Self destructive foolishness. Associating with Trumpists and other fascists is dangerous, enabling and highly unpleasant. And loving people who hate you just gets you hurt, emotionally and physically.
That argument is like telling an abuse victim that it’s all their fault for not loving their abusive spouse enough.
You have the right to alienate yourself from friends and family. It’s entirely your choice. As for me, I have family and friends on both sides and somehow we manage to love and care for each other in spite of differences of opinion on politics. It’s really not difficult to just agree to disagree. The Democratic party is one of tolerance. Right? Or,errrr, correct ?
It really all boils down to - “it takes both sides for there to be peace, but only one side for there to be war.”
Real life doesn’t work like that, loving someone who hates you just gets you hurt. You are describing an abusive and dysfunctional relationship, not something desirable.
They don’t hate me. They just really think the leopard won’t eat my face, either.
If they actually do hate you, that’s a different situation.
I promise you, real life actually does work like that for some of us. I suppose most of us.
I also have family and friends who also love and care for me, and one of the ways they show that is not voting for people who want to strip me of my human rights.
As my brother explained to my parents, he doesn’t want them to lose Medicare and Social Security, only the other old people.
I agree. I am doing this. I don’t discuss politics with them. If they express their political views i just listen patiently though I may not agree with their opinion/pov. Most of them are really good human beings and I don’t want to lose them in my life.
No matter what you do, it first requires staying informed. So this doesn’t sound good:
Prime-time viewership at MSNBC has fallen 53 percent from October, and jumped 21 percent on Fox News
I do not watch TV, but wonder if there is a similar pattern with text and print media. Hope not.
I could understand the falloff in mainstream news consumption if Trump was just playing golf and relaxing the past ten days. But his rapid naming of terrible appointees is as consequential as what will happen next year.
To actually answer the question, I signed up with the Democratic Party of Orange County and will be going to my first ever party meeting. I’m not at all confident that anything will change the status quo in America’s rich red asshole county but at least I’ll be around like minded folks. Preparing for '26 in whatever capacity one can manage is what people on the left should do, imo.
What does that mean?
That Orange County is strongly Republican
Are you upset because they’re “rich”?
Not particularly; my family are all pretty well off. Just differentiating them from MAGA
Used to be one of the great suburban strongholds of Republican CA. But it isn’t so much anymore that one can call it strongly Republican. It’s more deeply purple - went for Biden by a small margin in the last election and so far Trump is winning but just barely with the vote still trickling in and the late vote seemingly Democrat-leaning. It’s a pretty 50-50 county these days in raw vote.
Meanwhile the several House seats that include parts of Orange county are largely Democrat held. The Republicans held on in CA-40, but 45 is under threat to flip (it’s on a razor’s edge right now). Democrats held on in the 38, 46, 47 and 49.
Republicans still dominate the sparsely populated eastern half of the state but their hold on the much denser coastal counties of southern and central CA (i.e. Santa Barbara) have greatly eroded in the last few decades.
Just one data point, but my wife and I, who are MSNBC junkies, have watched zero on that channel since election night. I’m sure it won’t last, but right now we can’t bear it.
I’m speculating from personal feelings, but I think a ratings drop that precipitous could be explained by this reaction being widespread. Their core audience is hurting.
Most nights, I still change the channel to something other than the news as soon as I walk in the door. Heck, I haven’t even listened to NPR since before the election. I have gone back to asking the Nest to play it in the mornings, but as soon as I hear that name I ask for something else.
The only thing that makes sense is for Democrats to organize on the local and state level. Build coalitions with the working class and try to take back state legislatures. Eric Holder and Obama talked about doing something like this but it doesn’t seem like it made much difference. This is what the DNC, et al, should be doing for the next few years.
The Democrats are fucked on the national level for the next few elections. Fantasies about taking things back in '26 or '28 make no sense. The demographics have shifted hard right and will stay there for the next 10 years at least.
Or if you don’t like the above diagnosis, RUN.
I’ve been shopping for condos in Portugal for a couple of years. Mexico City may not be a bad idea either. I’m certain there are other good options out there. Cartagena, Columbia is one that comes to mind.
I’ve also pretty much stopped watching any news. I have no interest in seeing Joe and Mika kiss the ass of trump for access or whatever.
I have cried an awful lot since the election. I guess I’m feeling resigned to it now. I’m going to just see what happens. It’s all I can do right now.
I have this strange desire to go sit in traffic. In a yoga pose.