Ok so somewhere around 8 or 9pm on election night I left my Friend's house and didn't turn on the boob tube when I got home... An hour or so later I turned off the ringer on my cell phone. Although I was trying to push even the possibility out of my mind, it was lurking. It was making me sick...
I checked in and out of Facebook every now and then or read the occasional text message. At some point I checked completely out and did not read any messages and certainly did not watch any of the pundits who were in heaven playing folly with our nation's future. Ratings for them. That is all they truly care about... Our media and their reckless and relentless greed for sensationalism and ratings is responsible for the creation of trump...
At 4:15 am I walk into the kitchen and see the message light flashing on my phone. Of course I want it to be flashing to tell me good news. I build up my strength and begin to read the messages. I can see before I even begin to read that it AIN'T good news...
The writing seemed on the wall early in the evening but in my heart I just c/would not accept just how deep not only racism but stupidity and hatred runs in America... I checked out early last night wanting to believe that sanity would prevail and that I would wake up and find that Hillary eeked out a victory not only for herself but for God's sake for the sake of the rest of us, our sovereignty. I felt it inevitable that as a nation, we would look in our rear view mirror at our near missed and potentially deadly collision and truly reassess what just almost happened in our country because the story and angst behind the scenes was/is bigger than trump...
Thank you hoover, I mean comey. You are spineless and for whatever reason you handed this election and the country over to the devil himself...
While I would love to just check out and do nothing for the next few days, my standing in life does not afford me that luxury. I have to deal whether I like it or not. My first Facebook response was to a redneck classmate that I have not seen or heard from in more than 30 years. He was gloating. I told him given all I have heard about him since we graduated high school in 1978, I was not surprised by his elation for the rebirth of the klan. I dismissed him by telling him that as we have not seen one another or spoken in more than 30 years, that we should keep it like that...
I feel that way right now about a lot of people. Don't kid yourself folks. It was not just Mountain Dew drinking, trailer park living, uneducated, yahoos wearing plaid shirts and bib overalls and singing dixie and who have not read a book in decades (like trump himself) who handed our country this devastating blow. They have LOTS of cuzzins' and they live all around us and believe it or not, SOME of them even wear blue...
This nightmare takes me back to two elections beyond the obvious devastation of Gore/Bush 2000. First I am reminded of Bush/Kerry 2004. I was still in law school. I had worked the polls all day before a 6pm Constitution law class. I went into class hearing the exit poll results that pretty much gave the election to Kerry. I was elated! The Bush nightmare would be over SOON!!! To my horror somewhere around 9pm word started spreading through class that Bush had won (notice that I have capped his name. Pre trump, I thought he was the worst. Post trump, he was a damn blessing). I was devastated. I coasted home via auto pilot after class and did not eat, come out of the house, turn on the boob tube and likely spoke to very few people for at least the next 24 hours...
Election two that this debacle brings back to mind is Doug Wilder for VA Governor 1989. I campaigned hard for him, for history, and worked for his election right up to the end... I remember that we knew early in the evening on election night who had won on the ticket from Lt. Governor down. We did not know until the next morning that Mr. Wilder, a Black man running for Governor in a VERY RED state, had won the seat. What that said to me then and what it says to me now, is that folks will tell you whatever they want outside the polls but once they get in that booth it is between them and a stroke of a pen... Those good Blue hearted Democrats with whom Black voters so closely and blindly align ourselves, went into the voting booth and while they did not cross party lines, as has obviously happened here again, and vote for the republican candidate, they did not vote for that Black guy either!!! So just like last night, MANY said one thing and did quite another, to include White women and dare I say even some Black, Brown and immigrant folks I am sure the results will bear this out...
And while my apartment is still quiet, no noise from the TV and I have not ventured past my phone text, email and Facebook messages, I imagine a lot of yahoos are dancing all over the streets in trailer parks and such around the nation. I imagine they are the same people who threw shit at their TV and cursed the day President Obama, and all who shed tears of elation in celebration of his victory on this very day 8 years ago, was born. As many thought him our savior, these folks feel like they have hit the lottery, look forward to having their slaves back and will kiss the feet of the orange lunatic as he turns from orange to their great white hope who has risen to save them and give them their nation back...
Silver lining? There will be no chaos, cross or church burnings, suspicious lynchings and/or other random acts of hate crimes committed against innocent and random people. Proudly, Democrats are not wired that way... We take the high road even when sometimes we should opt for that low road. The republicans count on it... That is just who we are and in this instance, it is my preference...
Silver lining two? I am proud to say that I live in a Blue state and all that it implies; thinking, learned, educated, less racist (because racism has always been nigh), etc., etc people... While there are definitely trumpettes amongst us here on the Blue Coast, they are squarely in the minority. While I will be looking at mostly everyone side eyed, it gives me some comfort to know that at least for now, they will keep their sheets on...
So I have had this news for just over one hour now. I am still processing. Unfortunately, as with Kerry/Bush, I cannot check out. Life mandates that I engage in just a few hours, so I will...
These are my initial thoughts. I will keep writing as the REAL nightmare has only just begun...
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