I’ve taken a George Saunders column today on Substack and edited it (see the bold) to fit me.

I am, above all else, a curious person.  As a curious person, I am trying to be interested in what has just happened. I am trying to maintain two ideas at once: 1) Most people who voted for Trump are nice people.  (I know this because many close friends and family members voted for him and, well, more than half of voters did), and 2) Our democracy really may be in peril. Trump has repeatedly said things to indicate this and people who worked closely with him the first time have said this. 

So, what I’m trying to figure out is: how do the people who voted for Trump, some of whom I love, not see what I see in him?  And, also, importantly: what am I not seeing, about the way the world looks to them?  I’m not saying that the way they see it is right – I feel very strongly otherwise – but I am saying, or accepting that, yes, it really does look that way to them. 

If I don’t understand it, that’s on me (as a thinker, as a curious person). (If trees suddenly started walking around, I’d want to understand that, once the shock died down.  Because, you know…it’s interesting. And that’s my passion, to be curious about things that happen.) 

This is something I think about often here and am trying to train myself to do: coming, via process, to a better understanding of something that I can’t, in real life, readily understand.

Somehow, strangely, this is going to be easier for me because the election was free and fair and because the Trump side won without recounts or lawyers or court cases.

I’m not sure why this is true, but it is.

For those of you who voted for Trump, I’d just say, in the most loving way: Friends, you’re on the hook. 

It’s your movement now.

It’s on us too, of course, on those of us who were and are against what he stands for – but you have a special role in whatever happens next.  No excuses: he made it very clear what he intended, and you gave him permission by your vote to do it.

So, when and if the rounding up of undocumented immigrants begins, and it’s brutal, that’s on you.  When and if he comes for those “enemies from within,” that’s on you. When and if people on the periphery (gay people, trans people) suffer, when the economy tanks, because tariffs are a terrible idea, when we jettison even our currently ineffective attempts to reverse climate change, when women’s reproductive healthcare continues to degrade…well, I’m sorry to say so, but you voted for all of that.

You did. And it’s on you. Am I wanting to see MAGA tears, like so many on your side say they enjoy seeing “liberal tears”? Well, no. I just want to reinforce that what is happening, is on you. It’s cute that JVL blueskys “cry more” on comments to possible bad results of MAGA policies, but what I will be looking more forward to is seeing that this is all (the promises of MAGA) really what you want as it’s happening in this country. I don’t think it is. I pray that it is not what you really want. Because if it is what you want for this country, then I’m no longer an enthusiastic supporter of this country and the direction it is taking.

I think that you will be just as uncomfortable with what is happening than I will be. You may say that I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.