# How I'm Feeling After This Election **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [November 9, 2016, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-im-feeling-after-this-election/771178 "2016-11-09T10:59:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![RobotDevilDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e19adc/32.png) [@RobotDevilDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RobotDevilDog)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2016, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-im-feeling-after-this-election/771178/1 "2016-11-09T10:59:47Z")
At first, I couldn’t put my finger on how I was feeling, other than it was very negative. But then it hit me. I feel the same way I did after 9/11. Don’t get me wrong, 9/11 was the far more serious and destructive of the two tragedies, and I don’t want to insult the memory of those who lost their lives 15 years ago. But the way I feel after this election is the same sense of fear, horror and hopelessness I felt for a long time after 9/11. Does anyone else get a similar feeling? ---
**Author:** ![HeatherPA](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heatherpa/32/3072_2.png) [@HeatherPA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeatherPA)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2016, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-im-feeling-after-this-election/771178/2 "2016-11-09T11:05:14Z")
Sick, scared, and empty. ---
**Author:** ![bmasters1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b5e925/32.png) [@bmasters1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bmasters1)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2016, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-im-feeling-after-this-election/771178/3 "2016-11-09T11:06:21Z")
This is how I feel, especially about Trump’s victory: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/TIvxqUCu41Q/hqdefault.jpg "The Price is Right Loser Horns w/ Buzzer") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIvxqUCu41Q) ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2016, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-im-feeling-after-this-election/771178/4 "2016-11-09T11:25:09Z")
Yes! I felt the same thing. It hit me when I had to put a little thought into planning my Wednesday workday – including, getting an hour of sleep – and I was immediately reminded of Sept. 11, 2001, sitting at my work desk with colleagues, glued to AOL News (no TV). About an hour and a half after the second plane hit, my boss reminded me we still had that deadline the next day (it was on my mind already by then). I remember her exact facial expression – a “life goes on” thing, but we all felt how surreal it was, this contrast between the mundane daily chores and the immense tragedy unfolding on our planet. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2016, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-im-feeling-after-this-election/771178/5 "2016-11-09T11:34:39Z")
Sick to my stomach and worried about my future. I retired 5 years ago, but I’ve had some temp jobs in the interim, and I’ve got a full time job right now that I planned to stick with till the end of 2018. I’m seriously worried that I’ll have to keep working past then - I fear my various annuities are going to crash and burn, at least in the short term. On a less personal front, I’m sickened that a majority of voters thought Trump was a good choice. And I’m terrified what he’ll do, especially considering the type of people he apparently takes advice from. Heaven help us all… ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2016, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-im-feeling-after-this-election/771178/6 "2016-11-09T11:44:47Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > I remember her exact facial expression – a “life goes on” thing, but we all felt how surreal it was, this contrast between the mundane daily chores and the immense tragedy unfolding on our planet. There’s a poem by W.H. Auden, “Musée des Beaux Arts,” in which he describes [this painting](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landscape_with_the_Fall_of_Icarus#/media/File:Pieter_Bruegel_de_Oude_-_De_val_van_Icarus.jpg) by Pieter Bruegel. The painting shows the world going about its business with only a splash and exposed leg as Icarus fell out of the sky. I’ve always thought Auden did a great job of expressing that sentiment: > [@](#): > > About suffering they were never wrong, > The old Masters: how well they understood > Its human position: how it takes place > While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along; > How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting > For the miraculous birth, there always must be > Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating > On a pond at the edge of the wood: > . > . > . > In Breughel’s Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away > Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may > Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry, > But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone > As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green > Water, and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen > Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky, > Had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on. ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2016, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-im-feeling-after-this-election/771178/7 "2016-11-09T12:02:47Z")
I think this is the first time I’ve ever not been able to sleep because of events in the news. I gave up around 3:30 and started grading papers, just to have something normal to do. I have to face my students in three hours. I don’t know how any of us are supposed to be able to concentrate on Shakespeare. I’m honestly _hoping_ he was serious about letting his VP run the show. I disagree with Pence about just about everything, but I believe he knows how the government actually works, and he’s unlikely to go around starting wars or crashing the economy into the ground for the sheer hell of it. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2016, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-im-feeling-after-this-election/771178/8 "2016-11-09T12:05:48Z")
It’s a paradigm shift for a lot of people, just as much as 9/11 was (although I still stand by the belief that this election merely exposed a very real force and feeling that we’d have to deal with sooner or later in some fashion — obviously this one isn’t ideal). It’s natural to feel that way. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2016, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-im-feeling-after-this-election/771178/9 "2016-11-09T12:12:53Z")
Thank you, Bricker. I mean that. ---
**Author:** ![Totenfeier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4bbf92/32.png) [@Totenfeier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Totenfeier)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2016, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-im-feeling-after-this-election/771178/10 "2016-11-09T12:48:31Z")
I’m not feeling anything, at all. This is extremely frightening, as I know it’s shock, and I know that I’ll have to come to an emotional reckoning sooner or later, and I do tend to let things build…unhealthily. He’s hired, and America - _the goddam United States of AMERICA_ - is a reality TV show. I walked out of my house this morning to cold rain on dead leaves. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2016, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-im-feeling-after-this-election/771178/11 "2016-11-09T12:55:35Z")
It’s important not to panic; Just breathe. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2016, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-im-feeling-after-this-election/771178/12 "2016-11-09T12:58:04Z")
When W was “elected”, I expected the worst but hoped for the best. This morning, I don’t even have that hope. Besides Trump, the House and Senate are still in Republican hands and there is one Supreme Court seat to be filled, with who knows how many to follow in the near future. If Trump ends up delegating most of his work to Pence, I don’t see that as being much better. I feel like this country just took a huge step backwards and I don’t see it getting better anytime soon. I really thought we were a better country than this, but I guess not. ---
**Author:** ![Gymnopithys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/fbc32d/32.png) [@Gymnopithys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gymnopithys)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2016, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-im-feeling-after-this-election/771178/13 "2016-11-09T13:00:06Z")
I’m a U.S. citizen in Switzerland. Disheartened and frightened. It’s unreal. ---
**Author:** ![ThisIsTheEnd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thisistheend/32/4713_2.png) [@ThisIsTheEnd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThisIsTheEnd)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2016, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-im-feeling-after-this-election/771178/14 "2016-11-09T13:08:06Z")
When you get right down to it, the really disturbing thing is, the guy didn’t even run on an ideology, he ran on being a huge obnoxious asshole. Now I grant you the vast majority of people in this country are assholes. But I wouldn’t have thought getting elected as one would be as simple as that. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2016, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-im-feeling-after-this-election/771178/15 "2016-11-09T13:12:17Z")
> [@ThisIsTheEnd](#): > > Now I grant you the vast majority of people in this country are assholes. But I wouldn’t have thought getting elected as one would be as simple as that. This is what inevitably happens when you tell people that, “anybody can be president”. ---
**Author:** ![purplehearingaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@purplehearingaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehearingaid)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2016, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-im-feeling-after-this-election/771178/16 "2016-11-09T13:21:08Z")
I am wearing black to mourn the death of our country ! Everything I that love dearly will be gone . I feel that someone I knew my whole life has just died and I feel so empty, along and very very frighten and I don’t get frighten very easy ! I have an American flag on my car’s window and I feel like putting the flag upside down ! ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2016, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-im-feeling-after-this-election/771178/17 "2016-11-09T13:37:33Z")
This is what happens when you express nothing but contempt and ridicule for a huge proportion of the American population. And this is nothing at all like 911. Every American President deserves the benefit of the doubt, even Trump. I’m starting to feel that he may surprise us all, just as he has done throughout his campaign. I certainly underestimated him. Donald Trump is not an Islamic terrorist bringing death to innocent people and to compare him to such is ludicrous. To say one feels the same as after 911 is to cheapen the death and suffering of the victims of that tragedy for political effect. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2016, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-im-feeling-after-this-election/771178/18 "2016-11-09T13:42:39Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > This is what happens when you express nothing but contempt and ridicule for a huge proportion of the American population. And this is nothing at all like 911. Every American President deserves the benefit of the doubt, even Trump. I’m starting to feel that he may surprise us all, just as he has done throughout his campaign. I certainly underestimated him. We will see… > [@aldiboronti](#): > > Donald Trump is not an Islamic terrorist bringing death to innocent people and to compare him to such is ludicrous. To say one feels the same as after 911 is to cheapen the death and suffering of the victims of that tragedy for political effect. I’m inclined to agree. Disappointed as I am at the outcome, this kind of panicked rhetoric is not helping anyone. ---
**Author:** ![Crybaby\_Boobie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crybaby_boobie/32/545_2.png) [@Crybaby\_Boobie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crybaby_Boobie)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2016, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-im-feeling-after-this-election/771178/19 "2016-11-09T13:47:50Z")
I am aghast. I am despondent. I am disgusted. I am miserable. Oh and tired. Very tired. ---
**Author:** ![purplehearingaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@purplehearingaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehearingaid)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2016, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-im-feeling-after-this-election/771178/20 "2016-11-09T13:50:24Z")
Trump is a damn sociopath , he has no empathy for other people ! He only care about one person and that is his damn self ! His own wife didn’t look too happy voting for him! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-im-feeling-after-this-election/771178.md?page=2)