My intention was to not write about the aftermath of the recent United States presidential election. I felt it had been so acrimonious that better to go with positive things-- with an onward and upward attitude. I changed my mind as events began to unfold that disappointed and frustrated me. So...
Reading, the many hate and fear-filled posts on Facebook, the articles promising damnation, and then the people taking to the street and actually rioting in cities like Portland, has been educational. I guess I thought the left would behave better than the right when they lost an election but apparently not. The vitriol is way beyond just at Trump but at any misogynist, bigoted, ignorant so-and-so who wickedly voted for him-- dooming us to become Nazi Germany... And yes, in the past, it has gone this way on both sides of the partisan divide, where one side is acceptable and the other deplorable.
If I thought this would get better after the election, it was apparently a pipe-dream. The vitriol was actually worse and at Facebook I had to unfollow some I'd made it through the election with but finally couldn't take more of the hate.
It wasn't just rage that was out there but fear and grieving. The latter is a logical reaction to a loss. Hillary Clinton spoke of it in her final speech. She had won the popular vote, even if only by 2% or so, but she lost the Electoral College (228-290) which happened through strategy and the Founders giving power to the states and small regions of the country. Of course, the loss hurt-- especially for women who think this was a repudiation of women, as they felt her election would have been a validation.
Because of a different result with the popular vote and the Electoral College, petitions are already out to end the Electoral College. If that ever happens (unlikely since it'd take a Constitutional Amendment which requires 2/3 of the states to sign on-- those pesky states again), it would then give the big cities, like NYC and LA, control, to their benefit and for their causes. The cities are where we are seeing demonstrations, some rioting, and threatening words as in-- I'll never accept him as my President or worse, death threats. Deva vu since it went the other way when Obama was elected-- but then it was not so much demonstrations that burned things but rather tea party hats and gatherings in town squares to listen to patriotic songs, wave flags, and listen to speakers. The insulting words were pretty much the same.
We are called the United States, something one might think about when wanting to take the rights of the states to have a voice in who is President. We have been divided from our beginning. The Revolutionary War had those who wanted to stay with Great Britain. The Civil War had 500,000 men die in combat over our division. We vote pretty much 50-50, well more like 45-45 since third parties get some votes. Since about a third of us don't vote even in an election year, it's hard to say exactly how divided we actually are. Why don't people, who are registered, vote???
These are sobering numbers. Clinton (with not all votes counted) had 60,467,245 votes and Trump had 60,071,650 votes. In 2012, there were 235,248,000 eligible voters. That means about 100,000,000 opted to not take a voting responsibility as a citizen even with so much at stake. This is a disgrace frankly.
Anyway, here we are, divided country and now a President, who as Obama did, is about to enact his policies, the ones he ran on. He's going to hit the ground running with the Democrats determined to block him and establishment Republicans probably not on his side either. He won without the elites of the media, intellectual and celebrity world, or the political establishment. He won by the ones he says have been forgotten, who are directly impacted by immigration policies, by loss of jobs overseas, by inflationary policies that make their dollars lose value to cover a massive debt. They voted for change-- many of them just as they had for Obama in 2008, who was also something of an outsider with his only recent election to the Senate. Sure, some Trump voters are bigots, misogynists, etc. but most are good people like the ones who voted for Hillary, some even knowing the crooked things* she has done because they felt she'd be best for the nation.
Something particularly negative grew this year where the voters were being attacked in the campaign, where Hillary called half of those voting for Trump as being deplorables and irredeemable. When you attack voters who disagree with you, you attack the very fabric of democracy!
So mourn for awhile, but this fear talk is over the top. What do you honestly believe he can do? Assault all the women of this country? I heard the nuclear button talk but for heaven's sake, how many fistfights has he been in? How many people have died mysteriously when they were his enemy? I did a search on this for my rant blog and found a lot swirling around the Clintons but not one around Trump-- yet anyway. He fights with reckless words and lawsuits. He is not going to push the nuclear button just because some tyrant insulted him. I think she was more likely to get us into wars based on being a globalist and what she did with Arab Spring and Libya (not talking Benghazi but our intervention there to overthrow a tyrant and help the rebels-- maybe also getting guns to rebels in Syria where they ended up in the hands of ISIS).
In this volatile aftermath, it's difficult, but try not to insult Trump voters or encourage unrest, work for the country to go the way you think is best- but we are a representative Republic and now it's time to let those leaders go to work while we keep an eye on what they do. We on the left probably will not like much of what is done in a Trump administration, but he won and won by working hard. He went out on the stump and made his case directly to the people. You might even like and know some of those people.
We, meaning progressives, won in '08, hopefully we will have a stronger candidate, without all that baggage and '20 might see it turnover again... or not. It is after all a place where we vote and accept the outcome of our elections to go on as one people... or we always have. If anarchy becomes the future, my guess is right or left will neither win!
I just wish the angriest ones would stop trying to destroy the fabric of our country based on their rage. Work instead to educate, get more voting, and keep an eye on what is done next-- a responsible citizenry should never do less. Rioting in the streets is nothing of which to be proud. It allows anarchists to slip in among them and make it all worse. Nobody should be proud of passing on threats, insults, or disgusting displays of being a lowlife (one photograph I am still trying to get out of my head). It's like some people have lost all sense of decency. We should not let them drag us down with them.
A brief footnote on crooked for those who don't see Hillary that way.
*For anyone who is about to say the vast right wing conspiracy is why Hillary was thought to be crooked and nothing ever was proven-- not being found guilty does not make you innocent. Follow the money trail with the Clintons. And sadly, even the thing that the Clinton camp let Donna Brazile do, feed questions to her that CNN would be asking, using a woman I had believed was honorable. What Brazile gave were very specific questions that were asked pretty much word for word. For you who want to think Hillary has acted honorably, cheating is not honorable. For those who believe she's been a loving caring person, I suggest you read the Wikileaks. Whoever might have gotten them to Assange, those are the words from the Clinton camp. If those words hadn't been there, there'd have been no story... And that said, I voted for her but at least I wasn't fooling myself. I did it based on issues. I saw us with two undesirable candidates and just had to choose the least undesirable-- based on issues that mattered to me. I suspect a lot voted that way.
11 comments:
Moat people do not realize that Trump is neither a Democrat or a Republican, but an Opportunist and I just hope he does not destroy the earth with his energy czar folks and their push to bring up more oil at the lowest profit margins ever. As a woman I cannot help but feel discriminated by the language and behavior of his closest aides. They see women as lessor and not equal.
I don't know that Trump feels that way given his daughter and the power he has given her. He also had a woman running his campaign. Even the Clintons pay their females less than the males in their Foundation.
For me, social issues were big reasons I voted for her. That and the environment with his unwillingness to learn about the science behind global climate change. I had righties tell me he wouldn't end abortion. He won't have to. He will appoint a new Supreme Court justice who will take a case that says it's not a Constitutional right. Then it will go back to the states where some, like Oregon, already had it legal before Roe v. Wade. Some of those judges would also undo the right of marriage as they are conservative and very right wing.
I didn't like having to vote for her considering how I saw her but those big issues were too big to not vote or vote for a third party and then see him get it. In some ways, if the left wasn't acting so nutso, her getting more votes than him limits his power. I just hope the anarchists (those who want to use violence and those who just cry their way to power) don't undo the fabric of our government. Wanting to change the Electoral College is fine; but you do it after the fact, not retroactively-- and it won't happen with the need to have 2/3 of the states ratify a Constitutional Amendment.
The one I see pushed the most with now several million votes, is asking the Electors to cheat. That should not surprise me since Dems didn't mind when she cheated her way to get the nomination. It shouldn't but it has. We have a system in place and both candidates ran knowing they had to take certain states to win. It enhances the view that we are a nation made up of states, not just individuals. The majority doesn't rule on many things as the Constitution and courts determine rights. Yet here are the lefties out there suggesting that Electors behave faithlessly, make a lie of their promise and try to hand her the vote based on her big majorities in California and New York. Makes me regret voting for her... except back to the environment, social issues, and the Court... but still this is disgusting-- not as bad as rioting in the streets (where that happens with any excuse) but in some ways more dangerous.
The thing is we can continue to put pressure on the government many ways and in two years get a democratic Congress... We could but guess that's too much work and signing a stupid petition doesn't take much. grrrrrrrrr
I highly recommend reading this commentary I became aware of just today. She's a prominent highly respected 49 year old Russian and American Journalist Masha Gessen who has had first hand experience living different countries:
http://www2.nybooks.com/daily/s3/nov/10/trump-election-autocracy-rules-for-survival.html
I looked at it but to me she is following what she believes he said based on the snippets from the mainstream media, who often left off the rest of the words. Yes, he said part of it but then there was what tempered it and never was mentioned like regarding Muslim immigrants. Politifact.
And I've been trying to get the final popular vote tally but one side says that he now won it based on absentee ballots while the other says she won by 400,000 votes (mostly due to California and New York-- of course, we want those two states to elect all our presidents as what does the rest of the country matter???).
What has irked me is the demand by some that the Electors break with results from their own states and instead vote for the one who got the most votes. So cheating again as a way to win-- something the DNC did during the primaries to deny Bernie the nomination-- with the Clinton team going so far as to get some of the questions from Brazile.
If states want to divide their Electors, they are free to vote within the state and do it. I doubt California would go for that since something like 30% voted for Trump but he got none of the 55 Electors. Nebraska and Maine divide theirs. Getting rid of the Electoral College though is not happening as it would take 2/3 of the states voting to do it. Not happening in states who already feel overlooked.
I don't think Trump voters wanted a dictator. they wanted change and many voted for Obama for the same reason. They were angry at jobs going overseas to the profit of the wealthy class and leaving workers high and dry. They were concerned that some enter this country illegally and it's overlooked. They were angry at the ACA premiums going to $20,000 a year (one family I know made up of just a husband and wife and with a $6000 deductible). And of course, there was always Hillary's baggage which some, like me, voted for her anyway but not happily.
I didn't vote for Trump but after a few days reflection I think it ended with the best possible outcome. I think he has the potential to be a dangerous president but with Republican control of the House and Senate he should be kept from being too extreme. I can't help but wonder though whether some Trump voters aren't experiencing some cognitive dissonance right about now. Trump promised the removal of 1l million illegals and to build a great wall. Almost immediately after the election that number dropped to 2.5 million. Obama deported that many during his administration, in fact Obama has deported more illegals than any other president. Newt Gingrich said deporting 11 million and building a wall as promised probably won't happen but it was a great "campaign device". I know that a lot of people voted for him because of his strong rhetoric on immigration. Now, it seems it may be immigration policy as usual. Trump is now saying that he will keep some aspects of the ACA. If the Republicans go along with making adjustments to the law couldn't they have done that during the Obama administration? Again, the rhetoric was quite adamant: repeal the law and come up with something better. A lot of us know that campaign promises are often broken, but the conservative voters this year will want to see some real change. This is going to be a very interesting few years.
I should be interesting and his toughest opponents are likely to be the right wing fringe. He said though, during the campaign that he'd build a wall, and the first ones he would deport were those with criminal records. Then he said, he'd see about the rest. The problem is a lot of what he says never got reported as it was.
The ACA does need to be fixed and the parts he said he was open to keeping were allowing 26yo to stay on their parents insurance and not kicking off those with existing conditions. It will be tough as those who are not on medicare, in a corporation, or having government pensions know how bad ACA is for some families. An example is a friend in Texas. She and her husband have to pay $20,000 a year in premiums and that with $6000 deductible before the insurance kicks in. Who can afford that?
My husband will be interested in what he does about regulations as he works helping start-ups and what Trump said is true about regulations stifling them. So, like you said, let's see what he actually does. He doesn't have an easy road ahead however you look at it.
Kind of crazy that with all the hoopla about the election and a ton of statewide ballot measures, here in California only 51% of registered voters bothered to vote.
It is totally amazing how many say it won't matter. Well 100 million voters would matter. And 49% of eligible voters not voting in California is shocking
I think you missed my point of the referral to the Russian/American journalist's article which is simply the "rules" she described as to what to be aware of and how a nation slides, or is led, into becoming a fascist state. I do think given all the dissension in this nation we are much closer to that sort of event occurring than we have ever been in my lifetime. I believe we would all be wise to know how that can occur and would be equally wise to pay close attention to how our government is administered by the new administration. It is a a mistake to assume that referral to an article such as this indicates that everything the author has written reflects what the person making the referral embraces. To do so is just as condemning as those you are complaining about. ;-)
We should always do that even when we have someone we wanted ourselves.
I will have one more blog on the aftermath of the election on the subject of fear.
Looking for the final vote tally has been frustrating and I learned something I'd rather not have known. It turns out when the election is over; and the winner is determined, with the belief absentees won't change anything, they do not count them. It is claimed there are as many as 7 million votes that now will never be counted. That was particularly irritating to learn when they are making a huge deal out of her winning the popular vote. I think all votes should be counted. Without that, talk of winning the popular vote is sort of meaningless.
Trump said he still believes the popular vote should determine it and end the Electoral College. After I'd read more about the system we had, I thought it made sense. It would though make it a lot easier on the candidates as they'd never have to travel as much as they do as it stands.
Post a Comment