Donald Trump is now the 47th president of the United States. Compared to the horrible things that will happen in America over (at least) the next four years, the weeks between Election Day and his inauguration may be remembered as the good times.
I tried to enjoy that reprieve while it lasted. It was not all that successful. The shadow of Jan. 20, and the cruel coincidence that it fell this year on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s remembrance day, hung over us all. King was among American history's great defenders of democracy and human rights; Trump is a committed enemy of those values.
Millions of Americans who voted for Kamala Harris, and who believe in American democracy and the common good, remain collectively stuck in the various stages of grief. That grief is made even more painful by the fact that tens of millions of other Americans are jubilant at Trump’s return to the White House and his vows of revenge against “the enemy within” as part making America "great again.” Most people who voted for Trump under the mistaken belief that he would improve their lives and “restore” the nation have no experience living under autocratic or authoritarian regimes. They perhaps voted to “shake things up” and believed they were supporting a leader who will "break the rules” to “get things done. That will turn out to be a Faustian bargain. While the MAGA are likely to feast on the proverbial fat of the land, the rank and file will be feasted upon like everyone else.
A colleague recently observed to me that journalist and other public voices who have tried to warn the American people during this time of crisis are something like homicide detectives, who must document and investigates terrible events with little power to control or prevent them. It is grinding and emotionally difficult work that often feels futile and can lead to PTSD, substance abuse and mental health issues.
Considered in the aggregate, America's public mood is negative, anxious and discontented. Public opinion polls consistently show that a majority of Americans believe the country is heading in the wrong direction, and that its best days are behind it. Most Americans lack faith that government can solve problems or improve their lives, and have little confidence in democracy or its institutions. A new Economist/YouGov poll suggests that Americans are evenly split on Trump's return to power, with 47 percent reporting that they are "either enthusiastic (31%) or satisfied but not enthusiastic (16%) about the next four years with Trump as president" and 45 percent saying they are "either upset (31%) or dissatisfied but not upset (13%)."
In many ways, this crisis of democracy is also a crisis of the collective “life force,” meaning the sense of purpose and the drive to lead a meaningful life. This weakening or maladapted life force can negatively Impact both an individual's internal life and their relationship(s) with other people and the larger society. When a society's collective life force turns negative in this way, that helps to spawn authoritarians, demagogues and other kinds of toxic and antisocial leaders and movements.
The American people are under systematic assault from disinformation, misinformation and propaganda, including conspiracy theories, often spread by malign actors who have successfully undermined the public’s ability to engage in what psychologists describe as “reality testing.” Many Americans also exhibit a systematic form of negativity bias, consistently telling public-opinion pollsters and researchers that the country is generally worse than it actually is on issues like crime, immigration and the economy. This negativity bias is especially acute among Trump followers and right-wing evangelical Christians, who truly believe America is under attack by demonic forces and must face a spiritual war with Donald Trump as its champion.
I have been reading comment sections on a wide range of news, politics and general interest websites, as well as on forums focused on such subjects as health care and chronic illness, psychology and mental health, disability issues, money and finance, labor and economics, and aging. What I have encountered is widespread fear among ordinary people who are trying to survive financial precarity and avoid total household collapse and homelessness. Many fear the loss of social safety-net benefits and are concerned they will not be able to afford prescription drugs and medical care. They fear the loss of reproductive rights and the end of the Affordable Care Act. They fear extortionate student-loan payments and the rise of hate crimes and political violence. In other words, they are afraid of suffering life-altering harm from the Trump administration's plans and policies.
Dr. Gail Christopher, a public health expert, shared this personal account in an essay for Washington Monthly:
This autumn, I stopped by a local nonprofit run by a friend who helps refugees, immigrants, and formerly incarcerated victims of abuse get jobs that can transform their lives. I was there to donate, and when I found my friend distressed, I asked why he was so down. He had recently lost his dog of 14 years. Then, days later, his mother passed. I embraced him, expressing my condolences. As we embraced, he said, "And then my country died."
He referred to the election, which put one party in charge of the White House, Senate, and House. And in that moment, I realized that perhaps half of the nation’s voting population is grieving what they perceive to be the death of their country.
Many reports suggest an increase in people seeking therapy and counseling. Mental health professionals are also seeking help for their own heightened anxiety and emotional challenges in the aftermath of the presidential election and the heightened demand for their services. Crisis lines have seen an increase in callers, as the Seattle Times reported in November:
[E]lection night clearly raised anxieties and fears for many Americans. In Washington, operators of some regional crisis lines say they saw a spike in calls in the days after Nov. 5, with the majority of callers expressing worry about the potential impacts of the election.
While an increase in calls can’t explicitly be tied to any one event, operators say many of the calls they’re taking are related to Trump’s promises to roll back rights for transgender Americans and conduct mass deportations of large numbers of undocumented immigrants.
Crisis Connections, which operates hotlines including 988 in King County, saw a 9% increase in calls the week after the election, compared to call volume in the month before. ...
Izzy Engberg, a clinician who answers calls for Volunteers of America, said nearly every single call on Nov. 6 was related to the election.
“A lot of people were calling in crisis about that. They were overwhelmed, having anxiety about their families, how this will relate to them in the future,” Engberg said.
Nationally, crisis lines have seen even larger spikes in calls from LGBTQ+ youth with concerns about the new administration.
For Rolling Stone, Elizabeth Yuko spoke with mental health professionals about the phenomenon of "political grief":
Keep in mind that if you’re mourning the outcome of the election, you’re not alone. It can be helpful to identify and acknowledge the ongoing collective grief a large part of the country is experiencing, says Raquel Martin, PhD, a clinical psychologist specializing in community-related and liberation psychology.
“We experience traumatic events together, and this [election] result definitely brought fears and hurt and memories of what was previously, and concerns about it only being worse,” Martin tells Rolling Stone. “Collective grief is understandable when you feel as though you put your all into something and you see an outcome that is incredibly scary for you.”
In fact, there’s an even more specific term for what we’re going through.
“Political grief is a very real thing,” says Melissa Flint, PsyD, a professor of clinical psychology at Midwestern University Glendale, noting that it occurs on both individual and collective bases. “When one struggles with a particular ideology held by those in political power, there is grief.”
Political grief, that article continues, “also reflects the feeling that your worldview or political beliefs — what we think is right vs. wrong, or morally valid — is under attack." An individual "may be mourning potential losses of [their] own rights and economic stability, as well as worried about the impact it might have on reproductive rights and public health." Such grief can also "involve the fracturing of relationships as a result of ideological disagreements or grappling with your identity if your values are at odds with the rest of your community."
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Darcy Harris, a psychology professor at King's University College in Ontario, Canada, describes the root of political grief as "a sense of despair due to the loss of predictability and safety in governmental structures.” It seems clear, as a recent report from the American Psychological Association suggests, that America is suffering from "collective stress," which it defines as a significant public health problem. Long-term stress, fueled by the COVID pandemic and political division, "has had a significant impact on well-being, evidenced by an increase in chronic illnesses — especially among those between the ages of 35 and 44, which increased from 48% reported in 2019 to 58% in 2023." That population also experienced a rapid increase in mental health diagnoses, as did adults aged 18 to 34.
Psychological science has revealed that long-term stress creates risks for a variety of mental health challenges, may make us feel more sensitive even to daily hassles, can have broader impacts on our general life outlook and goals, and affects the body’s physiological response to stressors in ways that have notable implications for our physical health. Coping with long-term stress requires a different set of skills than adjusting to temporary stressors.
Stress puts the body on high alert and ongoing stress can accumulate, causing inflammation, wearing on the immune system, and increasing the risk of a host of ailments, including digestive issues, heart disease, weight gain, and stroke.
This experience of collective stress exists in conflict with an American society that worships individualism. Many Americans, therefore, are reluctant or unable to consider how their experiences and personal challenges reflect larger dynamics and power relationships. They may instead internalize this stress and subsume the political into the personal in a manner that isolates them further, rather than bringing them together in a more healthy communitarian fashion with the goal of solving shared political and social problems.
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Like other demagogues and right-wing populists, Trump is highly skilled at manipulating the emotional pain, anxiety and other negative emotions of his followers and the larger public. At least in the short term, his followers feel seen, acknowledged and validated, which was a huge advantage in the 2024 election. Democrats will need to learn that kind of emotional language to counteract Trumpism and this era of populist rage.
In an interview with the Guardian, disability advocate Alice Wong offered this advice on navigating, surviving and successfully resisting the bad times now upon us:
I’m scared, like millions of marginalized people who know exactly who Trump is and what he stands for. Strangely, I’m not as panicked as I was in 2016, but I know he will unleash great harm in his second administration. All I know is that networks of mutual aid and community care will continue and require additional support and infrastructure….
I feel despondent and overwhelmed by the political situation often, but then I remind myself this is by design, that those in power want to erode our resolve and [for us to] give up.
“Doing” activism is neither linear or smooth and in times of frustration or exhaustion I tap into my memories of injustice. I remind myself of why I am doing what I am doing and this sustains me. Anger transforms into a battery charger that gives me a boost when it’s sorely needed.
Americans of conscience who wish to redeem and renew democracy must harness their distress and anxiety and use it to recharge their batteries, as Wong suggests. Inaction and learned helplessness are an unacceptable choice. The only way through this disaster is forward.
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