political mumbo jumbo
Hey. So, I know I literally never get on livejournal anymore, oops @ me, but I was just taking a journey through my flist to see how you guys are doing, and I saw a lot of very upset posts in the wake of Tuesday's rather surprising (in all the bad ways) election.
I'm with you. I was a wreck all night that night, and I've pretty much been a wreck ever since. It's not even that he's a "Republican," that I could deal with, parties shift and go back and forth and all that, but it's him, it's a monster. It's a man who openly mocked disabled people, mocked Veterans suffering from PTSD, mocked Purple Heart families, was so openly racist and sexist I throw up in my mouth whenever I think about it, and so on. It's awful and disgusting, and I've felt betrayed by my country since Tuesday. I can't even imagine how minority groups are feeling right now. I still feel like this is some surreal nightmare that I might wake up from soon. But alas, it's not.
Anyway, I know things seem really hopeless right now, but there are maybe a few brightspots to hold onto going into this mess. First of all, and perhaps most importantly, in just 2 years, in 2018, every single seat in the House of Representitives is up for reelection in Congress. Every single seat. That's 435 seats. There's also going to be a large amount of Senate seats up for reelection. So basically, we could take part of our goverment back in just two years. And there's historical precident for this happening. Remember, President Obama only had 2 years out of 8 with a Democraticly held Congress, in the 2010 midterms Republicans took Congress. It happens a lot. We just have to start working for it now, because voter turnout was historically low for this election and it's usually lower for the midterms, so we have hard work ahead of us, but it'll be worth it.
Secondly, Trump did not win the popular vote. The *majority* of Americans do not support that dirtball. I know the numbers that do are still disturbingly high, but keep telling yourself that most Americans did not vote for him. They voted for Hillary, by current numbers of at least over a million more voters. They voted for what could have been the first female president. We'll get there.
Third, this is not a revolution. If you look at the numbers, Trump got less votes than either Romney or McCain received when they lost to Obama. There was not an upturn in people voting for Trump. Really, and I don't know how comforting this really is, the only reason that moldy tangerine won was because a whopping 46% of eligable Americans didn't even bother to vote. Almost half. And that's really depressing and disturbing to me by itself, but what it means is that people weren't surging the polls to vote for racism and sexism and all around awfulness. Nobody was "taking back America." The silent majority was voter apathy, not people who supported Trump, that turd.
Anyway, I'm not going to say everything will be okay, because that's trite and I don't know if it's true. But I do know that whatever happens, we'll get through it. If you can, donate to groups who are going to need the help in the coming years: Planned Parenthood, The Trevor Project, the ACLU, just to name a few. Or donate locally if you know of groups that need the help. Donate your time, or money, or your voice, whatever you can afford. We need to come together and stand strong to overcome whatever is looming in our future. We need to take back Congress in 2018, and in 2020 make sure he's a goddamn one term president. And we can do it, I believe in us and I believe in our country. I keep telling myself this is a final gasp by a fading generation who can't let go of the past, and can't see past their own lives and experiences to see the whole wide, wonderful world beyond their immediate view. Once we get through this, there's nothing holding us back. We just have to persevere, and America is pretty good at that. :)
Anyway, end random political rant from the person who you guys never see anyore. ;) As always, if you want to connect and be friends with me beyond the wasteland that is my livejournal, i'm starkexpo on tumblr, or you can always hit me up to be friends on Facebook if you so choose. I mostly just complain about politics these days there anyway, so. :P And post stuff about my 5 year old niece, who is a character to be sure. But yeah, love you guys a lot, and I know things are hard, but that's why we need to come together now more than ever before. We're strong, we can do this! <3
-Rachael
I'm with you. I was a wreck all night that night, and I've pretty much been a wreck ever since. It's not even that he's a "Republican," that I could deal with, parties shift and go back and forth and all that, but it's him, it's a monster. It's a man who openly mocked disabled people, mocked Veterans suffering from PTSD, mocked Purple Heart families, was so openly racist and sexist I throw up in my mouth whenever I think about it, and so on. It's awful and disgusting, and I've felt betrayed by my country since Tuesday. I can't even imagine how minority groups are feeling right now. I still feel like this is some surreal nightmare that I might wake up from soon. But alas, it's not.
Anyway, I know things seem really hopeless right now, but there are maybe a few brightspots to hold onto going into this mess. First of all, and perhaps most importantly, in just 2 years, in 2018, every single seat in the House of Representitives is up for reelection in Congress. Every single seat. That's 435 seats. There's also going to be a large amount of Senate seats up for reelection. So basically, we could take part of our goverment back in just two years. And there's historical precident for this happening. Remember, President Obama only had 2 years out of 8 with a Democraticly held Congress, in the 2010 midterms Republicans took Congress. It happens a lot. We just have to start working for it now, because voter turnout was historically low for this election and it's usually lower for the midterms, so we have hard work ahead of us, but it'll be worth it.
Secondly, Trump did not win the popular vote. The *majority* of Americans do not support that dirtball. I know the numbers that do are still disturbingly high, but keep telling yourself that most Americans did not vote for him. They voted for Hillary, by current numbers of at least over a million more voters. They voted for what could have been the first female president. We'll get there.
Third, this is not a revolution. If you look at the numbers, Trump got less votes than either Romney or McCain received when they lost to Obama. There was not an upturn in people voting for Trump. Really, and I don't know how comforting this really is, the only reason that moldy tangerine won was because a whopping 46% of eligable Americans didn't even bother to vote. Almost half. And that's really depressing and disturbing to me by itself, but what it means is that people weren't surging the polls to vote for racism and sexism and all around awfulness. Nobody was "taking back America." The silent majority was voter apathy, not people who supported Trump, that turd.
Anyway, I'm not going to say everything will be okay, because that's trite and I don't know if it's true. But I do know that whatever happens, we'll get through it. If you can, donate to groups who are going to need the help in the coming years: Planned Parenthood, The Trevor Project, the ACLU, just to name a few. Or donate locally if you know of groups that need the help. Donate your time, or money, or your voice, whatever you can afford. We need to come together and stand strong to overcome whatever is looming in our future. We need to take back Congress in 2018, and in 2020 make sure he's a goddamn one term president. And we can do it, I believe in us and I believe in our country. I keep telling myself this is a final gasp by a fading generation who can't let go of the past, and can't see past their own lives and experiences to see the whole wide, wonderful world beyond their immediate view. Once we get through this, there's nothing holding us back. We just have to persevere, and America is pretty good at that. :)
Anyway, end random political rant from the person who you guys never see anyore. ;) As always, if you want to connect and be friends with me beyond the wasteland that is my livejournal, i'm starkexpo on tumblr, or you can always hit me up to be friends on Facebook if you so choose. I mostly just complain about politics these days there anyway, so. :P And post stuff about my 5 year old niece, who is a character to be sure. But yeah, love you guys a lot, and I know things are hard, but that's why we need to come together now more than ever before. We're strong, we can do this! <3
-Rachael