Hope "Trumps" Fear

"Put on then ... compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, ..." (Ephesians 4:32)

"Love your enemies, bless those who curse you..." (Matthew 5:44)

Compassion? Kindness? Meekness? Love? I know that it's the right thing to do, but do I have to? I really just want my enemies to burn in hell. Well, sometimes. But wishing ill on my perceived enemies wouldn't fix anything. I'm looking for ways to effect positive change in the world, not exact retribution. So, on April 19, I went into town to the steps of city hall.

My First Rally

Speaker after speaker rose to the microphone and exhorted us to unify with others who share our values and our passion for democracy, and to approach our enemies with love and compassion. I was at my first political rally. 

We all seemed to have our pet peeves:

• "RISE UP!"
• "BRING GARCIA HOME!"
• "DEFEND DEMOCRACY!" 
• "HANDS OFF!"
• "WE STAND WITH FEDERAL WORKERS!"

And so on.

The sky was gray. It had rained lightly all morning. To lift the mood, some protesters had found creative ways to express their views:

• "IKEA HAS BETTER CABINETS!"
• "MAKE ORWELL FICTION AGAIN!"
• "LIAR, LIAR, PANTS ON FIRE!"
• "NO KINGS! (EXCEPT ANGUS KING)"

(That last one might not resonate with most readers. This rally was in Ellsworth, Maine. Angus King is a U.S. Senator from Maine, who has spoken out against how Trump has been pushing back on court orders.)

Having compassion with this crowd seems easy. I felt like I had found my tribe. I was surrounded by people, most with grey hair, who called for an end to the abuse of power that we all saw online and in the news. This was a group who might still remember Nixon's Watergate cover-up scandal. They might have even been around for the first Earth Day in 1970. They seemed to care about their fellow humans.

It's easy to hang out with this group. We share values. We all seem to be well-informed. Expressing compassion, meekness, and patience with these folks is a piece of cake.

Our Shared Concerns

Like my fellow protesters, I am concerned about how Trump is expanding the boundaries of power and apparently contradicting the U.S. Constitution. His apparent abuses of power include deporting immigrants, even those who are in the country legally, without due process and allowing them to dispute claims that they should be deported at all, let alone to a concentration camp in another country.

Trump has sent teams of temporary federal employees, the so-called "Department of Government Efficiency" (DOGE, which isn't a federal department at all; only the U.S. Congress can authorize the creation of new departments) to infiltrate various agencies. Those teams, under the guise of searching for waste, fraud, and abuse have been really just hacking into those agency computer systems, disabling security systems, installing malware, and extracting gigabytes of sensitive data, cutting off payments to authorized programs, and initiating mass layoffs with dubious authorization from Trump's political appointees like the Director of the Office of Management and Budget.

Trump has been cancelling contracts and funding for programs that are widely popular. He is withholding grants to universities that are performing medical research and developing new technology for public safety. And he's been conducting mass layoffs of recently-hired federal workers who would otherwise become the backbone of a functional government. The loss of knowledge and expertise is mind-boggling.

It seems easy to at least empathize with those who are being most impacted by Trump's orders. I was once a federal employee, working for the DoD. Every year, I and my fellow engineers feared that our budget might be cut or project canceled. So it was easy to put myself in the shoes of federal employees subject to mass firings or the defunding of their agencies. It felt like Trump was killing their babies. (In the case of defunding USAID, it is literally killing babies.) I could feel their pain.

But that second part, loving your enemies and blessing those who curse you; that sounds hard. How could I possibly show compassion to my fellow Americans who empowered Trump to take a wrecking ball to vital government institutions?

Compassion for Fearful People

I don't really know how to begin, but let me try. Compassion isn't just having empathy; it's having empathy for one's situation and wanting to do something about it. Compassion prompts action, not just warm fuzzy feelings.

Trump's voters might have acted out of fear: fear of inflation and a poor economy, fear of a supposed invasion by illegal immigrants, or fear of losing political or social influence to "others" (e.g., people of color, feminists, and LGBTQ+). Perhaps I could empathize with that fear, even if I disagree with how to respond to it. I can imagine that discovering that I have increasingly less social influence might present images of losing all control of my future and becoming vulnerable to a rapidly changing world.

Watching the news, I see existential threats to our democracy, our livelihoods, and the general world order. I worry. I react out of fear, but fear doesn't bring out the best in me. It makes me get defensive, to protect myself and my family. In general, fear often leads to anger --- donning on a cloak of aggression to intercede, to exercise some sense of agency (however misguided), to do something to improve my circumstances. But anger is just fear wearing a mask of "doing something about it."

But Trump's supporters probably don't watch the same news that I do. They probably watch Fox News Channel and OAN. If they go online, they probably subscribe to X (formerly Twitter) and Truth Social. All of those media platforms peddle information that is demonstrably untrue. That "news" might lead anyone, even me, to have a warped of view reality. I know that they thrive on sowing fear in their audiences. Fear keeps that audience engaged. If I were afraid, I would be alert for the next threat and would have trouble closing my eyes.

Fear forecloses on hope. When I'm fearful, I try to protect what is threatened, what I perceive as vulnerable. I focus on protecting what is, not on building what might be. If I've lost hope, I can't envision a better future, and I'm doomed to wallow in a pool of despair. I can't build something that I can't envision, and I can't envision it if I have no hope.

I don't want to act out of fear. Does that make me a desperate optimist? Perhaps. But I refuse to surrender to despair. I want to act with a sense of building something better, so I must imagine something better, to have hope that a better future is possible, and to invest my creative energy in bringing it to fruition.

What Kind of World Do They Hope For?

Zooming out and taking a broad view, this is the future I envision: I imagine living in a community where people (not just me) are happy, healthy, safe, and comfortable^[1]:

• Happy: We each make progress toward a goal that inspires us.^[2]
• Healthy: We are free from injury or disease (both physical and mental).
• Safe: Our happiness, health, and comfort are not threatened.
• Comfortable: We aren't heavily burdened to meet our needs.

This is the world I want to live in, but can I assume that others want the same thing? What kind of a future do others aspire to? What does the world they hope for look like? That is where I have to imagine myself in the shoes of others to better understand their motivations and how they vote. I have to have empathy. I have to mentally put myself in another person's shoes. 

What do Trump voters hope for? I imagine that they want to be free from fear, but that still puts the emphasis on that fear. If that fear was gone, what does their world look like? Is it having a greater sense of control over the world around them? Does it mean having kids who grow up like them? Does it mean having confidence that they can put food on the table, keep a roof over their heads, and have clothes on their back?  Can I assume they want much of the same things that I do, but they see a different path to satisfy those wants? If I were to ask them, "What makes you happy, healthy, safe, and comfortable?" what would they say?

Dare I ask them?

Dare I conceive a project to reach out to Trump voters to learn about their hopes and dreams? To capture their vision in stories? To share those stories with others like me who want to repair the rift in the body politic?

Such a project would, no doubt, be fraught with challenges. How would I approach them in a way that does not provoke suspicion? How could I earn their trust? Would they be the least bit interested in my goal of bridging the rift that divides us?

Why should I bother with such a project? The path that we're on looks like it leads to doom for the liberal democracy I live in. I believe in empowering people, to help them exercise agency in their lives and not feel like they are mere flotsam being tossed about by wind and wave. We are not victims of our circumstances. We can build a world that satisfies our needs for happiness, health, safety, and comfort. We can all become masters of our destiny without trampling those around us on the way.

Or should I just concede that I can't create world peace?

Calls to Action

1. Reflect on the news you consume. Does it stoke fear, or does it inspire you? Consider talking to a friend about how you can convert any fear that emerges into positive action.
2. Reach out to me, either through comments below, on Facebook (@briankhaney), or by email (briankhaney@gmail.com). I'd love to know what is motivating you in these turbulent times. What are you most concerned about? What would it look like of those concerns were assuaged?

Notes:

1. Adapted from Buddhist loving-kindness meditation: "May you be happy. May you be healthy. May you be safe. May you live with ease."

2. We don't necessarily have to reach that goal. Happiness is in the pursuit, not the victory. Victories are fleeting. Reaching that goal probably won't make me happy, but getting there can. It's all about the journey, not the destination. If I feel like I'm making progress, I'm usually pretty happy.