I get the emotion of the moment. Seriously, I do. I feel it myself.
But reading what fellow liberals are saying, and not just here, it makes me wonder whether they expect me to go on. Either I’ll die in a nuclear holocaust, outside a hospital for lack of insurance, in a Christian concentration camp, or under ten feet of water as the tides roll in, and there’s nothing I can do but wait for it to claim me and everyone I love.
Like I said, I get anxiety. I get frustration, disappointment, despair. But I’m also getting kind of tired of them. Again, I understand emotion of the moment, but when you say that no one will care about people dying for lack of insurance, or that the EPA is history and global warming is unstoppable, or that the Suoreme Court is now a conservative bastion for the next fifty years, what do you all expect me to do? Roll over and die? The people have spoken, and that’s it, we’re all done now?
That’s why I posted what I did in Elections: because I wanted to get a real sense of what I’m facing here. Because in the end, I’m hoping that very few people have given up.
I live in Missouri. I stayed up to watch the election results.
When it seemed that Trump was ever closer to winning, but didn’t quite have the electoral votes yet, the race for a Missouri senate seat was called for the incumbent Republican Roy Blunt. His opponent, 35-year-old Democrat Jason Kander, gave a speech that was inspiring to me.
Like I said, I get that. I guess I feel like some posts are almost trying to… I dunno, actively push that hopelessness onto me. I know that’s not the intent, at least consciously, but maybe it’s just another kind of visceral reaction.
I’m devastated, but I choose to be optimistic in the long run. Optimism is a choice – the same choice MLK Jr. and Nelson Mandela made when facing far worse circumstances than us. If they hadn’t, they wouldn’t have accomplished anything at all. I urge other liberals to make the same choice.
I’m quite certain that not every single person who is a Republican/conservative/someone-who-didn’t-vote-for-Hillary is in reality a racist, sexist, xenophobe. If everyone would just step back from the ledge and take a deep breath, I’m pretty sure that together we will somehow find a way to make it through the next four years without bringing on the apocalypse.
ETA: re-reading the threat title, I feel obliged to disclose - I’m not a ‘liberal’. At least, I don’t think I am…sometimes it’s hard to tell these days; the lines keep shifting.
I haven’t given up. I’m actually cautiously optimistic, and I think I’m glad that the R’s have all three branches. Here’s my reasoning: Fine, you fix it.
I mean, really, let’s see what they’ve got. I happen to think their ideas suck, but maybe I’m wrong. It’s not like government has been functioning brilliantly these past many years. If they fuck everything up, they’ll have to take responsibility for it, because hey, they’ve got control. So bring it.
I’m curious about how the health care situation is going to go (I have have the luxury of curiosity because I’m in the military health care system–I realize others have cause to panic.) Obamacare did get a lot of people insurance, but “affordable” it is not for anyone that doesn’t get subsidies. It’s not a great program, and I think the massive cost increases for shitty coverage are a big part of why Clinton lost this. But if they just repeal it, all those with the pre-exisiting conditions are going to be fucked, and there is going to be backlash. I also doubt costs are going to go down significantly. So maybe when repealing it doesn’t fix anything, they’ll start to look at the only real reasonable solution, which is single payer. Maybe they’ll manage to get a real solution passed if they can take credit for it.
I’m sure you’ll all point and laugh and call me an idiot, but there you go. I don’t think the world is going to end. Let’s see what happens.
In what world have you been living for the past 25 years? Can you name 6 things considered “less than good” that Republicans have taken responsibility for? Everything bad that happens, everything they don’t do, everything they do that fails, will be the fault of Obama, or of Democrats, or of foreigners or illegal immigrants or terrorists or refugees… Republicans, the “party of personal responsibility”, NEVER take responsibility for anything that goes wrong. Why do you think it will be different now?
Half the outrage is because poll after poll and analysis after analysis showed that Hillary had pretty much already won. It’s one thing to lose when you can see the loss coming. It’s another to get sucker punched.
And it’s one thing to lose to a 1%er like Mitt Romney, or an irascible asshole like John McCain, or even an amiable dipshit like George Bush. It’s another to lose to a literal antichrist like Trump. I mean antichrist not in the mythological sense, but in the practical sense of someone who, if they had a contest to design a person as different from Jesus Christ as possible, that person created in a lab would be Donald Trump.
Yes, great, terrific, I totally agree. What does that mean for my little rant?
Things suck, yes. Swell, I know that. But what do these people expect me to do? Go home to my young nephews, give them a hug, and tell them they won’t live to be my age, that their lives and their world are over before they start, and they should just sit with me and wait for the end?
Fuck. That. Shit. I feel more defiant just thinking about it. And this is crap from people on my ideological side! Who the hell is it helping telling people it’s hopeless? Themselves, because misery loves company, and they want commiseration.
Oh, but they’re just facing reality, and making others do the same! Wonderful! I’m glad you have the courage of your convictions to get other people to lose all hope! I’m sure that’ll make you feel so much better!
Just… tell me what you want to do. Tell me what you want your fellow travelers to do, the rest of the world to do. If you want us to sit by you at the beach and let the climate-surge waves to wash over us, fine, but for God’s sake, at least be open and honest about it.
Phew. Sorry. Still a little wound up and no sleep, and I still have work to do.
I honestly think you might be the one letting your emotions rule when it comes to this issue.
And no, you shouldn’t give up. I’m not going to give up, for example, trying to save the ACA. But realism is a good thing. We will probably fail. That doesn’t mean it’s not worth doing. And hopefully we’ll learn things along the way, and teach things, and hear things, and say things so that the next time it goes better.
I don’t agree with you about what pols have or haven’t factored in. That doesn’t mean I think you should go jump off a bridge.
There’s an entire Pit thread about how everything is hopeless, and that nothing will save us from a climate apocalypse now. I don’t know about you, but that sure sounds like a jump invitation to me.
I’ve only read a few threads, mostly about health/ACA issues, so I don’t know what people are talking about otherwise. There’s a reason I snipped just the portion I snipped!
Some people are genuinely in shock and worried. Some people just really like drama! All the drama! All the drama and angst and DRAMA! Big events bring out the big drama in some people. All you can do is ignore, sigh patiently, and liberally flip off your computer screen. It helps!
Not going to call you an idiot or point and laugh. Except for the part about being in the military health care system, I could’ve written your post. I’m so angry I can hardly see straight, but I’m also trying HARD to keep perspective. We will get through this one way or another. In the meantime, I echo your sentiments that hey now it’s all on them. Repub president, repub Congress - ok, smart guys, let’s see you do better. Let’s see you make America great. We’ll just be over here watching very closely and scrutinizing your every move and breath, biding our time for two years. And then two more. If you can pull some fantastic rabbits outta the hat for the whole country, AWESOME! But if you can’t, you got nowhere to hide and no excuses now.
But that said in my networks I am seeing some people going into a state that really worries me about them. They are acting and speaking as if their doom is sealed, in a scale I did not see after previous ideological routs.
Ignore crap like that. This is no time to take the bait of those who would quit so easily. Yes, easily! Sure it’s been a wacky cycle and Trump is a new “type” to run and win, but time will fly and another cycle will be upon us before you know it. How things go then has everything to do with what people do NOW, and who is left standing and ready to get back out there.
Sure it’s depressing as hell in this moment, but anything worth having is worth fighting for. Keep in mind that it looks like Clinton won the popular vote. That means for all the talk about a Trump “mandate” in fact more than half the voting public does NOT want what he was peddling. If some Dems are so weak of will that they’ll throw in the towel over one election cycle, the country might be better off without them anyway.
Everything’s not hopeless, by a long a shot. Those of us who have been around for a while and aren’t new to following politics are not as shaken by this. Mad as hell, yes, but far from discouraged. To the contrary. It’s re-upped motivation, friend. Motivation.
