# 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:** 2
**Author:** ![ganthet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de0a6/32.png) [@ganthet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ganthet)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2016, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-im-feeling-after-this-election/771178/21 "2016-11-09T13:52:58Z")
This pretty much sums it up: We feel trapped inside a room. We’ve just thrown up. A horrible snapshot has been thrown in our face and even though we know we didn’t do it directly, we know that we share responsibility for it. We thought there was a way out but it turned out to be an illusion. And the only sounds we can hear are this, over and over: [- YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoQ4GidQP-k) ---
**Author:** ![Gedd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gedd/32/4938_2.png) [@Gedd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gedd)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2016, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-im-feeling-after-this-election/771178/22 "2016-11-09T14:00:01Z")
I’m trying to focus on the positives. Umm . . . my local mass transit levy passed, so I’ll still have buses to take me to work! But that’s almost overshadowed by the fact that the Governor who cancelled all anti-discrimination laws in the state is so close to being re-elected that it hasn’t been called yet. Again, on the plus side, we can hopefully watching as everything trump tries to do falls apart. I doubt even a Republican House and Senate will pay for a wall. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2016, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-im-feeling-after-this-election/771178/23 "2016-11-09T14:04:46Z")
Of course not. Mexico will. ---
**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, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-im-feeling-after-this-election/771178/24 "2016-11-09T19:29:37Z")
> [@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. > > 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 believe I went out of my way to explain that I was not comparing the two events, simply the way I felt about them. And I can’t help the way I feel. It’s an involuntary reaction to a terrible event. ---
**Author:** ![Honey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honey/32/5074_2.png) [@Honey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Honey)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2016, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-im-feeling-after-this-election/771178/25 "2016-11-09T19:35:16Z")
> [@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. > > 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. People are allowed to feel however they want. I also feel similar to how I felt after 9/11. Frightened for the future, sad for the present, and very much in peril. ---
**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, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-im-feeling-after-this-election/771178/26 "2016-11-09T21:51:47Z")
Thank you, Honey. Yeah, not making an equivalency, just noting the similar feelings. Interesting to see if it takes about the same length of time to feel sort of normal again. For me, that was about three weeks. Maybe not normal, but at least not pinching myself all the time and asking myself, “Did that really happen? No way…” ---
**Author:** ![PapSett](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecc23a/32.png) [@PapSett](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PapSett)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-im-feeling-after-this-election/771178/27 "2016-11-10T00:03:48Z")
That is a very accurate description of how I feel. Terrified, in shock, sick to my stomach. I keep asking myself “how did this happen?” I have never shed tears over an election. Until today. I have never considered buying a gun. Until today. I have never considered moving outside the USA. Until today. (The ONLY thing stopping me on that one is money.) ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-im-feeling-after-this-election/771178/28 "2016-11-10T01:00:01Z")
Literally sick to my stomach. I’ve had cramps all day. (No, it wasn’t something I ate!) Does anyone here know the short story “The Other Inauguration” by Anthony Boucher? That’s kinda how I’m feeling. If I had the magical power to change what happened yesterday, I probably would…and I’d be wrong to do so. Democracy is still the highest ideal, and the single best thing the human race has ever devised. (I think chocolate milk is the second best thing.) ---
**Author:** ![kayT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayt/32/3633_2.png) [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-im-feeling-after-this-election/771178/29 "2016-11-10T01:39:01Z")
Reading Auden made me feel the best I’ve felt all day. Thanks, **Bricker**. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-im-feeling-after-this-election/771178/30 "2016-11-10T02:11:51Z")
I feel…let me use an analogy, and maybe the right words will come. My ex-wife was a drug addict (that was one of the reasons we divorced, although we can still be civil and half-friendly, even with no kids). Due to her drug use, she had a heart attack at 29 years old. She was diabetic and premature, and her arteries were too small for stents. So she had to have a double-bypass. At 29. When she was released from the hospital, she turned herself around. She got off drugs, had went back to work, got herself a little apartment and a car, and started _living_. A few weeks ago, she texted me just to see how I was doing (cuz we still do that from time to time. Especially with her heart problems. I saved her from committing suicide once, and I guess I still feel responsible for that). We chatted back and forth for a bit. She said it’s been a couple of years since she’s touched drugs or alcohol. I was proud of her. She had a scare, and she lived through it enough to recognize her own self-destructive behavior. She was making changes because she didn’t want to die in her 30s. So the other night she calls me. I know something’s up because she never calls anyone. It’s always text. It’s late at night, and I assume her car broke down on her way home from work or something, and needs a ride. Nope. She calls me while she’s on meth, and tells me that she’s waiting on her sister’s husband to get there, because they’re going to go smoke some crack together, and probably fuck while feeling the effects. She says they do that all the time, and it’s great. She has no idea how much I was rooting for her to stay clean. And how disappointed I am for her falling off the wagon. And I feel the same way now. To me, it’s like her previous drug use = Bush administration. Getting clean for a few years = Obama’s term. Trump = falling off the wagon. She had so much potential, and had made so much progress that I actually thought she might be okay. Instead, she backslid into something worse than what she did in the first place. Betrayed. That’s the word I was looking for. I feel betrayed by my country. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-im-feeling-after-this-election/771178/31 "2016-11-10T02:18:54Z")
Yeah, thank you, **Bricker**. I know the painting, and I know the Williams poem, but the Auden was new to me, too. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-im-feeling-after-this-election/771178/32 "2016-11-10T04:15:57Z")
> [@purplehearingaid](#): > > I am wearing black to mourn the death of our country !.. I actually did wear all back today. I noticed 3 of my coworkers all called off, and a lot of people are really upset. I’m starting to feel better though. Three of the 5 [statewide](http://www.electionreturns.pa.gov/ENR_NEW) offices I voted for when blue. The Democratic candidate for Congress lost, but I was expecting that. We didn’t even have anyone running against the Republican state legislator. ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-im-feeling-after-this-election/771178/33 "2016-11-10T04:59:58Z")
I’m actually slightly hopeful, at least after reading a Cracked article floating around here. Why? Because I honestly believe our future (four years or so down the line), will change the world and for the better. The children that will come of age to vote will loathe what their parents have done, how they’ve negatively shaped their reality, and then that will be the mostly last gasp of elderly and wealthy bigots. So, the current term may be shit (or not), but I think what lies ahead will be well worth whatever we have to go through to get to it. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-im-feeling-after-this-election/771178/34 "2016-11-10T05:51:54Z")
I wonder if Putin and Russia even really thought they could pull this off. Maybe they’re just as stunned as we are. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 9:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-im-feeling-after-this-election/771178/35 "2016-11-10T09:41:11Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > This is what happens when you express nothing but contempt and ridicule for a huge proportion of the American population. The act in a way that completely justifies that contempt and ridicule? Well… at least there is symmetry. ---
**Author:** ![Einstein\_was\_a\_Hippie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e99b99/32.png) [@Einstein\_was\_a\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Einstein_was_a_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 10:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-im-feeling-after-this-election/771178/36 "2016-11-10T10:20:12Z")
> [@RobotDevilDog](#): > > 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? I feel like I did the day after each time the 49ers won the Super Bowl…it was awesome. Let your butthurt flow, my friend, it’ll be cathartic. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@Mighty\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Girl)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-im-feeling-after-this-election/771178/37 "2016-11-10T12:24:15Z")
When G.W. Bush won I felt sad, but mostly in the way one’s sad that one’s team lost the big game. I never honestly thought anything would change much. I opened my first business in the US. Then 9/11, wars, the economy collapsed and my business went belly up practically overnight. I had to close. I eventually recovered, and things have been fine since. This time around, I have been unable to eat much, unable to sleep much. It’s not just the fear of financial ruination this time. It’s worse: I fear for this planet. I fear that what little has been accomplished in trying to save it will now be gone. I grieve with my Jewish and Muslim friends, who now – ironically – seem to face a common enemy. I grieve with my oncologist friend, and my friends with serious conditions that are worried sick of the end of ACA. I grieve with my Hispanic friends and family who feel rejected by their own country. I see no silver lining here. ---
**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 11, 2016, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-im-feeling-after-this-election/771178/38 "2016-11-11T02:24:22Z")
Speaking of 9/11…someone on Facebook pointed out that the key moment – concession/victory announcements – occurred on 11/9. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2016, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-im-feeling-after-this-election/771178/39 "2016-11-11T02:40:35Z")
> [@RobotDevilDog](#): > > 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. I was thinking that today. But more the sense that we have woken up to a dangerous world with chaotic times ahead. I feel like Linda Hamilton buffing up in Terminator 2, like I need to be absolutely ready for I have no fucking idea what. I haven’t even thought about taking a drink of alcohol since the election results came in (some of you know I’ve struggled with that). I’ve even considered buying a firearm for the first time ever, not because anybody is coming to get them, but in case civil society simply stops showing up for work one day. ---
**Author:** ![grayhairedmomma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/47e85d/32.png) [@grayhairedmomma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grayhairedmomma)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2016, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-im-feeling-after-this-election/771178/40 "2016-11-11T02:52:45Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > She has no idea how much I was rooting for her to stay clean. And how disappointed I am for her falling off the wagon. > > And I feel the same way now. To me, it’s like her previous drug use = Bush administration. Getting clean for a few years = Obama’s term. Trump = falling off the wagon. > > She had so much potential, and had made so much progress that I actually thought she might be okay. Instead, she backslid into something worse than what she did in the first place. > > Betrayed. That’s the word I was looking for. I feel betrayed by my country. Thank you, **Superdude**. You’ve expressed my feelings exactly. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-im-feeling-after-this-election/771178.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-im-feeling-after-this-election/771178.md?page=3)