After today, I am going into a news-free zone. NOt checking nytimes.com, not listening to NPR, not watching any news programming. Have already told my friends/family, so they know what to expect.
Even before the clusterfu*k last night I had planned a two week vacation starting this weekend. Me on a motorcycle riding to Big Bend National Park, and then to the Grand Canyon, and then back to Atlanta. Hopefully the time away, the 4000 or so miles of decompression, and the tune-out of news will recharge me, so I’ll be ready to come back and fight.
In the meantime, I’m just going to be nice to my fellow man. All I can do.
As a middle-aged white man living in a big city, I suppose I’ll have to buy a shitload of guns for when the 47% Takers have their welfare cut off and come for my cans of food.
Well we’ve seen demonizing and lying works for them, so maybe enough of trying to stay above the fray and lets get dirty with the GOP. They like anger, they like lying to people, they like trickery and anti-fact? We’ll just have to show them we can do it better. That or, I dunno, hibernate in a cave for 4 years
Honest question: what do you call Dems trying to preserve unions, workers rights, minimum wage, maternity/paternity leaves, sick and vacation days, getting rid of stupid right-to-fire laws, regulating Wall Street, and creating jobs through tax breaks for the poor and middle class? Supposing you thought any and all of those were still somehow anti-working class, what should they have done instead?
I’m looking for advocacy groups to support and open to recommendation. I’d particularly like to support people doing good work around climate issues. That’s what worries me most.
Tim Urban is one of my favorite bloggers. I don’t agree with everything he says, but he’s a very good writer/thinker. He also is more liberal than me. Here are his thoughts for most liberals after last nights election:
I’m interested in what you come up with. The problem I have with this sort of thing, is how little impact I can have personally - even as a member of a group - when huge actors have so much greater impact.
Sure, I generally want to live my life generally “ethically” - which to me includes respect for the environment and future generations. But I have a hard time really deciding upon actions other than - as someone suggested - being nice to my fellow man (and woman ;)).
up_the_junction - I’m not sure what portion of your post you intend as constructive within the intent of this thread. Plenty of other options on these boards and elsewhere to spread invective. Not trying to junior mod - just asking politely.
Reciting the Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear like a mantra. Fear is what caused all this. Fear of the other, fear of the unknown, fear of the future. I will not succumb to fear. I will take a few days to decompress and recover and then…I don’t know. But I’m not going to be afraid. I’m going to do something. Just don’t know what yet.
After a sleepless night I took a vow of sobriety from any media. As I kind of expected, I conducted hours of therapy in my office for distraught colleagues; it sucked, but I’m the one folks come to talk.
With exception of the Dope, I’m going to keep media blackout until I feel less angry.
Me:
East Coast liberal college prof, of shot poor working class roots from reddest state in US, first generation college-educated.
My vindictive, ugly stripe wants to see Trump voters punished for their sins, but many loved family members and old friends are in this category and have been falling through social safety nets for years. How can I wish more sorrow on my middle-aged brother and 75-year old dad working hard labor jobs?
Yah, lots of cognitive dissonance. And sorrow. I’m shored up against events that continually knock their families sideways and they never get ahead.
I succumbed to pessimism early this morning and hated the feeling. So I chose optimism. It feels better. Hope always feels better. I think “maybe it will be OK. I mean, I’ve been wrong before”.
The Federal system will limit some of the harm that can happen. California, at least, will be pretty much fine.
I’ll cope by planning for the long game. (Strangely enough, Glenn Beck said the same thing: our liberty has been lost for the next few years, but now is the time to lay the groundwork for taking it back again.)
I’m somewhat glad my country’s prime minister is likely to adopt a hostile attitude toward Trump, reducing the chance we’ll get pulled into any American wag-the-dog wars.
Well, I work in health policy, so I will cope by working to protect affordable high-quality health care.
Last week, I thought I would be working to improve the affordability and quality. This week, I discover I will be working to protect affordability and quality. But the goal remains the same in the end. And my side will eventually win.
I’m also abandoning print media and any news about politics. Since I have a Roku and no cable, I don’t see regular TV anyway. I didn’t see even one political ad during this campaign. Good thing, because I don’t have access to the Men in Black flash-thingie. I will check in at the Dope but not the Elections forum. The first few years I was here, I NEVER looked in there. Lately it’s been the only one I’ve always checked. No more.
I’m going to get back to exercising more. And I’m doing NaNoWriMo. Still a long way to go.
There’s a lot of gloating now, and there will be a lot of “I told you so” in the next few years. Any Trump success, however minor, will generate “I told you so” from his supportrers, and any Trump failure or scandal, however trivial, will generate “I told you so” from his opponents.
Optimisitcally, it is very unlikely than any version will run along the lines of “I told you giving him nuclear codes was a bad idea!”
I read an argument this morning that we should use Trump’s vanity against him, and send lots of tweets about the issues we care about. It’s possible he will act on issue he does not care about if it gets him applause.
Other than that dubious plan, I’m going to donate to causes that help marginalized people. And up my donations to planned parenthood, because they are going to need every dollar when Pence cuts all their federal funding.
In every cloud …
Personally I reckon the next four years will be a hoot on a “let all the poisons which lie in the mud hatch out” sort of basis.
A 45% tariff on Chinese imports will precipitate a trade war and the heartland will see the cost of Walmart’s flannel shirts and other consumable staples rocket way before this infrastructure New Deal delivers them improved incomes.
But we’ll survive this ideologue and learn from the experience.
'Cause if he hadn’t won then the next populist ideologue who tapped that groundswell of white male supremist resentment mightn’t be so harmless or easily distracted.
If you are stateside then I can only quote another SDMB sage: