Same here. We have realized we don’t live in the country we thought we did. We no longer have expectations that rationality will prevail. Too many U.S. voters are just a lost cause. We had a good, moderate, stable, intelligent and likable candidate who lost to a corrupt, incoherent, buffoon. People have been debating why for the last few weeks, but it doesn’t matter “why.” It’s over. I would call that the last straw. We’ve decided to retreat and hunker down. Whatever will be will be.
I am in the hunkering down and mostly ignoring stuff crowd.
I went through some anger and mourning but have now reached the stage of “there is nothing I can really to do”.
I’ll concentrate on making my life as safe and comfortable as possible and lending a hand should the need arise.
I guess if things get really bad I would do more but I am not someone who can easily contribute physically. But I can speak out and write so those will likely be my weapons of choice.
I feel the same. I can barely look at anyone right now.
I’m pretty much in the same boat. We lost. We can discuss why, maybe it’ll help in the future if we understand why, but it’s not going to help us in the short term. We’re in for some hard times and assuming we recover it’s going to take years. It’s going to have to get very, very bad before millions of Americans wake up and admit they made a mistake. Assuming they have the ability to admit they made a mistake. I haven’t even gotten upset at anything Trump says he’s going to do or who he intends to nominate for various positions. He’s a snake and I expect him to behave like a snake.
Once again we have the crazy double standard wherein a Democratic candidate (who happens to be female) makes ONE mildly controversial statement about supporters of her opponent (see also “deplorables”) and is absolutely condemned for it, while he-who-I-will-not-name calls his political opponents “enemies of the state,” and advocates their banishment or execution and it is somehow shrugged off or condoned.
I’m seeing a lot of “trains will run on time” type arguments from outwardly normal T**** supporters. One widely followed YouTuber was relieved because “if the tax cuts expired, it was going to hurt him a lot.” Newsflash sir: unless you are MUCH wealthier than I imagine, a Democratic run government would not have allowed the middle class tax cuts to expire – it would have ensured an immediate 2026 backlash. So now you are going to be grateful that your pittance has been saved, while ignoring the increased windfalls that will go to billionaires – who are the root cause of our current social problems, not “migrants.”
One of my relatives, who I will not be joining for Thanksgiving, voted for T**** because she is sure he will help her small business. Oh, honey, he doesn’t even know you exist – and the price you made us all pay for some phantom tax relief will be a huge increase in human suffering.
I’m stopping my support (which was considerable) for a local 501(c)(3) animal-welfare organization because the people who run it are die-hard T****ers. Sorry, ladies, maybe those notable animal lovers, JD Vance and Kristi Noem, will help you out.
So no, I can’t excuse the people I know, who seem otherwise well-educated and thoughtful, for pasting these little fig leaves over a bunch of reprehensible individuals who represent the worst possible aspects of humanity.
ETA: Oh, and what am I going to do? I’m trying to get my family to Canada. Sadly, I’m not wealthy or influential enough to be able to offer the same assistance to others.
I’m doubling down on getting my citizenship in Canada. I’ve given up on the US- it’s not the country I thought it was, and I’m tired of fighting for something that doesn’t actually exist. Unfortunately, if things go really badly in the US, Canada’s probably not far enough away, especially since it looks like the conservatives are going to take power in the next election.
If I can get my citizenship here, then hopefully I’ll be able to help some of my more vulnerable friends and family back in the US find a safer place to live.
I am curious as to what is the point in amending Trump’s name ?
I know a college football fan that won’t utter the name of his team’s rival. It seems odd
I think the previous explanations make sense. It’s similar to why, after a Super Bowl, the winning teams’ fans will devour all news coverage about their victory but the losing team’s fans may go on a media fast for a while. Nobody wants to read more news or commentary that’s just rubbing salt into a wound.
Because he makes me gag.
I have also seen recommendations that those who oppose him never use his name on line, because any mention feeds his ego. While I doubt that he is one of the trolls hanging around SD, I am happy to continue the convention here.
I feel exactly the same. Can’t say it or write out without a massive body shudder/gag reflex.
Mr. Trump has no subtlety, he would be banned on the occasion of his very first post on the SDMB. I know it would be a troll post, and I know it would be extremely light on factual content.
I offer my condolences to the left in the USA (and my support), but I am in an insignificant country far away. All I can do is watch in horror at this train crash, part 2.
This. And most of his followers are the same and don’t last on any forum that doesn’t let them run wild and abuse everyone else, because they will.
While he’s an odious man he’s just a man. He’s not Voldemort and we’re not children who should be afraid of saying his name lest we invoke bad luck or his wrath. Refusing to say his name just shows up much power he has over you.
It’s not about any kind of power/perceived power he has or does not have over my thoughts.
I choose not to activate my gag reflux by invoking his name.
The less I have to think about him or the situation the better.
Everyone deals differently.
When i see the word “fuck” it’s just a word and I barely give it a thought. If I see “the f word”, not only does my mind helpfully supply the “fuck” but i’ve now spent more time thinking about it than if they’d just used the word. Things like “trump” “T***” “TFG” etc. make me think of Trump more than if someone had just said Trump in the first place
This seems like an absurd reaction to losing an election by less than 2 points with an unpopular incumbent in a tough environment, winning 4 of 5 senate races in swing states and keeping the house at a near draw.
While putting effort in local elections makes sense, there is no reason for this defeatist attitude towards national elections. In two years the Republicans will likely be the unpopular incumbent and given Democrats coalition’s willingness to turn out more in non-presidential elections, I would consider the Democrats a solid favorite to take the house. Senate math is tougher but not impossible. Two years beyond that we will have the first non-Trump candidate in many voters lifetimes and likely new blood for the Democrats well. Predicting what will happen with certainty is silly.
I think Democrats do need to get better at listening and communicating to voters who are less attuned to politics, but we got to keep in mind this was still a very close election. Democrats need to retool not blow up everything.
Also — am I remembering this right? — didn’t state after state that voted for Trump also have a majority of voters simultaneously pulling the lever to enshrine abortion rights?
If so, that’s not just interesting; it seems like a way forward: along with putting candidate after candidate on the ballot, keep putting issue after issue on the ballot. Any issues that a side can win on, bang, done; and what’s left for the elected officials to address could be the less and less important stuff.
It’s not that we lost, it’s that we lost to fucking Trump. And the fact that if a normal Republican would have been in the race, they would have lost to Harris. The country (half of it) likes Trump. That’s not a situation I can live with. (Well, of course I can live with it, but it’s very depressing.)
If the people who’d been elected had been the Republicans of twenty years ago, you’d be correct. They were, as the phrase goes, mostly wrong within normal parameters.
The people currently calling themselves Republicans are totalitarians who ran, successfully, on getting part of the population terrified of the rest of the population. They have at least two years with no brakes. They can do massive amounts of damage in that time; some of that damage, to human lives and to the environment, will be irreparable.
There is also concern that some of the damage will be done to the voting system, so that whatever vote is held two years from now will be made in a fashion that makes it impossible for Democrats to win any of the branches, and whatever vote is held four years from now may be even more unfair.
Others have responded and said this but I will repeat it - it’s not that we lost to a normal GOP but to Trump’s GOP. In the next two years they will do a lot of things to restrict rights in myriad ways and ignoring this will just make things worse.
The damage that will be done to healthcare availability, food safety, education, free speech and voting rights are just a few things that are of concern.
[And it appears the Democrats have lost their base] (gift link) (https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/25/upshot/democrats-trump-working-class.html?unlocked_article_code=1.ck4.i9Sm.7jYF7yba6EbX&smid=url-share) since most of their constituencies have shifted to the right. The idea this will all self correct in 2026 or 2028 is fantasy at this point.