This image is self-explanatory. In fact, in its original presentation, as a bumpersticker available for purchase, the image contains another element, not shown here. At the top of the image, just above the map, a little legend can be seen in the original: "No Explanation Needed."
"Here's the deal," to appropriate some phraseology from our current president: While I absolutely concur that the selection of our next president was a major, horrific, lapse in political judgment by those who supported him, and by those who voted for him, I do not believe that those who didn't vote for him should glory in their own intelligence and good judgment by putting down those who chose otherwise, and calling them names.
Here's the deal (one more time): Unless we choose to repudiate the commitments made in our Pledge of Allegiance, we need to remember what it says. Check it out:
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
"One nation," that's what that our Pledge of Allegiance proclaims to be the truth. "Indivisible." That, too! Those who have read my blog postings with any frequency will remember the following admonition, which is one of my consistent calls to what can be identified as the "better angels of our nature." That phrase, by the way, comes from Abraham Lincoln.
Here is my frequently made statement, once again:
We Are In This Together
Let's believe that, and act accordingly. Writing off most of the nation, certainly if we think of the nation as its geography, is contrary to what the nation is all about. It is also, by the way, politically counterproductive, just like calling others, with whom you disagree, "deplorables."
So... that's the deal.
And... here's one more thought. Let's consider that advice provided by Michelle Obama: "When they go low, we go high."
That suggestion would argue against putting one of those "Dumbfuckistan" bumper stickers on your car. However, even that phrasing has a bit of a problem. In a real way, Michelle Obama's observation has the same problem as identifying those areas of the country where the majority of the voters chose Donald Trump for president as "Dumbfuckistan". Obama's claim is not so "in your face," but it asserts, implicitly, that there is a "they," and that "they" are a qualitatively different group - not just a group that made a different decision. That phrasing makes a distinction that implicitly elevates one group of citizens over another. In that formulation, you are either a "they" or a "we," and the sense of the saying is that all of us - both the "we" and the "they" - are not "in this together." But we are!
Besides remembering that we truly are "in this together," we might want to bring out a word that has played a big part in the "union" movement, and that has revolutionary roots, as well:
That's another word that gets at the same truth:
We Are In This Together
Foundation of Freedom
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