I've been hearing a lot lately about how Donald Trump, as a constitutionally elected President, deserves a chance to govern, that we should rally around him. Then the plan for his first 100 days came out. Then his cabinet picks. Then his deferring of Security briefs to Mike Pence. Then his staff.
I know, I know. I probably wasn't going to be jumping for joy for any Republican picks, and even some of Clinton's picks likely would have irked me, had she won. Trump doing everything in his power to affirm for me that he shouldn't have any power whatsoever doesn't make the "rally around the President" thing any easier, though.
I'll deal with it, as will other progressives and liberals, by going along with the things that we have to and compromising where we can. Hopefully we'll be better about that than Republicans ever were with President Obama. But there is one thing that the folks pushing for "patience" seem not to understand, and so I want to make it abundantly clear right now.
There will never be any compromise with hatred.
Ideological points, policy positions, differences in philosophy on governance, these are all ideas that can be altered, softened, or tweaked in order to make them more palatable to everyone. Compromise, "we'll give you this, and you'll give us that..." used to be the lifeblood of governing in the US.
But you can't compromise on hatred. You can't just "half" hate something, a lesson we have learned repeatedly over the course of our history.
One of the great talking points against Clinton during the primary was her previous support of DOMA and DADT. At the time, they were seen as compromises, and actually embraced by many as a way to advance the rights of the LGBTQ community. They didn't work for a very simple reason: they were based on accommodating hatred, and so in the end what we found is that whatever gains the LGBTQ community received from them were negligible because what we were left with was empowered hatred.
When it comes to hatred, you cannot compromise. You either join in it or reject it.
So here is my final answer for myself, which I hope will be echoed by others. Compromise IS important, and I will try to allow myself to see the good the Trump administration will try to accomplish.
But if he pushes to register Muslims? I will reject that out of hand with extreme prejudice. Likewise if he attempts to take away hard earned rights from the LGBTQ community. Racially motivated laws will also be named for what they are. There will be no compromise with them, they will not be amended to a form suitable for everyone, they will be named, rejected, and opposed in any way we can, and the proponents of it marked, remembered, and held accountable.
Because when you compromise with Hatred, all you end up doing is enabling and empowering it.
If we claim to serve a God of love, that is simply something that we cannot do.
