Not in reaction to what he does, necessarily, just the fact of his presidency to begin with.
Part of the reason I ask is that I’m curious about some of the (sometimes at least half joking) reactions like moving to another country or investing in bomb shelter stocks or whatever. And yes, I’m curious because quite a few people here seem to have decided that there’s little or no hope for the future, and I wonder if they’ve done concrete anything as a result (even just giving up on job advancement or saving money or having a family or whatever would be examples), or if it’s just a form of venting.
I am trying to read the news more carefully, so that I stay in command of the facts. And I try to have polite discussions about current affairs with people who disagree with me politically (and do at least as much listening to them as I do talking).
I’ve stated this before, we plan and live our lives to insulate ourselves from the political and economic winds. Things change, regimes change, economies go up and down. These changes are as certain as the sunrise. I think it’s foolish to become so involved or tied to particular groups that your life is being buffeted by the actions of either politicians, preachers, pop-stars, or businesses leaders. On election night, we chuckled and predicted “the corrupt asshole” would likely be the winner and went to bed. We were certain to be correct, but didn’t find out which asshole until Wed morning.
So, other than slight investment changes, nothing’s different. We’re living the same way, doing the same things as before. Just as we would’ve had the other side won.
Just back from our yearly winter Caribbean respite in St Martin.
I avoided any mention of politics/nationality/world affairs, and it seemed most people behaved similarly. If a TV was on, tuned to the inauguration news, the volume was turned down.
Contrast that with our trip (same week) in '09. Islanders were excited about Obama’s inauguration, would fist-pump, smile, and say, “go USA!!” Politics was a part of every discussion, all positive. There was a party atmosphere.
Since the election, it’s been a lot harder to go back to sleep when I wake up in the middle of the night.
But in terms of actions, I’ve been calling my Congresscritters a lot more. I think one of Sen. Van Hollen’s staffers recognizes my voice.
In terms of my own life, nothing yet. But if the ACA bites the dust, it will make the difference between my wife (nearly 11 years younger than me, but in iffy health) being able to retire sometime around when I do, or having to work until she’s 65 and can go on Medicare just to maintain her job-related health insurance.
And if they make Medicare a ‘premium support’ program…well, that’s too horrible to contemplate. She’d have to work forever, just to keep her health insurance.
I’m borderline ashamed to admit it, but the main effect it has had on me is to sour me on politics as a topic of interest. I don’t want to watch the carnage as it takes place. I don’t want to know the day to day details. I’m tuning out as much as I can.
We prepared to go a month without electricity or access to stores. We live in a place where natural disasters that are middling-likely could easily cut us off from all the established transportation routes, and we don’t have much faith in this administration to administer aid quickly if that happens. So, shelf-stable food, oil lamps and kerosene, things like that. I’m more likely to buy physical copies of books, because without power, my Kindle won’t last long.
Emotionally, it’s been a roller coaster. I’m having to remove myself from a lot of the internet interaction I used to do.
My wife has always had a pantry stockpiled with food (not in a weird prepper way), even back when I was making a six-figure salary. She feels good having a pantry with shelves and shelves of food and water and juices, etc. It actually helped us get through the year and a half I was out of work a few years ago.
Well, she’s begun stocking up on the basics (beans, rice, water, canned protein, etc) with a renewed vigor. We’re also getting some chickens in the spring (which was something my wife’s been kicking around for a couple years anyway). Nothing we don’t eat a shit-ton of anyways.
We also lost our power a couple weeks ago (first time since moving to the country), and it reminded us that our well doesn’t do us any good without electricity, so we’re adding a hand pump. Prior to the election, a power outage wouldn’t have given us any real concern, but with this unhinged manchild in the WH, and outside forces gunning for us (successfully), food supply and power supply don’t feel as “safe” as they once did.
So we’re not actually doing anything that we hadn’t done in the past, or rigging our home in some spectacularly insane off-the-grid fashion, we’re just feeling the need to not be so reliant on an increasingly-damaged society for our daily needs.
I became an obsessive news watcher. Now again trying to stop that bad habit.
I occasionally still look up right wing sites like Fox to see their take on Trump, though. I never checked out those site before the election.
I donated a little money to independent investigative journalism in the US, like Mother Jones.