I'm afraid of a people who voted for him, who think that belligerence, bullying and hate are the way to go, and who aren't concerned with civil rights because they've never experienced racism, sexism, discrimination due to a disability or hate because of the way they were born. Not all Americans have the same privilege.
I'm afraid for the angry young people who are enraged by the fact that, in a state like ours, our votes don't even count because of the electoral college. They have every right to their frustration, but less idea of the fact that rioting doesn't solve anything and tends to make these situations worse. I hope that they will be smart enough to see the potential consequences of their actions and channel their anger into something that will actually create change.
I'm afraid that now the ultra-rich are in power, and the middle class will continue to disappear and we will be made to carry even more of the tax and social burdens that our government doesn't see fit to care about, especially since the new President-elect has the House and Senate on his side.
Finally, I'm afraid of losing all of the social progress we've made over the last several years, and of our country again devolving into a place where people's morality is legislated, and people who don't fit into the narrow, heterosexual and/or same race box can't choose the person with whom they want to spend their lives. These are personal moral and ethical choices, not a matter for anyone to have a say in besides the people directly involved. All types of people...they're people. Just people. Doing what they need to do to get along in life and have a little piece of happiness.
I will not leave, I will not run, but so help me, I will not stand for the people I love having to hide in the shadows again. And I will sit tight and keep hoping for an America with class and manners.
Not holding my breath for that last one.
Kind of want to barf.
A few thoughts that I truly hope you find helpful, perhaps even comforting.
ReplyDeleteWhile I did not support Trump personally, I know many who did. None of them have the "deplorable" beliefs ascribed to them and none of them voted for him in support of any of the policy prospects you describe. Rather, all supported him in backlash against (1) overreaching executive power on a massive scale that has occurred the past eight years (and started during the GWB administration), (2) the increasing perception of "insider" led policies from the federal government, and, probably most of all, (3) a potential leader of the free world who demonstrated a likelihood of selling the prestige and power of that office to anyone willing to pay tens or hundreds of millions of dollars (even those who are high up on foreign regimes that themselves stand strongly against all of the social "progress" you highlight).
And, frankly, many of his more affirmative supporters (some of whom include people I know quite well) responded in backlash against precisely these sort of mischaracterizations. His supporters were not all rubes, deplorables, backwoods hicks, racists, facists, etc. Treating them as such -- and publicly denouncing those who believed HRC presented a serious threat to this constitutional republic as idiots was probably also a factor in increasing support for Trump. Certainly he had some truly awful people that supported him. The same is quite true for the Democratic nominee, the Green party nominee, and the Libertarian nominee.
I hope there is at least some comfort in knowing that even if you disagree with this reasoning, many (MANY) who ended up supporting Trump did so with objectively legitimate reasons (i.e. it is objectively legitimate to support a seriously flawed candidate out of concern that the other option poses a more serious threat, even if you disagree with the accuracy of that calculation).
I get all of that, but Trump's lack of heart, empathy, tact, and diplomacy are a huge deal to me, along with the fact that other countries may view our country as a big old reality show. I have many friends who voted for Trump that are educated, sane people, and I respect their opinions. But I'm still terrified.
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