OPINION - Shields and Brooks, Post Election 11/11/2016

"Shields and Brooks on a ‘political earthquake’ and how America can move forward" PBS NewsHour 11/11/2016

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  In their first post-election Friday analysis, syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks join Judy Woodruff to discuss the factors that may have contributed to Donald Trump's dramatic upset, including an American desperation for change.  Also, how should we consider the subsequent protests that have erupted, and can we expect Trump's policy positions to evolve?

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  So, having said that, political earthquake.  The earth moved under our feet, David.

How big an earthquake was it?

DAVID BROOKS, New York Times:  Well, it’s certainly the political shock of our lives, at least my lifetime.

It feels like almost the ’60s, sort of like political revolution, cultural revolution, aesthetic revolution, the things that now you can say and get elected President.  And so it was all those things.

I’m sort of finding myself in a strange emotional territory, if I could lie on the couch here.  On the one hand, Trump appalls me.  I won’t be shy about that.

But having — with the elective democratic process having taken its turn, I sort of feel we have to owe some respect to the process, and owe some respect to the electorate, and the people who voted him, on the assumption that they have something to teach us.

And so all these people are marching in the street.  There is all this hostility.  I find myself — and I think this was the President’s attitude and frankly Hillary Clinton’s attitude — of respectful pause.  Maybe I will be as upset at Trump as I was in another week, but what do they try to teach us?  Just try to understand what the situation we’re in is.

JUDY WOODRUFF:  Respectful pause, Mark?

MARK SHIELDS, syndicated columnist:  Yes.

I, Judy, believe devoutly that the national election is the closest thing we have to a civic sacrament of democracy.  And I really do think that heed must be paid, and when people make a decision, those who are on the other side, including me, accept it, for that reason.

I think that probably the best analysis, of the millions of words that were written, other than David’s — David’s were really perceptive and wise.

But there’s a woman named — I don’t know her name — Salena Zito at Atlantic.  And she said something.  She said, to understand this election, critics of Donald Trump take him literally, but not seriously.  His supporters take him seriously, but not literally.

In other words, so while his critics were very upset with what he said, the — his supporters really were the mood and the positions he took, rather than precise phrases or words.

I say that because now, as of Tuesday, everyone has to take him seriously, and I think that’s what we’re seeing.  I think the anxiety in schools that we hear, in minority communities, those with the archbishop of Los Angeles at Our Lady of the Saints Cathedral yesterday at an interfaith service with Jewish and Muslim, and was very open and said, our children are fearful that their parents — the government is going to come and take their parents away.

And I think that’s a consequence of the election.  I mean, in addition, the fact that he won, but his positions appear to prevail, and I think there have left fear in a lot of places.