We’re not talking about Republicans, though. I have no problem working with Republicans (if they aren’t jerks). But these are Trumpists.
The thing is, if you aren’t racist, you can’t vote for a racist candidate. One part of not being racist is caring about how people of other races will be affected by what you do.
The only out is if you somehow didn’t know. If you’re one of the many poorly informed voters, and you just saw Trump as “the Republican candidate.” Then I can work with you. But if you saw what Trump said, and that made you want to vote for him, you are part of the problem.
I cannot treat you like a fellow human being, since you decided to betray the human race. You decided your race was more important than the human race.
Trump isn’t personally anti-LBGT and the fact that he’s been elected isn’t going to change the fact that the majority of Americans today support same-sex marriage. Thinking that suddenly he’s going to send the stormtroopers to round up all the queers and put them in camps is about on par with the Republicans in 2008 who thought Obama was going to ban Christmas and take all the guns.
We oppose him by speaking up about the things we believe in and the ways we think we can make America better for everyone, not by creating more hate and ostracizing the people who we want to win over.
I don’t think Trump is a “racist candidate”, per se, so much as he’s a white male who grew up in New York in the '50s. He believes in negative stereotypes about a lot of people - blacks are lazy, Jews are good with money, Mexicans are criminals, etc., but I don’t think he believes those things because he hates them or thinks they’re inferior to him. (Well, I mean, he does think they’re inferior to him, but he thinks that because he’s Donald J. Trump and they’re not, not because he’s white and they’re not.) He reminds me of my father, who grew up in the same time and the same place. He didn’t hate blacks or Hispanics or Asians, but he’d use certain words to describe them and he believed certain things about them, because in his worldview, that was just the way things are and there wasn’t any sense in fighting the facts.
What I’m saying is that, yes, Trump is a racist, but he’s not a white supremacist, and the number of people voting for him because they’re racist is probably smaller than the number voting for him because they’re anti-globalist or because they didn’t like Clinton or because they’re nostalgic for an era that never existed which they think he can bring back.
In the end, I don’t think we’re going to make any progress by pointing fingers at Republican voters and yelling “YOU ARE EVIL AND YOUR OPINIONS DON’T MATTER” if we want a shot at turning this country around in four years.
I’m sorry I didn’t make it clear. I know that Trump isn’t particularly LGBTQ averse. Trump is only for Trump. But he will need a scapegoat. And I would be foolish not to recognize that that eventual scapegoat will be me. Trump is a narcissistic sociopath. Best to get out of Dodge while the gettings good. Especially in Alabama. If you don’t think Trump’s failures are going to be blamed on homosexuals in Alabama, you are naive. Thankfully there’s enough time to escape. But it’s that bad.
All right, Troll, I’ll bite. You little shit. It probably burns your shithole that I will survive. I actually have money and can move away from shits like you. Enjoy the anarchy you’ve unleased on the nation.
But no one will ever love you. You will never know what that feels like. Sorry.
He’s already got several who are considerably less popular. Illegal immigrants. ISIS. Muslim radicals. “International bankers”. The media. The majority of Americans these days are OK with same-sex relationships. That’s not going to change in the next few years. That ship has sailed.
I’m willing to categorically state my belief that, at no point in the next 4-8 years, will Trump blame his failures on “homosexuals in Alabama”.
The only thing you accomplish by running away now is guaranteeing that there’ll be one less voice to speak for your compatriots who aren’t so able to just pick up stakes and head for greener pastures because the candidate they like didn’t win.
Smapti, please don’t take this as an insult. When I say it makes me feel better about you, I mean “you don’t know Alabamians”. I wish Alabamians didn’t adhere to stereotypes. I have been to the northwest. In general northwesterners are kinder than Alabamians. Call me judgemental, whatever.
When I tell you that it is my interest to leave Alabama BECAUSE of the election results. It’s because I’ve put a lot of thought into it. OK?
Hell, I’m a straight white cisgender male with a middle-class blue collar job and employer-subsidized health insurance. I’m one of the people least likely to get fucked over in a Trump administration. And yes, I’ve never been to Alabama and on my things-to-do-before-I-die list it’s probably somewhere in between “move to North Korea” and “spontaneous colonic rupture”.
But I don’t think the sky is falling. The last 20 years of forward progress on LBGT rights aren’t going to be undone by a stupid old narcissist who’s only in it for the publicity, and the right-wing parasites that are clinging to him in hope of grabbing his scraps aren’t going to turn the tide of public opinion any more than Nixon and his “southern strategy” undid the Civil Rights Act.
Stand up for what you believe in and be proud of who you are. That’s the only way we’re gonna make things better.
Well, hell, if you’re only planning to leave Alabama, then I’m on your side. Come to Seattle! We’re mellow people and we mind each others’ business.
Thanks, you are a stranger on the internet. But it’s nice to hear that the sky is not falling. I have talked to Phd trained humans. I am fortunate enough to have a huge wealth of university trained friends–many don’t know each other. They have all told me that, “I wish I could tell you different. But it makes sense to liquify some of your assets and move to a less volatile country.” I can’t tell you how weird or how comforting that sounds. These are strange times.
A lot of people are saying “We survived problems before, and we’ll survive this”. But that’s not quite accurate. Some of us survived problems before, and some didn’t… but those who didn’t aren’t around to say otherwise. Not everyone survived the Civil War, not everyone survived G. W. Bush, and not everyone will survive Trump. These are actual peoples’ lives we’re talking about, here.
Now, I personally probably will survive Trump. I’m a native-born cisgender straight white male. But I know a lot of people who aren’t, and I don’t envy them what they’re going to go through for the next four years.
That’s a good point Chronos, MLK didn’t survive the civil rights movement and I know a lot of people who didn’t survive the Bush years. When people at “we’ll survive” they mean white comfortable people will survive.
We the American people, the nation, the culture, will survive. Not every individual will. That’s inevitable. Some of us may die as the result of a Trump presidency that would have lived under a Clinton presidency. Others may live that might have died. I may die, you may die, any of us may die, and in the worst case scenario, we all die. (Sooner than we would otherwise, that is. And at the same time. And, hopefully, so instantaneously that we don’t even experience it before we cease to be.)
The question, then, is how we live the time we have left, because in the end we don’t get to choose the moment at which forces beyond our control decide that we don’t get to exist anymore. We can choose to live in fear that this is the end of history and it’s all a downward spiral from here, or we can choose to live with the hope that we can endure and make things better in the long run.
It seems to me that the latter option is preferable when it comes to building the foundation of a better world that will survive ourselves.
That’s easy for you to say. Have you ever loved someone so much that you’d die for them? I love my husband. I don’t want to make bad decisions. Me?—If it’s over today, so what? When I look back on my life I think, “WOW! That was beautiful! This is the end??? So be it!” But when I think of someone taking my husband’s life I’m, “THERE’S NO FUCKING WAY! ASSHOLE! BRING IT ON!”
Trump won based on fewer total votes than Romney got losing in 2012. Direct your ire at the people who sat on their asses on Tuesday instead of voting.
Can I direct my ire at the various Republican activities to disenfranchise and discourage minority voters across the country resulting in drastically decreased turnout in some areas? Because ensuring that a few hundred thousand people don’t or can’t vote in key areas likely made a significant difference this time.
If I’ve learned anything in the past year, in my problems with alcoholism, it’s that there’s no point in raging about things that you have no power over. It doesn’t fix the problem and it doesn’t help you. Trump has been elected. Nothing we do or say now is going to un-elect him. All we can do now is figure out how we keep on living our lives.
If someone goes after your husband, defend him with everything you’ve got. Don’t waste effort raging at Trump, because you can’t control Trump, but you can control what happens in your own life and sphere of influence.
Yeah, and Pence is an asshole. No disagreements there. Let’s be outspoken about our belief that LBGT people deserve the same rights and the same dignity as anyone else, and thereby shout out his narrow-minded hate.
Thank you, Smapti, I have a problem with alcohol too. But if I could make my fella well by ceasing to exist. I would. He’s just that wonderful. I can not explain what if feels like to love a flawed human. I expect that most people can’t understand what it’s like to love something bent, and broken. I don’t think most people understand that beauty. I’m sorry.
I hope we start seeing CEO Trump coming forward over the Reality Show Star Trump we had during the campaign. Stirring up racists for support is one thing, actually enacting racist policies is bad for business. I want to see him disappoint his supporters and surprise the rest of us.
(Disclaimer: My son-in-law is Jordanian, his father routinely gets “extra” attention whenever he flies anywhere from the TSA. I have a great many friends in the LGBTetc community despite my being a middle-aged white cis male. I do have a dog in this fight.)