“Let’s keep our Alans on!” These are the words of a character in the Guy Ritchie film Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, at a moment when the speaker and his chums have been thrown into a particularly invidious situation. For the benefit of overseas readers, the phrase means “keep calm and carry on”.
Which is what all of us who call ourselves progressives must do upon the election of Donald j Trump as 47th President of the United States of America. We may consider this outcome regrettable, his policies somewhere between deplorable and suicidal. The ever-objective Simon Jenkins of the Guardian offers a different perspective. [1] One that is calm, measured, but above all offers a psychological way forward. You must read his article for the full force of his argument But here its its essence distilled
The fact that 56% of non-graduates supported Trump suggests a strident voice from well outside the liberal camp. That voice opposes anti-police funding, the preoccupation with diversity and woke culture wars on campus. It indicates a working-class hostility to a superior elite that has shown little interest in its concerns. Progressive America must recognise its shortcomings and reargue its case. That is the opportunity Trump has so generously offered.
Even after the Fall of Rome, courageous souls like St Augustine and Cassiodorus did not sit around in sackcloth and ashes, wailing “sad songs on the death of kings” They picked themselves up and asked two questions. “Why did this happen?” followed by “where do we go from here?”
Themes to which we will return in the following weeks
[1]https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/nov/08/trump-terrible-silver-lining-progressives-reflect-liberals
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