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Martin Eden

(12,805 posts)
Tue Nov 15, 2016, 11:21 PM Nov 2016

My Response to the Election wasn't posted during the down time, so here it is now:

Since Tuesday I have run the gamut of emotions – shock, horror, disbelief, fear, anger, grief, and sadness. I am a 59 year old straight white male born in Chicago, yet I feel like a foreigner in my own country. I am having a very difficult time wrapping my mind around any reasonably informed adult of normal intelligence voting for a bigoted, misogynist demagogue so wholly unqualified and unfit to be President of the United States. Donald Trump is a sociopathological liar who took the already uncivil discourse of our national politics and dragged it down into a subterranean chamber of horrors from which any sane person should turn away in revulsion. He appealed to ignorance, bigotry, and the very worst impulses of the American people – and won.

I grieve for everyone who will be hurt by the grotesque fraud who will occupy the most powerful elected office on the planet. I grieve for our planet and all the living things upon it impacted by the degradation of ecosystems and climate change resulting from placing the avarice of fossil fuel extraction above the health of the environment which sustains life itself.

Part of me wants to turn completely away from politics, living what remains of my life as best I can without the anxiety and heartbreak of striving for economic and social justice only to see those hopes cruelly dashed upon the rocks of ignorance and hatred embraced by far too many in this once great land of ours.

Maybe, hopefully, the profound sadness I feel now will be replaced by a determined resolve to join with the millions of others who know this world can be made into a much better place for our children and the generations to come. Their future depends on us. Only love can, and must, conquer hate.

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My Response to the Election wasn't posted during the down time, so here it is now: (Original Post) Martin Eden Nov 2016 OP
I feel similarly and think the main reason for optimism Fast Walker 52 Nov 2016 #1
Trauma. hay rick Nov 2016 #2
that was beautiful. barbtries Nov 2016 #3
Thanks Martin Eden Nov 2016 #4
it's gonna take time. barbtries Nov 2016 #5
 

Fast Walker 52

(7,723 posts)
1. I feel similarly and think the main reason for optimism
Tue Nov 15, 2016, 11:24 PM
Nov 2016

is there are millions more like us. They can't stop all of us.

hay rick

(7,522 posts)
2. Trauma.
Wed Nov 16, 2016, 02:41 AM
Nov 2016

I recognize that the entire election cycle, and particularly the apocalyptic finale, has affected me in the same way as the very few other physical and psychological traumas that I have experienced in my life. I am in the recovery phase and am reconsidering all my options going forward. I am currently deeply involved in local and state politics. At the same time I am convinced that American democracy has ceased to function for the benefit of its citizens. We need revolutionary change.

Martin Eden

(12,805 posts)
4. Thanks
Wed Nov 16, 2016, 04:30 PM
Nov 2016

I sent this to my sister. She asked if she could share it with her friends who are of like mind. She had to close down her facebook account, because long term relationships would have ended if she replied to political posts. This includes some cousins with whom we are close.

The hardest thing for me right now (aside from the prospect of a Trump presidency) is coming to grips with how I can ever again have a good relationship with friends and relatives who voted for Trump. In my heart I have not yet learned how to forgive them.

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