The pounding in my right temple and eye finally stopped, probably because I finally slept. Suddenly, I had a surge of energy and made up for the last few days. I cleaned out a closet, did laundry and finished reviewing two more chapters so now only three remain. Rachel and I walked for 90 minutes round and round through the cemetery talking about the week. Most folks, including us, have moved into the anger and activism stage of grief. That's a good thing. We have lots to do in the next two years to regain seats in Congress.
When I was still teaching, we began the sophomore year by studying the French Revolution. I always used a homemade swinging pendulum to help the kids understand the stages in the revolution. It referenced the way people sat in the National Assembly. On the right side, conservatives. On the left side, liberals. In the middle, moderates. Between 1789 and 1815, the pendulum swung back and forth from monarchy to early experiments with constitutional government to dictatorship in different degrees.
The pendulum swings in American politics, too. Historically, it is very unusual for a party to maintain control over the presidency for more than eight years. In the 20th and 21st centuries, it happened only three times. Teddy Roosevelt to Taft, FDR to Truman, Reagan to GHW Bush. So, it would have been extraordinary for Hillary to break the historical trend to win the presidency. Many commentators are saying that it was too much for the population to go from the first African American President to the first woman President.
My sense was that the American pendulum was still on the upswing on the left. At least that's the way it felt, but I'm isolated from the despair that lots of folks feel. So, America swung hard to the right to compensate.
The difficulty with those arcs is that when you're on them, you don't know which direction the pendulum is swinging. My consolation is that the pendulum always swings back. But when? And how many heads will fall from the guillotine along the way?
