I don’t know. Feelings are complicated. Grim joy can co-mingle with relief. I felt joy when we first realized Trump really lost. And I felt relieved that there was no violent domestic terror attack during the inauguration.

Feelings are also very personal. All I know is, I lost the remaining remnants of my ability to feel unbridled joy in the name of nationalism about 8 years ago. I’m no longer inspired by nationalist rhetoric, even when it takes the form of soaring verses from young talented poets.

I still sometimes feel echoes of what some may call patriotism.. But I think it’s actually a cosmopolitan ethic of care that includes but extends far beyond the nation my enslaved ancestors helped built, the place where I currently live and hold citizenship..

We contain multitudes right? We feel many things and those emotions are often in conflict. They can shift over time. Mine certainly have. My feelings in January 2009 were euphoric and still very nationalistic. I was very ignorant and mostly uncritical of liberals. Things change.

I heard a lot of US exceptionalism, colonial apologia, minimization of racism (a “sting”!), indigenous erasure and liberal nonsense during the inauguration.. so I mostly felt distraught. But I wouldn’t have heard those things a decade ago, so my feelings would have been different

I generally think people should spend less time judging other people’s feelings and more time being honest about how their own emotional politics have changed over time. But I’m biased because I wrote a book about that . . .