Facing a world with Donald Trump as the USA President-elect...
So on that fateful Tuesday we all waited to see what would happen in the USA 2016 election. While people were vaguely concerned about Trump winning, it didn't seem likely. Then again, everything to do with this election hasn't seemed likely and yet it has all been happening. So when we then woke up on Wednesday, November 9th everything seemed like a bad dream. I myself had work at 7am that morning, so I had gone to bed around 10pm before anything was certain... Inevitable, yes, but not yet certain. So while I suspected what had happened I did not know for certain and was in denial for a good 5 hours. And then I realized that this was my new reality and I needed to get used to it.
I probably spent the next 2 or 3 hours being quite depressed and upset, but still, things weren't too bad in my head at that point. Until I realized what a Republican President, House, and Senate would mean for the USA and the world as a whole. And then I couldn't switch my brain off. Everything was swirling like a maelstrom in my head; LGBTQIA+ rights, gay marriage, women's right to choose and abortion access and legal consequences, healthcare and access for low income families, the environment, Trump's climate change denier appointment as head of the EPA, Endangered Species Act future support, my future career choice of conservation biology... Everything that is important to me went from being supported and protected by the government to facing complete dissolution and active threats from the entirety of the government. The fact that republicans now control the executive (presidency), legislative (congress), and judiciary (supreme court) branches of the government terrified me.
When Obama was president republicans chafed under his "control", but his presidency has been plagued from the very start by a gridlocked congress. In the beginning, democrats controlled the senate and republicans the house, and Obama managed to make some progress with congress. However, then the republicans took control of the senate as well, and then Obama's hands were virtually tied behind his back for the majority of his presidency. So while republicans were not happy with Obama as president he couldn't do as much "damage" as they feared he would if congress hadn't blocked him at every turn. However, democrats are now faced with a very different situation. Republicans now control the house, senate, presidency, and will likely have the choice of the new supreme court justice filling Scalia's spot.
They prevented Obama from carrying out his constitutional privilege of appointing the supreme court justice on the basis of them wanting the next president to choose because then the "people would be choosing". Regardless of the fact that this is perhaps the stupidest argument I have ever heard, it worked for them. The president-elect of the US is Donald Trump, the republican candidate, and as such he will appoint someone and congress will gladly accept that person, and then we will have a majority-conservative supreme court that will likely then attempt to overturn gay marriage rights, abortion rights, women's rights, equal pay for equal work laws, environmental protection laws, and everything else the House majority leader that looks like a turtle has suggested so far. There are also 2 justices on the supreme court over the age of 80, so there is a possibility that they too may need replacing in the near future. Ruth Bader Ginsberg (83) and Anthony Kennedy (80) are the oldest members of the supreme court. While Ruth Ginsberg is famed (or notorious, depending on who you ask) for supporting liberal ideology and protecting social rights of people. Anthony Kennedy on the other hand is shaky at best when it comes to protecting individuals rights and the environment. While he has not voted to overturn Roe vs. Wade, he has been the swing vote that often allows more restrictions on abortions and state decisions to restrict access. He also is shaky on protections for the LGBTQIA+ community. He was the swing vote striking down measures that would actively stop gay couples from claiming domestic partnership, however he also refused to support anti-discrimination laws for gay people. If Ruth is not able to hold out for the next 4 years, we are faced with an overwhelmingly conservative supreme court, and if Kennedy kicks the bucket, he will likely be replaced by someone much less likely to support individuals freedoms.
So the stark truth of reality is now facing us. Trump's picks for "Secretary of ___" make the simple fact that he is president-elect even more terrifying. Add to that the republican agenda of squishing the light of progress out of the world, and the idea of a conservative majority supreme court and you've got my personal nightmare and the US version of the Nazi regime mixed in with dictatorship and communism in Russia. Yay.
I have spent the last two weeks in a mixture of being okay for a few hours, to the most incredible despair I have ever experienced. I spent a good two weeks getting maybe 3-4 hours of sleep each night, and what sleep I did get was interspersed with nightmares and waking up frequently. Not a good way to keep up with schoolwork. On top of that I burst into tears and had panic attacks randomly throughout the days if I thought too hard about things. I couldn't get schoolwork done. I couldn't concentrate in class. I fell behind on homework. My nerves were shot to hell. When I heard loud voices in the street outside my house I always listened to see if they were harassing anyone, prepared to fly out my front door with my pepper spray and give them hell.
I'm not even a minority ethnicity or religion. Yes, i'm female, so I am naturally worried about the normalization of sexual assault and the lack of respect for women, their wishes, their consent, etc... But other than that i've got a lot of things going for me. I will fully admit that I am privileged. I am a white middle-class female with good family support. I'm atheist, so that's not great in this country but it's not seen as an immediate threat worth being expelled from the country over. I'm i'm scared, I can't even begin to comprehend how people who are actually at risk of verbal and physical abuse are feeling. People who already experience rampant racism and hatred towards them for their skin colour, religion, sexuality, and clothing choices related to their religion, etc... People who have already lived their entire lives being targeted because of who they are, attacked by random strangers with verbal slurs, aggression, and even physical violence are even more at risk now. Trump has "normalized" the "Alt-Right" which is really just a glamorized way of representing the white supremacist/Nazi agenda.
The more cabinet members Trump picks, the less likely it looks like this government is going to work for making all americans lives better. This government will take care of the rich old white people with political ties, and pretty much everyone else is screwed. Even the people who most vehemently support Trump will in the end suffer from this election. They think he's going to wave a magic wand and suddenly they'll all be millionaires? There's going to be a very rude awakening for some people. But his supporters who overlooked or even embraced every single character flaw and lie... Will they even notice that they are suffering for their choices? Or will they continue to blame everything on the "dirty lying cheating liberals" that they see as a parasite on this country? Sadly, it's probably the latter.
I see a bleak future for this country for the next 4 years. An undoing of all the progress made in the last decade. A fall back to the "great" times of America where women, minority religions, and people of colour were subjugated by white conservative christian zealots and their backwards agenda. I see a world where we will fall back by at least 20 years into the past. We will fall behind pretty much every country in the world. America is already the laughing stock of the world. Now we are not only a global joke, but a terrifying out of control torpedo that could hit other countries and do devastating damage with very little warning or provocation.
I see very scary times approaching and i'm currently planning my escape. I'm planning how to get out of this black hole as fast as possible. I'm planning on joining the Peace Corps where I can hopefully do some good in the world, where I can make a difference in people's lives. Where I can spend 2.5 years without having to worry about my future, where I can focus on the here and now while doing meaningful work, traveling, learning new cultures and languages, and learning more about myself and what I am capable of. When I get back I'll be faced with a few months of political campaigning and then an election that will hopefully get this country back to a place of sense and caring. If not, I can then apply to graduate school in Norway, which was already part of my plan. I can get out of this terrifying place and get a foothold in Europe, hopefully find a niche there for my specific skill set and integrate with life there and not have to return.
Part of me wants to stay and fight, fight for people's rights and for those who need the help. Part of me wants to tough it out and come out the other side stronger than before, knowing that I made even a tiny little difference with my resistance to bigotry and hate. But the larger part of me is just too terrified to even consider what that kind of life would be like. My parents moved my family from South Africa to escape what was quickly becoming a tyrannical government. They wanted my sister and I to have a better life than what was offered to us there. They wanted us to be safe, to have careers, to find meaning in our lives and experience all the things they never did. And now I see that vision of theirs dying. I see their hopes and dreams for us being flushed down the toilet. Maybe not for my sister, an iOS app developer in the Silicon Valley tech hub of California... She'll likely be fine and untouched by this. But the career path that I have chosen and worked towards for nearly 4 years of my life is slowly fading and shattering. My career was going to take me to places like back-country South Dakota and rural Colorado... Places where sexism and racism flourishes unhindered. Places where I would already not be welcome as a woman working for the federal government. I was willing to work at it, to quietly prove my worth to a community that didn't want my presence. I was willing to suck up my opinions and work with people I don't necessarily agree with to try and make progress on carnivore conservation and environmental education, even if I was faced with resistance. However, I am not willing to put myself in the way of bodily harm and person attacks. I am not willing to sacrifice my morals and everything I believe in. I am not willing to sacrifice my sense of safety and happiness fore years...
So, my plan is to get out of dodge as fast as possible. I'm just sorry that for so many people this plan of action isn't an option.
When Obama was president republicans chafed under his "control", but his presidency has been plagued from the very start by a gridlocked congress. In the beginning, democrats controlled the senate and republicans the house, and Obama managed to make some progress with congress. However, then the republicans took control of the senate as well, and then Obama's hands were virtually tied behind his back for the majority of his presidency. So while republicans were not happy with Obama as president he couldn't do as much "damage" as they feared he would if congress hadn't blocked him at every turn. However, democrats are now faced with a very different situation. Republicans now control the house, senate, presidency, and will likely have the choice of the new supreme court justice filling Scalia's spot.
They prevented Obama from carrying out his constitutional privilege of appointing the supreme court justice on the basis of them wanting the next president to choose because then the "people would be choosing". Regardless of the fact that this is perhaps the stupidest argument I have ever heard, it worked for them. The president-elect of the US is Donald Trump, the republican candidate, and as such he will appoint someone and congress will gladly accept that person, and then we will have a majority-conservative supreme court that will likely then attempt to overturn gay marriage rights, abortion rights, women's rights, equal pay for equal work laws, environmental protection laws, and everything else the House majority leader that looks like a turtle has suggested so far. There are also 2 justices on the supreme court over the age of 80, so there is a possibility that they too may need replacing in the near future. Ruth Bader Ginsberg (83) and Anthony Kennedy (80) are the oldest members of the supreme court. While Ruth Ginsberg is famed (or notorious, depending on who you ask) for supporting liberal ideology and protecting social rights of people. Anthony Kennedy on the other hand is shaky at best when it comes to protecting individuals rights and the environment. While he has not voted to overturn Roe vs. Wade, he has been the swing vote that often allows more restrictions on abortions and state decisions to restrict access. He also is shaky on protections for the LGBTQIA+ community. He was the swing vote striking down measures that would actively stop gay couples from claiming domestic partnership, however he also refused to support anti-discrimination laws for gay people. If Ruth is not able to hold out for the next 4 years, we are faced with an overwhelmingly conservative supreme court, and if Kennedy kicks the bucket, he will likely be replaced by someone much less likely to support individuals freedoms.
So the stark truth of reality is now facing us. Trump's picks for "Secretary of ___" make the simple fact that he is president-elect even more terrifying. Add to that the republican agenda of squishing the light of progress out of the world, and the idea of a conservative majority supreme court and you've got my personal nightmare and the US version of the Nazi regime mixed in with dictatorship and communism in Russia. Yay.
I have spent the last two weeks in a mixture of being okay for a few hours, to the most incredible despair I have ever experienced. I spent a good two weeks getting maybe 3-4 hours of sleep each night, and what sleep I did get was interspersed with nightmares and waking up frequently. Not a good way to keep up with schoolwork. On top of that I burst into tears and had panic attacks randomly throughout the days if I thought too hard about things. I couldn't get schoolwork done. I couldn't concentrate in class. I fell behind on homework. My nerves were shot to hell. When I heard loud voices in the street outside my house I always listened to see if they were harassing anyone, prepared to fly out my front door with my pepper spray and give them hell.
I'm not even a minority ethnicity or religion. Yes, i'm female, so I am naturally worried about the normalization of sexual assault and the lack of respect for women, their wishes, their consent, etc... But other than that i've got a lot of things going for me. I will fully admit that I am privileged. I am a white middle-class female with good family support. I'm atheist, so that's not great in this country but it's not seen as an immediate threat worth being expelled from the country over. I'm i'm scared, I can't even begin to comprehend how people who are actually at risk of verbal and physical abuse are feeling. People who already experience rampant racism and hatred towards them for their skin colour, religion, sexuality, and clothing choices related to their religion, etc... People who have already lived their entire lives being targeted because of who they are, attacked by random strangers with verbal slurs, aggression, and even physical violence are even more at risk now. Trump has "normalized" the "Alt-Right" which is really just a glamorized way of representing the white supremacist/Nazi agenda.
The more cabinet members Trump picks, the less likely it looks like this government is going to work for making all americans lives better. This government will take care of the rich old white people with political ties, and pretty much everyone else is screwed. Even the people who most vehemently support Trump will in the end suffer from this election. They think he's going to wave a magic wand and suddenly they'll all be millionaires? There's going to be a very rude awakening for some people. But his supporters who overlooked or even embraced every single character flaw and lie... Will they even notice that they are suffering for their choices? Or will they continue to blame everything on the "dirty lying cheating liberals" that they see as a parasite on this country? Sadly, it's probably the latter.
I see a bleak future for this country for the next 4 years. An undoing of all the progress made in the last decade. A fall back to the "great" times of America where women, minority religions, and people of colour were subjugated by white conservative christian zealots and their backwards agenda. I see a world where we will fall back by at least 20 years into the past. We will fall behind pretty much every country in the world. America is already the laughing stock of the world. Now we are not only a global joke, but a terrifying out of control torpedo that could hit other countries and do devastating damage with very little warning or provocation.
I see very scary times approaching and i'm currently planning my escape. I'm planning how to get out of this black hole as fast as possible. I'm planning on joining the Peace Corps where I can hopefully do some good in the world, where I can make a difference in people's lives. Where I can spend 2.5 years without having to worry about my future, where I can focus on the here and now while doing meaningful work, traveling, learning new cultures and languages, and learning more about myself and what I am capable of. When I get back I'll be faced with a few months of political campaigning and then an election that will hopefully get this country back to a place of sense and caring. If not, I can then apply to graduate school in Norway, which was already part of my plan. I can get out of this terrifying place and get a foothold in Europe, hopefully find a niche there for my specific skill set and integrate with life there and not have to return.
Part of me wants to stay and fight, fight for people's rights and for those who need the help. Part of me wants to tough it out and come out the other side stronger than before, knowing that I made even a tiny little difference with my resistance to bigotry and hate. But the larger part of me is just too terrified to even consider what that kind of life would be like. My parents moved my family from South Africa to escape what was quickly becoming a tyrannical government. They wanted my sister and I to have a better life than what was offered to us there. They wanted us to be safe, to have careers, to find meaning in our lives and experience all the things they never did. And now I see that vision of theirs dying. I see their hopes and dreams for us being flushed down the toilet. Maybe not for my sister, an iOS app developer in the Silicon Valley tech hub of California... She'll likely be fine and untouched by this. But the career path that I have chosen and worked towards for nearly 4 years of my life is slowly fading and shattering. My career was going to take me to places like back-country South Dakota and rural Colorado... Places where sexism and racism flourishes unhindered. Places where I would already not be welcome as a woman working for the federal government. I was willing to work at it, to quietly prove my worth to a community that didn't want my presence. I was willing to suck up my opinions and work with people I don't necessarily agree with to try and make progress on carnivore conservation and environmental education, even if I was faced with resistance. However, I am not willing to put myself in the way of bodily harm and person attacks. I am not willing to sacrifice my morals and everything I believe in. I am not willing to sacrifice my sense of safety and happiness fore years...
So, my plan is to get out of dodge as fast as possible. I'm just sorry that for so many people this plan of action isn't an option.
