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Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Bitter and Not Yet Bittersweet

Let's just get the bitter out of the way, shall we?

I do not understand people who voted for Donald Trump, much less for the chance for all three branches of government to be so-called "conservative." There is nothing conservative about them, except for conserving a way of life for the top echelon that excludes all others. They don't give one shit about conserving anything but money and business: not the environment, not the people, not really the jobs. Certainly not the integrity of one's private life.

As I see it, there are four kinds of supporters in this day and age who would vote for someone like Trump and his cronies:

  • A) People who vote Republican regardless of who it is, because of pro-gun-rights or anti-abortion or their spiritual adviser told them to or whatever. 
  • B) People who honestly believe that the big business guys will get them jobs or are scared for other reasons like "too much political correctness" or "teh gay is catching" or "all Muslims are terrorists" or "Mexicans are taking our jobs." 
  • C) People who believe political oversimplification about things like Benghazi or emails or "Clinton's a liar" in the face of actual video and audio evidence that her opponent lies as much if not more than she does (or that it's okay that he lies because he's "a loose cannon.") 
  • D) People who just don't give a shit that they are voting for a man who thinks that 13yo children (like my daughter, for instance) are old enough to be attractive to adult men, that it's okay to share "locker room talk" because they're famous, that it's acceptable for grown men to throw tantrums and still be elected President of the United States and doesn't have the self control or the sense to keep his lips zipped.
So, you see, they're not all racist, sexist, homophobic bigots. But a large portion of Group D and some of each of the other groups are. 

I'd like to think that in this election, most of the Republican voters I know and love and respect fall into Group B, honestly. Maybe Group C.

Because the alternative scares me, especially with a Congress that has been as obstructionist as fuck and still got voted back in.

I mean, I'm a widowed, fat, white, straight female of Jewish (on my dad's side) extraction. Straight and white work in my favor in this environment (there's my privilege), fat and Jewish and female probably work against me, and as for widowed? Well, with Donald Trump in the White House and a Republican Congress and Supreme Court likely, there goes the Social Security payments I get from my husband's death to help me support the kids.

At least that is my fear; I don't think the wheels of government move that quickly, even when Congress is not being obstructionist assholes.

And I hope it is just fear, and although I am not the praying sort, I hope rather desperately that all we angry folks on the left have it in our hearts to be as decent as we can manage, to not be assholes ourselves in our zeal to say I Told You So. And that the very Republican Congress looks at their Frankenstein's Monster and does Holy-Shit-What-Have-We-Done instead of Gotcha-Suckers.

Most of you know that I felt the Bern, as did my late husband, and so I can understand the kind of populist appeal someone like Donald Trump has for some people. Populism has two sides to that coin. The only reason I (very very grudgingly) supported Hillary Clinton was because Bernie Sanders recommended it; I trust him more than I distrust her. And I live in a state where I could have voted for Bob the Wonder Poodle and that wouldn't have made a difference to the presidential race.

Maybe, just maybe, my wiser friends - on Facebook and Google Plus and in Real Life - will prevail overall. They're the ones who say to work harder on your local down-ticket stuff, to not be a jerk to the people who voted differently from you, to try to keep calm and carry on. To allow myself this time of discouragement and upset and then try to work with people no matter how wrong I think they are. That we can combat ignorance and hatred and fear while remaining decent human beings. 

Especially those of us who have some privilege for whatever reason; we need to work together on this.

At the moment I remain discouraged. But I'm doing the best I can. No black ribbons for me (although maybe the green one for depression). No lamenting after a reasonable mourning period.

Just trying to be a good person.

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