Posted on 11/10/2016 10:27:14 AM PST by nickcarraway
Having failed to spend his life living in a world where hatred is just another entertainment vehicle, Steve Kerr seemed baffled by the developments of Tuesday night. An election built on tapping into anger by someone who has made his fame by understanding and even fomenting it was well outside his wheelhouse as a coach, and as a human being.
Kerr spoke, as has basically every citizen with voice to do so, on the election that changed what we think of ourselves and the end of our pretenses. He found the electoral process ugly and offensive, and though he tried to steer a careful course, events have overtaken him, as we learn to live in a new and more brutish world.
The standard-bearer for the NBAs rank-and-file sentiment was Detroit Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy, who emptied out on the segments of the nation he can no longer fathom. As recorded by the Detroit Free Press Vince Ellis, Van Gundy said the words that allowed Kerrs entrance into the subject greater ease of passage.
Indeed, the highlights of Van Gundys midday soliloquy, in which he declined a chance to even discuss the Pistons game with Phoenix, render Kerrs remarks tame.
For our country to be where we are now, who took a guy who -- I dont care what anyone says, Im sure they have other reasons and maybe good reasons for voting for Donald Trump -- but I dont think anybody can deny this guy is openly and brazenly racist and misogynistic and ethnic-centric, and say, Thats OK with us, were going to vote for him anyway, Van Gundy said.
Martin Luther King said, The arc of the moral universe is long, but bends toward justice. I would have believed in that for a long time, but not today . . . What we have done to minorities . . . in this election is despicable.
I understand problems with the economy. I understand all the problems with Hillary Clinton, I do. But certain things in our country should disqualify you, and the fact that millions and millions of Americans dont think that racism and sexism disqualifies you to be our leader, in our country . . . We presume to tell other countries about human-rights abuses and everything else. We better never do that again, when our leaders talk to China or anybody else about human-rights abuses. We just elected an openly, brazen misogynist leader and we should keep our mouths shut and realize that we need to be learning maybe from the rest of the world, because we dont got anything to teach anybody.
On the other hand, Alabama coach Nick Saban claimed he didnt know there was an election on Tuesday, which we can assume is a self-protective fib that allows him to avoid the thicket that Van Gundy strode into without fear or hesitation.
Kerr was somewhat less florid, but his message was essentially Van Gundys. He had held a morning meeting and let his players express feelings that one player charitably described as weird, and though he didnt elaborate on what was discussed or the form it took, he had his own view, and centered on the gradual but clear disintegration of political discourse. I thought it took a lot of guts for Stan to say what he did. I think a lot of us feel similarly. For me, probably the biggest disappointment with this whole election was the level of discourse. There should be some level of decorum, respect and dignity that goes with the election of the presidency. It went out the window. Maybe we shouldve seen it coming over the last 10 years. You look at society, you look at whats popular. People are getting paid millions of dollars to go on TV and scream at each other, whether its in sports, politics and entertainment. I guess it was only a matter of time before it spilled into politics, he said. But then all of a sudden youre faced with a reality that the man who is going to lead you has routinely used racist, misogynistic, insulting words.
Its tough when you want there to be some respect and dignity. There hasnt been any. You walk into a room with your daughter and your wife who have basically been insulted by his comments. And theyre distraught. You walk in and see the faces of the players who have been insulted directly as minorities, its sort of shocking. It really is.
We talked about it as a team this morning. I dont know what else to say. Just the whole process has left us feeling disgusted and disappointed. I thought we were better than this. I thought The Jerry Springer Show was The Jerry Springer show. Watching the last debate, Trump would make a crack at Clinton, and youd hear the fans in the stands Oooooh, oh, no, he didnt. Oh, yes he did. This is a presidential election, not The Jerry Springer Show.
Well, no. Its actually worse, as Warrior forward David West said earlier in the day.
I just think a lot of the things that he was saying publicly, a majority of this country feels privately and they proved it through their vote. The things that he said, the things that he represented, thats the way a majority of this nation feels. I think he just emboldened them because he was willing to say it publicly and he got the platform.
Just about every sort of political group you could name, folks agreed with his positions and you cant deny that because folks voted for him. So, I think, throw that on the table. This whole fairytale about some post-racial, this utopia that (Barack) Obama supposedly created is all its all bull. Thats the bottom line when you look at what the results say from last night. This nation has not moved a thread in terms of its ideals.
How this chapter in American history turns out is anyones guess, depending on the cheeriness of ones outlook. Perhaps there is a Trump we havent seen yet, one who can work the milieu of anger as fuel, one who can actually grow from the man whose catch phrase meant unemployment. Nobody believes that now, though, and whether the lesson is how far we have fallen as a nation, how uncivil we have become in our daily discourse, or whether we have lost the right to buy into our own loftier impression of ourselves, we are now naked and raw as a nation, stripped of the layers of our illusions, and a nasty winter is coming on.
I like Ray Ratto. This article does not take sides. It’s called journalism.
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