I am having a hard time wrapping my head around what has happened with this election. Donald Trump will take office in January and Congress will be Republican in both houses. The only reason I have stopped crying is because I have run out of tears. As soon as the pool fills back up I am in danger of them spilling out again.
I am grief stricken and terrified and angry. I will be living — am surprised to find I am living — in a country that hates me as a woman, a country that hates the people I love most, a country that hates pretty much everything I value from basic rights to the environment to what it means to be a decent human being in the world.
All I can hope is that there are enough people who feel the way I do and that somehow, someway, we can find a way to keep the next four years from being the disaster that we fear it will be. As Hillary said, we are stronger together. And after we are done crying we’ll pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, join hands and keep working to build a country and a world where love trumps hate.
Hi Stefanie, I haven’t been keeping up to date with my blog universe recently as I’ve been focusing on other things, but I read this and had to respond. I’m so very, very sorry – millions of us in the UK felt exactly the same way after Brexit (and are equally frightened now), so I think I know how devastated you must feel. I completely agree with what you say – we’ll beat the hate if we work together, and keep talking to one another.
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal, it is the courage to continue that counts.” Churchill.
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Hi widget! It is great for you to stop by! We were stunned here over Brexit and some of the things that have happened since are worrisome. Maybe I was naive to think we wouldn’t be caught so off guard like that in the US. Thanks for the Churchill quote, very good one that. And yes, we will beat hate by talking and working together.
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My sympathies about what has happened – it gets grimmer and grimmer as the implications sink in. The moronic chants of “USA, USA!” and the apologists for Trump’s outrageous behaviour make this day a particularly dismal one.
As you say, there has been a legitimisation of hate (or at least resentment) in this election that has been chilling. Over here we had similar episodes in the aftermath of our brexit referendum – the demagogue Niger Farage every bit as appalling as Trump. And remember that in 2008 and 2012 Obama (the AntiTrump) won. Utter dismay but not despair!
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Ian, yes dismay, nor despair! Things are bad and they might yet get worse, but both our countries will get through this and hopefully be a little wiser for it on the other side.
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Thanks for these words.
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I agree with widget85 above – the horror of Brexit is what has just happened in the US. You have my deepest sympathies, though, it is unimaginable that people could actually VOTE for that openly sexist creep. Here we now have a prime minister who says things like ‘if you think you’re a citizen of the world, you’re a citizen of nowhere’, which is depressing beyond words. We also have hopeful things like the People’s Challenge. There are structures with which to work. We’re in the lowest part of the downward cycle, I like to think. I makes me very sad to think how Hillary must be feeling today.
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Maggie, oh my, your PM actually said that? How terrible! Between the horror of Brexit and the horror of Trump we can lean on each other for sympathy and support. And like you said, there are structures in place and they are pretty sturdy. And since we live in democracies, as citizens we aren’t completely powerless. Be brave, be strong, we’ll get through.
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I am with you, Stefanie. I’ve cried so much already. I’m at work today so I’m telling myself that I can cry at 5:30 when I get off work, but until then I’m going to hold it together. I am terrified of what this means for women, people of color, immigrants, gay and trans people, and the environment. But the idealist in me ultimately refuses to give up. Big hugs to you today.
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Thanks Laila! And big hugs to you too! I may be sad and grieving but the idealist in me refuses to give up too. We’ll keep working for what we believe is right and standing together with others to make something better. Stay strong!
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I’m still in shock.
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Stefanie, I feel for you. I think the most horrible feeling is that so many people voted for him. They heard what he said but it didn’t stop them supporting him. Sticking it to the political classes was more important.
Let us hope that the checks and balances in your system remain strong. And protest, protest, protest.
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Thank you Helen. I totally understand wanting to shake things up because the government in this country hasn’t really been working for a lot of people for a long time. I really liked Bernie Sanders. But shaking things up by electing a man like Trump is kind of like the three little pigs inviting the big bad wolf for dinner.
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Thanks for posting this. It gives us a place to grieve together. I need that before I can think about what to do next.
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Jeanne, you bet. I think we all need a chance to grieve for a bit and I am so happy everyone has been respectful in their comments. Soon we will regroup and roll up our sleeves and get started on a plan.
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I didn’t cry but I do grieve with you. Somehow my tears are locked in disbelief.
Fear also for the outcome of coming elections in Germany, elections in France, elections in March 2017 in my own country. I agree with comments above about the similarities in sentiments of resentment having come to the surface, similarities between Brexit and the election of Donald Trump for president, it is chilling.
We áre stronger together.
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Cath, thank you. Yes, sadly, hate and fear are bubbling up all over and it is scary and sad and feels like we are going backwards as humans instead of becoming better. We are stronger together and love will prevail.
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Oh God, it hurts so much.
As a friend of mine said, “I don’t have a lot of hope in this moment. But I have a lot of teeth, and I’m going to hang the fuck on.”
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Elle, I like your friend!
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She’s one of the greatest people ever.
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A lovely post. I couldn’t agree more. I went to bed early when I saw where it was headed and woke up at 3:00 AM. Checked the results and woke up my daughter so I could cry on her shoulder. Somehow we all have to get through this.
I live in DC (and don’t work for the government). I take some solace in knowing how much this city hates him.
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Karen, thanks. We will all get through this, we fail or succeed together. I heard DC voted to petition for statehood! I hope we soon get to call you the 51st state!
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I feel a little better reading the comments from the Brits who have had a few months to come to terms with their vote. We’ll pick ourselves up and fight on.
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Heather, I agree, the comments from those in the UK provide some solace. We’ll grieve a bit and then pick ourselves up and fight on.
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If your candidate won today you’re feeling pretty good; if your candidate lost you are feeling pretty crappy. But one thing I believe I can say, America does not hate you because you are a woman. Half the country is comprised of women voters. We diminish what is happening when we reduce it to such a simplistic “therefore.” I’m not sure what is happening or exactly why or what it all means – and I’m very nervous. I don’t know if he is up to the challenge (and a mighty big challenge it is), but I hope and pray he is. For all our sake, I hope he turns out to be the best President in recent history. We’ll have to see. What I do believe is this election has been massively divisive; both major candidates/ parties had a hand in it. Maybe we can begin to heal now and hopefully accept that we can all disagree about many things and still have a meaningful discourse. As for me, I am not about to hide under the bed just yet.
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Being a woman sadly doesn’t make you immune to woman-hating. There are plenty of women who go along with the badness. Anyone who voted for that man has little to no respect for women. And if they think they can vote Trump and still be respectful of women, even consider women as fully human as men, they are dead wrong. False consciousness is a dangerous thing.
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Your opinion, Maggie, but not mine. And if we continue down this road of denigrating anyone with whom we disagree – or labeling them as something loathsome because we do not share the same opinion – we become the bully as well. Many good and fine people I know, both men and women, voted for Donald Trump. For some it was a reasoned rejection of what they saw as a deeply flawed candidate in Hillary Clinton, for some it was a genuine belief that the middle class to which they belong were being squeezed, whether from astronomical health care costs through the ACA or losing a family business due to restrictive government regulations, or any other number of valid reasons. And to say that anyone who voted for “that man” has little or no respect for women is a mean, closed minded and impossible statement to make for this reason: You do not KNOW every person that voted for Donald Trump. I expect there will be some uncomfortable Thanksgiving Dinners around the country this year because members of our families who voted Trump and members of our families who voted for Clinton and members of our families who voted for a third party candidate will find it impossible to accept each other’s differences of opinion and move on. I hope it doesn’t happen in mine or in yours.
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Hi Grad, the way I feel is not sour grapes and has nothing to do with Republican versus Democrat. If it did, I’d be disappointed but not devastated. It has everything to do with the fact that Trump thinks sexually assaulting and verbally abusing women is ok and that a lot more people than I imagined agreed with him, or if they didn’t agree I don’t understand how they could vote for him anyway. To me, Trump’s behavior is inexcusable no matter what other promises he makes. Trump’s campaign was based on fear and hatred from my perspective, I don’t know how else to understand his anti-muslim, antisemitic, anti-immigrant, misogynistic rhetoric. Even if he doesn’t believe it himself the fact that he said hateful things, encouraged hateful things, and never once tried to shut it down, that David Duke of all people thinks he is an upstanding guy, unless he takes responsibility for his words — and in spite of what he said about words not mattering, they do — unless he takes responsibility and sincerely apologizes and follows that apology with actions that support it, I can’t forgive him. I don’t want him to fail as president, I still live in this country and want us all to succeed, but I can’t help but be fearful for the Jewish half of my family, for my best friend and her family who are Mexican-American, for all the black lives, for the large Muslim community in my city, and for women.
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Stefanie, I am not defending Trump. My comments were completely about the voters. Although I voted in the primary, I didn’t vote for either Clinton or Trump. They were the choices handed to me by others and I was not happy about it. In fact I was furious and disappointed, but I had to make the best decision I could. There were alternatives, not great ones, but nevertheless. I am an independent. There were many issues upon which I could have been persuaded. But the anti-Trump voter sentiment from Hillary and her supporters was offensive to me, every bit as much as some of the terrible things Trump said. People I know and love were labeled and placed in a group of “deplorables.” They were, and still are, being called racist, sexist, hateful, uneducated, stupid, evil. This tactic of placing people in a particular group is a dangerous one. It has been used in the past to make it easier to isolate a particular group as “them” – the ones not like us. “They” are so irredeemable (Hillary’s words) that therefore it is quite okay to vilify them, to believe they are not worthy of respect, that they are the enemy. In some instances that mentality has lead to the very things you fear: racism, antisemitism, genocide. It is very Alinksy-like: “The target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it. Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions.” The man who said that is someone Hillary Clinton admires. Should she, then, be considered just as bad as the man who believes such things? What I have been seeing on the internet, and on blogs such as yours, is a displaced anger at those voters – those stupid oafs – who were too dumb, too unwashed, too uneducated, too unenlightened, or just plain evil to refrain from voting for such a monster, while Clinton voters are, of course, bathed in sanctimonious light. They forget that Mrs. Clinton has made nearly one-half billion dollars while “serving” in public office, that money that should have gone to Haitian relief went instead to help finance her daughter’s wedding, that her personal convenience weighed more heavily on her agenda than the nations security. There was plenty to place on the negative side of the scale when considering a Hillary Clinton presidency. None of which matters to me anymore. I did not vote for Clinton, but I considered it strongly. In fact, I agonized over it. And I might have. But I could not. Why? Because I love many of those “deplorables” who are better people on their worst day and Mrs. Clinton is on her best day. And they deserved respect – from the candidate and from her party. But I will not paint you with the same brush just because you voted for someone I believe to be unfit and unworthy of the historical first it would have brought to bear. I only wish her supporters would return the favor. I would have loved to have seen that glass ceiling shattered forever…for my daughter…for my granddaughter…for my grandson as well.
I’ve bloviated far too long. I’m sorry. I love your little place here on the internet, Stefanie. In a world of not so great folks, you are one of the good ones. Although I don’t know you personally, I feel I do: kind, caring, responsible, intelligent, funny, and delightfully irreverent at times. You are one of the gentle ones. Blessed are the pure of heart. You come pretty close.
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Grad, thanks for your reply and your kind words. They mean a lot to me. I completely understand your unhappiness about Clinton and she has done a good many things I don’t agree with and don’t like, and her calling Trump’s supporters deplorable was unacceptable. I have family who voted for Trump and they are in no way deplorable people. Both candidates were bad choices. Clinton’s crimes, while bad, did not make me fearful like Trump’s rhetoric did so I voted for her because voting for someone else would make Trump’s win more likely and I feared that more. It makes me very sad that my fear of Trump kept me from even considering voting for a third party candidate. It makes me very sad that this country has become so polarized and the entire election was drowning in fear and hatred of all kinds on both sides. It makes me sad that these two were the best the Ds and Rs could do. I want better for myself and I want better for everyone else too. We all deserve better. I am heartened though by conversations like this, by friends and family who are vowing to be loving and kind to everyone. There is a lot of healing that needs to be done above and beyond this particular election, there is a lot of thinking to do and a lot of work. I do believe we are all stronger together, that love and kindness win out over hate, that embracing our differences and diversity make us better people, a better country. Let’s keep talking, let’s keep trying to understand each other, let’s keep trying to build a country where voting out of fear and anger and hate no matter the party and no matter the candidate is something we never have to consider again. Big hugs to you.
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Hugs Stefanie! I know exactly how you feel because I was exactly in your position, in 2014 and I still living the infamy of it all! It’s not the leader, but the sense of my countrymen gone mad, that sees only hate, that is so soul numbing! But believe it or not and trust me I keep reminding myself of this everyday, that this is a democracy and someone/anyone trying make a joke of it will not succeed as long as we hold the line and keep asking the right questions and fighting for what is right! We can have a million voices shouting that black is white, but that does not make it white, so let’s fight for what is right!
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Which is exactly what Hillary said, keep fighting for what is right (or what you believe is right… Because those who voted for Trump believed they were voting for what is right.) the most important thing in all this is better education. The more educated you are I believe the better you are at making “right” decisions (that is, a “right ” based on understanding and rational thought not on emotion. Meanwhile, I think we should all engage in some bibliotherapy 😏😘
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Ha! Bibliotherapy with a big dose of chocolate on the side!
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Thanks cirtnecce! Your encouragement is heartening. And you are right, already people I know are talking about Congressional elections in two years, how we will have a chance to start making a change then. We will keep fighting for what is right and sharing love not hate!
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Well said, Ian, dismay not despair, but oh dear it is shocking. Hillary speech was wonderful. I couldn’t sleep last night and caught it live at something like 3am this morning.
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Hello Stephanie. I have heard from a lot of people who are grieving today and I am truly sorry they see this election result as such a catastrophe. . I have some alternative thoughts. I live in a part of the country where I know lots of Trump voters, many of them women, and not one of them hates anyone. They voted for a different approach to government because the one we’ve had lately honestly and truly is not working for them. They are out of work and cannot afford health care with or without Obamacare. They have felt marginalized and hated themselves. They feel not only does no one in power care about them but that they are scorned and laughed at and looked down upon and their economic suffering and loss of hope for the future is ignored. They do not care what race or sexual orientation anyone is. They just want jobs and hope and maybe a little respect.
I honestly don’t think you or anyone is going to suffer because Trump is in the White House. In my personal dream government would have minimal impact on my economic or personal life or anyone else’s. We’d all be free to live as we choose and love who we love and any head of state would do his or her limited administrative job without really bothering the rest of us.
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Fair points Carol, though to be fair Stefanie is less worried about herself I think than about others, about the marginalised, and about the environment which is THE crucial issue of our times in terms of our ongoing well-being.
Watching from afar, I’d say that the government might have helped these people you are describing if it had aligned with Obama but he had an unsympathetic Congress. Voting for Trump seems to me to indicate some fundamental misunderstandings about policy, about how government works, and about why things are the way they are.
I do hear your point though that many who voted for him are not racist, xenophobic people. And for all my downunder dismay, I deplore name-calling on either side. I’ve read today someone in our commentary calling Trump voters “dimwits”. That’s not acceptable to me. We start by respecting each other…
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If each us followed the golden rule and refused to anything to harm or exploit another person then all would be well. Of course not harming anyone means not damaging their air or water or putting unhealthy chemicals in their food supply. I would much prefer that we acted this way voluntarily and not because we will be jailed or otherwise penalized if we don’t. A society built on good will and free choice will ultimately be stronger and healthier than one built on fear and force. I know I am being utopian but any leader who avoids war and reduces government imposition in our lives is moving in the right direction. Why can’t government reward for good choices instead of always fining and imprisoning for bad behavior? For example instead of fining the poor for not having health insurance they could offer incentives to doctors who provide free care to the poor.
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Thanks for this Carol. What you say is very interesting, and pinpoints what I see as quite a big disconnect between the US and many other democracies. Most of us realise that government is always going to be necessary, and we do not focus on reducing it. That’s not to say we don’t chafe at times, and that we don’t seek different balances in government role depending on our perspectives, but we do not see government per se is as a bad thing. Rather we see it as a necessary thing.
Like you I’m a huge believer in the Golden Rule. I agree that we should do this voluntarily but I also believe that, realistically, this is never going to happen, and we need government to step in when it doesn’t. We also need government to step in when for whatever reason (people are born disabled or poor, for example, resulting in reduced opportunities; or they make bad choices; or things happen to them out of their control such as accidents, natural disasters, war) people can’t do for themselves the way they rest of us can.
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You are right. I guess limited government is sort of a uniquely American thing. Our constitution is all about imposing limits on what the federal government is entitled to do and what they are not entitled to do. Much of the conflict in our country is between those who want to expand those powers and those who want to corral them back into the limits defined by the Constitution. Thanks for the interesting perspective!
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And thanks for engaging in a thoughtful, respectful discussion!
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Hi Carol. I am so down with making life better for everyone, with good jobs and health care for all, with a system where everyone’s voice is heard and no one is left out. I am there with you on that. I understand the discontent, I feel it too. However, as I replied to Grad, my feelings over the election results are not related to Republican v Democrat. If it had been any other Republican — Kasich or Bush or even Cruz — I would have been disappointed but I would not have been devastated and sobbing and fearful. For me it has everything to do with Trump and all the hateful words he said and supported at his rallies. It has to do with him thinking sexually assaulting and verbally abusing women is ok. It has to do with his repeated antisemitic remarks — half my family is Jewish. It has to do with him wanting to build a wall along the Mexican border and saying that Mexicans are rapists — my best friend whom I have known since we were five is Mexican-American and her family has always been my family too. It is about the anti-Muslim hatefulness that no doubt emboldened a man after attending a Trump rally here to chase down a Somali woman with his car yelling terrorist go home at her. We have a large Muslim Somali immigrant community in my city and I value all the wonderful things they have brought with them. It is these things that make me fearful. It is also that he has said climate change is a hoax created by the Chinese and that he will not honor the Paris agreement, that he says we need to use more fossil fuels and cut back on regulations in that industry that makes me fearful for everyone in the world. I understand being unhappy with the way the government works, I am as frustrated and unhappy about it as everyone else. But what I don’t understand is how so many voted for a man that said and encouraged such horrible hateful things. And that is what scares me the most.
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I understand Stephanie. I am hearing and feeling the sadness and fear from many of my friends. The problem is half the population was equally or more scared of Hillary – her financial dealings with countries that abuse women and what I’ve heard most, her hawkishness and seeming desire to have hostile relations with Russia. People think Trump is less likely to get us into WWIII. Also the World trade deals that put so many middle class and blue collar workers out of work had a lot to do the the results of this election. And the sky rocketing health insurance premiums. And people are looking at the violence in France and Germany due to uncontrolled immigration and that scares them. Of course the vast majority of immigrants, both legal and illegal, are sweet wonderful people. I think what Trump is saying is he wants an effective vetting system. Most countries do have strict immigration policies including Mexico.
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I am not an American but I have been following the election closely and am too devastated by the result. Much love to you, you are in my thoughts xx
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Thanks Remote Tragic. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it won’t be as bad as I fear.
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I knew that this was going to happen as we’ve had such a run of ‘wrong’ outcomes election and referendum wise – the lunatics have taken over the asylum! I would hate to live in the US as it seems that it’s a crime to be a female, unless you’re pregnant, barefoot and chained to a sink! You’re about 50 years behind the rest of the world where women are concerned. I can’t understand why Trump wasn’t ‘helping police with their inquiries’ after all those women came forward. We’re horrified by the whole thing.
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Katrina, things are rather topsy-turvy here right now and what comes of it all remains to be seen. We’ll be keeping Trump’s toes to the fire, that’s for sure!
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I had such a hard time going to sleep last night. I just couldn’t believe it and still don’t. I have such a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that someone who has built his campaign on hate won. What does that say about us? I just have to hope that we have good people fighting for what is right and that this will be a country for everyone.
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Iliana, it’s all so upsetting and disillusioning in so many ways. I am starting to feel like I’m getting my feet back under me. Hope you are too!
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A small consolation, but perhaps some…more people voted for Clinton than for Trump. Add in all hose who didn’t vote because neither candidate seemed to do it for them, but believe in the idea of equal rights, healthy planet, respect for all, etc., we outnumber the sexist, selfish, anti-intellectual, right wing populists.
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wanderwolf, you are right, Clinton won the popular vote so that is worth something. Obviously the whole country has lots of thinking and healing to do. Will it happen? I am hopeful that some good might come out it all.
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Hope dies last. As the latest Star Wars trailer says, “rebellions are built on hope.” I hope we don’t have to go so far as that, but I do think we need to make sure people recognize the threat of inhumane action before it’s too late. I never believed in the adage “history repeats itself” until I recognized the trend of what has been happening the past few years in the US.
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Maybe Mr. Trudeau has an interest in annexing Minnesota to Canada? We have quite a lot in common already 🙂
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I wish! Unfortunately, that doesn’t help Florida…
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Haha! I think Florida is pretty much beyond help anyway 😉
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😦
But if you look at the individual breakdown of districts, it wasn’t that much better in Michigan.
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True, though Michigan I think usually goes Democratic and might be an anomaly this time around. At least I am hoping that is the case.
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I was stunned, too. It’s scary to think of the things he said now being interpreted by some individuals as being okay and acceptable. It was a really hateful election season, but I fear that now that all is said and done he will not make informed and fair decisions, and not having experience in politics and in leading a country or military it’s more than a little frightening to wonder what comes next. It has been such an eye opener–if one good thing might come of all this–maybe a real conversation can be started on how to solve problems and help people and the environment. Well, I say that with hopefulness but I am not sure how naive I am being….
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Danielle, I don’t think you are being naive at all! I think there are signs already of people beginning to re-evaluate and take a good look at what went wrong and why. I don;t expect Trump will run the country much differently than he ran his campaign so I think we are in for a bumpy ride.
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Stay strong, we’ll all work through this together ❤
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Just to let you know you’re not alone in your thoughts and feelings about all this. Myself, I still believe in love…somehow it has to win. And will.
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Bryan, thanks! I believe in love too and community and the goodness of people. It will be a hard 4 years but I think, I hope, some good will come from it.
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As you know I feel the same way. It is hard to find much positive to say. Folks still have to fight. It may be a hard fight to preserve what is good.
I am clinging to my friends and family. I think that we need to begin protecting one another.
Take care.
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Brian Joseph, yes we must continue to fight for what is good and right, not get complacent of give in to despair. We must hold Trump accountable for whatever he does while president and not dismiss it like so much was dismissed during the campaign. Friends, family, community, working together for something better will get us through. You take care too!
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I just want you to know that I agree with you and I feel the same way. I know that does not help. But I agree that there is not a single way to sugar-coat anything or to minimize anything. Nobody I know is a Trump voter, but almost everyone I know feels that the Democratic party no longer cares about the lower-class and lower-middle class families. It’s a real tragedy for the country. For everyone, really, but those who are immune because they are in the 1% or who live with hate will do well because they have learned not to care about others. I am so sorry.
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Gubbinal, yes, you are right about the Democratic party and the Republican too for that matter. It is now up to us to hold them all accountable, to demand change, real change not just words and band-aids. It will take courage and hard work but I think people have been shaken up enough that we just might make something from the ashes.
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I am so sorry this has happened, Stefanie. I’m devastated too, and so worried for the world and for so many people I care about.
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Thanks Ana! Both our countries seem to have gone of the rails. Let’s refuse to give in to despair and keep working toward the kind of world we believe can exist. I am worried and scared but I know I am not alone in that nor am I alone in wanting something better.
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I’m so worried for the future of America and the safety of the rest of the world and poc now 😦
https://thebookishidealist.wordpress.com/2016/11/11/notmypresident-reflections/
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bookishidealist, I am worried too and things are going to be hard and the next for years are going to be bumpy. But if we stick together and not allow ourselves to be silenced, hold Trump and everyone in government accountable, maybe, just maybe we can start to build something vital and good that will sweep away the neoliberal agenda.
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What kills me about this election isn’t just the way hate has been normalized amongst the Republican base — although that’s scary as hell. What really hurts is to know that a majority of white voters, women included, considered racism, sexual assault, Islamophobia, and disdain for LGBT people, to be acceptable prices to pay for whatever kind of economic change they wanted to see. That’s *shattering* to me. Not their hatred, but their indifference. The attitude that economic change that affects them is more important than the lives of trans kids, immigrants, and black folks. It seriously kills me. The problems people claim to have with Clinton — ie that she’s dishonest, that she’s a poor steward of funds — are so nakedly true of Trump as well that I don’t even know how to respond to that.
And it scares me because if we’ll accept this, as a country, Trump’s rhetoric, what the hell *won’t* we accept? I am trying not to think apocalypse, Nazi Germany, join the Resistance thoughts but like — I don’t know. I truly don’t know if that’s what I should be steeling myself for, right now.
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Jenny, amen! We don’t know what’s ahead but I think we do need to steel ourselves for resistance, vow to keep vigilant and not let things go, and find the courage to speak out for ourselves, friends, neighbors and complete strangers who might find themselves threatened. We also need to start building an alternative story to the one that got Trump elected so that in four years we have something to offer all those people who Trump is going to let down. Be strong, be brave, let’s find a way to lend mutual support and comfort to each other 🙂
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I am still devastated, almost two weeks since it happened. I’ve only just started returning to my normal life (including catching up on the blogs I typically read!). I cannot believe this country elected a man who is so clearly unfit for public service. For the sake of this country, I hope he rises to the challenge, but his past behaviors and his bumpy transition suggest he is way out of his league.
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AMB, I have been hoping he will rise to the challenge too but the more appointments he is announcing and his continuing to use Twitter and denial of the truth of things is not encouraging. If he somehow manages to instate a Muslim registry, I have already decided I am adding my name to it. I will no accept such hatred and fear from my government and will do everything I can to through a wrench in the works.
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Two weeks after and the waves of dismay keep coming. It seems to me that the appointment of the likes of Steve Bannon is totally unacceptable and really not compatible with any idea of the US as a liberal democracy. I do think American civil society is probably, in the end, just too strong for the blackest to happen…but I just don’t know.
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Ian, Bannon’s appointment is disturbing in a lot of ways and the general press is not in an uproar about it and even downplaying his white nationalist past. Meanwhile there are a good many regular people vowing to register as Muslim should things go in that direction. And the head of the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish man, has suggested people begin wearing a yellow star and sickle badge in solidarity. So while things could potentially get ugly, I still have hope that a good many people will stand up to counter it.
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Thank you.
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Like minded blogger! https://goldisfromaliens.com/2017/02/17/we-both-wear-spanx-and-other-things-i-have-in-common-with-donald-trump/
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