the only surefire way to lose one’s job, one’s program and one’s legacy.

DONALD TRUMP AND JERRY JONES: THE MEN OF THE HOUR

I’m a democrat and hate the election results. I’m a lifelong Cowboys fan and love the current state of the team.

I am dreading January and the inauguration.  I am so looking forward to January and the Playoffs!!!

In short, I’m a man who is practically ripping at the seams with cross-purposed emotions. 

Anticipating the incredible low of witnessing Donald Trump holding a bible and being sworn in and anticipating the lofty high of seeing Jerry Jones hold the Vince Lombardi trophy.

How did this happen? How did 2016 become both the year of Trump and the year of Jones?

For most of my life Donald Trump has been a kind of a punchline. All Hat and no cattle as the saying goes. Loud, brash, classless, a fabulously wealthy man who does the one thing that all other fabulously wealthy men don’t do –brags about his wealth. A man of ridiculous hair, a ridiculous show, a ridiculous “university,” a ridiculous bunch of businesses that no other self-respecting billionaire would ever put his name on….Donald Trump in the 80’s, 90’s and 2000’s was America’s rich but embarrassing uncle we endured on holidays.

For most of my allegiance to the Dallas Cowboys since 1989, the owner, Jerry Jones, has also been a kind of punchline. Also, all hat and no cattle when it came to actually building a great team. Yes, the early success (almost all of it due to Jimmy Johnson) was great. But since 1995? Embarrassment. A laughing stock. The parade of bad coaches, the expunged draft picks searching for a wide receiver, the face lift, the incomprehensible press conferences, Greg Hardy…all of it. Again, a kind of crazy uncle Jerry you barely could tolerate on family gatherings.

And so, during the spring, summer and fall of 2016, I’ve been all but sure that Trump would screw up and bow out before election. During the spring, summer and fall, I’ve been all but sure Jerry would screw up and have the team bow out before the playoffs.

But my god! Here we sit toward the end of December and Trump is heading toward the White House and Jerry is heading toward that awkward congratulatory handshake with Commissioner Roger Goodell.

For both men, the reasons for their success in 2016 come down to three factors:

-          Blind luck; a steadying influence; historic weakness of their opponents.

First the luck. Sorry, Trump and fans, but losing the popular vote by 2.8 million, yet winning the White House doesn’t make you good, it makes you lucky. The Electoral College and some breaks with voting patterns in just three states – and a totality of less than 100,000 votes put you over the top. Add in a frisky Vladimir Putin, a meddling FBI Director and the fake news strangeness and let’s just say, you metaphorically found the right four leaf clover on November 8.

For Jerry, his ride toward glory is paved by the incredible luck of having a ready-made NFL quarterback fall into his lap in the fourth round of the draft. And don’t forget Cowboy’s fans, the man tried nearly everything possible to select a QB NOT named Dak Prescott in last April’s draft. And, if Tony Romo didn’t get injured, ol’ Jerry would have never even plaid the kid to begin with. Jerry O’Jones must be 100 percent Irish to have that kind of luck.

Moving on, both men have greatly benefited by the influence of two key people who helped save each man from themselves. For T, it was the move to bring Kellyanne Conway to lead his campaign. The amateurs Lewandowski and Manafort would have almost certainly sunk the S.S. Trump long before it sailed into port. Her guidance to let Trump be Trump 80% of the time, but reign him in enough not to scare off skeptical supporters helped him win in key counties around the nation.

For Jerry, it is the calming presence of his son Steven. Let’s be totally honest fans: If Steven hadn’t literally shoved his father against the wall on that draft night three years ago, this franchise would own Johnny Manziel, and chances are very good that his historic implosion would have been even more spectacular in Dallas than it was in Cleveland. 

Finally, a word about the competition. Trump fan’s, if you are being totally honest with yourselves, no one thought back in 2015 that Scott Walker, Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio and the rest would be as terrible as they were. No one. But there they were, a gaggle of stumbling, incoherent, low energy nincompoops who made all us wonder – how did any of these guys actually win an elected office?

And of course, his defeat of Hillary Rodham Clinton. Now being a loyal democrat, I could point out a lot of extenuating circumstances for her loss, but… It is inarguable that she was an historically unpopular candidate whose wonky delivery and Clinton baggage was a huge mountain to try and climb.

And about those Cowboys.  Well let’s see: the defending NFC Champion Panthers are out of the playoff picture, Green Bay has dug itself a huge hole with Aaron Roger’s surprisingly bad play for most of the year, the Seahawks have an offensive line that is truly offensive and the Giants offense and Eli Manning are like Ambien with cleats.

Yes, I know the Patriots are looming if the Cowboys make it to the Super Bowl, but even Bill Belichick’s dynasty is without the most dynamic playoff threat in the NFL – Rob Gronkowski.  Indeed, this year sets up amazing well for Dallas, given the anemic competition currently assembled.

So there you have it. In a normal year, with their normally unchecked demeanor and with even normal competition, these two guys would probably revert back to their normal default setting of laughing stock. But not this year.

Indeed 2016 is their year. Our men of the hour Donald and Jerry. I truly don’t know whether to laugh or cry.

A NEW YEAR'S LETTER TO JETHRO

Dear Jethro:

We are 40+ days into PEOTUS territory.  Your guy won, my gal lost. You are anxiously looking forward to January 20, I’m dreading it. You are high-fiving with the other camo-wearing bro’s down at the hardware store, while me and my left-coast liberal elites are sobbing into soy latte’s at our local, non-Starbucks coffee joints.

But after much consideration, I’m writing this letter, a month after the election, not to point an angry finger at you and curse your choice, but rather to thank you. You and your side has done something that quite simply, my left-wing associates and I could not do on our own: You have guaranteed a return to power of the Democratic Party in a massive and convincing fashion.

Your unwavering and rabid support of Donald Trump and your feral hatred of Hillary Clinton over the past year has coalesced to deliver a beautiful and sacred gift to all of us progressive, idealistic folks. For in two to four years’ time, a tidal wave of regret and recrimination will sweep through your rural and suburban environments which will affect real and lasting change in American politics and make the 1960’s progressive era look like a John Birch Society cocktail party.

For you have unloosed the great and might Trump – soon-to-be destroyer of the Republican Party and unlikeliest hero to liberal democrats from sea to shining sea. If Newt Gingrich was our pony on Christmas morning back in the 1990’s, Trump today is our fire red Ferrari parked in the driveway with a giant bow perched on the hood.

Don’t get me wrong.  I realize there will be tremendous pain for the country during Trump’s first and only term in office. The environment, the economy and the social contract that makes America great will suffer tremendously. The middle class will fall further and further behind the One Percent and a great many minorities, women and marginalized populations will live in fear and hopelessness. Indeed, dark times lie ahead.

Yet, it is always darkest before the dawn – as they say – and a great light and hope will soon emerge on the horizon. That light and hope will come in the form of crushing buyer’s remorse among the white, under-educated voters who actually believed that a fabulously wealthy con man who sees the world through a Manhattan penthouse window was some kind of regular guy populist.

Once that buyer’s remorse sets in, and sets in deep within the pit of your stomach, you will all do what you do best – robust apathy. You’ll do nothing. Just like you’ve done little to nothing to improve your lot in life and lift yourself out of the working class malaise you’ve been stuck in for 30 years, you’ll forget all about the energy and emotion that brought you out to the rallies and the voting booths to support your orange-haired messiah. In short, you’ll stay home in 2018 during the midterms and certainly you will stay home on the second Tuesday in November of 2020.

And with you sitting out the elections, or at least phoning in your efforts, my side might actually get our act together and really move in to enact change. You see, democrats and just as responsible for Trump as you are. We blew this last election in a lot of ways. We were overconfident and unlike you, we simply went through the motions without putting our blood sweat and tears into the process.

Understand; even if we somehow eked out the win in 2016, damage – perhaps permanent – would have been done to our party and our philosophy. My God, the lapdog media, conservative zealots and Republican-led House and Senate would have been absolutely giddy at the prospect of savaging every move or decision Hillary made over the next 48 months. A Clinton victory would actually set back the party more than four years of Trump will, without the future upside.

A Clinton win would only exacerbate our problems at the state and congressional level. Our own apathy during midterms and our lack of a coherent response to the Republican’s bag of dirty tricks, voter suppression and ALEC legislation would simply be kicked down the road like an old can. We would limp along – holding onto the White House - but letting go of everything else.

No, the juvenile behavior, laughable policy missteps, sham strategies and overall international embarrassment that will be a Trump administration, portend much better for my party’s long-term viability. You’ve broken our arm by electing him. Yet, as any physician will say, a break grows backs stronger than the original bone.

So thank you. In this season of giving, you have truly bestowed a wondrous present to all of us liberals. And while I fully realize it’s a gift you didn’t want to give, my thanks are heartfelt all the same.

Happy 2017!

THE GREAT DISCONNECT

THE GREAT DISCONNECT

After the incredibly surprising presidential election and the ascendency of Donald Trump, there have been thousands of columns and millions of words written about what it all means.

·         America was fed up with the swamp of Washington

·         Hillary was a deeply flawed candidate

·         Obama failed to rally supporters

·         The media is dishonest, therefore a “tell it like it is” candidate was right for the times

And all these explanations have a role to play in comprehending one of the most seismic shifts in American politics, but it seems to me that consensus is forming around one central point: white, under-educated, working class voters truly believed that the elites in the government, corporations, Wall Street and the media abandoned them years ago and therefore a true populist outsider was their only hope to maintaining their relevancy in a diverse global economy.

When one removes the more offensive characteristics of Trump – the racism, misogyny and general crudeness – it is fairly easy to understand this sentiment. Trapped in a cycle of stagnation, where the jobs of their parents are gone forever, and (rightly or wrongly) believing that liberal America neglects them and siphons their tax dollars toward underserving urban minorities, working-class whites saw Trumpism as their salvation. To them, “Make America Great Again,” meant making the American system work for them like it used to.

But there is a crucial rub that I just can’t wrap my head around – the great disconnect I see in this way of thinking that, in short, upends my past worldview.

After all, like many, I grew up believing that the great hallmark of America’s rural working-class was that they were rugged individuals who would always pull themselves up by their bootstraps and “get er done.” No matter what, they could rely on their grit and determination to succeed, completely without government hand-outs and public assistance. Conversely, I was fed a steady diet from a young age that  poor minorities in big cities are inherently lazy welfare kings and queens unwilling to lift a finger in order to improve their lot.

Yet, if one looks closely today, isn’t the plight of the white working class, stuck in dying rural communities, a hell of their own making? Do they not now share an equivalent level of blame as the urban poor for their own stagnation?  How come, as coal receded (not by regulation, but by market forces) years ago and factories moved to Asia decades ago they didn’t actively engage in that whole boot-strap-pulling thing?  How come they didn’t tap into their rugged individualism and learn new skills and new jobs? How come, for example, they didn’t tighten their belts and forgo the purchase of a new tractor in order to afford computer classes at the local junior college?

And why doesn’t Red America seem to cast the same skeptical eye toward the meth addicts, pregnant teens and government-assisted unemployed factory workers in the small communities of Iowa or Kansas, as they do the inhabitants of big cities of New York or LA?

How come rural whites haven’t – as they are so fond of advising the urban poor – broken the cycle of poverty?

For years, I have heard my welfare-bashing conservative friends point to individuals who escaped the ghetto to become successful as proof positive that anyone willing to work hard can leave the inner city behind. Yet, millions upon millions of angry and disaffected whites voted for Trump in the hopes that he could do something they haven’t been able to do: save them and their impoverished communities. How come, instead of filling stadiums to hear him rail against crooked Hillary, they didn’t access their great self-determination and work harder to make their communities great again?

Why does conventional wisdom suggest that poor urban minorities are failing in America, but poor rural whites are being failed by America?

Don’t get me wrong. I am deeply saddened by poverty in America’s heartland. And I do believe that government assistance and publicly financed education and skills training in rural America ought to be a huge priority for the next administration. However, perhaps it is time for a great leveling of blame and ridicule.

Yes, there are poor minorities stuck in the inner city who are unmotivated to change. Yes, there are black and Latino predators in Chicago or Detroit who exploit the crime-riddled streets and hopelessness for personal gain. But so too are there unemployed factory workers in Nebraska who are content to live off welfare checks and there are OxyContin dealers in Alabama who prey on going-nowhere teenagers with little or no potential for upward mobility. 

It seems to me that in America, everyone has a chance to succeed and everyone has an opportunity to fail themselves and their community.

For my entire life, conservatives have pointed to inner city minorities and said it’s their fault they are poor and liberal elites need to understand the nation does them no favors by providing public assistance. And for the last eight years, conservatives have pointed to the Obama Administration as the manifestation of failed policies and philosophies about welfare and entitlements.

It’s strange, but in that same span of time, I’ve never heard conservatives rail against the absolute failure of rural America and rural Americans to innovate, grow and overcome. In fact, I’d argue that rural America has become an innovation desert, while the vast majority of true invention and American exceptionalism happens within the same zip codes of the inner cities they rail against.

So now, rural white America has its prophet in Donald Trump soon to occupy the White House. Will he be the magical leader who somehow unlocks the suspended potential of his devoted fans? Will he waive a diamond-encrusted wand and vanquish the hidden forces that have held down the factory worker, farmer and gas station attendant for all these years?

History has a funny way of gently tugging on our sleeve and pointing out how wrong many assumptions can be.  When Barack Obama was elected, he swept into office riding an incredible surge of hope and change. Without going into the details and justifications, I will simply write that millions of Americans probably feel disappointed that he didn’t change their fortunes like they thought he might. Safe to say, our nation’s first black president did not remove the problems of poor minorities in America. And now, history will see if millions of poor rural people have the ear of a New York billionaire elite who has never spent a day of his life being anything other than spectacularly wealthy and urban. 

Somehow, some way, we have created a great disconnect in America today. The narrative continues to be that inner city minorities allowed poverty to happen, but rural whites had poverty happen to them. It will be fascinating to see if that narrative remains the same four years hence.