Finally, it’s ended.
After 18 grueling months of a presidential campaign marked by verbal and sometimes physical attacks at rallies, of “locker room talk,” disparaging comments about “deplorables” and racist and misogynistic insults, the voters have spoken.
Yet the damage left by what for many seemed a long, dark campaign remains, say an array of Franklin County clergy, expressing concern about where our fractured society is headed, and agreeing there’s a need for deep healing.
“People are just sick and tired from 600 days of campaigning,” said the Rev. Mark Brussel, pastor at North Leverett Baptist Church. “That’s too long for anyone,” he added, especially when “both candidates have serious character issues … There’s not that level of enthusiasm in the electorate.”
Brussel, who says members of his congregation have requested prayers for “more civility, more self-control and self restraint” during the campaign, was one of six who reflected on the elections as ballots were being cast about what some called “complete emotional exhaustion and fear” and “a lot of aggression and hostility towards people with opposing views … like a non-shooting civil war sometimes.”
“There have been aspects of this campaign that have lowered the level of discourse lower than I think it’s ever been lowered,” said Rabbi Ben Weiner of the Jewish Community of Amherst. In terms of vulgarity and personal animus, it seems like we’ve crossed the Rubicon. I wonder, is that just a matter of decorum, have these things always been simmering beneath the surface … or by allowing this to enter the public discourse, have we made it even worse?”
As a rabbi, and a member of a religious and ethnic minority, Weiner said, “I’m deeply troubled by what seems to be normalization of certain racist and supremacist discourse as part of this campaign. The tone of it disturbs me,” along with the Ku Klux Klan’s endorsement of Donald Trump, “and those voices are becoming mainstreamed in the course of this election. … What’s going to restore civility in that sense?”
He adds, “I don’t see that anyone is interested in compromise, they’re only interested in defeat of the other side, without a notion that somehow they need to govern together. I have a lot of concerns about where everything’s headed. It’s not going to be theend of factors I think are at play in this really charged, hostile environment. Whether we mean that people are already strategizing how to circumvent whichever candidate is elected, what’s their next political move, with no grace period being proposed for anybody, to work together.”
The Rev. Stanley Aksamit of Our Lady of Peace Roman Catholic Church in Turners Falls says, “Something is happening in our society that really needs to be listened to, and not just glossed over. … There are people that are just stuck, who have been stuck for generations, and they don’t see a brighter future. Locally, were seeing three or four generations of poverty. … I think when things are raw, we have to let tensions cool off a little bit. It’s going to take people on all sides to say, ‘We’re compassionate human beings first.”
The Rev. Brett Reitenbach, pastor of Greenfield Baptist Church, agreed: “People see there are problems. The discouragement or disenfranchising really comes from not knowing how to best address the problems, or not seeing any results. It’s turned to frustration, which leads to a lot of accusations, a lot of incivility, rather than being able to solve problems where we can despite disagreements. … Elections have turned into more of a cult of personality … Instead of being issue-oriented campaigns now, it’s a lot of emotionalism, accusations, one-liners, whoever can rally the people the most and get them out to vote is the one who wins.”
The new electronic media and social networking add to the hype, he and other clergy agree, dishing up to a constant stream of what will appeal to their audiences, he added.
“Just about anybody, if they get enough eyeballs or listeners, they can be a journalist,” Reitenbach added. “On the new media, there’s a lot of ‘click bait.’ The more provocative the headline, the more clicks. It just stirs up greater fear and anxiety, and a lot of time exaggeration, when usually the facts are somewhere in between.”
Sr. Clare Carter, a Nipponzan Myohoji Buddhist nun at the New England Peace Pagoda in Leverett, said, “Things are much too instantaneous, with no space, and it tends to add to stress levels, and we kind of shut down all the deeper levels. We’re called to step back from all those energies, to think deeply, humanly, spiritually, on how to work to heal all of this rage, fear and times outright hatred. The amount of violence modeled through (this campaign) is really something.”
The Rev. Kate Stevens, pastor of Ashfield Congregational Church, said that with much of the debate focused on Hillary Clinton’s emails and Donald Trump’s sexism, “It’s a personality thing. What about jobs? What about the economy? I can’t remember one conversation about it. There will be a policy, but no conversation. Nothing real happening. … It really is a show, a reality TV show. But we’re going to have to live with the results.”
She adds, “I think there’s the potential for a lot of violence,” and worries that about how the loss of civility and the hateful rhetoric will play out after the election. “I have to go to really a faith level to not feel helpless.”
Reitenbach said, “I’m mostly concerned about not knowing and understanding the heritage of our founding. … With people being worn out, with these election cycles, it turns into a ‘What’s the point, I don’t care anymore,’ which is a dangerous place to be.”
“The breakdown of trust is profound,” adds Carter, who says that in the context of climate change, global instability and economic distress, “There’s no real quick fix. We’re deep into this swamp … We have to restore believing in humanity.”
Several of the clergy said there is a role for the faith community to lead their community in reflecting on shared values and a common purpose.
“We know our neighbors,” Stevens says. “We live in a rural area, we know our neighbors, we help our neighbors. And then all of a sudden, our neighbor puts up a sign that says, Trump or Clinton, and we go, ‘Oh, I don’t like anything about you!’ It’s funny that that party thing takes over what we happen to know, which is, ‘We know how to be together, to take care of each other.’ The media creates ‘these people’ and ‘these people.’ And yet we’re all struggling to make it here.”
Weiner, a Deerfield resident, agrees: “I seem to still get along with my neighbors and friends, even though some have different political opinions than I do. I think on a level that’s interpersonal and day-to-day, we still have relationships and friends, yet beneath a public discourse that’s very aggressive, it certainly filters down.”
Religious leaders can play a role, he said, by creating “a refuge for people, places where they can step away from the noise and find something deeper in the spirit … places of sanctuary, peace, kindness, so that they can hopefully be extended boundaries of a particular community. It’s important to remember the one-on-one relationships of friendship and kindness in our neighborhoods, between neighbors, regardless of political ideology, that’s really important to be working on.”
You can reach Richie Davis at rdavis@recorder.com
or 413-772-0261, ext. 269