It’s been pretty dark months for liberals, city-dwellers, experts, gay people who desire equal rights, women who don’t want a President who boasts about sexually assaulting them, people of color who want to be heard.
Welcome to the pain of the citizens of Istanbul, of New Delhi, the liberals of Russia and Israel. Suddenly, you feel as if your countrymen have become strangers to you and your fond expectations of progress are revealed as childlike fantasy.
Others have castigated us as an elite, out of touch with real people and their real concerns. Apparently, we have been numb to the fact that this is a deeply divided world. Many want us to give up on our beliefs and leave the stage to politicians now displaying confidently their isolationist views, their sexism and homophobia, they belief that all people are not born equal.
Well, sorry, but we are not going anywhere.
And, we are not shutting up.
The use of the word ‘elite’ to describe those that believe of us in education equality and opportunity for all is particularly shameful. It’s said with a sneer and suggests that those to be in the elite somehow think they are better than everybody else. It’s intended to divide. More than that, it’s an attempt to suggest there are fewer of us than there really are. A reminder: More than 62 million voted for Hillary Clinton, while in the UK more than 16 million voted to remain in the European Union. Those voters are not the elite. They were 48% of voters in the UK and 51% of voters in the US.
We need to remember we have strength in numbers.
And, we also need to remember we are right.
There is nothing wrong believing in equality. That everybody should be allowed to marry, regardless of their sexuality. That women should not be sexually assaulted, verbally abused in the street, and discriminated against at work. That black and Hispanic people should not be racially abused, Muslim or Jewish people targeted and no race should be targeted by the police because of the color of their skin. There is nothing wrong with being an expert, in getting an education, specializing in a chosen field, and using that knowledge to better understand the world around us. There is nothing wrong with being Cosmopolitan, learning a language, understanding different cultures, mixing with people who are from different parts of the world.
Oh, and let us pause for a moment and consider the absurdity that we, the ones with passports, the one with friends, family and colleagues from around the world, we are accused of living in a bubble.
Revisit the assumption that people themselves are inevitable becoming more inclusive and tolerant.
Yes, some of our fellow citizen around the world feel the stress of dislocation and dispossession. Fighting against this is part of being liberal. But don’t deny the fact they chose freely to blame that stress on those who have not caused it – Foreigners, Muslims, immigrants, women, the poorest of the poor.
Do not cozy up to the left, do not compromise with the right. Do not aspire for some ideological purity of your ilk. If they had the answers, the right would not have defeated them. The left hates you as much as the right does.
Liberals need to remember this important fact: Right now, we are losing. Not by much, but by enough. Therefore, we need to fight for our values as vigorously as they do for theirs. We need to be as adapt in using language as they are. We need to be as smart in engaging with people who are not automatically agree with us as they are. Now is not the time to hide away, lick our wounds, and meekly accept that the battle is lost.
We can’t deny the choice the UK and the US made, that would be condescending. It would be fatal to ignore it and just carry on, hope for better outcomes in the years to come. The choice needs to be fought, not wished away. The historic error corrected, not accepted.
Brexit and the last few days might feel like an endless nightmare to you. Actually, you finally woke up from your slumber and now understand fully what your country and the world is. And how fellow citizens are vastly different from you.
It will get better. And, if you don’t give up, one day your country and the world might feel familiar again.
uwehook 
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