Behold! America, the beautiful

“How the mighty fallen
Tell it not in Gath,
Proclaim it not in the streets of Ashkelon,
Lest the daughters of the Philistines be glad,
Lest the daughters of the uncircumcised rejoice…”

2 Samuel 1.17-27

Shebi, I told you Donald Trump would win.

In this US election, the liberal message was that with Trump and Harris, there was no moral equivalence. They defined it clearly: One represents a flawed human, the kind we were familiar with when things were simpler and we were not inundated with information. The other is a despicable human being, a piece of garbage. It is already stinking. And the only humane thing we can do with it is to throw it out. No deodoriser can mask its smell. The Republic will take a long time to recover from the stench it already left behind.

That message did not resonate with most American voters who faced with overwhelming information in a fast-changing world, preferred crawling back into their familiar caves with the bugs they knew rather than being dumped into this new Vegas-like high-flying world they do not know how to navigate inside. As flawed as he is, Trump offered them a wing to hide in and a promise to return to simpler times when Obi was a boy and Ada was a girl.

Those still afraid recalled Saul’s story in the Bible and how he transformed into Paul and became one of the greatest apostles. They trusted God that Trump would become Zrump.

George Bernard Shaw noted that there are two tragedies in life. One is not getting what you want. The other is getting it.

The day after the election, Trump supporters and the conservatives will have to deal with the tragedy of getting what they want.

Nobody is leaving America for Donald Trump.

America will survive Trump. The question is whether those he promised to rescue from a world in transition will survive him.

Four years from now, gay people will not disappear in America. The America of the day Trump got reelected will become the world of remote parts of the globe four years from now. If conservatives want to see gays disappear, they will need to work hand in hand with Muslims to establish Sharia Law in America.

Illegal immigrants will not stop coming to America because Trump will be president for an additional four years. The political and economic fundamentals that drive immigrants to America are not going away because Trump is returning to the White House. Not even the deportation of 20 million illegal immigrants will stop it. If conservatives want to prevent immigrants from coming to America, they need to work with Russia to nuke New York City, Los Angeles, Washington DC, Dallas, and Boston. Then, illegal immigrants will dry up at the borders.

China will still be rising four years after Trump’s 2nd presidency. The only way America could have stopped China from rising was to have stopped American companies from moving their production factories to China thirty years ago. However, American capitalists’ greed could not resist cheap labor for a more significant profit. With its inherent transfer of technology, legal and illegal, it is what it is, as we say in America. Unfortunately, it is too late to do a damn thing about it. All that America can do now is to delay China’s rise as an aggressive adversary power. To achieve this, America must embrace China rather than isolate it.

The American working class will still pay more taxes than the rich. Trump’s takeover of the White House and Republicans controlling the Senate, possibly the House, and having a Supreme Court in his pocket, position them to renew Trump’s first-term tax cut for the rich. If conservatives want to stop that, they must grow a heart. It will require indulging in scientific innovation. It will mean embracing science and empirical proof. What will remain of conservatism and trickle-down economics if conservatives do that?

Churches will still close in America, and mosques will open up in their place. Trump’s presence in the White House will not stop it. If conservatives want to stop that, they have to learn one thing or two from Islamic fundamentalists. They must invent something like the Christian version of the Sharia Law, and anyone who does not pick up a Bible and go to church on Sunday will have their hand cut off.

There are genuine problems in America. Politicians are not interested in solving them. Most of the time, they don’t have solutions that won’t ruin their creed and greed. In those cases, they only have concepts.

So, to distract you, they point at other people trying to make their way on this earth and tell you they are your problems. They make you feel that the world you used to know is coming to an end, and they are the only ones who can turn the hand of the clock back. In the past, they used to promise to build a bridge where there was no river. Now, they promise to put AI back into the test tube it came out from.

And like programmed robots, we buy what politicians sell and run with it. It offers us nothing but an illusion of relief.

The good news is that evolution does not care about who the president is. It goes on. And as long as we are on the evolution train, we shall go with it, whether we like it or not. Those who know how to stop the world and jump out are the only ones safe from its forward motion. For others, as the cranking of the wheel continues, we all gradually approach the grinder.

Behold! America, the beautiful, where the daughters of the uncircumcised will one day rejoice. Not just today.

Rudolf Ogoo Okonkwo teaches post-colonial African history, Afrodiasporan literature, and African folktales at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. He is also the host of Dr. Damages Show. His books include “This American Life Sef” and “Children of a Retired God.” among others. His upcoming book is called “Why I’m Disappointed in Jesus.”