Shocked and disappointed by the US result? Here are some tips to help process it
Has the US election put you into the foetal position and a gentle rocking motion?
Considering 43 per cent of Australians believe Donald Trump 2.0 will be bad for Australia, it’s probably fair to assume a few progressive Aussies out there are in a downward spiral, and could happily benefit from the political equivalent of a wellness and empowerment intervention.
I’m not a life coach, but I’ll do my best.
I’ve already started working on the agenda.
Mindfulness and acceptance
Let’s start by acknowledging our feelings, the uncertainty, and any fears of what could be or might come.
Breathe into the pain.
Self-awareness and accurate diagnosis
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To understand what has happened, we’ll need some discipline, because there’s going to be a lot of narrow dissection out there.
Blame for Harris. Blame for Biden. Blame for the strategy. Blame for the media. Stein. Putin. Genocide. Terrorists. Racism. Misogyny. Misinformation. The algorithm. The message. The research.
None of it will be able to fully explain, and none will be completely irrelevant.
In fact, much of it will simply be symptoms of an underlying and serious illness and keeps cropping up with terrifying looking lesions in very important areas.
The real illness
The United States is not a nation defined by stupid or bad people.
The real illness lives inside the very system and guardrails we are anxious to protect.
It’s infected with a worsening economic imbalance that has delivered terrible standards of education, health care, housing security and wages for many, while accumulating vast amounts of wealth and power for others.
It’s a system that is the product of a mind-bogglingly complex history of wars, slavery, colonialism, and it’s making life progressively worse for a lot of people who aren’t entirely sure what is happening other than things are falling off the wagon.
In the midst of various conflicts and crisis, it’s a system that is now delivering an anti-incumbency trend worldwide.
People are voting for change because whatever “this” is, it isn’t working.
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Together, let’s work on the underlying illness, and try as much as possible to stop panicking about weird and terrifying symptoms.
We have the power to improve things, and we know it because we’ve been doing it since the beginning of human history. It’s just that it’s never been linear.
Until liberal democracies tackle increasing wealth disparity, all the medieval patterns of behaviour that come with it will be very difficult to handle.
When life is better, people are a little kinder and relaxed.
We can all do something small about that right now.
We can put down our doom-scrolling machine and instead join a club or a group. We can volunteer for a cause or campaign we care about. We can engage with communities, listen and build bridges.
Teach someone something useful. In doing so, if only in a very small way, these practical actions can shift the dial and make us feel a lot better.
In Australia, we have some great advantages that can increase our impact.
It’s imperfect, but we have a far healthier public discourse than in many places.
We have a High Court and a constitution that doesn’t cause as many problems for reform. We have an independent electoral commission that is trusted by the public. We have compulsory voting.
Putting it all together with resilience
We are not immune, but we are not defenceless.
So, as we brace ourselves for whatever Trump2.0 has in store, let’s not forget our own strengths.
Sure, the situation may seem more unhinged, but we’re not bystanders.
We’re on sturdier foundations and the infection far less advanced. We can choose to be informed, and engaged – small acts, yes, but they matter.
In the end, our best medicine is just vigilance and activity.
We can’t cure global politics overnight, but we can face it with clear-eyed determination and a pragmatism that says, “Alright, we’ll deal with this too.”
Peter Stahel is managing director and co-owner of Essential, a progressive research and communications company, and a former Greens adviser.
