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    • Whether it’s Trump or Harris, we are united in our division
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    Whether it’s Trump or Harris, we are united in our division

    Umito Posted on

    Winning will not help us empathize with our compatriots, will not connect us to common fears. We will simply always be red and blue, fair or even fairer, winners and losers, all losers.

    Holly Brians Ragusa
    | Opinion contributor

    The peaceful transfer of power in our country is something that, until recently, I deeply took for granted. For over 245 years, the solemn vow has been held to pass on the perpetual torch of democracy to maintain dignity and credibility in the eyes of the world. We have moved forward. The leaders could stand on all points except this one.

    Unfortunately, today we are far beyond civility and fair play. Responsibility and restraint seem less a question of character than an obstacle to the acquisition of power. Heartbreaking for many of us, to see how we have chosen to distrust and mistreat each other. We love our country, but refuse to extend this love to our compatriots, whom we now consider our enemies. Barriers were erected this week around our nation’s Capitol and between us, with the election results affirming our divisions. And I must say that it penetrated; how very broken our union has become.

    On Tuesday, however, I couldn’t help but recognize a few precious moments of hope on Election Day, feeling civic pride amid the ongoing election efforts leading up to the result. On Tuesday, we proudly wore our voting stickers, posted our photos, shared voting reminders, gifs and memes. Today we wish, work, judge, operate and theorize. We must have winners and losers. Society craves the downfall of others, and we must make these distinctions to nourish ego and belief.

    Yet on Tuesday, we might all believe that we are best placed to govern. Both hopeful and terrified, we were poll workers and poll worriers. We had the rest of the day to imagine a future for this United States that, in our eyes, moved closer to a more perfect union.

    It took us a few precious moments to dole out and sort the losers and winners, before allowing ourselves to become boastful braggarts, gloaters, or mystified mourners. Before, tears, frustrated responses or accusatory questions and answers might have flowed. It was the moment before we felt even less or more represented, before we felt more or less heard, before we considered our political contributions to be in vain.

    The results are in and our waiting and nail biting is over. Yet we still wonder how anyone can feel the way we feel about each other’s candidates.

    Today we share the tea steeped in our darkest selves. Now we have become good at it.

    Today we could talk a big game about the need to redouble our efforts or even consider fleeing this land we love for our safety. Today we can check our passports for expiration or consider buying more guns. We have all been under high stress and inundated for so long that it will take us days, if not weeks, to recover from the onslaught of opinions, disagreements, silence and pent-up anger of the past few months.

    Today the commercials end and we go back to sleep or wake up to the world as it is. Today we could disconnect or finally connect. Today, we suffer the toll of enduring countless political ads, pamphlets, posters, postcards, texts, emails, phone calls, and streams of grim grievances on our social media feeds.

    Some votes were burned in mailboxes, and some voters were turned away, and yet we must understand that women determined that men were the best judges of women. Voices like mine have been called the enemy.

    We must understand that this is only a reprieve, a calm in This storm, there are still miles to go. We know there is potential for repercussions, revenge and further violence.

    Tomorrow, we will not think of accounting for the toll of fear. We will not insist that our politicians stop attacking us with advertisements and demands. We’re not going to change the system, we’re not going to right this ship. We won’t think about making elections and campaigns less toxic.

    Tomorrow we won’t wonder why millions and billions of PAC and donor money haven’t fed our hungry, raised our minimum wage, fixed our roads, or educated our public. We can’t even accept that education or fair and equal pay are good things.

    Tomorrow is here and we will just continue to blame the other party for what is still missing. We will not take into account our side, whether we won or lost. We will not ask ourselves how we are failing ourselves, future generations, democracy or other citizens. We will continue to manipulate the game, pushing ourselves further than the other side and feeling justified in claiming higher ground. As long as money runs our campaigns, politicians, whether by choice or necessity, will turn to money.

    In the days and weeks ahead, as we emerge from the barrage of news, information and misinformation and settle into our new national reality, we will rally around two certainties: that we were right and that The other side was completely wrong.

    This void will make us feel less responsible and more entitled, and it will likely further desensitize us to the impact of our indifference on our nation.

    Winning will not help us empathize with our compatriots or connect us to common fears. We will simply always be red and blue, fair or even fairer, winners and losers, all losers.

    Even if admitting our wrongs meant we could get closer to right, we cannot. It would be wrong to insist that we look at ourselves and others. The error would mean that we could not hold our heads as high, threaten as boldly, or belittle as freely.

    I can believe in the goodness of people while recognizing the lethargic inertia of mob mentality in the masses. We are exhausted, overworked and distracted in this chaotic landscape of political warfare; we are chess pieces playing. We can change it, but we don’t really want to.

    Comfortably placed above the ego of our moral platforms, no amount of manipulation could convince me that collectively we want to make our nation stronger, because it would take a monumental shift in moral compasses everywhere to admit that we are far from being able to provide to all a great nation.

    The truth is that we want to win, even at the cost of our country losing.

    No matter who won, we stand united to remain divided, and no election, candidate or citizen can defend that.

    Holly Brians Ragusa is a writer and poet who lives in Over-the-Rhine.

    Umito
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