Kareem Abdul Jabbar's comment

[Martin Eden]

61. The consequences of another Trump presidency will have a much greater influence on those who voted for him...

Than any of us will have through kindness and gentle persuasion.

If the Dictator on Day One does what he promised, the economic consequences will hit both them and us hard. Very hard.

Tariffs will cause inflation to escalate beyond what they blame on Joe Biden.

The ensuing trade war will hurt our exports. Jobs will be lost.

Putting a huge chunk of our low wage workforce in concentration camps will drive up prices even more, and cause scarcities as vegetables rot in the fields with no one to pick them.

This will cause an economic recession, possibly a major one.

Slashing huge chunks of government services and benefits will hurt millions of people, including Trump voters.

Many will lose their health insurance or be denied coverage for pre-existing conditions.

More women will die for lack of urgent healthcare when pregnancies turn fatal.

For the time being, Trump voters will revel in the alternate universe constructed for them in the rightwing propaganda media landscape.

But REALITY doesn't reside there. It resides in the real world of natural consequences, cause and effect. They are going to be slapped in the face, hard.

And so will we, by the choice THEY made.

Shall we rub their faces in it, slapping our former friends and neighbors and family members with all the anxiety and grief and anger we'll build up over the next four years added to the Trumpism we've already endured?

No.

Not if we want to rebuild America into something better. A house divided against itself cannot stand. We need as many hands on deck as can be mustered. Unrepentant racists won't contribute to the effort, but many of our friends and neighbors and familiy members slapped hard in the face not by us but by Trump will feel the consequences and hopefully act in their own best interests -- which happily coincides with ours.

Our emotions right now want to lash out in anger. Calmer reflection with critical thought about what's necessary to rebuild America's great experiment in democracy will guide us to a more productive course of action.

Kareem Abdul Jabar is right.

Showing them some grace is in our own best interests.