Josh Barkan wrote on Facebook:
This is what “The Wheel of History” means. It means that there is something inexorable and malignant in human nature, a desire for scapegoating, a desire for easy answers in a time of difficulty and trouble. Twenty-four hundred years ago, the Greeks understood the appeal of demagogues and the ease with which democracy is lost. The Romans also saw their Republic lost. And, though less than a hundred years ago, we know more than well what happened in Germany. The lure is always the same – a strong man who offers easy answers and order when people are feeling pain and they are fearful.
It will be tempting for people to focus on the immediate reasons this election was lost; it will be tempting to think that Americans are not ready for a woman as president or a woman of colour; it will be tempting to focus on Joe Biden's refusal to get out of the race early enough to allow a primary that might have allowed for a more popular candidate to emerge or for Kamala to develop her message more fully; the list of temptations and Monday morning quarterbacking will go on and on; it will be tempting to focus on the huge amount of money infused into this election by billionaires, and the fact that 33% of Trump's money came from opportunistic billionaires, and that they were able to spend such money because of the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision. But the big picture is something far more sinister. None of those can explain the fertile soil that Trump found for his demagoguery.
Trump has not won in spite of his ugliness. He has won because that ugliness is appealing to millions. They believe that ugliness is strength. And the hate he speaks is their secret belief. Do not buy the argument that those who voted for him held their nose and voted for him. He is patently indecent. He is patently a bad man. That is why his entire former cabinet and vice president have denounced him. To those who voted for Trump, they did so in a shameful way, tapping into whatever excuse they could in order to do so. I have heard those excuses of not voting for the man but voting for his policies. There is no such thing. And there never was. Those who voted for Trump did so knowing full well that immigrants will now be rounded up and forcefully expelled. They did so full well expecting to find comfort in scapegoating others. And they did so full well knowing his character.
Eventually, some years from now, many of these same people will regret what they have done – though few will acknowledge, later, their role in what they have done. It will take the work and courage of others to undo the ugliness they have shown by themselves individually and collectively.
There will be a resistance. Inevitably, there will be a resistance. But it will be long and costly. And you can never un-break the egg. You can never put it back exactly as it was. When that better day comes, it will have to be a new order. The full magnitude of the earthquake that has just happened is not understood by the public.
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