The year was 2016. Election Day. Mychal Denzel Smith was asked to be a guest on Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now to provide election night coverage. Originally, his plans were to give a lukewarm welcome to the incremental possibilities of a Hillary presidency whilst also remaining skeptical of maintaining the system. But a Trump presidency was beyond anything he had prepared for that night. Yet strangely, he also wasn’t shocked by the news. It actually made sense, a backlash to the Obama years and the historic preservation of white supremacy playing out in national politics. Smith came to the conclusion that Trump was inevitable because the American Dream had been pointing to this future the entire time. Smith explores this topic even further in his new book “Stakes is High: Life After the American Dream” released last week.