Local opinion: What you did not vote for

Trump won, the vote count seemed fair, I’m not storming Congress to stop the transition. I listened intently to post election interviews across America, people saying why they voted for Trump: He’s the strongman they want, the authoritarian to lower food prices, keep immigrants out of America and real boys out of real girls’ bathrooms. Ok, fair enough, that’s the way you felt and you showed up and voted. 86,000,000 of you didn’t even show up so I guess that’s saying something.

But in what world does this mean you voted for dirty air, dirty water, skyrocketing electricity prices, blistering unlivable heat, catastrophic wildfires and unaffordable insurances of all kinds?

Did you also vote for big jumps in construction costs of all kinds as Trump deports huge numbers of migrants, workers who make up anywhere from 25 to 40 percent of all the construction crews across America? Did you vote for big jumps in all manner of goods you customarily purchase? Did you vote to lose 675,000 jobs as a direct result of Trump’s tariffs? (Forbes)

No, I’m not a pollster but think I’ve got that right. Voters did not choose to strap themselves to the wheel of a car headed for all manner of economic and social costs much higher than they ever imagined. Pretty sure they also did not vote to insure their children and grandchildren would be priced out of the housing markets, or that they would pay through the nose for the catastrophic effects of a warming planet with runaway jumps in heart disease, cancers and a medical system that really works only if you can afford concierge care with a private, I-don’t-take-any-insurance doc. Nope they didn’t vote for that either.

What they got instead is the proverbial Trojan Horse, now inside the gates of power with its stomach contents spewing out and stinking up the place with purposefully selected incompetents following Trump orders to disrupt and dismantle whatever agency they’re heading. Do not think you voted for that, either.

Not all of you also voted to stop caring about the natural world around us. Not all of you voted to turn your back on your fellow man as he tries to make his way past poverty and violence. Not all of you voted to put corporate and billionaire profits ahead of your neighbors. A vote for Trump was never a vote for chaos and harm.