Response by LW1977
My right to marry a same-sex partner will be banished once I find a significant other. Which is hard to do when I'm stuck in a small town, single, with a bad eye condition (can't drive), and suffering from aspergers. My visits to to my psychatrist will cost me my limbs because turtleman plans on getting rid of Obamacare ASAP.
I fear the worst.
Ah...
So, you're one of those who is unable to have a life of its own without relying on others.
The only words out of your mouth should be "Thank" and "you" and in that order.
Response by DFW
I am not in a conciliatory mood. Period. This is the most insulting election result I have ever seen, and I was disgusted by Nixon in 1968, Reagan in 1980 and Bush in 2000 and 2004. Anger and an ugly self-righteousness took the day.
Trump's victory speech was surprisingly conciliatory. I do not believe him. His first potential cabinet picks confirm my worst fears. Believe me when I say this: To all the "I-Hate-Hillary" crowd who gave the Republicans all their talking points and ammunition during the primaries, doing half their general election work for them, to all who voted third party, or not at all, whether it made the difference in your state or not, I can only say this: If someone poisons your drinking water due to unregulated environmentally damaging activity, I will not weep for you when the government refuses to help. If you find you have no legal remedy if you are harassed, robbed or injured (or worse) by illegal police activity, I will not weep for you when the government refuses to help. If you find that Supreme Court decisions affect your life negatively, whether it's gay rights, women's rights, voting rights, civil rights or any other constitutional rights being curtailed, I will not weep for you. If you find yourself out of work with no health insurance, and no prospect of getting any, and you become ill, I will not weep for you. If you find that the Federal government seems like it wants to impose a religion on you unconstitutionally, I will not weep for you. If you find that corruption is sprouting up all over the place in our government, and the agencies supposed to fight it are instead part of it, I will not weep for you.
In short, you helped put Donald Trump into the Oval Office and made Mike Pence the evil voice whispering in his ear for the next four years. You helped keep a moderate progressive OUT of the Oval Office, one who had the know-how to do the job and would have put liberal judges on the Supreme Court. Nice going.
Don't come asking me if I can spare any change. I can't. Don't come crying on my shoulder when you start to have regrets. You might find it a little colder than you expected.
Go ahead. Double down on the arrogance and vilification that cost you the election.
Response by cynatnite
Still mourning, but with greater purpose.
I drove to Illinois to watch the election returns with a close friend who is terminally ill. We watched in shock as the nightmare came true. It was with a heavy heart I had to leave and go home.
There has been a lot of crying and anger. Today, I am strengthened and determined. While I know that opposing this racist and misogynist who will soon dirty the White House and dismantle Obama's legacy, I also know that the work to fight for what's right is just starting.
Dismantling Obamacare will do away with the birth control mandate. The next step will be take down Roe V Wade. Women's rights and their health care choices will be decimated. I've pledged to myself that I will fight for women and our rights even if it means going to jail. I will not stand by and watch the clock rolled back to back alley abortions, unable to access birth control and more. Whatever it takes.
Skinner, Elad... We need DU more than ever now and hopefully, we won't be long in waiting so all of us can get motivated and active in fighting for the rights of all of us.
On a side note, how do we blow up the electoral college?
Can anybody find any hint anywhere of Trump saying he would illegalize birth control?
Response by Catbird
The cat beside me awakes and would like to be fed. She is unaware that her humans just had an election. For her, and the overwhelming majority of sentient beings on earth, human elections are nonexistent and almost irrelevant. So let us wish for the happiness of all sentient beings and remember life goes on. She is now enjoying her meal.
WTF?
Cats and other animals are sentient beings...
...but they're also unaware of the world around them and abstractions.
This is what they consider to be superior thinking that makes them better than us.
Response by spankme
I don't have it in me to brace for the worst.
I mean I feel so distraught at the total outcome of the election (POTUS, Congress, Supreme Court) that I am emotionally unable to process the dark times that are coming. With all 3 branches of the Federal government in Republican hands there is nothing to stop them from making structural modifications to the institutions and processes of government to keep them in power more or less permanently. It'll be hard to fight.
This is essentially what they're doing at the state level, both in terms of how their states are run and how they send representatives to the House. Republicans have engineered their wins rather than winning an honest vote based on the issues.
I was so sad on election night as the toss-up states kept going to Trump that I was nearly out-of-body. I almost wept. I did not sleep Tuesday night. I just kept thinking about how ****ed up everything is. I was truly having little panic attacks throughout the night.
Republicans are claiming a "mandate" and they're now going on a mission of destruction. We have to fight the "mandate" narrative. Hillary won the popular vote and Republicans lost seats in both the Senate and the House. We can't let them forget these inconvenient facts.
Response by ThoughtCriminal
I posted this a couple of days prior to the "Election". It means even more now.
“There is a greater darkness than the one we fight. It is the darkness of the soul that has lost its way. The war we fight is not against powers and principalities, it is against chaos and despair. Greater than the death of flesh is the death of hope, the death of dreams. Against this peril we can never surrender. The future is all around us, waiting in moments of transition, to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future, or where it will take us. We know only that it is always born in pain.â€
― Book of G'Quan (Babylon 5)
When times are tough retreat to science fiction (or comedians).
Hell, it's not even good sci-fi.
First, it half-ass quotes the bible in order to undercut the bible for being foolish enough to promulgate the idea there might be powers and principalities. But then it anthropomorphizes chaos and despair and places hope over human life.
If everyone is dead who has hope? Who feels it? Who realizes the promise?
There's a word for offering hope when there is no opportunity to achieve it. It's called cruelty.
Response by anonymous
I feel great! We lost, and they won. Let's be clear here, we are not out. With Obama and Holder teaming up after he leaves office to tackle redistricting. The Democrats in the senate need to take a page from the Republicans. Obstruct, Obstruct, Obstruct.
Redistricting requires the state legislatures.
Oh well. At least you'll be able to cry to the Civil Rights division of the DOJ...
right?
Response by Solly Mack
America...What Have You Done?
You have chosen to be a threat to the world - which should never be confused with being strong.
Being a bully doesn't come from a position of strength. It comes from a place of fear. You have shown the world that you are afraid. There's nothing great about a nation of people who react from fear. There's nothing great about a nation that takes pride in ignorance. There's nothing great about a nation that embraces hate. There's nothing great about a nation that prefers self-serving feel-good blustering over substance and actual know how.
America, you have chosen to wrap yourself up in the false comfort of authoritarianism. You have chosen dictates and edicts over liberty, freedom, justice and equality. You have chosen to be a cautionary tale for future generations who will ask, "How did this happen?" You have chosen, and in that choosing, have shown the world just how broken you are.
I wrote that on the night of the election. I still agree with it. I know there are other aspects to why someone so unqualified to hold any political office was elected, but the bottom line question at the end of the day was, "What kind of country do you want?"
A country that would have, at the very least, allowed room for dialogue for necessary change and continued gains in social justice and equality.
or
A country that chooses fear, regression, and anger - that embraces hate and intolerance - as the cornerstone of how it governs.
I'm not really surprised by the choice. My opinion of many of my fellow Americans has been less than positive since the acceptance of torture as either a good thing or something that happened and can't be helped. Trump is really just an extension of that mindset. That fear-based mindset has been the driving force behind the Republican Party for decades and fear also took the place of justice.
Fear - the root of it all - and all the things that stem from being afraid: Hate, anger, intolerance, and the need to control and scapegoat the other.
America chose to be afraid...
but I don't.
Calling us bigots, forcing us to buy your birth control, forcing degenerates into our daughter's bathrooms, shouting us down at every turn, forcing us to cater your weddings...
...this is what you call "liberty, freedom, justice and equality."
**** off.
