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11/9/2016
9 years ago
General
I'm terrified.
I've woken up, but I'm still begging to jolt awake in my bed and someone to tell me this is all a bad dream.
Donald Trump has won, by a landslide, and I don't fit in His America. My wife doesn't fit in His America.
I've never actively seen a President who has garnered so much hatred and spewed so much back at the face of the public, yet here we are. In a few months time, Donald Trump will be sworn in and I am terrified that he's going to deport my wife, or annul our marriage or pull us apart somehow in ways I cannot even begin to imagine.
I'm trying to rationalise thoughts, remembering eight years ago when people shouted from the rooftops Obama was going to destroy them or come and tear away their livelihoods.
The problem I have trying to separate facts from hyperbole is that it's all became a blur suddenly. Eight years ago Obama never said he would do any such thing, it all came from garnered fear and political slinging.
How much of my fears are equally pushed by the political systems grandicised push for publicity, and what has Donald Trump stood on stage and actually said?
I work in a print media and I don't think we even know any more which is which.
I don't think anyone does, and I've woken up to dozens upon dozens of other news makers lamenting that they have blood on their hands for stirring all of this together, for drawing up Trump as a celebrity and Clinton as a crook.
We don't even know what to be afraid of first and that is the worst part of these fears.
The question of course is where do we go from here?
Donald Trump will be President. That's fact now and this is the world we are about to live in.
I horrified myself earlier when I thought about this and actually hoped, sincerely hoped that something terrible would happen to him that prevented him from being sworn in.
As much as I hate the man, and everything he and his campaign has represented, he will be our President. I'm only 26, literally this is the first time since I became legally able to vote that a candidate I've voted for has lost, so I must apologise to anyone who has been through prior elections and already faced similar uncertainty as this.
It will be four years again before we can speak our minds once more, until then "A House Divided Cannot Stand."
No election before has ever felt this divisive indeed, and somewhere across the aisle we'll need to see hands extend, until then, we have to make an effort to be as active and as watchful as we can. The people may have chosen Trump, but the people also have their voice outside of an election, that if you see policy that is toxic or prejudiced to speak up.
You have neighbours who are Muslim, or neighbours who are LGBTQ+, neighbours who are Hispanic or Black or Disabled and the list goes on and on. No one knows what lies ahead for four years, but we all know each other, and we should all take care of each other until then.
What lies ahead is uncertain and challenging, but it's up to us to take a step and to do it together.
I've woken up, but I'm still begging to jolt awake in my bed and someone to tell me this is all a bad dream.
Donald Trump has won, by a landslide, and I don't fit in His America. My wife doesn't fit in His America.
I've never actively seen a President who has garnered so much hatred and spewed so much back at the face of the public, yet here we are. In a few months time, Donald Trump will be sworn in and I am terrified that he's going to deport my wife, or annul our marriage or pull us apart somehow in ways I cannot even begin to imagine.
I'm trying to rationalise thoughts, remembering eight years ago when people shouted from the rooftops Obama was going to destroy them or come and tear away their livelihoods.
The problem I have trying to separate facts from hyperbole is that it's all became a blur suddenly. Eight years ago Obama never said he would do any such thing, it all came from garnered fear and political slinging.
How much of my fears are equally pushed by the political systems grandicised push for publicity, and what has Donald Trump stood on stage and actually said?
I work in a print media and I don't think we even know any more which is which.
I don't think anyone does, and I've woken up to dozens upon dozens of other news makers lamenting that they have blood on their hands for stirring all of this together, for drawing up Trump as a celebrity and Clinton as a crook.
We don't even know what to be afraid of first and that is the worst part of these fears.
The question of course is where do we go from here?
Donald Trump will be President. That's fact now and this is the world we are about to live in.
I horrified myself earlier when I thought about this and actually hoped, sincerely hoped that something terrible would happen to him that prevented him from being sworn in.
As much as I hate the man, and everything he and his campaign has represented, he will be our President. I'm only 26, literally this is the first time since I became legally able to vote that a candidate I've voted for has lost, so I must apologise to anyone who has been through prior elections and already faced similar uncertainty as this.
It will be four years again before we can speak our minds once more, until then "A House Divided Cannot Stand."
No election before has ever felt this divisive indeed, and somewhere across the aisle we'll need to see hands extend, until then, we have to make an effort to be as active and as watchful as we can. The people may have chosen Trump, but the people also have their voice outside of an election, that if you see policy that is toxic or prejudiced to speak up.
You have neighbours who are Muslim, or neighbours who are LGBTQ+, neighbours who are Hispanic or Black or Disabled and the list goes on and on. No one knows what lies ahead for four years, but we all know each other, and we should all take care of each other until then.
What lies ahead is uncertain and challenging, but it's up to us to take a step and to do it together.
Basically, we're in for some economic hardships and an asshole who's probably gonna be the most ineffective president in history. The disturbing part to me is that around 40-something% of Americans either dislike the minority groups of this country, or were willing to throw them under the bus in the name of being spiteful towards Hillary, trying to ban abortion rights, or combating gay rights. So we're in such worse shape than we seemed to be...
I exaggerated when I say 'landslide', take that from a no-sleeping lady at what-the-hell-AM looking at a map of the country and counting how many things lit up red, like you say, Hilary won the popular vote
As far as the voter apathy for 40-something% of the country? We've always struggled with voter turnout, and sadly it seems that on both sides we've never had more disliked candidates, I won't even start for the turnout of 110,000 who showed up to post blank ballots or the 11,000 who wrote down 'Harambe' as their vote...
Yeah, the people spoke, or, rather, didn't, as was their right to do so, we can blame any number of things, but it doesn't change much just now, although I am heartened by a lot of newly elected representatives who've came out of the woodwork and a collective shout that we're not all just taking this lying down, while there may be much to regret, there's still a lot to be thankful for
Heck, even kids cartoons and comics and such have LGBT characters now, it feels like we're reaching a point somewhere where LGBT characters are able to be shown off in stories and people just don't even need to blink
Normal is going to be a word that might be tested over the next few years, but I figure we just need to keep going about as normal as we can and keep pushing where we can, there's still plenty left to fight for
It'll be nice to see if maybe Trump can be reigned in from all the Rally rhetoric and be more like the Trump who gave his acceptance speech the other night
*Hugs* it's pretty much a sit and wait game, not like doing nothing and sitting worrying will make this any better >_>
True, we just have to wait and see what happens next, and hope for the best.
I don't know as much where to chalk this one up on shock of loss or change, but certainly I'm much calmer than I was on the results coming in
Sadly, I failed on that front and may have burned myself out on politics for the next week or two to offer any worthwhile interaction, lol, but, I'd like to say first I didn't mean to worry you as much as I did, I must say I scared myself at just some of the thoughts that ran through my head at the time it was all announced
I think there's a big precedent on this kind of reaction and certainly I've seen it elsewhere in a lot of places, in fact as part of my slump I've sat in work and ran through so many facts and figures about the election results that it showed how divided the country really is - not as extreme as war, but, certainly anything nowadays - that about 4 in 10 people, including our politicians themselves, are legit afraid that the other party being in power could be potentially threatening to them
So, I guess we just need to find three more of me somewhere to fill out the numbers, lol?
I would like to stop here and say that it meant a lot reading through your reply here, I appreciate your thoughts, and especially your sentiment at the end about keeping an eye on him yourself, that's as much I think I can ask of anyone and it's a really big thing to hear, kind of what I'd - hoped - would come through in the thoughts I vomited up on the journal
I can't say much of anything what's happening, and a lot of people are scared, but 2008, black people didn't invade the suburbs and a whole bunch of other elections fears never materialised, while Trump isn't the man I'd respect, as a Commander in Chief he'll have... well, something not-quite respect but certainly a good few steps above insubordination at least, he'll be given his chance and weighed appropriately from there
Time and reflection certainly helped me calm down from the initial hysteria, but having people around to help definitely sped up that recovery
There's a lot I don't want to talk about for fear of ripping open stuff I'm still worried about, but I'd definitely still be up for talking more, so thanks for coming to help out and I hope to hear from you again really soon
Currently me and folks at work are putting a picture up of him to compare and see in four years time how he looks, or if he'll hit a late Regan years era by the end, lol, oldest man to be elected
Just look at Obama how young he was and how he looks now, it's going to be pretty telling
Still, a lot to watch out for, although that conversation, and Chupi's above can wait for another day methinks
Yup, things get lost, tied up, and buried under so much red tape you could drown, but, on the whole it gets things right when it can count, just sad to say that a lot of folks have felt let down on this one
We'll recover, if my parents could survive George Bush, I'm sure I'll survive this one too, lol
The campaign promise that did worry me, for you and others, is the repeal of the Affordable Care Act. I'm hoping that was just another wild claim he made to garner votes without any real intention of following through.
I did spend a lot of time fixated over the shock of the election >_> well, less than two weeks later and we haven't started tearing each other apart, then again, I can't speak for every other dinner table this Thanksgiving, lol
Trump's Cabinet so far isn't shaping up great, but it's nice to see at least a few of his promises he's already backed out of so far, looks like the ACA will just get a new label if we're lucky