11.09.2016

election reflections

Christy,

Not sure if you have gone to bed, but I am literally dying from the fear of Trump leadership in this country. My friends are in tears. My husband is dumbfounded.  On the flip side it looks like rec marijuana will become a reality in your state.  I hope this will help with the cost of treating your son.

—Maureen, Alaska

 

my daughter has to grow up in a world, and we all have to live in a world, where the president can openly admit to sexual assault and it is okay. Where the president can openly be a racist and it is okay. Where the president can openly mock someone for a physical disability and it is okay. And where he can call on foreigners to be rounded up and kicked out of the country. Where the president thinks I don't belong here because I am not a citizen. Where the president thinks my wife and daughter are not full humans, deserving of respect. Where the president can openly call for his opponent to be arrested, for journalists to be persecuted, and for the willful violation of national and international laws regarding the use of weapons of mass destruction.

—Greg, Maine


How is it that I am feeling LESS safe today than yesterday, as a Black woman in the US, dang ... and to my Muslim, Latino, Gay, and Native friends … have we not endured enough injustice in this country—now the racist, homophobic, islamophobic pussy grabber is winning?

—Nya, Indiana

 

I'm depressed in a way I don't recognize. I don't want tomorrow morning to come. I don't want to be a part of a country that would do this. I can't imagine this being my children's national identity. I feel so deeply betrayed—by my own naivety as much as anything else. 

—Joslyn, Massachusetts



My 15 year old son Oliver says, "I'm ok because I'm a white male, Mom. But what about you and Sophie and our black friends and Mirtha? What about the Earth?"
 

—Elizabeth, Los Angeles
 


Any Well Wishes of Congratulations from Christy Shake or is she a sore Loser?
 

—Frank, Happy Valley

 

Gonna do my evening meditations and offer praises to the ancestors. Tonight, I didn't shed a tear. Instead, tomorrow I wake up to be ever more on the lookout to stand with those against whom so much venom has been unleashed. What Trump has stirred was always there and it shall not die. A great challenge is before us: how to fight against Empire crushing people abroad and at home and yet fostering a compassion among regular folk to not dehumanize each other. Tightrope, here we come ... ancestors, be our guide!

—H Williams, Gettysburg

 

Idea: I am going to start campaigning for polygamy so I can offer all y'all Americans a sham marriage with Dutch passport.

—Jean Paul, Nederland

 

The personal impact of a Trump presidency. When the Affordable Health Care Act is repealed, and "pre-existing conditions" are no longer covered, my daughter, who is a Type 1 Diabetic, won't be covered. Her insulin is $800 dollars a pop and she quit her job to care for her very sick father. I have a recent history of breast cancer and won't be able to get coverage. My husband, who is fighting for his life with stomach cancer, will not be able to get supplemental coverage. I do not get subsidized coverage. And I work in a law partnership that does not provide health insurance. I pay the full price of health care coverage, but it won't do much practical good, when three quarters of my family will be left without coverage for life threatening diseases. That is just one way yesterday's vote will personally affect me and my family.
 

—Theresa, Washington

 

like legions of you, my whole life has been lived up and through the violence of the charismatic, transgressive father, literally and symbolically. i didn't survive all this way to succumb to fear and sorrow. i already know how to fight. so do you. we just got the world's biggest wake the fuck up call. answer.

. . .


do what you need to do. cry, throw up, rip up a phone book -- but today the revolution begins.

—Lidia, Oregon

 

How do we teach the children to treat others with respect, not treat girls according to their looks, value people who were born differently and that we are all the same color under our skin ... how can we teach this when our leader devalues these things publicly. I don't like politics, but can live with it. But, living without respect for others is going to hurt every single one of us.

—Deneen, Washington

 

I have read a few articles this morning, which I will not repost, that essentially blame this on Hillary for losing. They repeat the tired old idea that she is not inspirational, or that the Clinton name is exhausted. I think she would agree that she is a technocratic politician, not a charismatic one (in Weberian terms I mean). But I would just caution against sliding from that description to the idea that people don't find her inspirational. Some people find confidence and competence to be very fucking inspiring, especially in our elected officials. I disagree with many of her policy positions, and with her commitment to neoliberalism. I hate her husband for what he did to Haiti. But her husband is his own man. And neoliberalism is a global consensus. I just don't get the virulent hatred for her as a person because of her husband's record or because of a global political and economic ideology. Hillary has shown herself, for decades, to be a political par excellence. For some reason, in America, that is a bad thing. I would very much like the prevailing order of neoliberal capitalism to change. I had a lot of faith that Hillary would be savvy enough as a leader to see and feel the winds of change and to bend, even if too slowly for some of us, the world ever closer to the arc of justice. As a social scientist I appreciate nuance and context. But I really cannot help but see this outcome for what I feel it truly is. A majority of Americans, of all sorts, refuse to accept that a woman is equal to a man.

—Greg, Maine



Never have I felt so brown. Or disabled.

—Anonymous


3 comments:

  1. This says it all. Thank you, Christy. You've been tireless during this election, and I know that you'll get your strength back and we'll all continue to fight.

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  2. I have never been ashamed to call myself American until now. I am ashamed, embarrassed and frankly exhausted. The repercussions of a government that has ignored its people for too long as resulted in one that will cause not only national but global devastation. I will continue to champion for what I know in my heart to be true and good but I will most likely die still doing it.

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