Channeling Anger

There will be times for strategic thinking and deliberate resistance, for community building and individual responsibility, for organizing, marching, and, of course, voting. The years ahead will demand unrelenting vigilance and active engagement.

The future of our nation will require that we do not acquiesce in despair to the tsunami of outrages, but that we find ways to channel the energies and fortitude of those who came before us, who fought for—and never gave up on—the ideal of “a more perfect union.”

Even though the election was close, it was a devastating loss, because it validated depravity and empowered incompetence. So it is understandable that we have been seeped in second-guessing, recriminations, and lessons learned. 

We know that we live in disorienting times, that people are hurting and unsettled, and that we have to do better as a nation in bringing everyone into a shared prosperity.

We can see that we are strengthened through equanimity and empathy. We all must try to appreciate how others are thinking and feeling.

I do not discount the discontent from the electorate and understand that a lot of it is warranted. Democrats are not blameless in the failures of their leadership.

And yet, as much as I wish it were otherwise, I can’t help but feel a deep sense of rage as I consider what we have already endured and how much worse it will likely get in the years ahead.

I look at my daughters and think about the values we strive to instill in them—honesty, humility, hard work, understanding, open-mindedness, curiosity, and kindness. These don’t feel extraordinary or unique; they seem like universally cherished values, the kind many of us were raised with. They also feel like the qualities we once expected of our leaders, even if we also understood the inevitability of human imperfection.

That’s why I’m incensed that millions of people voted for a man for president who is utterly unfit in character, intellect, and temperament. And why I’m frustrated by the millions more who stayed home. Even before the new administration begins, we can already see a maddening level of dysfunction and divisiveness. Most of the cabinet nominees are, by any measure, historically unfit for the roles they’re about to take on. They shouldn’t be managing a two-car parade, let alone a major government department. And yet, we watch as Republican senators disgrace themselves in their obsequious efforts to normalize the indefensible, abdicating their duties in servitude to their dear leader.

They’re not alone. The cabal of whining tech bros eagerly performing the Mar-a-Lago Macarena is another reason for rage. As they dance, spin, pander, and debase themselves, we can all see the shallowness of their convictions and the depth of their greed. I will never understand how people who have far more money than they could ever need for generations could be driven by an unquenchable thirst for more.

I understand that anger can only motivate so much, and it can be a destructive quality. I believe that by channeling optimism and hope, we can build a movement to push back against what is about to transpire. The clarity of this moment affords us an opportunity to judge who really cares about the well-being of the American people. And this reckoning can be a foundation for a new energy for civic engagement, politics, and ultimately policy.

But as the inauguration looms—one that I intend to completely ignore—I’m not going to bury my fury, at least not now. There’s a lot to be angry about, and I believe we’re entitled to it.

However, we also must recognize that those who are about to seize control of the government are eager to provoke our rage and twist it into despair. 

We must be wise to their cynical motives and refuse their provocations. Instead, we’ll need to find ways to invest our anger back into propelling the hard work of protecting and reinvigorating our nation’s noblest ideals.