Eugene Robinson: Trump's America is not the only real America

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trumps-america-is-not-the-only-real-america/2017/01/02/a15239aa-ced0-11e6-a747-d03044780a02_story.html?postshare=8921483419444790&tid=ss_tw&utm_term=.69b0479b65c8

Trump’s America is not the only ‘real’ America
Here’s what President-elect Donald Trump has been doing since the election
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He has been holding interviews and meetings as he prepares to transition into the White House.
By Eugene Robinson Opinion writer January 2 at 7:22 PM


Humility is a virtue, but fake humility is a sin, or ought to be. So let me begin the new year with full-throated praise of some people and institutions that supposedly got their comeuppance in November: the mainstream media, “coastal elites,” share-the-wealth liberals, pointy-headed intellectuals and others said to be hopelessly out of touch with the “real America.”

In what too quickly became the consensus view, all of the above were put in their place by Donald Trump’s narrow electoral victory. We unreal Americans were demonstrated to be clueless, the conventional wisdom has ruled, and now are obliged to slink away and repent.

All of this is pure rubbish. It’s time to stop all the self-flagellation and raise our voices to insist that things such as knowledge, experience, qualifications and respect for objective facts still matter — now, perhaps, more than ever.

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And another thing: Despite Trump’s general lack of knowledge about how the government works, and despite the lack of relevant experience of some of his Cabinet picks, knowledge and expertise really do matter. Scientists who have spent their entire careers studying the Earth’s atmosphere and oceans know more about climate change than politicians who base policy positions on the fact that it gets cold in the winter.

Remember that Hillary Clinton won the popular vote. I point that out not to delegitimize Trump’s election but to refute the notion that Trump’s America is somehow more “real” than mine or yours or anyone else’s. The America that supports progressive policies, rejects racism and sexism in all their forms, and believes that what critics call “political correctness” is actually just common courtesy — that America is real, too, and needs to make itself heard.

Let’s begin the new year with the realization that an election was lost, but not the country — and not our rights as full participants in the American experiment. Donald Trump is our newly hired employee. Let’s not hesitate to tell him what to do.