"How could this happen?" - well....
I am virtually hugging all friends and family who are massively disappointed about the election right now. I am not happy either. I am figuring out ways to deal, from denial (what election?) to countdowns (729 days until we can vote in new senators and reps! 1459 days until we can vote for another president!) to what will possibly sound like huge amounts of ridiculous optimism.
It is okay if you don't want to read this. It is okay if you take refuge in booze or chocolate today. I sympathize. But part of my anxiety is the MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE! of putting up a coping framework, and that is what I'm doing here. Feel free to skip all of it! No one should have to deal today! I plan on mainlining old eps of Friends and the entire run of Luke Cage while eating popcorn and caffeine starting as soon as my fingers leave this keyboard!
I know some people (at least judging by Twitter) are freaking out that someone as objectively horrible as Donald Trump was elected. (PTUIE.) "WHY? HOW? IS THE WORLD FULL OF RACIST SEXIST ASSHOLES? WHY?"
As someone in a Red State (I was one of only 55,000 people out of 225k in Wyoming voting for Hillary), I can say: No. I've read a lot this year, I've listened to the people I know who were not going to vote for Hillary Clinton if you put a gun to their heads, and it comes down to what some pundit said: she has no magic. She's too well-known. She's been in the political game going on 25 years, she's made compromises, everyone knows her; some people hate her voting on Iraq, some people think she's a crook, and some people just think she's a liar. Some people find the whole thing with the email server really unsettling. She wasn't running against Trump, she was running against 25 years of disinformation and misinformation, as much as her own reality as a smart woman Democrat.
Trump barely registered with the people I know. Most of the women I know who were *going* to vote for him, were going to vote for Johnson, last time I checked, after the last round of reveals. Before that, they all said "he'll get good advisors!"
Ahahahahah oh well. They'll learn. Although I do wonder how many Cabinet members he'll run through in his first year. I should check out the Vegas betting circles for the odds.
So! Coping mechanisms:
- The Countdown, mentioned before.
- The Avoidance. I will not be watching any inaugurations, State of the Union addresses, political news, or well, anything, at least for the next 730 days. I know this may make me cringingly ignorant, but it also will keep me from freaking out. I'm going to miss NPR, except for Science Fridays.
- Remind myself that I survived Reagan. Some of you younger people (GET OFF MY LAWN) may be having anxiety attacks about how upcoming Pres T. will handle Russia and Putin. I share your fears, I do. I remember being convinced that nuclear war was just around the corner for most of my high school years. Just remind yourself that we got through the 1980's, and Ronnie Reagan was not actually any kind of political genius.
- Work out how you want to apologize to the world, if and when you feel that soon-to-be-Pres.-T will embarrass us. I am thinking that we need new Hallmark cards, and possibly ice cream, to give out to anyone along or borders, or who will be in any way impacted. "Sorry our President is offensive and offending" along with some good chocolate will at least show the goodwill he's probably not going to try to show.
- Recount the vote numbers, and realize that while 114 million people voted, 100 million people of voting age didn't. While Donald Trump won by about 34 electoral votes over the minimum (a 6% margin), and 740 thousand actual votes (as of this writing) -- that is only a 1/2 of 1% margin of the people who voted. We have plenty of leeway there to both deny him any kind of 'mandate of the people' and to maintain hope for getting him out of office in 1459 days.
- Remember! 4 years is less than most TV show seasons you are probably watching! It is way less than The West Wing! If you can last through that many seasons of Arrow or Teen Wolf, you can survive this upcoming presidency!
- Again, Vegas. Bets on impeachment/criminal proceedings/filibusters/the next gaffe are probably being taken now. Make some money off Mr. Trump this way, because I can't guarantee anything else.
- Somewhere, just around a quantum corner, we will have President Hillary Clinton in January. I may construct a very elaborate head-canon for that world. You are welcome to live there too, when you absolutely need to.
If you did vote for Donald Trump, well. I hope to be proven wrong. I hope and hope and hope that he has good advisors. I hope and hope that he learns to control his temper in public. I hope that his lack of experience in government does not lead to any mis-steps we can't come back from. I hope that ... something good comes out of this.
(1459 days and counting.)
It is okay if you don't want to read this. It is okay if you take refuge in booze or chocolate today. I sympathize. But part of my anxiety is the MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE! of putting up a coping framework, and that is what I'm doing here. Feel free to skip all of it! No one should have to deal today! I plan on mainlining old eps of Friends and the entire run of Luke Cage while eating popcorn and caffeine starting as soon as my fingers leave this keyboard!
I know some people (at least judging by Twitter) are freaking out that someone as objectively horrible as Donald Trump was elected. (PTUIE.) "WHY? HOW? IS THE WORLD FULL OF RACIST SEXIST ASSHOLES? WHY?"
As someone in a Red State (I was one of only 55,000 people out of 225k in Wyoming voting for Hillary), I can say: No. I've read a lot this year, I've listened to the people I know who were not going to vote for Hillary Clinton if you put a gun to their heads, and it comes down to what some pundit said: she has no magic. She's too well-known. She's been in the political game going on 25 years, she's made compromises, everyone knows her; some people hate her voting on Iraq, some people think she's a crook, and some people just think she's a liar. Some people find the whole thing with the email server really unsettling. She wasn't running against Trump, she was running against 25 years of disinformation and misinformation, as much as her own reality as a smart woman Democrat.
Trump barely registered with the people I know. Most of the women I know who were *going* to vote for him, were going to vote for Johnson, last time I checked, after the last round of reveals. Before that, they all said "he'll get good advisors!"
Ahahahahah oh well. They'll learn. Although I do wonder how many Cabinet members he'll run through in his first year. I should check out the Vegas betting circles for the odds.
So! Coping mechanisms:
- The Countdown, mentioned before.
- The Avoidance. I will not be watching any inaugurations, State of the Union addresses, political news, or well, anything, at least for the next 730 days. I know this may make me cringingly ignorant, but it also will keep me from freaking out. I'm going to miss NPR, except for Science Fridays.
- Remind myself that I survived Reagan. Some of you younger people (GET OFF MY LAWN) may be having anxiety attacks about how upcoming Pres T. will handle Russia and Putin. I share your fears, I do. I remember being convinced that nuclear war was just around the corner for most of my high school years. Just remind yourself that we got through the 1980's, and Ronnie Reagan was not actually any kind of political genius.
- Work out how you want to apologize to the world, if and when you feel that soon-to-be-Pres.-T will embarrass us. I am thinking that we need new Hallmark cards, and possibly ice cream, to give out to anyone along or borders, or who will be in any way impacted. "Sorry our President is offensive and offending" along with some good chocolate will at least show the goodwill he's probably not going to try to show.
- Recount the vote numbers, and realize that while 114 million people voted, 100 million people of voting age didn't. While Donald Trump won by about 34 electoral votes over the minimum (a 6% margin), and 740 thousand actual votes (as of this writing) -- that is only a 1/2 of 1% margin of the people who voted. We have plenty of leeway there to both deny him any kind of 'mandate of the people' and to maintain hope for getting him out of office in 1459 days.
- Remember! 4 years is less than most TV show seasons you are probably watching! It is way less than The West Wing! If you can last through that many seasons of Arrow or Teen Wolf, you can survive this upcoming presidency!
- Again, Vegas. Bets on impeachment/criminal proceedings/filibusters/the next gaffe are probably being taken now. Make some money off Mr. Trump this way, because I can't guarantee anything else.
- Somewhere, just around a quantum corner, we will have President Hillary Clinton in January. I may construct a very elaborate head-canon for that world. You are welcome to live there too, when you absolutely need to.
If you did vote for Donald Trump, well. I hope to be proven wrong. I hope and hope and hope that he has good advisors. I hope and hope that he learns to control his temper in public. I hope that his lack of experience in government does not lead to any mis-steps we can't come back from. I hope that ... something good comes out of this.
(1459 days and counting.)