Home > Rayne > How I’m Feeling In Light of the Election

How I’m Feeling In Light of the Election

November 17th, 2016

Reppin my team all day every day. You will never silence me.

Reppin my team all day every day. You will never silence me.

So on December 19th, and despite the fact that he lost the popular vote, the Electoral College will be electing Donald Trump to the office of Commander In Chief. Some say he won through voter fraud. Some say he won through voter suppression. But regardless of how he won, a proud racist rapist is going to be President of the United States.

Excuse me while I ugly cry. Again.

I’ve waited this long to post anything about it because I couldn’t talk about it without devolving into hysterics.

I keep having to stop and really think about what I want to say, because I want to make sense. I wanted to somehow talk about the election without calling out Trump supporters and 3rd party voters for their fucked up world view and ass-backwards logic. I wanted to believe that even though Donald Trump is openly a racist, a misogynist, a xenophobe, pro-life, and anti-marriage equality, things will be fine. Our country will be fine. Life will go on just like it always has.

But then the statistics from exit polls showed that white America happily trotted to the polls to vote a classist, racist, xenophobic, homophobic misogynist into office. And then Donald Trump picked Reince Priebus to be his Chief of Staff. And then he picked Steve Bannon, a known white supremacist and anti-semite, to be his chief strategist. And Trump’s tax plan is purported to raise taxes by about $3k for single mothers while drastically lowering taxes for the rich.

And holy shit. How can anyone claim Trump’s presidency is going to be a good thing?

This keeps popping up all over social media:

amazingpeople

For those who use readers, it says:

Some of the most incredible people I know voted for Donald Trump, and some of the most incredible people I know voted for Hillary Clinton. The people that I know that voted for Trump are not racist, misogynistic, or hateful, and the people that voted for Hillary Clinton are not hateful and intolerable. If you are someone who woke up this morning and is going to start seeing people as who they voted for, and not as the person you have always known them to be, then you are what is wrong with America. I will never think any less of any person who has different views than me, because some of the most beautiful, inspirational people I know will disagree with what I believe all day long, but at the end of the day they are still that beautiful inspirational person I have always known them as. Don’t think less of people because some of their beliefs don’t align with yours, and don’t lose quality people in your life because you choose hate over love.

And while it’s a beautiful sentiment, few things since the election (besides the hate speech/crimes and Donald Trump’s decisions thus far) have angered me as much as this fucking comment. Because it’s not as simple as that.

It’s not just, “Oh, Gramma always gets me what I want for Christmas, and makes sure we all have everything we need, and goes to church every Sunday, and runs the can drive every Thanksgiving, and I can’t get mad at her for voting for someone I don’t like.”

It’s, “Gramma does all these great things that make her seem like a really amazing person, but at the end of the day, she voted to put a racist who is proud of the fact that he sexually assaults women in the Oval Office.”

And yo, I’m not trying to hate on your gramma, but no matter which way you slice it, that’s so fucked up.

You don’t get to claim benevolence when you literally voted in support of bigotry and oppression. You don’t get to say you’re a “good” person when you flat out ignore all the bad things a person has done because…I don’t fucking know why. Because you’re mad at the DNC? Because Hillary’s emails? Because you think a man who’s bankrupted 6 companies and had 11 others outright fail is going to somehow fix our economy? Because you believed a pathological liar when he said he would “drain the swamp?” I don’t know.

I don’t interact with most of my family. I have a tendency to just stop talking to people who do fucked up shit and refuse to apologize for it, and my family is known for that. I also have a tendency to be really protective of my mother, because she won’t stand up for herself, and most of her family treated her terribly when my grandfather died because they were all money hungry…and then never apologized for it.

So I don’t talk to them. What’s the point? They’re all a bunch of stubborn (where’d you think I got it from?), selfish assholes who can’t even take their heads out of their asses long enough to treat their family right.

Today, I wish I did. Today, I wish I could say I don’t talk to them because of their stupid politics. But in reality, I don’t even know their politics because I don’t talk to them.

I tried to talk to my father during the primaries. I tried to calmly explain why Donald Trump was bad for the Republican party AND the nation. He told me he wasn’t interested in discussing politics with me, and then rushed me off the phone.

I knew he was going to vote Republican the second Hillary won the Democratic nomination, but by then, it was already too late. By then, he’d already flown into a rage because I called his party’s nominee a bigot. By then, he’d already stopped talking to me.

I get health updates through my sister, now…when I get them. He “forgot” my birthday. I don’t expect to hear from him on Thanksgiving or Christmas. And I won’t lie. It makes me really sad. But I’m not going to sit here and pretend that my father is a “good” person just because he’s my father and I love him. A “good” person wouldn’t have voted for Donald Trump. Period.

But enough of that. Enough wishing things were different. Enough feeling sorry for myself and my country. It’s time for action. So here are some things you can do:

  • Hillary Clinton is currently ahead in the popular vote by over one million votes. Some media sites are estimating that she will finish with a two million vote lead, and others are estimating that she’ll finish with a four million vote lead. Sign this petition to ask the Electoral College to go with the popular vote.
  • If you think that every vote should count equally, sign this petition to abolish the Electoral College and use the popular vote from now on so that this will not happen in future elections. They deleted this petition from the White House website.
  • Write to your state’s Electoral College members personally. Politely explain why you are against Donald Trump being our president, provide credible sources for your information, and ask them to vote with the popular vote on December 19th. Here’s a list of them. Here’s a tool to email them. There is a list of all the members that includes their personal information and color coding to show who might be willing to listen and who you shouldn’t contact. I’m not sure how I feel about this, so I’m not sharing it. But if you search “electoral college members” on Twitter, it won’t take you long to find it.
  • Sign this petition to keep Steve Bannon out of the White House.
  • Speak up. Talk to your friends. Talk to your family. Online, in real life, however you’re most comfortable. Find out who they voted for, why they voted that way, and what needs to happen for them to change their mind before the next election if they voted Republican down their ticket. Then work to change their mind. And, you know, maybe have the hard conversations. Like how they literally voted in support of blatantly anti-woman, anti-LGBT, anti-POC, anti-people with disabilities, anti-people who aren’t Christian rhetoric, and what kind of person that makes them.
  • Protest. If you can’t do it in person, that’s okay! Not all of us can. Do it by adding the new Buycott app to your phone so you can keep up with the list of products being boycotted as it grows so companies supporting this administration will feel the effects in their wallets. Do it by speaking out and speaking up offline and on all of your social media.

And that’s all I’ve got to say about that. For now. I won’t promise I won’t say anything more on another day. <3

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  1. dweaver999
    November 17th, 2016 at 20:42 | #1

    Rayne,
    I too, have issues with how this election went. A man who used the campaign tactics of Hitler is now the president-elect of the US. I have friends who voted for Trump, and they have not been secretive about why. In a nutshell, these friends, HONESTLY BELIEVE that the Clintons, Hillary, Bill, the foundation, have murdered dozens of people who have threatened their access to power. From their view point, the lesser of two evils was between someone who is racist et.al. or someone who is a “proven” murderer, who would no doubt, use her power as president to commit even more murders.

    They may well be stupid, with a capital S, but they were acting as morally correct as their personal beliefs allowed them to. I’d like to think that there aren’t that many truly stupid idiot out there, but at 57, I know better. One of these rocket scientists STILL believed that Obama is not a natural citizen of the US, that the birth certificates were falsified, and that having only one citizen as a parent isn’t enough (it is).

    We may or may not get through a Trump presidency intact as a nation. But, when history looks back on this day, it will say that Nov 8, 2016 is the day that America ceased to be a great nation, but instead, become just another of the myriad of nations that make political decisions based on hate and fear. It’s so sad, really.

    Dave

  2. November 18th, 2016 at 11:30 | #2

    @dweaver999 I’ve run out of give a damn for the conspiracy theorists. Being too stupid to learn the truth on your own in the age of the Internet is not an excuse. It’s the literal definition of willful ignorance.

    I hope that if we can’t figure out a way to keep Trump from being our president, we will be able to mend the rifts he and his Republican Congress cause. But I’m scared. I’m scared to wear my Pride pin out. I’m scared of what’s going to happen to the economy. I’m scared of what’s going to happen to my friends who are POC, and my friends who are poor, and…I’m just plain scared. A presidential election shouldn’t invoke this much fear.

    Sigh.

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