The Tsuga’s View - Part 5

A Long-Term Look At Environmental, Political, and Social Issues, From The Perspective Of Michigan’s Oldest (and Most Optimistic) Tree Species

By Marvin Roberson

OK. He’s here. President Trump. And it’s bad. Really bad. Worse than any of us expected. Things are going to get worse. Good policies are going to be dismantled. People are going to be discriminated against, they are going to be hurt, and they are going to die. No two ways about it.

I’ve had folks point this out to me, and claim that it contradicts my claim that from the Tsuga’s View, things are getting better overall. I stand by that analysis, even in the face of all of the above.

Remember - the Tsuga’s View is the long view - not a reaction to the immediate events of the day, no matter how disheartening or damaging. And the fact is, while progressive ideals lost the election, we won the vote.

Consider - 3 million more people voted for Clinton than Trump. More people voted for Democratic Senate candidates than voted for Republicans. While the Democrats did not take the Senate, as we had hoped, they gained, not lost, seats. And in fact, Trump won Florida by less votes than the number of people who wrote in “Mickey Mouse”, or other nonsense votes.

The way I have described this situation, is that the Conservative tide is going out, even if we get knocked down by some of the remaining waves.

As I said in an earlier edition of the Tsuga’s View, the fact that the Right has progress to attack means that there has been progress. After eight years of excoriating Obamacare, the Right is discovering that American citizens, even the ones that voted Republican, actually don’t want it repealed.

Look - in the long run, we’ve made huge progress. We will continue to do so. When we get knocked down by the remaining incoming waves, we’re not drowning - we’re claiming the beach left by the receding Conservative tide.

Buck up - it’s awful now, but it’s been awful before (think McCarthy, Nixon, etc). And in the long run, the Tsuga’s View is that we have, and will continue, to prevail.

In the next installment of “The Tsuga’s View”, I explain why sitting in front of a television for much of my youth reflects progress.