Whole lotta raging goin' on

Each night since the election, Portland's young (mostly white) people have marched in the streets, stopping traffic, blocking bridges, annoying tourists, and generally wreaking havoc as they bemoan the sad fact that democracy failed to meet their demands. Emotions are high after the unexpected election outcome. Before the election, half the population was bursting with rage. After the election, the other half is now bursting with rage. Some of that rage is being expressed as violence.

Violence is a tragic expression of an unmet need. (Credit Marshall Rosenberg with that pithy observation). Unmet needs create some powerful emotions. It's clear the protesters are scared. Fear makes them angry. I get it. Nobody likes to feel scared. We would much rather feel rage than fear. These negative emotions are visible on the surface, but it helps to remember that negative emotions are always driven by unmet needs.

Last week, geographically speaking, a large swath of the country's voters gave the Democrats the finger. Clearly the voters were expressing anger, hope, maybe some payback? What were their unmet needs? I'm going to guess recognition, respect, and consideration. Safety and security, maybe. Control and autonomy.

In the American heartland, they've seen the "browning" of America. They've seen the loss of their ethnic and cultural supremacy. In their grocery store checkout lines, weird people who don't look like them are buying weird things that don't even resemble food. In their children's schools, their kids are getting into fights with kids who don't speak English. On the streets of their neighborhoods, they see "hordes" of women "hiding" behind robes and headscarves as they "take over" the sidewalks. They see change and understandably get scared. Change is scary. Who can blame them if in the privacy of the voting booth, they voted for the person who looked like them?

Some voters may be uneducated, but they aren't stupid. They know their high-paying manufacturing jobs aren't coming back. They voted for the promise, but more than that, they voted as an expression of their rage at being forgotten. They are angry because their needs for respect, recognition, safety, security, control, and autonomy weren't being met. When we aren't skilled at expressing our rage, we get expressions of violence. Smashing windows or voting Trump into the White House are both tragic expressions of unmet needs.

Some of the "winners" heard the promises and bought the dream. Others just wanted to express their rage and frustration at being ignored. Some probably hope that the "good old days" will return (i.e., when white men were in charge, women knew their place, and minorities could be exploited, disenfranchised, or killed). Time is not on their side. Sadly, time is not on anyone's side, considering the ongoing demise of the planet.

Two steps forward, one step backward. I hope for the best, because I have no idea how to prepare for the worst. I am not strong enough to be a survivor, not mentally, physically, or emotionally. I want to see what happens, but I have to accept that no one knows the future. We can predict, but we've seen how good our predictions are. We do pretty good at weather, not so good at election outcomes. It's funny, though—all these emotions were there to be seen. The Democrats didn't identify and address the unmet needs of the forgotten voters in the Midwest and Rust Belt and paid the price.