President Trump
Nov. 10th, 2016 04:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lotrspnfangirlThe first thought I had when I woke up yesterday morning was that I have never been more ashamed of the fact that I am American.
Is America really racist, hateful, bigoted and uneducated enough to elect that??
I feared for my rights as a woman. I feared for my gay, lesbian, and transgender friends' rights as human beings. I feared for healthcare, our next generations and the honest to God safety of the county I live in.
I do not believe in his slogan "Make America Great" again. America is already one of the strongest and safest countries in the world. Turn on the news and watch what many other countries go through and fight for every day that we have JUST taken advantage of. I feared that segregation and division is where we were headed, for race and gender alike. That our country will slowly revert to what our civil rights and suffrage activists fought to change if, that is, we aren't bombed by another country who has now seen how truly weak we are.
Speaking to my mother today made me feel minimally better. She said that most of his life, he was a Democrat. He's been close with the Clintons, best friends with them, shared in each other's and their daughter's weddings, supported Clinton. She thinks that he's going to surprise us somehow in the White House.
The reason that Trump got so popular so fast and knew how to do it, was because he is a celebrity. He knew what to say and how to say it to get media coverage. This is the man who did not spend very much on the election and that's good in the sense that he doesn't owe anybody. He isn't going to have to fulfill promises and make things happen from other politicians, because he didn't use any of them to get to this place. Instead, he's going to be his own person and he's going to make his own decisions and he's going to do what he is going to do…
I don't think, or this may just be wishful thinking, that he is as bigoted as he put off for this campaign. He is friends with Elton John went to their wedding, he's employed and done things with the LGBT community. By being a Democrat before, he knew how to get the Democrats… What he needed to figure out, and what he did, was get to the Republicans. He did so by promoting pro-life, anti-gay and anti-women, promoting jobs and security. He used it in a way that was talking to the Republican middle-aged white male.
My mom said that what we need to do is figure out how he appealed to these people. That is what Hillary wasn't able to do… He had a huge population of educated white women vote for him. Why? He had Hispanics and people of color voting for him. Why? What is it that these people who are educated and smart and have done research, saw in him?
The figuring that out is what we need to do is figuring out how to talk to the generation that will not miss voting for anything. People weren't happy with either of our candidates, less than half of our population eligible to vote voted!! For some it was because they're too scared to leave their houses, it's too dangerous to walk down the street. For others it was that they just couldn't get there… I think that we need a system where people can vote online. We can submit tax IRS documents online so we should be able to vote online. This would make it so that nearly everyone was eligible to vote. People who can't walk, people who can't drive, people who worked (I had to use PTO to vote and got written up for leaving early), people who have kids and wives and just can't get out of the house, or people that are too scared to walk down the street. Anyone could vote and they could do it privately.
She also told me that we don't have to like him. But we have to respect him for the fact that he's our president… So, if we ever see him, we smile we shake his hand because we are meeting the president. However, if he does follow through and put up a wall, if he does follow through and make Muslims where things on their clothing, if he does follow through and try to abolish gay marriage or women's rights or any of this bullshit? Then we don't have to give him any respect.
It's a terrible thing to wake up and feel sick to your stomach about the country you live in. But that just means there is more of a fight to be had. It's analyzing why Trump won, what the people in this country feel they're missing, and how they can look past the awful words and actions he promoted through this campaign. I have to hope that he will surprise us, I have to believe the campaign was a show. Even if that's not right? To not hold onto that hope would be devastating.
Is America really racist, hateful, bigoted and uneducated enough to elect that??
I feared for my rights as a woman. I feared for my gay, lesbian, and transgender friends' rights as human beings. I feared for healthcare, our next generations and the honest to God safety of the county I live in.
I do not believe in his slogan "Make America Great" again. America is already one of the strongest and safest countries in the world. Turn on the news and watch what many other countries go through and fight for every day that we have JUST taken advantage of. I feared that segregation and division is where we were headed, for race and gender alike. That our country will slowly revert to what our civil rights and suffrage activists fought to change if, that is, we aren't bombed by another country who has now seen how truly weak we are.
Speaking to my mother today made me feel minimally better. She said that most of his life, he was a Democrat. He's been close with the Clintons, best friends with them, shared in each other's and their daughter's weddings, supported Clinton. She thinks that he's going to surprise us somehow in the White House.
The reason that Trump got so popular so fast and knew how to do it, was because he is a celebrity. He knew what to say and how to say it to get media coverage. This is the man who did not spend very much on the election and that's good in the sense that he doesn't owe anybody. He isn't going to have to fulfill promises and make things happen from other politicians, because he didn't use any of them to get to this place. Instead, he's going to be his own person and he's going to make his own decisions and he's going to do what he is going to do…
I don't think, or this may just be wishful thinking, that he is as bigoted as he put off for this campaign. He is friends with Elton John went to their wedding, he's employed and done things with the LGBT community. By being a Democrat before, he knew how to get the Democrats… What he needed to figure out, and what he did, was get to the Republicans. He did so by promoting pro-life, anti-gay and anti-women, promoting jobs and security. He used it in a way that was talking to the Republican middle-aged white male.
My mom said that what we need to do is figure out how he appealed to these people. That is what Hillary wasn't able to do… He had a huge population of educated white women vote for him. Why? He had Hispanics and people of color voting for him. Why? What is it that these people who are educated and smart and have done research, saw in him?
The figuring that out is what we need to do is figuring out how to talk to the generation that will not miss voting for anything. People weren't happy with either of our candidates, less than half of our population eligible to vote voted!! For some it was because they're too scared to leave their houses, it's too dangerous to walk down the street. For others it was that they just couldn't get there… I think that we need a system where people can vote online. We can submit tax IRS documents online so we should be able to vote online. This would make it so that nearly everyone was eligible to vote. People who can't walk, people who can't drive, people who worked (I had to use PTO to vote and got written up for leaving early), people who have kids and wives and just can't get out of the house, or people that are too scared to walk down the street. Anyone could vote and they could do it privately.
She also told me that we don't have to like him. But we have to respect him for the fact that he's our president… So, if we ever see him, we smile we shake his hand because we are meeting the president. However, if he does follow through and put up a wall, if he does follow through and make Muslims where things on their clothing, if he does follow through and try to abolish gay marriage or women's rights or any of this bullshit? Then we don't have to give him any respect.
It's a terrible thing to wake up and feel sick to your stomach about the country you live in. But that just means there is more of a fight to be had. It's analyzing why Trump won, what the people in this country feel they're missing, and how they can look past the awful words and actions he promoted through this campaign. I have to hope that he will surprise us, I have to believe the campaign was a show. Even if that's not right? To not hold onto that hope would be devastating.
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no subject
Date: 2016-11-12 06:07 pm (UTC)