Is tolerance dead?

November 9th.

At approximately 2:55 am, abc news announced that Hillary Clinton had telephoned Donald Trump to concede the presidential election.  She has lost, to his campaign fueled by bigotry, hatred, and anger.  Middle-aged, middle-class white men between the ages of 18 and 54 have found new strength for their convictions, their belief that they have been cheated, that whiteness itself is under siege.  Now they will fight back, with the White House and both houses of Congress likely to take up an agenda that will advance their cause at the expense of civil discourse and compassion, eviscerating many of the tools of democracy that human society has fitfully assembled over the millennia.

Soon enough, we will see a supreme court justice confirmed, someone who passes whatever litmus tests this agenda will devise.  At risk, civil rights generally, but particularly Roe v. Wade, marriage equality, and voting rights.  There will be no possibility of gun control.  Citizens United will remain in place.  The effects will be felt throughout the regulatory environment, not least including environmental laws seen as unfavorable to industry, banking laws, trade restrictions -- the list goes on and on.

Chris Christie is likely to end up as, or at least be proposed for, Attorney General, a position that could give a relentless bully a very big stick and a free pass.  Rudy Giuliani, a man who has spent the last year demonstrating how truly unhinged he has become, will assume some position of authority in a Trump administration.  With this team in place, law and order will move to a very different place, beginning, it must be admitted, from a very low point of departure.

The immigrant community in the United States must be in terror.  I can't even begin to imagine what happens now that this fury has been legitimized.

The Affordable Care Act is perhaps as good as dead.  Its demise will once again put tens of millions of people at risk, exposing them not only to myriad health risks but also to the risk of financial ruin should they be faced with catastrophic illness or accident.

Ironically, the rich will get richer.  Tax codes will be re-written to favor established wealth even more advantageously, thereby decimating public budgets, including so-called "entitlement programs" such as Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, housing subsidies, aid to education and school lunch programs, not to mention Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.  Funding for public transit will disappear.

There is more.  I am no expert.  How all this unfolds remains to be seen.

For now, for today, I walk around the streets (of Atlanta, which is part of the problem, since I'm not familiar enough with this part of the world) not knowing the people around me.  I have lived a privileged and protected life, and I have naively refused to admit how alien my personal philosophies are from those of half of US citizens.  (I find myself resisting the use of "Americans."  Citizens of other countries on the continent should object to the appropriation of a regional label and ascribing to it values and behaviors in which they play no part.)  In my lifetime, the workings of the United State's democratic system have shielded the center from the extremes.  Today, that fragile shield has fallen.  The coming era could make past periods of suspicion and retaliation seem mild by comparison.

My more measured and thoughtful friends do not see the stark picture that I see, a vitriolic, atomized world that vilifies cross-cultural compassion.  But as far as I can tell, right now it's every man -- and I do mean "man" -- for himself.