Thoughts about the election and beyond
I know I don't post here that often anymore, but I kinda need a place to collect my thoughts. Given that my wife is still preparing for the apocalypse and our Mad Max future, I don't have too many sane people to talk about my thoughts. You can choose to ignore if you wish.
I'll be honest, I didn't think things were going this way so solidly. Yeah, yeah, I know Hilary won the popular vote, but that's like saying you got the most hits in Baseball, or the most yards in Football. It doesn't win you the game. The Dems lost big across the board, and there needs to be some serious soul searching about how to get back on track. It still irks me that the country has rewarded the GOP for acting like petulant children. Well, now they will need to add something to their record other than we stopped the other guy from doing something. I also don't think tearing down the government is going to earn them the kudos they think they are going to get.
So, in the end white privilege gets one last gasp before hopefully we can put it away for good. I guess in a year with Black Lives Matter and mass shootings, and the longer term death of blue collar jobs and the middle class in general that there would be an opposing force pushing back. Also, years of fear mongering from conservative radio, Fox News and the GOP has kinda primed the rise of someone like Donald Trump. I had just thought that at some point, like in previous years, people would be scared away by someone who was clearly not qualified for the job. But, I guess those who voted thought that was a feature, instead of the bug that it is. Personally, I think Trump is the modern embodiment of Harold Hill: a salesman who arrived in River City selling a dream, preying on the fears of the town elders, but doesn't really have 76 trombones in his carpetbag. (Course, I envision that instead of romancing Marion, he'd molest her in the stacks.)
There is a lot of questions about what do we do about these voters. There seems to be two storylines out there. The first is to try to understand and maybe empathize with these voters and see how the gap can be bridged without alienating minority voters. The other is screw them, they elected a race-baiting con man. We should just wait until they all die off. While I can empathize with that a bit, getting into a pissing contest about who has it worse is no solution. While there are always going to be people you can't reach, fact is, we did have enough of them to elect a dangerous man President. That's what happens when people feel disenfranchised.
Course, what do I know? I'm just a well off white guy. But, while me and my family will likely be fine, many others won't. Best we can do right now is to fight like hell for what we believe in, and try to limit the damage. We live in interesting times. A bit too interesting for my tastes.
I'll be honest, I didn't think things were going this way so solidly. Yeah, yeah, I know Hilary won the popular vote, but that's like saying you got the most hits in Baseball, or the most yards in Football. It doesn't win you the game. The Dems lost big across the board, and there needs to be some serious soul searching about how to get back on track. It still irks me that the country has rewarded the GOP for acting like petulant children. Well, now they will need to add something to their record other than we stopped the other guy from doing something. I also don't think tearing down the government is going to earn them the kudos they think they are going to get.
So, in the end white privilege gets one last gasp before hopefully we can put it away for good. I guess in a year with Black Lives Matter and mass shootings, and the longer term death of blue collar jobs and the middle class in general that there would be an opposing force pushing back. Also, years of fear mongering from conservative radio, Fox News and the GOP has kinda primed the rise of someone like Donald Trump. I had just thought that at some point, like in previous years, people would be scared away by someone who was clearly not qualified for the job. But, I guess those who voted thought that was a feature, instead of the bug that it is. Personally, I think Trump is the modern embodiment of Harold Hill: a salesman who arrived in River City selling a dream, preying on the fears of the town elders, but doesn't really have 76 trombones in his carpetbag. (Course, I envision that instead of romancing Marion, he'd molest her in the stacks.)
There is a lot of questions about what do we do about these voters. There seems to be two storylines out there. The first is to try to understand and maybe empathize with these voters and see how the gap can be bridged without alienating minority voters. The other is screw them, they elected a race-baiting con man. We should just wait until they all die off. While I can empathize with that a bit, getting into a pissing contest about who has it worse is no solution. While there are always going to be people you can't reach, fact is, we did have enough of them to elect a dangerous man President. That's what happens when people feel disenfranchised.
Course, what do I know? I'm just a well off white guy. But, while me and my family will likely be fine, many others won't. Best we can do right now is to fight like hell for what we believe in, and try to limit the damage. We live in interesting times. A bit too interesting for my tastes.