Trump re-election puts U.S. anger center stage. Let's find a better way to cope.

USA Today

13-02-2025

Trump re-election puts U.S. anger center stage. Let's find a better way to cope. | Opinion
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Healthcare insurance is broken. How do we fix it?
The brazen murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in broad daylight in midtown Manhattan last year has open the floodgates to an outpouring of anger and frustration with the health insurance industry.
In 2003, just a few years after the Columbine shooting. My then-boyfriend and I were wearing tactical black and combat boots, our daily 'angry kid' uniform. A checkout lady at the Fernandina Beach Publix made a dismissive comment about it.
Standing under the swaying live oaks, I watched the red rage splotches creep up his neck. I realized that he chose tactical black every day to provoke someone. That day, it worked; here he was, fuming.
He was legitimately angry for years of bullying by our classmates, teachers and school administrators. But choosing anger limited him, too. He could hate and he could fight, but then he could never build anything new there.
Donald Trump resumed the presidency a few weeks ago. Whether I look at his supporters or detractors, I am reminded of watching someone I loved being consumed by weaponizing anger.
Polarization — visceral dislike of the other party — is a lot like a tactical black uniform. We can hate the other side and we can fight them, but we have a hard time building anything new with our neighbors.
Many Americans are legitimately angry that liberal politicians abandoned the working class for an elitist globalization strategy that gutted American manufacturing. Most Americans think their kids will be poorer than they are. Economic despair drives an opioid crisis that is swallowing whole towns.
Many folks affected by those crises voted for Donald Trump in 2016 and 2024. I attended the 2017 inauguration. There were a lot of men in tactical black.
I've worked with liberal organizers fighting for basic fairness and a lot of them are consumed by legitimate anger, too. They may be heirs to the traumas of slavery or Indigenous boarding schools, or hold personal pain of discrimination. Even those wearing rainbow flags and unicorn pins come equipped for battle.
I was also bullied in Fernandina, for being openly atheist in a Bible Belt town. However, as it dawned on me that my boyfriend was choosing anger, I realized I was, too. I could choose something different.
Since then, I've spent my adult life working with religious communities to make sure people of all faiths (and no faith) support one another's rights to thrive. No one should be bullied, attacked or harmed for their religious beliefs — not even my neighbors who once hurt me.
I'm proud of our American ideals of equality and freedom. Our democracy is battered, though, and I am downright angry about a lot of what's happening in the country now. I'd like to build something new with my neighbors and with others.
The most effective way to do that is not by deepening political trenches; it's collaborating with all kinds of neighbors on issues that matter to us. Rachel Kleinfeld of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace advises that one strategy to rebuild a battered democracy is to 'Build a broad-based, multi-stranded, prodemocracy movement around a positive vision concretized in locally rooted action.'
What does that look like? A great first step is to meet people different from yourself — Interfaith America has online programs, while Braver Angels and +More Perfect Union work directly in Jacksonville. Try attending (or organizing) a 'citizens assembly,' where people participate in policy development.
Letters: Is a prominent vaccine denier the best pick to lead Health & Human Services?
Better Together America sponsors nonpartisan 'civic hubs' that help communities collaborate to solve big problems and hold elected officials accountable.
Research shows that diverse input makes better policy. Policy must account for human differences of all types if it is going to be both good and long-lasting. When we participate more directly in governance at any level, we build trust in the democratic system. When we work together toward common goals with people different from ourselves, we hate each other less.
As Trump begins his second term, Americans' anger at each other is front and center. Let's put that legitimate anger to better use.
Allison K. Ralph, Ph.D., is an expert in U.S. religious and ideological pluralism. A native of Fernandina Beach, she graduated from Douglas Anderson School of the Arts.
This guest column is the opinion of the author and does not necessarily represent the views of the Times-Union. We welcome a diversity of opinions.