Back in 2008 I was in graduate school when President Obama was running for president for the first time. One of my professors talked a lot about current events, and would remark on how amazing it is that in America, people let go of power and hand it to someone else. As a born and raised American, this was unremarkable to be. It’s the way it always has been.
So I understand I’m in the same boat as a lot of people when it comes to Thanksgiving plans. This election was grueling, triggering, and disheartening. For people who are against Trump, many of us are scared of losing hard won rights and the legitimization of racism. Trump also managed to insult a lot of groups of people. For instance, he said immigration from the Philippines should be stopped because Filipinos are terrorists and animals.
In the wake of this election, I’m trying to figure out what to do next without falling into despair. And it is extremely difficult. Because it all comes back to the fact that I don’t feel like I have a voice in my government.
In a video released about his demeaning statements toward women, Trump called this issue a “distraction” from real issues facing our country. Right now, I have a feeling on November 8th women are going to rise up and say our right to live a life free from assault and to be seen as human beings are not a “distraction.” Because me and a lot of other woman I know are sick and tired of men like Trump objectifying us. Warnings below for discussions of sexual harassment, rape and assault.
I am not surprised that Trump made obscene, derogatory comments about assaulting women. He has been saying similar things throughout the campaign. He has complaints filed against him for sexual harassment, trafficking and rape, including rape of a 13 year old girl. Trump has shown time and again that he sees women as objects to satisfy him and not as human beings. This is no surprise to anyone who has been paying attention.
Last night, I saw a woman accept the nomination to become the candidate for president for a major party for the first time in history. My heart swelled and I was teary eyed. I’ve always been a feminist, even before I knew what a feminist was. Women’s issues are extremely important to me. I was so uplifted to see this happening, finally happening!
I saw this patronizing article today attempting to psychoanalyze why Hillary Clinton supporters are so angry at Bernie. As a counselor, well, let’s say, the author should first rely more on the words of Hillary supporters rather than speaking for them. And it was more of the same paternalizing themes that are wrong, because it fails to acknowledge that people who voted for Hillary had valid reasons for doing so and, if Sanders supporters want to know why Hillary supporters are so livid, it is because we are being accused of being vagina voters who really would have preferred Sanders but did what our vaginas told us to. If you can’t see the conceit in that then I can’t do a lot for you.
“Love it or leave it.”
I was told that often when George W. Bush was president while making valid critiques of his presidency.
This us versus them mentality that plagued the Bush presidency was infuriating. There was only one way to be patriotic. And that was by supporting Bush. In my view, protesting a war that would harm our country and other countries was an act of patriotism. America was founded on dissent after all, and standing up to tyranny. By protesting tyranny in the form of Bush, I was the definition of patriotism.
But in the view of Bush’s supporters, the only way to be patriotic was to support him unquestioningly.
Bush’s supporters could not grasp that there were other ways to be patriotic.
And Sanders can’t grasp that there are other ways to combat corporate greed. This line in the sand he drew with the Democratic party is a study in us versus them thinking. Further, it’s a slap in the face to every Democrat who has fought for election reform, Wall Street regulations, the ACA, CHIPS, and the myriad of other issues that help families such as paid family leave, reproductive freedom, etc.
This mentality has concerned me greatly about his campaign. It was a big reason I did not vote for him.
Us versus them is polarizing. Us versus them shuts out viewpoints, when we need to listen to people who do not agree with us and weigh the merits of their concerns. Us versus them is authoritarian my way of the highway thinking. This characterized Bush’s presidency. This is why I worry that Sanders would be a liberal Bush president.
This us versus them polemic was wrong during the Bush presidency, and it is wrong now that Sanders is employing it. I am on the side of working families, but I do not believe Sanders’ plan will work. Thus I voted for Clinton. And I am tired of a vote for Clinton being painted as a vote for Wall Street. I extensively researched Clinton’s platform. Nowhere did I see that she would fight for Wall Street over families.
I am also furious to learn that he is attempting to steal Clinton’s superdelegates. Sanders is trying to make a case that polls show him doing better against Trump in the general election to use that to convince the party to back him in a contested convention.
First. Clinton has 3 MILLION more votes than he does. Clinton also has more popular votes than Trump. Hell, Clinton has more popular votes than any candidate in this race. I voted for Clinton. I would be furious if he stole the nomination from her. I would also have a hard time seeing this as anything but a white man stepping in and saying he could do it better than a woman. A woman whose resume is a lot more accomplished than his. With this in mind, how could I possibly trust Sanders to fight for my rights?
Second, political scientists agree that polls that show match ups between two hypothetical contestants are to be taken with a grain of salt. But Sanders is asking Democrats to bet on that flimsy piece of evidence. Further, Clinton has been continuously attacked by right wing Republicans. Sanders hasn’t. I wonder how well he will fair once he is in their cross hairs?
Third, Sanders has built his campaign off fighting corrupt politics, but if this is the tactic he is going to take, how does this not make him just as corrupt? More people have voted for Clinton than him. That’s democracy. Further, considering one of the uninformed critiques people have about Democratic Socialism is that it’s taking something that someone earned and giving it to someone else, well, he’s proving the stereotype and hurting his cause.
This is just confirming the fears I had about a Sanders presidency. It confirms my fears that people who don’t agree with him will have their voices marginalized. It confirms my fears that he would take an obstructive my way or the highway approach to government. It confirms my image of him as a liberal Bush.
Until a few weeks before the primary in my home state, I was seriously debating whether to vote for Clinton or Sanders. Both had pros and cons and for the most part I was simply glad that in my very red state, I actually had the chance to vote for someone where my vote could actually matter.
A few weeks before voting I swung firmly into the Clinton camp, and there I’ve stayed. What factored into that decision was articles like this that explained that Sanders doesn’t have a workable plan for how he will put his platform in place. Clinton does. Further, Sanders is a one issue candidate when the problems facing our nation are multifaceted and complex, and I feel that Clinton understands that in a way that Sanders does not. And what really concerns me, looking at things from a long term perspective, is that should Sanders get into office and fail to bring about the revolution he promises, the failure of his presidency will be blamed on his economic policies and not a flawed president.
I never thought Trump was funny. I never thought watching him run for office was funny. Watching his rise to power has been frightening and emotionally crushing for me. I’ve wanted to write something before, but I feel an overwhelming helpless when I think about it, because his followers are so hate filled and irrational that it seems as it nothing I say will reach them or change their minds.
But after the horrible displays of hate over the weekend, after the Nazi salutes and cries of “Heil Hitler” from his fans, I can’t stay silent.
Trump is one man. But he has power because he is tapping into the hate that a lot of people feel for others. And it saddens me to see that hatred so openly flaunted.
No, I never had any delusions that we lived in a post racial society. People holding racist and xenophobic attitudes is nothing new. But the openness with which they are displaying them are. And it’s not just distasteful hate symbols, people have been assaulted at his rallies. Trump has even thought about paying the legal fees of those who engage in such violence!
What truly scares me is his if “you’re not with us, you’re against us,” mentality, and if you dare to disagree with Trump, then you deserve to be roughed up or killed.
And this is why Trump has always scared me. He reminds me of the people who bullied me in elementary school. Yes, I was different. But my difference was not even tolerated much less celebrated. I was ridiculed, called a “retard”, physically assaulted, cornered against walls while people shouted out me.
And I told the teacher. And I became the troublemaker because I told the teacher.
The teacher and administrative staff have the power in schools. And they encouraged the bullying because the kids who were bullying had parents who were active in the PTA and they did not want to alienate them. At one point the assistant principal sat down with me at lunch and, in front of the whole class, blamed me and told me that I wouldn’t be bullied if I stopped reading and tried to interact more with my classmates. Then she threatened to put me in an alternate program if I didn’t get along with my classmates.
I want to emphasize I was never violent. I never said a mean thing to them. I was very quiet and, when I’m stressed or scared, I tend to become more so. My sole crime for this assistant principal to focus on was that I was reading too much. At school.
My parents had to take me out of that school and homeschool me for a few months while they researched other schools in the area that would be more pro-active against bullying.
Here’s the thing. Trump is no different from the assistant principal who told me to play nice with others. He is making a scapegoat of people who have the least say in our political process. The people in power in the country are predominantly rich white Christian men, not Muslims, not immigrants, not the poor, not blacks, not women. The people in power make the rules, not the other way around. People in power do not cater to the underdogs. Representation matters!
Further, diversity matters. Here’s the thing, I think very highly of myself, but I don’t think so highly of others. When people reject me, I place the blame on them for not being open minded enough, even though it hurts. Because I want to be appreciated for my talents and for my opposing points of view. But too often I feel like I’m that annoying voice who is arguing against what everyone else wants to believe. My life experiences are unique and bring something to the table.
Same with Muslims, and immigrants, and poor and blacks. I went to high school in an area with a large immigrant population and, since a lot of them were non-Christian, I tended to get along with people from Vietnam and India better than white people. No matter where they were from, I got to see their humanity up hand and personal, and see the value that they brought to our country.
But Trump and his supporters don’t want to hear it. They want to shut down people who think different and who are different. They don’t even want people who are different to have a voice. This is not a democracy. This is totalitarianism. In a democracy, even people who are in the minority have rights and protections.
And I am distraught that so many people are supporting him. Seeing people cheer on a bully after what happened to me growing up? It makes me indescribably sad. Seeing people so willing to hand him power? It makes me fearful.
America, we should be better than this. But as he comes closer to securing the Republican nomination, well, I’ve not been this disappointed in our electorate since Bush won in 2004.
froianna 