It has now been an entire week since the election from hell was decided. I spent about two days in denial, avoiding all news coverage, then a day or so in anger, followed by two days of fear over what's to come. And I've finally, reluctantly, hit the acceptance stage. Because it's not like we can change shit now. The last week has been interesting in that the hate Trump preached during his campaign has already started to spread like a disease across the country. Six of my friends have experienced some sort of racist comment, and I got in on the fun over the weekend when someone told me I'd have to go back to my country now. These aren't minor incidents, these are the first steps of something major that will happen now that Trump is going to be in office. And it would be bad enough to have to worry about the safety of your children in such a racially charged environment, but then you realize how much more scary shit is on the horizon. Trump will not have unlimited power but he will be able to change the way we all live. Republican presidents use their favoritism of the rich to bring about tax cuts at the expense of the middle and lower classes. That means fewer jobs and more people in need of public assistance that probably won't be available anymore, at least not in the way it exists now. This is less than a week after he's been elected and we're already seeing how some white folks bought into his promises of getting rid of all other colors. I don't even want to imagine what it will be like in a few months when he actually takes office.
During the acceptance phase of my grief, I've had time to think about some things. The first being that while I loathe Trump and all he stands for, the diehard optimist in me would like to see some kind of evidence that he's not as vile in his policies as he showed during the campaign. Or at the very least, that he'd hire one or two capable people who actually know how government works to guide him. So far, neither of these has proven true as he's hired the apocalyptic version of The Avengers; a man with a picture of himself as Jesus in his home and numerous people with histories of endorsing policies that harm homosexuals, women or minorities. These are the people that will make our decisions for us until 2020 when, god willing, we're still alive and around to elect someone decent. I won't root for Trump to fail because that's rooting for the entire nation to fail, but I'm finding it difficult to be even cautiously optimistic about his decision making. It's also telling that neither his youngest son, nor his wife seem all that interested in their new roles. Let's face it, Melania is a trophy wife, not First Lady material. I don't think she realizes she's been given a full-time job and considering she couldn't even write her own speech, I highly doubt she'll be able to handle all that comes with being First Lady. I also don't think Trump has any fucking clue how most of the government works, which is another reason to worry about what he's going to do in office. This is a man that throws money at his problems or denies his role in them, neither of which will fly as the leader of the (for now) free world. I don't believe he fully grasps that every decision he makes will have an equal and opposite reaction and you can't go around like Napoleon dictating what every nation will do for you. Not to mention, he does not have unlimited money to throw at shit to fix the government. For every project he wants to get done, like his infamous wall, there's some other part of the budget that will have to suffer, like education. Supposedly he wants to send everyone to college - how's he gonna pay for that? Students aren't even educated enough to get into college because public schools suck. And we all know damn well that Mexico is not funding any wall and cannot be forced to do so. If you wanna build a wall in your country, on your property, then you pay for it yourself the same way you would if it were putting a fence outside your house. Trump promised all kinds of doomsday shit within his first 100 days in office, but I'd guess it'll take at least that long for him to learn just what a president's job is.
In my last post on this topic, I shamed every minority who cast a vote for Trump. I've been asked if I still feel that way and the answer is yes, I do. I can't respect anyone who voted for someone who preaches hate the way that Trump does, or anyone who fails to see that this is not about one political party versus another. Politics are the last thing this had to do with, ironically. This was about an experienced candidate who saw equality for all, who believed every American regardless of color was equally American and entitled to the same rights and freedoms, versus a man with no political experience whatsoever who refuses to pay taxes or the minority workers who build his properties, a man who believes anybody of a different color needs to be stopped and frisked and vetted before we decide if they're good enough to have any rights. I will never back down from saying a vote for Trump was a vote for hate, was a vote against women and homosexuals and minorities, was a vote that endorsed the idea that we are not equals in this country. I've seen news stories of minorities defending their vote for Trump, but it's all bullshit. They can say whatever they'd like to convince themselves they're not racist or perhaps even self-hating, but they voted for someone who insulted them directly in saying Mexicans are rapists or Muslims are terrorists or African-Americans are criminals. I don't respect anyone who voted for Trump, regardless of race, but I hold particular disdain for minorities who voted for him. I certainly hope ya'll don't get the rug pulled out from under you when he comes for you based purely on what color you are. You think he's gonna ask for receipts about who you voted for before he classifies you as a rapist/terrorist/criminal? Nope.
At the end of the day, my final thought on this election shit is that I'm going to cross all of the burning, hate-filled bridges when I come to them. I'm going to try and enjoy Thanksgiving, try to enjoy Christmas and ignore the fact that our doom is lingering on the horizon. Because what else can we do, really? We can't change what's happened, only hope that will happen isn't as terrible as it all seems it's going to be right now. And hope is about all we have, ain't it? The hope that young voters who so overwhelmingly voted for Hillary will make their voices echo even louder in 2020. The hope that if we all buckle down and refuse to stoop to the level of Trump's racist supporters, maybe somehow the tide will start to turn. As Michelle Obama says, "When they go low, we go high". And hope that we can lead by example.
