Dear President-elect Joe Biden:
From 11:20 am this morning, November 7, 2020, a hot autumn Saturday, the conclusion of the vote counts in the uncertain states allowed You to cross the fateful threshold of 270 voters compared to 214 totaled by your opponent residing in the White House.
The televisions continue to show the massing of spontaneous crowds starting with those facing your next home in Washington.
They are mostly young people full of energy who dance and sing; I believe that for you, Mr President, this is the finest gratification at the end (almost) of a long, stressful, unbearable electoral campaign.
In your Twitter and speeches, you insist on the fact that your commitment will be dedicated to the reconciliation of the two Americas which are today radically polarized, are no longer able to dialogue in a civilized manner, cloak themselves in mutual hatred.
Whoever writes you proudly belongs to the more than 75 million American citizens who wanted to give their preference to you and Senator Harris.
Your election does not reassure us completely because we know that your opponent will do everything to make your appointment as president of the United States impervious.
To the point that it cannot be excluded that your official 'coronation' will be reached on January 20st with an America led - so to speak - by two presidents.
But by holstering my incurable pessimism and treasuring what a dear conservative friend told me ("you will see that everything will heal sooner"), I take note of your invitation, Mr. President, to re-establish a habit of civil democratic life with the many friends-acquaintances of the Italian-American colony who voted for Donald Trump.
We can understand why millions of American compatriots with little culture and in love with an excellent TV salesman have done so.
We find it a bit difficult to justify the millions of Latinos who, despite the terror and misery caused by Mr. Trump to migrants from Central South America, voted in favor of Donald because they were fascinated by his perennial soap opera made up of billions of dollars (lucky him ), of ultra beautiful females even if of uncertain morality (lucky him), but above all these Latinos motivated by: "it is better that migrants stay at home and do not come to break the balls to us who have already made a bunch so to live and work in the United States. "
We do not understand the millions of women who have given their excited support to the current tenant of the White House, despite the declared and proven misogyny.
It would be enough to recall the well-known statement of Mr. Trump according to which, when you meet a beautiful girl, instead of shaking her hand it is good to "Grab them by the pussy", that is: give her a handful in the pubic part.
Someone with strong psychological and psychiatric knowledge told me that, in a world characterized by a substantial and growing separation of the sexes, the unhappiness of many women in the face of the incapacity and insecurity of the ordinary male, can somehow also accept the most vulgar machismo.
We are stunned to see that Donald Trump has had the support of millions of evangelical Christians who, praying to Jesus, have implored the divine hand on this notorious great sinner for the confirmation of his high office.
But those of our friends-acquaintances with a high cultural level and a substantial financial and monetary portfolio that we highly esteem remain outside these considerations.
Experts tell me that these are manifestations and behaviors determined by the fascination of the mythical prophet of the moment.
They remind me of the Italian love for Mussolini, they remind me of the esteem-pride-dedication at all costs of the Germans for their Adolf Hitler.
In a world dominated by image, Donald Trump has demonstrated for over four years (including the 2016 election campaign) that the body language of those who can manage television can have a great impact on a broad spectrum audience in which whoever drinks his image without asking himself any problem of verifying his statements which are taken as dogmas not to be discussed.
In short, kind uncle Joe President-elected of the United States: following your repeated warning I will try in my small way to return to a civil dialogue with those acquaintances friends, hoping to find on their part the desire to trim the acidity of radicalization that have brought this wonderful nation at a level of absolute mutual incommunicability.
Best wishes, Mr. President, for you, for us, for America and for the nations that look and continue to look at the United States as an unparalleled lighthouse towards the safe harbor of true democracy.
Oscar
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Oscar,
Very nice!
All the best,
Mark & Marina Faraone
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Hi Oscar,
My explanation for the undeniable support T has received is simpler but much longer to explain. This character, of so dubious morality and little empathy for misfortunes and, why not, the inability of others, who has an interest only in himself, is the symbol of a new generation of old Americans (over 60).
I believe I can position the beginning of this mutation with the birth of the Tea Party and the neo-cons. This path has changed a general dissatisfaction with the rules (and taxes) imposed by the government, into an unbridled individualism, which has overwhelmed the underlying values of American greatness, such as social solidarity and patriotism.
Today, even people with a high cultural and even scientific backgrounds, accept the cultural misery and the absurdity of theories without scientific basis nor proven by facts, in exchange for presumed personal convenience.
Basically, if I have a few thousand dollars more at the end of the year, a few more deaths in the statistics and a general weakening of the reliability of the US as a global strategic partner is an acceptable price.
This behaviour can be mitigated (at least for the rational component of supporters of this approach to society) only by highlighting the overall and historical vision of such choices.
Indeed, this approach causes ever deeper dichotomies between social and racial strata of society. These distances are highlighted in riots and economic uncertainties, which in turn undermine the quality of life not only of the less affluent classes.
It is a bit what Obama tried with the slogan "you didn't do it yourself", to highlight that the corporations that have had such great success here in the states owe it also and above all to the stability and reliability of a rule of law that has allowed investors and entrepreneurs to invest effectively in the development of technologies, products and services which are then sold all over the world.
As a man of science, I can testify that the only reason why many of our compatriots have been so successful here, despite being immigrants, is due to a superior preparation of Italian high schools and universities, combined with the Italian art of getting by.
This explosive mixture has made it possible to be successful here even for people who perhaps would not have shone in Italy, either for objective preparation below the average of the competition at home or just for the inability to adapt to the local Italian baronies.
But only because of the aforementioned stability and objectivity in recognizing merits, typical of American society, which has also allowed many immigrants the success that at home they could not or would not have been able to have.
But now, it's easier to see yourself as a hero of the "me" microcosm, and claim that you don't need anyone else, let alone lower-level people and / or the government, to be successful.
And the lack of gratitude is reflected in the inability to "give back" to this country, to allow others to enjoy the same success.
And this cynicism belongs precisely to the generation of 55 and over ...
And this is America too ...
Clark
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"We were Wrong About America". Outstanding appraisal of this election, and why I personally feel a bit less than excited than I should.
All best, Nancy
Inbox
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We Were Wrong About America
NOVEMBER 5, 2020 / JOHN PAVLOVITZ
The delayed results of the presidential election will be revealed soon, but in many ways, those results will be secondary to what we already know now: we were wrong about America.
The fact that it was even close, the fact that more people voted for him a second time, the fact that a higher number of white women inexplicably affirmed him—it is all confirmation that whether we remove the very visible, unsightly symptom or not, the pervasive disease is still horribly afflicting us.
Numbed by a cocktail of optimism and ignorance, many of us imagined this was a sick, momentary aberration; a temporary glitch in the system that would surely be remedied: after so much ugliness, such open disregard for people of color, such inhumanity toward migrant children, such a sickening failure in the face of this pandemic—sanity would surely come to the rescue.
We were certain that we would collectively course-correct; that the pendulum that had so wildly swung toward inhumanity would come roaring back to decency in these days; that we would presently be basking in the glory of a radiant dawn referendum on all this bloated bigotry.
We thought we would be dancing on the grave of fascism.
We thought, of course the good people of this nation would come to their collective senses, leaving behind political affiliations and superficial preferences and ceremonial ties, to rescue us from a malevolence that had proven itself unworthy of its position and toxic to its people.
We were certain there would be a mass repudiation of the racism that this man has revealed and the violence he’s nurtured, because for all its flaws we really believed America was better than this.
We were wrong.
We were wrong to believe that white people weaned for decades on supremacy, would suddenly embrace disparate humanity and make more space at the table.
We were wrong to believe that white Christians would finally have the scales fall from their eyes and abandon their blind adoration of this vile false prophet of enmity, and once again embrace the expansive, compassionate heart of Jesus.
We were wrong to believe that kindness and science and facts and truth and goodness would be found more valuable than the fool’s gold of sneering, star-spangled, American greatness.
We were wrong to hope that more Republicans would cross party lines in order to defend their country from the greatest terrorist threat in our lifetime.
We were wrong to believe that hope would rise up to cast out fear.
And most of all, we were wrong about people we know and love and live alongside and work with and study beside; about our parents, spouses, siblings, uncles, best friends, and neighbors: they are not the people we thought they were and we do not live in the country we thought we lived in.
We believed the best about this nation and we were mistaken.
To many oppressed and vulnerable communities, to people who have long known the depth of America’s sickness because they have experienced it in traffic stops and workplace mistreatment and opportunity inequity and the bitter words of strangers—this may be less shocking news than it is to those of us with greater privilege and more buffers to adversity and the luxury of naiveté.
But this is the sober spot in which we stand now: realizing that our optimism about the whole of this nation was misplaced, our prayers for the better angels of so many white Christians were unanswered,our childish illusions that people were indeed basically good and decent, seared away in their reaffirmation of something that the rest of the watching world finds reprehensible.
And now, we’re left with two terribly unfortunate choices: leave the America we have, because it is so very different than the America we hoped for—or stay, realizing that we are surrounded by so many people for whom racism is not only not a deal breaker but a selling point; in a place we know is less safe and less decent and less kind than we wanted—not because of any politician but because of those who embraced him a second time, people who share our kitchen tables and churches and break rooms and cul-de-sacs.
I don’t know what the right decision is.
Right now, the only thing I know is that I expected something fully beautiful and life-affirming was going to mark this day and it isn’t.
I was certain we were better than him, but we are not.
I was so sure that even though I know hatred dies hard, that America was going to let love have the last, loudest word.
I thought I was wrong.
But maybe, I just have to wait to be right.
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Óscar.
Bellissimo quello che hai scritto.
Louisa e Joe.
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Eccellente Oscar..grazie.
Anna Keuter
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