November 2016

TL;DR: ...


I honestly don't know what to say. There are so many thoughts running through my head right now, and all of them stem from the election last night. Here's a list, in no particular order.

1) All the swears. Literally all of them.

2) How the hell did this happen?? Nobody had Donald Trump pegged as the next president of the United States. Nobody. Except maybe those alt right websites? Wtf did they see that expert pollsters and political scientists couldn't???

3) More swears.

4) I'm scared. As an out and proud gay man, I am unsure of my place in a Donald Trump America. Marriage equality may not be overturned with his first Supreme Court pick (God bless you, Chief Justice Roberts), but what if he gets more than one? What if they decide to revisit that decision and then decide the Court was wrong? What will that do to me? What will that do to my gay friends who are married to people they love? What about my gay friends who are thinking about marriage? This will surely put some unnecessary pressure on them to make a decision.

5) I'm scared for my friends. I'm scared for my best friend, Madelyn, who relies on Obamacare for affordable healthcare. What happens to her when the Republican government gets all sworn in and they finally have the majorities they need to repeal it? I have yet to hear a solid replacement plan.

    What is going to happen to my HR director, a Pakistani Muslim? Will she be deported, even though she is here legally? Will she be forced onto some sort of registry? Will she be unable to find peace at a mosque because they'll all be under surveillance?

6) Still more swears.

7) I'm tired. My frenzied brain only slept for about three hours last night, and that was only because I took some Benadryl to help it.

8) I'm conflicted. On the one hand, the political scientist in me is, at once, pleased and confused. It's pleased that so many Americans exercised their right to vote. It's pleased that that became the motto of the last week of the campaign: go vote! Make your voice heard! It's pleased that Hillary Clinton has not immediately called for a civil war. It's pleased that President Obama has called Donald Trump to congratulate him on his victory and is ready (grudgingly, yes, but ultimately ready) to hand over power peacefully. American democracy can withstand this, early indications suggest.

    My inner political scientist is confused because all normal political signs said Clinton would easily win. It's confused because it doesn't know what to think anymore. Everything I studied about politics for five years suggested this couldn't happen. And yet...

9) I'm sad. To me, this campaign wasn't about Democrats vs. Republicans. To me, this campaign was about love and human decency. I really believed in what Hillary Clinton said: that this was an election about what kind of country we are and want to be. I really believed that America was a country that welcomed immigrants. I believed it was a country that protected its weakest and most vulnerable. I believed it was a country that protected freedom and personal liberties.

   What does electing Donald Trump say about all of that? This man campaigned on building a wall to keep out Mexicans and stopping the flow of refugees (REFUGEES) because they *might* be harboring terrorists. He openly mocked a disabled reporter. He viciously attacked a Muslim gold-star family. He picked a violently anti-LGBT running mate. He talked about sexual assault like it was a joke.

    What does that say about us as Americans? To me, it looks and feels an awful lot like everyone who voted for him doesn't care about those things. On one hand, I know that's not the case, but on the other, I can't know for certain. Is this what we truly value as a country? The kind of people who can do and say the things he did?

10) I want and don't want to be mad. It's a complicated feeling.

11) ...f*ck...