My grandson, Michael, a deep thinker and poet among many other talents, wrote an excellent rebuttal to Musings, which I’ve added here below my poem.
I’ve read the post mortems and recriminations
The what-ifs and if-only’s, where’d we go wrong
Our blindness encompassed near half of the nation
Whose vote for the Trump was emotionally strong
Some voted for Trump ’cause he’s white and he’s male
To be governed by black or female was too much
His language, their language, his nature they hail
This time they WILL vote, make a difference as such
Sure, working-class people felt left out, unheard
They feel that the Democrats think of them last
But under those feelings without forming words
Anxiety dwells; things are changing too fast
We humans are culturally slow making changes
It’s part of our heritage, thousands of years
Technology’s pace keeps our lives rearranging
The future to many is something to fear
Technology’s fostering globalization
Allowing outsourcing of jobs overseas
Robotics replacing jobs throughout the nation
Just turn the clock back, turn it back please, please, please!
So how will the Democrats handle such sorrow
To bring disaffected back into the tent
And help them prepare for the jobs of tomorrow
So that they’ll help elect the next Dem. President
11/9/16
Musings Rebuttal
Michael J Cohen
Respectfully I read your words
Your own post-mortem of the day
Opinion second does it need
Our shell-shocked body politic
Your explanation is too grand.
For decades now, old factories
And with them jobs moved o’erseas
Those transformations aren’t new
They’ve happened since the seventies
Moreover we respond to change
Not just one way but with a range
Why some adapt while others fail
Revolt, or feel as though passed by?
Our natures not essentially
Conservative, reaction’ry.
And women’s rights, too, isn’t new
A struggle long, I do agree
This battle ‘gainst misogyny
Besides while many women stood, with Hillary,
Trump had support from women too
So this election’s something else.
The narrative is other than
“Revenge against Technology”
“Economy”
“Anxiety”
This Brave New World’s been with us now
For well over a century
He spoke to folks that felt left out
Their lives he viscerally recognized
In ways that other politicians
Hadn’t fully realized
Somehow this playboy billionaire
Became their uncouth Common Man –
A vessel for their aspiration
Promising the restoration
Of a misremembered nation
Purged of Others, save their own
A demagogue – who knew no bounds
Whose manic noxious exhalations
Reeked to me of bigotry
And mockery
And puerile lies
I weep to see the land I love
It’s people too, although it’s hard
Give half its vote, and be deceived
While half the country feels bereaved
We now who did not vote for him
As though their ballots cast us out
We feel that we were left behind.
Bucked from the horse we thought we rode
To destiny, deferred…
