Blunt Election Talk

[minoanmiss]

Nothing to do with Sir Patrick Stewart's recent hilaritastic show.

Election results continue to improve as all the ballots are actually counted.
Still, I know we didn't and won't and would never get everyything.

But I'm happier about the US than I've been since Trump's nomination. We outright won governorships and defended legislative seats and took the House of Representatives, and more may be coming. We passed some very good ballot measures (and some terrible ones -- I need to investigate how to help my fellow citizens in WV and AK access reproductive health) including the one I was almost praying over (ironically), Yes on 3 in MA.

Millions of my fellow citizens battled weather, gerrymandering, voter suppression, uncooperative employers, pastors preaching Republicans Go To Heaven, and so many other obstacles, to vote.

And I feel a bit better about living in this country. For over two years I've felt like somewhere between a quarter and a half of my felloww citizens hate me, my family of choice, my demographic fellows in so many groups, basically anyone who doesn't belong to a very narrowly defined set of demographic groups that render them "unmarked". I've been wondering when my fellow citizens were going to finally rise up and come for me and mine, and how many people I know will eat popcorn as they listen to the screams and watch the flames. [1]

I'm still worried about that, of course. All last week people were being buried who had been murdered by bigots. At yesterday's rally WD and I stood there wondering a bit if someone might come attack the attendees. There are still millions of people who voted for Trump and it continues to seem that not a single one regrets that choice, and there are approximately three times as many Americans who identify as alt-Right (or whatever we're calling Nazis these days) as identify as Jewish. I'm not exactly not scared. But in this recent election I saw a great many of my fellow citizens who don't agree with Trump's leadership and his followers, in whole or in part. I was reminded that many of my fellow citizens would be okay with coexisting with me and the people I worry most about. That helps, a lot. A whole lot.

[1] I am not unmindful of the fact that I'm writing this on the 80th anniversary of Kristallnacht. But/and my reference there is to many atrocities, if that makes sense? I'm thinking of Kristallnacht and of the Tulsa race riots, of Black towns I've heard of that were wiped off the map, of Native Americans being forced from their homes and gay bars being raided and trashed, of all the terrorism aimed at women's health clinics, of all these things that people with certain kinds of power habitually inflict on the rest. I'm thinking of patterns of politically motivated violence, and of how many conservatives think that liberals breaking a window is worse than conservatives breaking people's heads. I thought I should at least attempt to explain that.

Comments

[princessofgeeks]

HUGS

[kore]

Yeah, ITA with all of this -- the election was very hope-giving, in a Rebecca Solnit kind of way. John Lewis-encouraging. -- I did get really unhappy at Trump firing Sessions and installing some corrupt goon, not just b/c of all the possible investigation fallout, but he did it NOT EVEN TWENTY-FOUR HOURS after the fucking election and insisted he won, and the media was all full of "Trump does this! Trump does that!" again, which they have been doing for something like 4 solid years now and I just wish they would fucking stop. He loves it. It WAS a blue wave, and it feels like that got lost in the media and can't we have like one fucking day of "Yes we did amazing things?" to celebrate? Just like to finish our piece of blue-iced victory cake before it gets yanked away by the Toddler Of State? //SULKS

Your mentioning the latest US massacre (God the media isn't even reporting on most of them anymore) (just do it like Cronkite with Vietnam casualties! that would horrify people right quick) and Kristallnacht feels right, too. Atrocities are happening, have always happened, we can't ignore them. I keep remembering that Solnit quote:

It is important to say what hope is not: it is not the belief that everything was, is or will be fine. The evidence is all around us of tremendous suffering and destruction. The hope I am interested in is about broad perspectives with specific possibilities, ones that invite or demand that we act. It is also not a sunny everything-is-getting-better narrative, though it may be a counter to the everything-is-getting-worse one. ....grief and hope can coexist.

[julian]

Yeah. Proof that organizing and working matters. (And by working, I mean, doing one small thing or many large things, or anything in between.)

Hugs.

[sabotabby]

I'm just glad there was some good news. I see such a disconnect between the Americans I know, who are a diverse group of kind, intelligent people with great politics, and the overall political vibe of the country, which is cruel and mean-spirited almost by design.

[ilyena_sylph]

+nodnodnod+

[amaebi]

Yes. Exactly (all) this.

[stranger]

The House and other election results give me some hope, especially because so many new candidates ran, credibly and effectively, for both national and smaller-scale offices. At least some of those who didn't win this year made numbers to show a supposedly Red district was very purple. It's good to know, and maybe can be built on.

[hitchhiker]

i've definitely been heartened by the election results too. it finally feels like people are waking up and rejecting all the hate and hysteria.

[vettecat]

Agreed, and I still think most people are decent, we just need to hope they won't allow themselves to give in to crazy propoganda.