This is the biggest difference for me so far (I haven’t done my taxes yet… crossed fingers).
My wife and I have a good friend who we have known for about 20 years and who went to our wedding. We’ve known her to be a kind and compassionate person; most of her Facebook posts are now so far to the right it’s almost unbelievable. Lots of Breitbart and Fox news stuff, calling Clinton “Killary,” and making bigoted comments (but she supports LGBT, except those men in dresses who might harass her daughter in the Target bathroom), she’s admitted online that she’s a white nationalist.
I have reconnected with a lot of Army buddies through Facebook and many of them have similar leanings that I described above. Occasionally I get in long Facebook conversations with Trumpsters and they seem so close-minded and bigoted. I support my arguments with facts or articles from credible sources, they argue back with “Fake News” and articles from Babylon Bee. Many current Republicans seem to have no agenda other than “own the libs, der hur.”
I guess a positive outcome is that I pay a lot more attention to the news.
In a concrete sense of an actual impact, positive or negative… none that I can discern.
In terms of uneasiness about what may happen next, concern about the political process, and interest in its outcomes… a lot. Generally speaking, until Trump, I was fairly comforted in the knowledge that Democrat or Republican, the President would be someone who would behave within the norms and values of the office, and not be a total loose cannon out for their own personal gain.
I don’t think my child would have experienced such gross overt bigotry against her for being Latinx of Clinton had won. Trump’s administration has opened the floodgates. It’s acceptable to see Mexicans as rapists, drug dealers, “invaders”. Children think it’s funny to chant “build that wall!” in the company of Hispanic students. It’s added stress in her life which means it’s even more stressful for me.
I’m definitely more stressed. I never liked Trump. I see how his constant lying, dismissal of facts and inability to show any kind of objectivity has influenced people to think such behavior is OK and acceptable, because he’s the president, and therefore a role model. It makes me more reluctant to socialize with people. What if they’re Trump supporters? I used to have that kind of paranoia when cults were more common. What if this person is a Moonie or a Scientologist?
I figure I’m eventually going to be a paranoid survivalist convinced that Trump supporters want to shoot me for too much book readin’. We have seen the enemy and he is us.
This. I am saddened to learn of how hateful and ignorant so many family and friends are. I’ve stopped interacting with many people. I knew some of them were anti-Obama, but the tone of it all changed. I used to talk politics with those across the aisle from me, but no more.
My current project is the first science instrument I designed that will fly into space. The government shutdown caused it to miss the launch window, so it will be delayed 6 months till the next available launch window.
I’m Orthodox Jewish. Our local synagogues and day schools have significantly increased security and often there is a police car parked out front, due to a sharp rise in anti-Semitic hate crimes in the last couple of years. The large Conservative shuls have always had police (though now they have more) but now the small Orthodox shuls are hiring them as well.
My paycheck is larger and my tax refund stayed the same, so I guess I’m slightly richer. I was doing OK before too, though.
It made a huge difference to me. For the past four or five years my wife and I have been talking of moving to Brooklyn, where our daughter lives. In 2016 we went so far as to talk to a real estate agent there, but said to ourselves: Let’s wait till after the election, ha ha. Well we were surprised. But in our 80s we decided that this house is too much for us to deal with and last fall we bought a condo here in Montreal and will be moving there when our tenant’s lease expires at the end of June. So we seem to have decided to stay put as a result.
We withdrew all our money from the stock market and put it into guaranteed income accounts. The return is low, but at least you can’t lose anything. (We know at least two others who have made the same move.) I figure, as long as you have a whack job in the White House, the stock market is liable to do whacky things.
The short answer is not much at all. As a middle-aged, middle-class, white heterosexual male, I’m not among the demographics most hurt by the current administration and its policies and practices.
But I can’t help but think that this is kind of a “gotcha” question, so somebody can say, “What are you all complaining about then?”
Well, it’s possible to be concerned over the probablity of women losing the right to control their own reproductive systems even if I’m not a woman. It’s possible to be saddened by institutionalized discrimination against the LGBT community even if I’m not gay. It’s possible to be disgusted by the overt casual racism that now seems to be not only welcomed but embraced among large segments of the population even if I’m not black or hispanic. It’s possible to be dismayed that the presidency of this great nation is in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent, childish bully, even if I’m not among those being bullied. And it’s certainly possible to be terrified every day that we could all be one tantrum away from nuclear armageddon.
So I guess you could say that’s how it’s affected me.
Exactly. The problem is that so many people would either be fooled by Trump, or see through him and like what they saw. He’s the manifestation, a symptom, of a far greater plague.
FWIW I agreed with P.J. O’Rourke when he said Hillary was an awful choice for President, but at least she was awful within normal parameters.
“Y’all…” I’m from the deep south myself. I’ve been aware of Trump the Chump for more than forty years. I’ve always found him annoying. NOW his voice pops up and it reminds me of scratching automobile paint. His picture suddenly appears, and I feel the same as if I was looking at the corpse of a dead cow out in a back lot. Other than that…
Since you’re a southerner, you know life rarely changes because of a president. But, I can name some notable changes which were exceptional.
1.) Under Obama the VA requirements for medical changed. Now I can get my cancer treated.
2.) Under Clinton I replaced the roof on my house, bought a new fridge and stove, refloored three rooms, and put storm windows up all around. After Clinton I’ve been lucky to make ends meet.
3.) Under Nixon I got a draft card in the mail. I use it as a bookmarker in a 1938 edition of the Boy Scout Manual. (I’m an Eagle Scout, btw.)
Under Trump? Just sudden and unexpected attacks of nausea. But, tax day is coming and this may change. . . tax bill and all, average 8% rise for people like me…and you.
The continuing resolution that Trump had said he would sign before he backtracked, had language in it that kept the government funded project I work on operational. Without going in to too many details, my program was deemed important to US foreign policy goals, but would have to end January 31st if the language in the CR was not signed in to law. When Trump did not sign the CR, I was given notice on Xmas eve by the US government that the program is now ending at the end of this month and that I must submit an emergency closedown plan for a program that was supposed to continue for another 3 years. We had to write the plan, terminate subcontracts and lay off staff on Xmas day.
My income stayed the same but instead of getting $1300 back I now owe $100 in taxes.
My health insurance premiums keep going up, with no end in sight. I don’t feel that Trump is the cause of premiums going up (premiums have always been going up) but I do feel that if we had a Democrat president, we’d seriously be moving towards UHC by now.
I’ve grown farther and farther apart from my dad and my best friends, who are Trump supporters. They seem to just generally support the trollish nature of his presidency and it makes me ill. “Whatever riles up the lib-tards!”
I’m from the deep south myself. I’ve been aware of Trump the Chump for more than forty years. I’ve always found him annoying. NOW his voice pops up and it reminds me of scratching automobile paint. His picture suddenly appears, and I feel the same as if I was looking at the corpse of a dead cow out in a back lot. Other than that…