This surprises a 20 something still within me, the one that feels more like my 20s was yesterday than 27 years ago I first claimed my second decade. It wasn't just that I had registered Republican a few years before, in 1987. I interviewed and was interviewed for a staff position in Senator McConnell's Louisville office out of undergrad, and took a better paying job at Maryhurst. I considered myself fiscally concervative and socially liberal. Back then, I disliked HRC from the start of her entering my awareness of her after the first 60 minutes interview. I judged HRC through the Karl Rove spin machine of the 1990s, and faulted her for ambition. I judged her for overstepping the role I expected her to play. I didn't like her political expediency. I didn't like how she would misstep and was unforgiving.
I switched my party affiliation after 9/11. I no longer believed in a meritocracy, where the third sector could meet the gap from government safety nets and those at risk, our friends and neighbors, and their children. I had seen how Maryhurst did good work, and was a drop in. The bucket of the need of these kids.
I saw President Ge. W. hold what appeared to be a pep rally on Ground Zero, where the literal obliterated remains of victimes and debris had fallen. I saw him lead us into a vendetta against, not the perpetrators responsible, but the tyrant his Father, Former President Bush Sr., hadn't defeated.
I voted for Obama, because I liked his policy stances more and, looking back, I was still faulting her for her ambition and seasoned skepticism. I voted for Bernie, well, because his version for America is about as close as me getting back to when I was an expat living in Sweden as I may ever get here in the States.
I bristled at Gloria Steinem chastising anyone who didn't vote for HRC because of her gender.
Then I looked at the policies between she and Bernie, when Bernie backed her at the DNC.
Where he was 100% aligned with what I find important, she was 95%. In the unlucky event you're still undecided, try isidewith dot com. It's a good way to see which candidate's positions align with yours.
I decided after seeing how little the variance between Bernie and HRC was, to stop assuming I knew her and actually learn more about her. I stopped hating her and listened to the Wellesley commencement speech. I read not just about the emails, I read many of them. I read about her harshest critics.
Frontline has a good episode on both candidates. https://youtu.be/s7uScWHcTzk
I was, in fact, confronted with my own misogyny during his election. Now, the gender of a candidate is no reason alone to change my vote. My misogyny against my own gender was latent, but I had to let go of it to gain perspective on just how much of a bad ass HRC is.
This may be different for you. I share my thought process of why when I cast my ballot yesterday, #imwithher #togetherwearestronger
I went to bed not long after 2:31 a.m., when the AP released the news that Trump won the general election for the office of President of the United States. There is a difference between giving President elect Trump our support and affording him the respect of the office to which he has been elected. Period. I respect the office; not the man.
I've heard and read many people saying, we can live through 8 years of Ge. W., we can do this. This is different that Ge. W. As some who know me know, I was living abroad, some of the time in Sweden, during his term and
There is is the old adage: We are governed by those who show up. Elections have consequences. This Presidential election is no exception and the consequences will go beyond the four years.
With a Trump presidency, Republicans hold on the Senate and the House, the filibuster will be eliminated and Obamacare is repealed, most environmental regulations will be eliminated and Scalia V 2.0 is in the Supreme Court. Roe v. Wade? Obergefell? Destroyed. Expect a recession, expect NATO to either be disbanded or crippled, expect that our involvement in the Middle East will be lead to troops on the ground in Syria and Iraq. Expect the use of nuclear weapons by somebody sometime in the next four years. Japan is at risk. North Korea is thrilled. Expect a vast increase to the Security State and the deportation of millions of Hispanics as well as the ban of Muslims to the country. Expect a change in libel laws and dramatic reduction of our fourth estate. He will do nothing about climate change. Education will be "School choice" a euphemism for making private school cheaper for the rich. All the things Trump has said he will do. He will. Congress will pass all of it.
When Obama was elected, he was going to make gas prices $6 and take everyone's guns. They were wrong.
I may be wrong on some of my chicken little predictions tonight. I've never wished harder to be wrong.
At 2am and the race hadn't been called yet. It's such a close race. I think of it in these terms: we have all but a few state election laws making Electoral College decisions on winner take all election rules. As such, that means we have two viable candidates, typically from two major parties. I remember when the biggest burn you could lay against a candidate was that they were a centrist and compromised. :shudder:
Now? We have extreme positions and government shutdowns, and the biggest burn we have is they are do nothings.
If you are disgusted when government halts? Join the club. I am too. I have compassion for those who didn't vote or made a "vote your conscience" vote for a third party.
Here's the thing, and tonight's election is no different. With winner take all, and elections being won, after millions of votes cast, by 20-70k votes, that vote is indeed for the winner, and not for the candidate you voted for. We are governed by the winner.
The metaphor I use is, if you wouldn't hand your wallet to a stranger, and forego a grocery list saying "just give me what most get" - then don't do it with your vote. Others choose for you and that lack of choosing between viable candidates has consequences beyond your one vote, but for everyone.
HRC lost by 20K-80k votes. That isn't big everywhere. She lost in a horse race against a bull who tore through the infield, across the finish line and next? It's the grandstands.
I don't look forward to the morning. My five year old threw herself on the floor, bemoaning that a bully should win?!
I'm devastated that fear, bigotry and misogyny won tonight. I explained to my girls that elections aren't the end, but the beginning. Then I read to them - The Paperbag Princess- where a little girl survives destruction of her parents' castle, she dons a paper bag because all her princess clothes were burned to ash by the dragon, cleverly thwarts the dragon and chooses not to rescue the prince the dragon had imprisoned, when he insults her and tells her she looks shabby in the paper bag.
I read them The Emperor's New Clothes, where a child spoke truth, and change everyone's act motivated by selfish self-preservation.
Today is the beginning. No prince will come rescue us. We must be resourceful. I reminded the girls that they can be clever, clear headed, and choose how to put ideas into action. #wearenotalltrump
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