An Arctic blast is gripping the nation’s capital this Inauguration Day, which coincides with Martin Luther King Jr. Day. A rare occurrence since this federal vacation was instituted in 1983. Temperatures are within the single digits, and Donald J. Trump is taking the oath of workplace inside the Capitol Rotunda as a substitute of being on the steps of the Capitol, making him much less seen to his followers who traveled to Washington D.C. for this momentous event. What an emblematic situation for such a novel political second in historical past.
The nation is experiencing a polar vortex, each actually and figuratively. Individuals appear to be frozen of their perceptions of actuality. Some are really upbeat concerning the prospect of a second Trump presidency, whereas others are terrified and imagine we’re headed towards an autocratic regime.
Mikey Johnson, a caricature artist residing in Virginia, is hopeful and excited concerning the subsequent 4 years. From an financial standpoint, he believes everybody’s life will enhance below President Trump. “I really feel just like the grown-up is lastly within the White Home, and he’s going to do the issues grown-ups do. Individuals will probably be held liable for legal acts, and the border will probably be lastly sealed off. Solely individuals who apply legally will be capable of come to America. That is, in spite of everything, a nation of immigrants.”
Requested whether or not President Trump might symbolize all Individuals, Johnson mentioned, “Completely, he desires to be everybody’s president. I’ve been listening to him because the first time he ran for president. You by no means hear something derogatory in the direction of any race. Whilst a businessman, it didn’t matter the gender or the race of an individual. He’s a person who didn’t must run for president. He loves this nation, has huge plans and is for no matter is finest for all Individuals.”
Cathy Harmon Christian, Government Director for Options to the Dying Penalty, is worried about “the spoken and unstated dehumanization of essentially the most susceptible.” The Atlanta, Georgia resident says there’s a motion within the nation to ostracize people who find themselves transgender, immigrant, and incarcerated. “I imagine that everybody belongs and that we’re all interconnected. My expertise has been that President Trump doesn’t see the world the way in which that I do. He likes to pit one particular person towards one other.”
Reginald Robinson (DC), Vicky Chen (MA), Mikey Johnson (VA),
Cathy Harmon Christian (GA)
Fashionable psychology tells us that our views and worldviews are formed by tradition, our life experiences, and the context we dwell in. The place and the way we devour data can be an essential issue influencing how we take into consideration the world. Social media algorithms, which decide what content material seems as we scroll, have faced intense scrutiny lately for deepening America’s political divide and reinforcing our ideological bubbles. This will, partly, clarify the diametrically opposed views.
“As a mom of two boys in kindergarten, I really feel America has modified, and never for the higher. We aren’t as crime-free as earlier than. I really feel extra assured and safer with Trump as president, and I do know he’ll develop the economic system,” says Vicky Chen, a restaurant proprietor in Boston, Massachusetts. Chen says that sexuality is a taboo matter in conventional Chinese language tradition, and he or she doesn’t really feel snug with LGBTQ concepts. “I don’t need that ideology to affect my youngsters. President Trump mentioned the time period LGBTQ solely stands for 2 phrases: female and male, and that works for me.”
However, ideas of security and sexuality are subjective and rooted in lived experiences. Patricia Gomez, a bilingual instructor in a constitution college in Wisconsin, is frightened concerning the security of her college students. “As a Latina who works with underprivileged communities, I carry with me the historical past, tradition, and resilience of those communities. I fear concerning the affect of mass deportations on the households I work with and on the economic system.” “She admits that she can’t suppose past this month and needs “to deliver extra consciousness to the mother and father I work with in case one thing drastic occurs to them or to my college students.”
Reginald Robinson, a distinguished regulation professor at Howard College, considers himself an outlier at his undergraduate alma mater, however stands firmly by his convictions. “President Trump plans to sundown the IRS and substitute it with the exterior income service that offers with tariffs and commerce. It will improve the nation’s income and relieve us of an oppressive tax burden.” Robinson believes that since 1871, America has been run as a personal company, not a constitutional republic. “Trump will return our nation to the folks. He may have 4 years of re-growing the prosperity of America for all of us.”
Many individuals nationwide really feel vindicated that Trump obtained elected for a second time period. Robinson, who believes that Trump overwhelmingly gained the final election, says, “We’ve seen what occurs once we push a story inconsistent with the wishes of the vast majority of the nation.” He blames legacy media for deceptive us, particularly round January 6. “Individuals who participated within the so-called rebel have been losing away in jail.” Whereas he helps holding people accountable for destroying public property, he urges President Trump to pardon the wrongfully convicted promptly.
Can we conform to disagree and concurrently keep targeted on our shared humanity? What Individuals have in frequent could also be surprisingly greater than what separates us. In any case, there may be ample evidence that almost all Individuals care about important points reminiscent of equitable entry to high quality well being care, help of basic democratic ideas, immigration reform, and stricter gun management measures. These interviewed for this story share a real concern for household, group, and nation.
When requested what he would inform a fellow American who’s afraid of a second Trump presidency, Johnson mentioned, “Give him [President Trump] the advantage of the doubt. Don’t be afraid except he demonstrates an actual purpose to worry his presidency. Take into account that over half of the nation voted for him, and so they belief that he’ll do what’s finest to steer us for the subsequent 4 years,” says Johnson. “We don’t all the time get the candidate, or political celebration, that we wish in workplace, however all of us should attempt to loosen up and settle for what’s.”
Harmon Christian desires those that voted for Trump to “be delicate and alert to susceptible folks and communities, particularly in the event that they lose their rights, illustration and respect. Imagine them after they say what’s occurring to them.”
As an Indigenous girl from Colombia, Gomez says that First Nations folks have a convention of healing circles the place people are invited to come back collectively, transcend their variations, and join as human beings, talking from the guts.
Possibly it isn’t a coincidence that the second inauguration of President Trump overlaps with Dr. King’s Day. The message in these polarized occasions is to try to join to one another from the guts. As Dr. King mentioned throughout a sermon reproduced in his 1963 e-book Power to Love, “Love is the best drive within the universe. It’s the heartbeat of the ethical cosmos. He who loves is a participant within the being of God.”
