Perhaps the most troubling aspect of a Trump presidency is not the man's big-headed, pig-headed penchant for self-promotion, but the shock wave of hate he has awakened. Americans are stressed and politically distressed, expressing anger in vulgar, bipolar ways.
I observed the current electoral cycle from Ithaca, an upstate New York town that voted 85 percent for Hillary Clinton, with a smattering of votes for independent Jill Stein and others. But the familiarity of one's immediate environs can be deceiving, for one only has to drive a few minutes out of this liberal university community and then it's Trump country for hundreds of miles in every direction.
People on this little blue island in a big red sea are worried about the political waves to come. Already there was a "cry-in" on campus and a mourning vigil on the downtown commons. Local cafes played comfort music, mostly 1960s rock and folk ballads such as "This Land is Your Land" while doling out extra servings of comfort food. I was in the public library on the day after the U.S. election looking for books on the history of fascism when an old, white-haired woman came up to me, expressing fears about the future.