The election was ugly and shocking, so how could anything but ugliness arise afterwards? The tone of the election may have given some temporary validity to people’s hate, but I don’t believe it will stay. When hate is repressed, it brews, and brews, and finally erupts. This election has been like throwing gasoline on that repressed hate, and lighting it with a blowtorch.

You can’t beat hate by hating it, or by repressing it. You tell someone they’re wrong, they may shut up, but it won’t lead to change.

If this election brings that hate to the surface, then the question is what can each of us do to transform it. Ignoring it isn’t an option, but fortunately we don’t do that. We can shine a light on it, report it, listen to it, and seek to understand what’s behind it, and ultimately forgive it with the understanding of how to move forward.

Just because Trump endorses hate speech, doesn’t mean the rest of the country does. A significant people who voted for him found him totally unsuitable — but just happened to trust Hillary even less. Progress rarely follows a straight path, and when we start going backwards, we will become even more vocal (then when we were going forwards). Progress will come, usually with a fight and resistance, but it will come. It may suck for a bit, but it will only push us further forwards when the time comes.