https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Fri, 10 Apr 2026 14:09:28 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-think-that-american-democracy-is-in-danger/page/3#post-2652878 Tue, 15 Nov 2016 23:53:56 +0000 lamariniere 2652878@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@pinkcupcake: I'm truly sad that you and so many others feel that way. I'm biracial (white/Asian) born and raised in the USA and I couldn't comfortably check off all of the boxes on the sheet @nana87: linked to. There's still a long road ahead to make everyone feel included and welcome. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-think-that-american-democracy-is-in-danger/page/3#post-2652829 Tue, 15 Nov 2016 21:04:50 +0000 QueensBee 2652829@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@ScarletBegonia: Yes to this! I completely agree. I have relatives on my FB feed who still think that Trump won the popular vote. And what can I do to convince them otherwise? Gather all 120+ million ballots and count them in front of them? They don't trust any information from the NYTimes, Politico, Wall Street Journal... </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-think-that-american-democracy-is-in-danger/page/3#post-2652804 Tue, 15 Nov 2016 20:08:28 +0000 Mrs. Sketchbook 2652804@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@petitenoisette: thank you for clarifying! This is exactly what I intended. I think that it would be much easier for liberals to lay off the "racist" or "nazi" labels if conservatives could have a honest conversation about privilege. It takes both moving toward each other. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-think-that-american-democracy-is-in-danger/page/3#post-2652780 Tue, 15 Nov 2016 19:23:15 +0000 nana87 2652780@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@pinkcupcake: :heart: I took this picture today of post its stuck to the door of a bathroom stall in the university where I work, and it perfectly encapsulates how I feel </p> [attach=1484/16/ogpl2r.600x449.IMG_7849.JPG] https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-think-that-american-democracy-is-in-danger/page/3#post-2652775 Tue, 15 Nov 2016 19:13:37 +0000 petitenoisette 2652775@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@agold: she meant that the dismissal of being called privileged is just as bad as flippantly calling someone a racist or a nazi (which I believe many Trump voters are upset about right now). </p> <p>If we cannot even agree that it is a good thing to admit that we are privileged (which is essentially the same thing as saying you are thankful for your blessings in life) then I just don't even know how to proceed.</p> <p>*edited to add I am NOT trying to say that it is a blessing to be white, eek I just was trying to unpack what is apparently a loaded word. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-think-that-american-democracy-is-in-danger/page/3#post-2652762 Tue, 15 Nov 2016 18:38:46 +0000 ScarletBegonia 2652762@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>How will there ever be any unity between republicans and democrats if neither side trusts the other's sources of information? Really, I think that in the age of the 24 hour news cycle and social media becoming a news source, this is the most divisive issue, over and above differences of opinion on abortion, the death penalty, foreign policy, etc. </p> <p>The way we consume media has a direct impact on how we vote and who we vote for. If we have no ability to see each other's side, how will anyone's opinion ever be swayed? The two sides will just drift further and further apart with no chance at a common ground. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-think-that-american-democracy-is-in-danger/page/3#post-2652752 Tue, 15 Nov 2016 17:55:07 +0000 IRunForFun 2652752@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@agold: If people are voting by mail then all those ballots better damn well be counted!! It would DEFINITELY be voter suppression if they weren't. </p> <p>In regards to your feeling that some people in the country are just too lazy or uneducated to figure out how to vote, because clearly it just takes "a little effort" to do so...well, that's discriminatory. Did you ever stop to think there may be people who don't have a car and their polling place isn't easily accessible by walking or public transit? Or what about people who work a job that doesn't allow them to get to the polls during the hours they're open? People who work 2 jobs? Single parents with very young kids they don't want to schlep to the polls and who don't have or can't afford childcare? There are states that don't have mail in voting unless you're an absentee voter and that don't have early voting. For these people, the feeling of oppression is real and it isn't because they don't feel like figuring out how to vote. For them, it would take way more than "a little effort." </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-think-that-american-democracy-is-in-danger/page/3#post-2652751 Tue, 15 Nov 2016 17:53:38 +0000 agold 2652751@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mrs. Sketchbook: ha! if you are categorizing the word privileged with words like nazi and racist - even putting them in the same sentence - that's another reason to not apppreciate the term being directed at me here. Gees. I'm bowing out of this now. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-think-that-american-democracy-is-in-danger/page/3#post-2652744 Tue, 15 Nov 2016 17:29:05 +0000 pinkcupcake 2652744@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@nana87: thank you for sharing that. </p> <p>Right now, I feel too angry / bitter to properly organize my thoughts. I'm a female minority and this makes me realize that no matter how long I have lived here, how perfect my English - I will always be seen as an outsider and America will always belong to white people. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-think-that-american-democracy-is-in-danger/page/3#post-2652729 Tue, 15 Nov 2016 15:57:34 +0000 Mrs. Sketchbook 2652729@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@agold: I think a knee jerk dismissal of the word "privilege" is as problematic as a knee jerk use of the word "nazi" or "racist." I think there needs to be a way to acknowledge that yes, while life is hard for all of us, and yes even the seemingly "privileged" must work for their success, some of us are gifted with more resources than others. I include myself in this assessment. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-think-that-american-democracy-is-in-danger/page/3#post-2652692 Tue, 15 Nov 2016 14:30:41 +0000 nana87 2652692@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I have been reading/skimming along here but not commenting because I have too much to say and need to get back to work, but I just wanted to throw out an excerpt from a longer academic work on recognizing privilege in daily life: </p> <p><a href="https://www.deanza.edu/faculty/lewisjulie/White%20Priviledge%20Unpacking%20the%20Invisible%20Knapsack.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://www.deanza.edu/faculty/lewisjulie/White%20Priviledge%20Unpacking%20the%20Invisible%20Knapsack.pdf</a></p> <p>It's a short piece, a sort of laundry list of the ways in which so many of us take our privilege for granted. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-think-that-american-democracy-is-in-danger/page/3#post-2652652 Tue, 15 Nov 2016 13:34:25 +0000 erinbaderin 2652652@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@agold: I guess we can agree to disagree because I didn't mean it as an insult. I am also privileged. I meant it as a baseline - I'm assuming that you have an income, a car, a home, the free time to be online in the middle of the day, etc., and might not therefore be taking into account somebody who doesn't have the kind of ID that a lot of people assume is a given, or the kind of time and resources to acquire those things. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-think-that-american-democracy-is-in-danger/page/3#post-2652650 Tue, 15 Nov 2016 13:32:24 +0000 hilsy85 2652650@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@agold: this has some differentiation between strict and not strict voting laws by state: <a href="http://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/voter-id.aspx" rel="nofollow">http://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/voter-id.aspx</a></p> <p>for example, a strict voting law would require people to take extra steps after election day to ensure that their vote is counted if they did not have the appropriate ID at the time of their vote--this would understandably be difficult for some people, to take extra time off off work or fulfill the extra requirements. </p> <p>Clearly incidents like the one you mention are awful, and I don't think any rational person would be in favor. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-think-that-american-democracy-is-in-danger/page/3#post-2652644 Tue, 15 Nov 2016 13:18:57 +0000 agold 2652644@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@mrsjazz: thanks. I saw that. </p> <p>"I stopped and parked. And I asked if they had insurance, and the next thing that I knew they were beating the s--- out of me," Wilcox told the paper Thursday.</p> <p>The video shows his attackers pummeling him as Wilcox falls to the ground and tries to cover his head. Bystanders can be heard shouting "Beat his ass," "You voted Trump" and "Don't vote Trump." One of the attackers gets into the driver seat of Wilcox's car. Wilcox tries to pull his attacker out of the car, but the man accelerates.</p> <p>I guess it's not totally clear why they beat him up -because he asked for insurance, because he had a trump sticker on his car or because the bystanders were yelling what they were. Totally sucks either way. And I hate for anyone to be harassed because of how they voted - in person or otherwise. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-think-that-american-democracy-is-in-danger/page/3#post-2652633 Tue, 15 Nov 2016 12:49:49 +0000 lamariniere 2652633@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@PurplePeony: that's so cool that WA has mail in voting too. The little I know about OR is that they have one of the highest voter turnout rates since it is so easy for everyone to vote. </p> <p>And re: privileged. Every last one of us that hangs out at HB is privileged. You don't have to be a 1%er (and I'm certainly not!) to be in the privileged class. The majority of posters seem to be educated, thoughtful and have the means and resources to spend time on a parenting Internet forum. If that isn't privilege, I don't know what is. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-think-that-american-democracy-is-in-danger/page/3#post-2652630 Tue, 15 Nov 2016 12:45:20 +0000 agold 2652630@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mrs. Sketchbook: I think that the word "privileged" is pretty much always used negatively. It was entirely unnecessary in the post above. The entire sentence in which the word was used could be deleted and the poster could have expressed her thoughts the same way without it. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-think-that-american-democracy-is-in-danger/page/3#post-2652629 Tue, 15 Nov 2016 12:44:13 +0000 mrsjazz 2652629@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@agold: That incident with the 49yo guy was because of a traffic incident. It's horrible and those people need to go to jail but they didn't beat him because he was a Trump supporter (he is a Trump supporter). The victim did an interview with the Chicago Tribune and its in USA Today. The people in the video shouting about Trump were bystanders. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-think-that-american-democracy-is-in-danger/page/2#post-2652624 Tue, 15 Nov 2016 12:38:03 +0000 PurplePeony 2652624@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@lamariniere: Washington state has a vote-by-mail system, too, and I love it. We get our ballots about 3 weeks before Election Day and can either send them back or drop them off at special drop boxes all around the county. Our county election commissioner just doubled the number of drop boxes here, which is awesome. I find I'm a much more engaged voter because I can take my time filling out my ballot and research any races/initiatives I'm not as familiar with. When I lived in PA, there would sometimes be something on the ballot that I hadn't been aware of until I stepped into the voting booth and I'd have to make my best guess about how to vote. Now, I never feel unprepared to vote (though it actually makes some decisions harder because of analysis paralysis). And @agold: yes, every ballot returned by the deadline (here, either postmarked on or before Election Day or dropped in a drop box by 8 pm that day) gets counted. We can go online to check the status and see that it was received, opened, and processed. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-think-that-american-democracy-is-in-danger/page/2#post-2652615 Tue, 15 Nov 2016 12:24:30 +0000 Mrs. Sketchbook 2652615@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@agold: honest question, but why do you perceive the word "privileged" as name calling? Is it not perfectly healthy to acknowledge the advantages we enjoy? I wonder why it is necessary for that word to evoke a negative response at the outset. What word could have been used to explain the same ideas without the negative connotation? Because if the word privilege immediately creates defensiveness, then we need a new word to use. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-think-that-american-democracy-is-in-danger/page/2#post-2652611 Tue, 15 Nov 2016 12:12:14 +0000 Tionn3 2652611@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@erinbaderin: YES. That was well put. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-think-that-american-democracy-is-in-danger/page/2#post-2652609 Tue, 15 Nov 2016 12:11:16 +0000 sunny 2652609@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@agold: WA state is also 100% ballot by mail/drop off. There are no polling stations and you either drop in a USPS mailbox or a ballot box. </p> <p>@erinbaderin: I agree 100% that we are likely all approaching life from a very privileged POV. </p> <p>@honeybear: @jape14: I read that while the federal court ruled that the law was unconstitutional, local election boards were able to implement the rules anyhow. I don't have the article handy though. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-think-that-american-democracy-is-in-danger/page/2#post-2652605 Tue, 15 Nov 2016 12:03:04 +0000 lamariniere 2652605@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@youboots: one of my best friends lives in OR and she told me about the system. I thought it was pretty great! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-think-that-american-democracy-is-in-danger/page/2#post-2652602 Tue, 15 Nov 2016 11:56:37 +0000 youboots 2652602@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@lamariniere: I voted for the first time in the 04 election by mail- it's been that way here as long as I've been a voter. This year I was too late to mail so I walked it less than 10 blocks to the public works office. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-think-that-american-democracy-is-in-danger/page/2#post-2652600 Tue, 15 Nov 2016 11:53:43 +0000 lamariniere 2652600@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@agold: actually, in the state of Oregon all ballots are either mailed in or dropped off. And I am an overseas voter so obviously I have to mail in my ballot. I certainly hope all of those ballots are counted!</p> <p>I agree with the sentiment that voting practices should be the same for the entire country. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-think-that-american-democracy-is-in-danger/page/2#post-2652576 Tue, 15 Nov 2016 11:08:30 +0000 agold 2652576@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@erinbaderin: agree to disagree regarding my alleged "privileged point of view". I won't return any name calling on you. Although I will agre that a lot of people in this country lack the whatever to figure out how to vote. Thats honestly really unfortunate and sad on so many levels but I'm not sure how voting can be made any easier aside from removing the individual offenders on a case by case basis.</p> <p> In California, if you don't have a drivers license, then you are supposed to get yourself a state ID. Looks just like a drivers license. Is that not available in every state? A school ID seems to be the equivalent of a library card. CCW license is at least a government issued document. And public utilities monthly statement seems like a legit document in the same way. I don't think Mail in ballots are a constitutionally protected right. Do mail in ballots even get counted each and every time? For some reason, I think they do not. </p> <p>@looch: I think it absolutely would make sense to have uniform voting procedures across the country! It's crazy that already isn't the case. </p> <p>I'm still curious about what the strict voting requirements are (the real ones and not the fake ones made up by crooked poll workers. ) </p> <p>Did anyone see on the news the group of people who severely beat up a 49 year old guy outside a polling place because he voted for trump? And while they were kicking his head, one of them proceeded to steal items out of the mans car? That's horrible violence that should be considered a hate crime. If there is any voter intimidation done by anyone against anyone, I think it should carry a stiff criminal penalty.<br /> But the guy who gave bad information as a dumb joke that someone mentioned up thread,, he's an asshole and the guy who believed him is unfortunate. What do you do? We can tell people to stop being assholes and stop being unfortunate. It's probably an equally hard thing to do for most. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-think-that-american-democracy-is-in-danger/page/2#post-2652571 Tue, 15 Nov 2016 10:58:18 +0000 jape14 2652571@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@honeybear: @sunny: I don't want to totally take over this thread, but to clarify, though the court case put those broader measures back in place (including voter ID -- there is no voter ID requirement in North Carolina after the newest circuit ruling), that resulted in at least 17 counties significantly rolling back hours/locations during early voting to this minimum (compared with 2012). Though I'm not a fan of anecdotal evidence, based on my closest early voting location, which happens to be in a majority African American area, the lines were longer and hours shorter than in previous years. Our state Board of Elections is controlled by Republicans and thus it's not quite as simple as "jurisdictions deciding to do more." Several counties eliminated early voting sites on college campuses, a few at historically black colleges. In addition, there was an NAACP suit against the state due to improper purging of voters from rolls that was resolved just a week before the election, meaning that some voters who were affected by this had significantly reduced access to early voting. This is probably not that interesting to people outside NC, but this article is a good overview of the various factors that influenced turnout (one of which could be flagging enthusiasm, but is impossible to separate from other factors): <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/11/north-carolina-early-voting/506963/" rel="nofollow">http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/11/north-carolina-early-voting/506963/</a> </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-think-that-american-democracy-is-in-danger/page/2#post-2652526 Tue, 15 Nov 2016 09:57:30 +0000 honeybear 2652526@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@sunny: I don't have time to read the link right now, but the bottom line is that the Fourth Circuit insisted that NC remove the rules its legislature agreed on and reinstate broad access measures that had previously been approved by the DOJ. Those broader measures were all in place in NC for this election. To be clear, in NC for this election you could 1) register and vote the same day, 2) preregister when you are 16 or 17, 3) vote at least 14 days early (this was mandatory, but jurisdictions could expand that, of course), 4) vote out of your precinct, and 5) vote with an expired photo ID.</p> <p>@hilsy85: I'll try to get back to you on this. I've got some other things to do now! :) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-think-that-american-democracy-is-in-danger/page/2#post-2652520 Tue, 15 Nov 2016 09:47:52 +0000 hilsy85 2652520@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@honeybear: that is a great point--and would make me question the reason behind these strict ID laws/strict requirements. clearly they are not helpful in reducing voter fraud. So what is the purpose of them? </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-think-that-american-democracy-is-in-danger/page/2#post-2652519 Tue, 15 Nov 2016 09:47:38 +0000 sunny 2652519@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@honeybear: How do you define broad? The second link that @Jape14: posted clearly states that black voter turnout is lower than expected (and lower than other states) after restrictive voting rules were put into place. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-think-that-american-democracy-is-in-danger/page/2#post-2652518 Tue, 15 Nov 2016 09:42:53 +0000 Mrs. Pickle 2652518@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Speaking of voter suppression... </p> <p>I want to add that I personally know the person who posted this. I believe it happened too. I was so mad when I read it. Now I'm wondering if is something that I could have reported. I don't know where though. </p> [attach=1198/16/ogou7i.600x449.IMG_5201.PNG]