I realized early on last night, election night, that Donald Trump was going to win the election. My friends and family were enthused and excited until it all became clear that Hillary Clinton, although she won the popular vote, would not win enough electoral votes to win. Once Clinton lost Florida, I knew it was over but even before that I could see the writing on the wall. I turned off CNN around 11 PM and only a few hours later a CNN crawl flashed across my MacBook’s screen stating that Donald Trump was now our President-Elect.
I wasn’t shocked or surprised, but I was dismayed and filled with sadness and a sense of helplessness that I had never felt after an election ever before. When George Bush won the Presidency in 2000, I was unhappy about the turn of events but I accepted that he was now our President and hoped he would do good by our country. Last night was different than my reaction to Bush. Never before have we had a candidate that has spewed so much hatred, bigotry, racism, homophobia and anti-women rhetoric publicly. Trump’s lack of respect for both the system in which he is a part or for the people who put him there was simply an extension of his narcissism and overweening ego. The fact that his supporters, most of which are White, poor, uneducated and bigoted in some way, or many ways, supported a man whom was essentially promising to raise their taxes, take away their right to insurance and healthcare without fear of pre-existing conditions, and promised to continue to siphon money from the poor and the middle class to line his own pockets and those of his friends, blew my mind.
However, I knew what this was really about, it was about Hillary Clinton. This wasn’t about them loving Trump, although some do, but more a referendum on the “establishment” in Washington. Somehow Trump had brainwashed these people into actually accepting that any candidate, as long as they were an “outsider” to Washington, was a better choice than someone we all knew and had dedicated her life to bettering the lives of others. Essentially, people voting for Trump decided that the devil they knew was NOT indeed better than the devil they didn’t know. Idiots. It was also about a class of people that have felt ignored by the previous administration despite the fact that the Obama administration had done more positive things for their lives than any Republican in recent history had ever done. The facts, which are inconsequential to Trump voters, prove that the lives of the people that put him in office, white, poor, working class and typically uneducated (meaning not past high school), have ALWAYS been far better financially than during the reign of Republicans which typically grow the deficit and add very few jobs. None of this matters, however, when the seething hatred of many of these supporters, rich, poor or middle-class, see a Black man as President, gays being treated as equals, and being forced to pay higher healthcare premiums and forced to even have healthcare in the first place. They voted, as they often do, against their own best self-interest despite believeing that they did just that!
Trump voters have seemed very weak-minded and impressionable whenever I’ve met one. Of course there are exceptions but the general experience has been one in which a Trump voter, when asked why they were voting for him, would say, “Because he’s going to make America great again!!!”, or “Because he’s an outsider and he’s going to fix things!” or “Because he’s going to send the wetbacks back to where they came from!” and so on. Never have I heard an average Trump supporter tell me what he was going to do in detail. None had any idea what his plans were and none cared because they hated Hillary Clinton more than they cared what Trump was really going to do.
So now, left with the result of this election, I and many Americans are wondering how to protect ourselves from this tyrant’s administration and from our lives drastically changing not only economically but the possible loss of our civil rights and our sense of equity being taken away from us.
Trump and Pence have both vowed to repeal Obamacare which means losing the RIGHT to healthcare in this country and the reinstatement of insurance companies being able to deny people coverage based on pre-existing conditions. It means that if you have a severe illness, you’ll now be subjected to life limits on your insurance policies. It means that only the employer paid and healthiest people in America will have healthcare or be able to afford it and those that really need it, also known as the ill, will either not be able to afford it or will become destitute trying, that is if they don’t drop dead first. It means that ERs will begin to act, once again, as surrogates for Primary Care Physicians. It means Doctors will be able to charge what they want for surgeries and regular visits rather than being beholden to reasonable rates. Sure, premiums will go down because insurance companies and doctors will be able to charge whatever they want but is that really worth all the millions who will be uninsured, sick and without healthcare? It doesn’t make a lot of sense but it didn’t stop others from putting their own needs (i.e. money, greed, hate for others) in front of the needs of their fellow man.
Trump and Pence have also both vowed to overturn the many rights hard earned over the past 10 – 15 years by the GLBT community in America. No longer will the marriages of GLBT people be recognized, no longer will GLBT people be able to even get married in the first place. No longer will GBLT people have the protection of the law when they want to visit their spouse in the hospital or make decisions for them in financial dealings or be protected from being sued by the homophobic families of their deceased loved one for the house they shared together or the things they accumulated over fifty years. We will no longer have the rights we have, after years of fighting, if they get their way.
The Supreme Court seats available will inevitably be filled with right winged, Republican bigots after the Republican’s unprecedented refusal to fill the seats with the SITTING President Barak Obama. This means that not only are the rights of the GLBT community in America up for grabs but also of women with Roe v. Wade, Affirmative Action, Voting Rights, and much more.
The distinction between the Right Wing and the Left Wing in this country is one of “what’s good for me” vs “what’s good for the country”. I am tired of people saying that the anger and pain being felt by Left-Wing/Liberal/Progressive Americans is about which party you are part of, policy, or just being bitter that “we” lost. No, this is about the inevitability of America’s ultimate destruction under a tyrrannical dictator whom has promised to do all he can to garner as much centralized power as possible so he can carry out his great plan. What is that great plan? Well, no one knows what he really has planned but those of us who aren’t part of the National Idiots Club (AKA Trump Voters), or anyone that isn’t, have reason to be afraid of his plan for us and America as a whole.
The rest of the World, other than Putin of course, and other tyrants, find Trump abhorrent and unpresidential. What was once left of America’s standing in the World, will be no more. Trump supporters have not only fucked over the country, but they’ve fucked over themselves and they are completely oblivious to it which makes it that much scarier.
The list of atrocities Trump plans to implement is endless but the question is what do we do about a Trump Presidency when we, liberals who actually believe in the words of the Constitution, are beholden to a racist, misogynistic, lying, homophobic, xenophobic and all around disgusting human being? Do we flee like the many liberals who vowed to leave if Trump were elected? I say FUCK NO.
I believe in this country and I believe in fighting for it. I believe in fighting for the freedoms of ALL people regardless of race, religion, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or any other reason for which someone may be discriminated. I vow to stay and fight. Why? What if the people whom have changed the World never stayed to fight? What if there had never been an MLK? A JFK? And LBJ? A Harvey Milk? If they had fled, because it was easier, they would have left behind all of the oppressed and disenfranchised people that needed someone to speak up and say “NO”. They acted as a beacon of hope and light in an otherwise dark and desolate place. We NEED people to stand up to hate, to bigotry, to liars, to racists, to homophobes, to misogynists, to classists, to…..to Donald Trump, which is a synonym for hate, bigotry, liars, racists, homophobes, misognyists, elitists, etc. Together we really can make a difference and “Make America Great Again”.
So use your voice, your words, your artistry, your power, your money, your beauty, your intellect, and your heart to move people to the side of humanity and not the side of human self-interest. RISE UP PEOPLE!! Don’t run away scared just because this got hard. No, Rise Up and say, “FUCK YOU DONALD TRUMP”. And in 4 years, we’ll have another shot and a shot at fixing the inevitable mess left by Dictator Trump because we know we will win in the end, this is just a setback, not the end of the story.
