How to think positively about Trump while still being realistic

Throughout 2016, I’ve never spared a single opportunity to verbally abuse Donald Trump. Everything he says and does is the antithesis of all the values I stand for – racial equality, gender equality, cultural understanding, pluralism, diversity and tolerance, human rights, rights of refugees, care for our environment... everything. Not to mention his talk of grabbing certain things, which should offend everyone.

But when I was saying to a friend how bad a year 2016 was – Brexit, Trump, terrorist attacks, celebrity deaths – he reminded me correctly, “Hey, don’t count Brexit and Donald Trump, those are democratic decisions. Look at us.”

And I realized bitterly that, yes, definitely, I’d 100% choose Trump over whoever Beijing appoints next as the head of government in Hong Kong.

Stuff like Brexit and Trump make people say, “Look how democracies fuck up.” (My uncles love to say this. They’re fans of the Chinese government. The coming Chinese New Year I’ll have to again restrain from engaging them in a family argument over politics.)

The thing is, when democracies fuck up, it’s headline news for at least a month. When authoritarian governments fuck up, they don’t make the news, that’s just everyday life.

Yep, including in China. If you care to scratch the surface and see past the growth rates, Chinese society is seriously fucked up, and maybe I’ll write on that later.

Authoritarian governments all over the place are filled with greedy bigots worse than Trump, and their capacity to hold back social justice and economic development is much more debilitating than Brexit can ever be. But fucked-up stuff like this rarely make the news when they happen in authoritarian countries. Sadly, that’s just life.

So yes, Trump is pretty bad, but still, democracy promises hope 8 years later, if not 4. If you’re living in America, or anywhere else with a strong liberal democracy, I envy you.