Elections: ultimately, it’s going to be okay
I think some of you will react very poorly to this post; I understand that. I’d ask you to assume noble intent - I am not blasé about the implications of the election for transgender folks. Please know that I don’t blame you if you need to vent… or even catastrophize a bit. Trust me, I get it.
I get it because I am writing this, in large part, for myself. I had a pretty hard time this morning, and I’m very nervous about the implications of a second round of a Trump presidency. But the more calculating, rational part of me is saying this: ultimately, it’s mostly going to be okay.
I have spent much of my adult life living in the poorest countries in the world. Two of those countries were actively engaged in civil war when I was in them. It is hard to really convey how horrible the most desperate parts of the world can be. But more than anything, what I have taken from those experiences is hope.
For almost everybody - even people in those horrible places, going through horrible times - life goes on. People plan expensive (it’s all relative) weddings, get married, go shopping, gossip. They laugh and they cry. Mostly, life is normal.
A lot of things are about to get worse in America, and a few things will probably get better - accidentally, if nothing else. But mostly, day-to-day life is going to be okay. And so are you.
Certainly, let this radicalize you rather than lead you into despair. Rough times are indeed ahead, but as always, regardless of who is in charge, we need to take care of us. All power to the people. Protect, organize, feed, share, commune with others. Build resilience, community, networks. A big part of that start for me is going to be reading about how to better accomplish these things and how oppressed groups have done it in the past.
I hate how everyone just assumes rough times are ahead. Annoying times lie ahead. Frustrating times lie ahead. But let's not give up hope just yet. Democracy isn't dismantled yet.
I think even the people on the other side know that rough times are ahead. Trump and Musk have both said something to the effect that things are going to get dark for a while. And while they didn't mention specifics, the fact that they've both said it makes me think that specifics have been discussed in private. Maybe it refers to economic chaos caused by tariffs, or maybe social (and economic) chaos caused by mass deportations, or maybe general chaos caused by violent crackdowns on political opposition. Or maybe some combination of the above. Or maybe something else entirely. Whatever it is, I believe them when they say it, because why would a politician lie about that?
Well, let's not assume our definitions of 'rough' mean the same thing. To be fair, rough times are already here but let's not kid ourselves into thinking anythings going to get better than the disaster we have today. The incoming powers are all-but-certain to make it worse, what do you think is going to stop it? I'm sure some marginalized communities will see some of what they may experience as more than frustrating or annoying. Given the person taking power and his followers, I believe it is quite okay to think that things will be 'rough'. It's quite possible fascist violence will increase, whether state or interpersonal. That leftist (and even dem) organizations and people will become targets even more than they already are. We already know trans folks, immigrants, and others already are targets and will be even moreso. Fascists/racists will be further emboldened. The economy isn't going to get magically fixed by a new president. How far does it have to get for it to be considered 'rough'?
As long as the imperialist, capitalist, zionist system remains, rough times for many will be a given. That which will happen within the next four years won't be simply undone at the ballot box, nor was all of it preventable with the ballot box to begin with. A meaningful difference, sure, though, as we'll accelerate into some awful crap if the administration gets what they've been openly saying they want to do and have designed an entire project around
It's time to build power and community outside the system, as we always should have been doing, instead of relying on the designed-as-broken system to ever care about the non-ruling class. This is and forever will be class war. There wasn't a lot of hope even if Kamala won. I no longer believe in the American experiment nor in any form of supposed 'democracy' we have, it's a joke. The 'democracy' we hope to protect is its own kind of sham.
Well, for one, I have Holocaust survivors telling me to get me and my family passports. And some of these people were Republicans in the 90s. They say the rise of Trump and Hitler are disturbingly similar.
Things are different now, and there isn't a single person who could convince me otherwise.
For real. "Build The Wall" was silly from the start, and mostly came down to a waste of money as I understand it. Also some stricter immigration policy, but that's par for the course for conservatives.
"Mass Deportations Now" scares me in a way that's hard to articulate. There is no humane way to execute that plan, even if not carried out to its fullest extent.
I'll drop this here as well: https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/deportations
Coupled with the dramatic and dark dehumanization of all* immigrants as violent criminals and illegal rather than refugees, migrants and active members of local communities.
*Mostly brown ones
Yes, this is one of those 'mask off' moments where fascism is getting sloganized and just stated upfront and out loud, and half the nation still cheers for it. Things like "mass deportations now" IMO prove that the parallels people are drawing between Trump and violent, genocidal dictators are apt and always have been.
Agreed, the will certainly is there, so there are a lot of scary possibilities, and although I'd believe it's going to be bad even if they weren't saying it outloud, the right-wing doesn't even hide the appalling things they're willing to do anymore. They just come out and say it, and admit it to our face, while laughing. The mask has long been off.
I would like to do more of this myself, but I am getting bogged down in feeling like there is too much information / too many possibilities / too hard to tell whether things are useful or not.
As you get into this, I would love it if you shared the resources you are using / planning to use with us on Tildes. I'm not sure if there is a way to support that effort that is within my means, but I'd be open to trying.
There's an FB thread I have bookmarked where it's asking for recommendations specifically regarding that theme, so I'm hoping to find a number of things there. If at some point I've found more useful things, I'll try to make sure I share that info. In the meantime, I will be combing through some possibilities at:
Various selections from
https://crimethinc.com/library
https://theanarchistlibrary.org
https://libcom.org/
https://abolitionnotes.org/
https://abolitionnotes.org/leftist-online-resources-archives-study-guide
https://www.akpress.org/
With topics like mutual aid, abolition, struggles for liberation, survival under oppression, Black Panther Party literature, and more.
An example: https://www.akpress.org/beyond-survival.html
Want to add this, a few outlets are giving away sets of ebooks for free, some in the wake of recent events. Haymarket also having a huge sale.
Unfortunately in both cases it does require creating an account / providing personal info, so I understand if people do not want to (and in that case, seek out the books via a shadow library like Anna's Archive or similar ways of acquisition). Also Haymarket must have gotten tons of traffic as their download system is failing for me at the moment but you can always try again later after you've added them to your library / "checked out" (for $0).
https://www.haymarketbooks.org/blogs/508-free-books-for-a-free-palestine
https://www.haymarketbooks.org/blogs/517-ten-free-ebooks-for-getting-free
https://www.akpress.org/featured-products/featured-topic-free-ebook.html
There is “survivor bias” here, sometimes literally, but life does go on after people die, and for a lot of things, young people won’t even remember it.
The pandemic is an example, with memories fading, though the consequences are still with us.
I remember that when W. Bush was releelected in 2004, that was pretty bitter. Electing someone like that once can be excused, but twice is harder to take. Still, things got better.
Considering today's outcome, I think millions of leftists would be ecstatic if they could have George W. instead. Fuckin' hindsight lol.
Oh, sure. But I think that’s when it really sunk in for me that many US voters are not very wise. And since then, it’s sometimes been confirmed.
It’s something you have to deal with, though, rather than making unrealistic arguments for why they should think differently. We can set minimum standards for polite discourse in some forums, but it won’t change the country. It creates a comfortable “bubble.” Not a bad thing in itself, but it doesn’t change minds much.
[Edited]
Actually, that's just people. I would posit that most people are not very wise. I rarely discuss politics online, because it's usually preaching to the choir or going to turn into an argument. But in-person discussions can be easily massaged to stay as discussions, which then can enable you to possibly bridge a topic that may be volatile in general. Being able to properly emote and perhaps not "dive in" fully and start bringing up thoughts and concepts... but of course, some folks just want to shout their opinions. You gotta find the "not many".
I agree that it's more than "not very wise". I don't think there are clear paths forward for many of us to know what consequences our choices will have. For how complex and interdependent our world is, we have an embarrassingly small number of choices we can make to influence how our government runs. There were something like 6 races on my ballot. Sometimes there are as many as 20. But either number is laughable if one tries to draw a through line from my vote to anything that's happening in our government.
As I write this, I'm having trouble with the way this argument feels like a "there's two sides" when I feel strongly that there was a right and wrong way to vote in this particular election. But I'm trying to hold space for the fact that people on the other side of that decision have a similar conviction and a similar lack of any real influence over outcomes.
I don't take issue with differences of opinion or ideals, people are perfectly entitled to their personal views despite how others apparently take differences of worldview as personal attacks nowadays. What I've found most concerning is the antagonistic behaviour from both sides of the aisle, including the "my opinion is the one true correct opinion and if you disagree you're a Fascist Snowflake Pedo Nazi" rhetoric. America seems to be the only country that is so intensely politically divided that political ideals are now a personality trait in and of itself?
A historical perspective helps. Extreme rhetoric is an American tradition, going back to when the country was founded.
It's not the opinion, it's the action. If you knowingly, purposefully did something that hurt people that I love, why shouldn't I be mad at you?
My doctor literally said on election day, at 3PM:
I'd be inclined to agree. Say what you will about Bush's policies and motivations, but at the very least he showed a capacity for compassion and human decency that I have never seen from Trump.
I get what you are saying, and I don’t disagree. We will get through this, we will survive, because that is what we have to do.
However, there are those of us who won’t survive, and those of us whose lives will be worse as a result. I’m not worried for my direct safety, but I am worried for the safety of my wife, of my sibling, of my siblings partner, and anyone else who does not have the same privileges as me.
Frankly, I am worried for myself as well - I’m worried about deregulation leading to worse health outcomes - wether that be deregulation and a decline in healthcare directly, or deregulation of climate initiatives, or deregulation of safety standards of vehicles on the roads and things we use to make food, and food itself. And these are not things that will have an immediate effect, but things that will likely have small effects over the next 10-20-50 years.
(Not to even mention the fear of wars “ending” - but not in ways that are good for those who are having war waged against them).
My wife and I were thinking of maybe having kids someday, and while I still think we would be good parents, and be able to care for a kid, I’m worried that the social institutions and the rest of the world won’t be a conducive environment to raise a kid. I’ve suffered from mental health issues when I was growing up, and I can’t imagine bringing new life into a worse world than what I had.
I’ve seen this poem going around, and I think it resonates with me a bit, so I’m posting it here too.
When people say, “we have made it through worse before”, by Clint Smith.
Even with all that said, I am not hopeless. I am worried, but I am hopeful of a brighter day. I believe community will be more important than ever, but community is not easy to find. I hope to pull through, and I hope I will be able to help those around me who are important to me.
It's probably best to remember that everyone who voted for Trump did so because they were hopeful things will change for the better. I don't share in the particulars of what underpins that hope, or even what "for the better" means, but I have to hold onto my own version of that hope. It's become as necessary as air or water now.
Shivers and tears from that poem. Thank you for sharing it.
One thing the US has is its economy. Trump's policies weren't great but didn't kill the economy before COVID, and he's being handed a great economy his handlers know they should coast on (Republican leadership that will make the calls, not his MAGA cosplaying sycophants). Even if things go sideways we'll recover.
The hard part is the social progress that will mostly stall out amd be undone in specific cases. But if the US got to where it is from the Civil War, we'll beat Trump in time. The military tends to be more level-headed and liberal than its gung-ho supporters, sonI'm expecting there won't be martial law or anything freaky that typically creates a total fascist state.
EDIT: MIDTERMS! Trump has to have a busy two years to get Project 2025 launched and I don't know if that can fully happen between holdout Republicans and the sizeable Dem minority.
I'm not as confident as you that the economy will coast. It's a bit of a conspiracy theory, but here goes:
It's quite likely the people around him, like Musk and Theil, want to tank the economy on purpose. They've said as much. But they claim they will do this to rebuild it from scratch, when the oligarchs of the country actually will swoop in and buy everything at a discount. Collapse of Soviet Union style.
Trump doesn't give a shit about anything but his little vendettas and rallies so he'll do whatever they say.
I know this thread is meant to be comforting and uplifting, so with that in mind I'm putting my thoughts in a details box.
CW: Mild Dooming
If he makes good on his promises of heavy tariffs and mass deportation of the cheap labor the US refuses to acknowledge it runs on, even the economy won't be spared. Maybe the CEOs who've been licking his boots will persuade him out of that (or perhaps demand he slam the brakes after the policy proves to be disastrous), but it's difficult to know what will happen and I think it's probably a good idea for anybody with the means to be stashing away some padding in a high yield savings account out of an abundance of caution.I don't think republicans will take long about bypassing the filibuster, which will hopefully cause the dems to do likewise when they're next in power.
Honestly, we need to be rid of it. It gums up getting things done in government and grinds lawmaking to a halt. We may not like the fact that the government will function under Republicans, but I'd rather it function under both rather than under neither.
No, we need to make it what it was supposed to be, and not the cheap, no-effort exploit it became, where a senator can just declare filibuster instead of people having to actually get up and execute it.
It's pretty true that sometimes someone needs to take the kind of stand that requires something as ridiculous as a filibuster, but the filibuster is supposed to have a very real price in effort, time, and plain old public absurdity. When you take the price away but not the power, it becomes completely broken, and that changed the entire mechanics of how the senate does business.
I don't know about that. What percentage of our economy is tangible goods vs information and debt?
We rely a lot on far away countries to provide us with goods. Go inventory your home and count how many things have 'made in the USA' stamped on them.
Sigh, I wish I could agree with you but at this point it feels like saying don’t worry about climate change, the planet is going to be fine.
Sure I get it, it’s PROBABLY not going to be as bad as a war torn third world country but I’m not from the states and looking at the bigger picture here we now have an openly known Putin puppet as president of the united states who has voiced notions of dropping out of NATO. Need I spell out the global ramifications this will cause? If you had asked me fifteen years ago how we would end up in a ww3 scenario I would have told you I couldn’t imagine although I had this dull feeling that Russia is up to something. Nowadays? I’d rather not talk about it.
For the sake of all of us I hope you’re right.
If it makes you feel better, the American Congress passed a bipartisan bill making it impossible for the president to unilaterally withdraw from NATO.
I was about to delete my comment. My anxiety is getting the better of me. It’s time to for me log off…
But yes it gives me a little hope even if I can already think of scenarios how he will bypass that too.
(https://robertreich.substack.com/p/the-resistance-starts-now)
In the early days of my city's protests, a few young people took their own lives, as a response to the terror, but also as a witness to their anguish and defiance..... Most of our young folks held on, though, and the worst has come and gone, and many have gone to better places, biding our time. I wish we had all held on and I wish we still had them with us.... Things haven't gotten better yet but it would be even less bad if we still have them with us.
I would encourage everyone to hold on, and reach out to others who are having a hard time holding on. It's really tough but lets not do their dirty work for them or make it easy to make us go away.
If anyone wants to talk this is a safe space that we'll all pitch in to help curate. It's really awful. I'm reminded of the scene in Jojo Rabbit where Scarlett Johansson's character tells her child that they haven't got all of us, and every single day that that is still true is a victory for us.
Please everyone take care of yourself, that's the best defiance we can give right now.
Perhaps in the coming days we should prepare to go out onto the streets a lot.
I'm not from the US and have recently realized I was getting too invested in US politics. For the better part of a year I have been following the news and living in my liberal/progressive echo chamber, wondering how on earth so many millions of people could vote for someone as odious as Trump.
I'm mainly worried about Trumpism taking root in other countries, especially Canada. We are already seeing it, but I just hope that it doesn't completely take over like it has south of the border. Ultimately, I find that federal governments rarely change your day-to-day living as much as you think. There can be some big changes that affect certain groups, but on the whole, life carries on without major changes.
I really hope that the next 4 years goes by without any of the worst predictions coming true. I share your optimism in that things will probably be OK. The only trouble is that I'm losing some faith that voters actually make any difference at all. It's starting to feel like we are all just being manipulated by the uber-rich.
The thing is, this mean Trump will get 2 more SCOTUS justices. His appointees have already directly affected the day-to-day lives of millions of Americans by overturning the right to an abortion. Sure, some states still have it, but some don’t.
Yes, I'm sorry to hear that, and my comments were more from a Canadian point of view, where federal governments don't seem to have quite as big an impact.
It seems such an unfair system that the incumbent president can make SCOTUS appointments. Why is it not always a bipartisan process?
So much of our government was set up when our constitution was ratified in 1788 and lots of people think that we should never change from how things were done then. Same thing with the Electoral College, which was just a way to appease slave states. On top of SCOTUS justices, the sitting president also gets to appoint every federal judge. Trump appointed 234 judges across all levels of US federal court.
They need to be approved by the Senate. One must remember that our system was set up as checks and balances between branches of government, not between parties. The thought was that self-interested branches would act to conserve their own power. But with parties that goes out the window.
I am not an American too, so I don't have much strong feelings on either candidate. But seeing the reactions have been interesting.
Browsing sites like Reddit, r/all was strangely devoid of breaking news as Trump took the lead. Not a single drop. In 2016, you would have MAGA spam at least.
Im thinking - if half a country voted for someone, and your social media platform of choice goes from dead quiet > shock > then doomposting, then I'm pretty sure that platform is the echo chamber.
I'm privledged in that I can be white passing, I'm an older female who doesn't want kids (and will try not to) so abortion is past my concern (plus I live in a liberal state so unelss they pass federal laws I'm protected there). But I don't think you are right that this won't affect even the privledged.
For the more shallow thing, Orange cheetoh gets his tariffs (and it sounds like things went very well for Republicans, I haven't looked cause it's too rage inducing for me right now) and all the stuff I love but is already hard to afford gets so much harder to afford.
secondly, our environment like air and water is going to be fucked over even more.
Oh, let me add it's already getting really late to do much about global warming and the Republicans are going to try to relax regulations around that is kinda fucking everyone over. Not to mention I fucking hate heat and winter is getting shorter and shorter and our summers are getting warmer (and I live in the PNW and now you can't even go there to get away from the heat it seems).
Add in if Trump and project 2025 get their way, this may very well be the last honest election we get (I don't think they'll go straight to outright facism, btu I do think they'll try to be one of those countries that plays it is democratic while everyone knows only one party/leader will ever be elected).
Plus I'm worried about freedom of speech when you have people like Musk around (and hell, Trump. But Musk has outright shown what he thinks freedom of speech is... freedom for him, not for anyone who disagrees. And I forget what Trump wants to appoint him, but between both of them I could see them trying to outright stifle freedomt o speak against the government (project 2025 too). Hell, my mom is worried enough about it she's already deleted all her social media (and i'm not sure she's not being wise. Let me add that she is very good at predicting this kind of stuff, she ends up right a lot of times).
Oh, and can I add appointing a guy who wants to get rid of vaccines and is crazy for our health director? Yeah... that is going to go really well.
So, while this might not affect me immediately or directly, it will affect me. And things will get worse. And at this point with republicans having a lot of control and wanting to make it hard for them to lose control, I am not sure/have little hope it can improve.
So, thank you for trying to cheer me up, make my anxiety less, but I think you are underplaying how bad this can easily get at this point. Sure, it's not crappy/war country yet and may not be, but that doesn't mean that this is ok. Yes, I'll still get up and life will be normal but it is very real that little by little (or even maybe more sudden changes) things change for the worse. And some of that stuff is not going to be ignorable even for the more privledged, especially if they can't keep their opinions to themselves about the govt. And that is just my POV from a privledged POV and not one of the ones that should be even more scared.
When I worked in politics, there was a quiet observation that was often shared by the grizzled veteran staffers: It was almost always better to lose your first campaign. It centers you and gives you the 1000-yard stare you need to win in a way that almost no other experience can.
Americans don't run second big party candidate campaigns for president unless you've won.
Anything else, sure, you learn and you run again. But with president, you only get that first chance to be the R/D candidate. Harris had her chance, and now she's done. Her getting another chance won't even be considered a possibility.
@bkimmel may have been posting from the staffer/volunteer POV, not the candidates.
Harris is done for president. She's only 60 and she showed a lot of energy and work ethic campaigning.
I expect she finds something useful to do.
How dare you post something positive. /s
It's a nice sentiment. But it feels especially hollow at the moment.
"Yea, 20 million people died, but hey we don't have a housing crisis anymore!"
"Gas is $2 a gallon, gee why are emissions through the roof again?"
"Why is an antivaxxer making all decisions related to healthcare?"
Kind of like saying "Yea, you'll probably survive that tumor, but we'll need to chop off the leg."
These are briefly-sketched scenarios, not facts. As of yet.
One can imagine other possibilities. Here's a somewhat more cheery scenario:
The House isn't decided, and even if the Republicans win it again, they will have a very narrow majority. In the previous term, they were deeply divided, avoiding government shutdown only with help from the Democrats. Will they be any more unified this time? It seems like infighting making it difficult to pass new laws is a live possibility.
Meanwhile, Trump loves conflict - not so much the shooting kind, but things like making dramatic announcements and pitting different staff members against each other.
So they may get less done than you expect, while being very loud about it. It's not that easy to get the US government to change direction, even with good staff, which he's unlikely to get.