Hellobee Boards

People are burning American flags and waiving Mexican flags in Southern California. That's not the best response.

@Mrs. Lion: that's shocking but it doesn't actually appear to be kkk. Picture is misleading, apparently. http://www.snopes.com/klan-marches-celebrate-trump-victory/

@Mama Bird: I agree with you that the US is resilient enough to survive bad leaders. But those examples of the country surviving lousy presidents have an interesting pattern:

- we had quite a few (quiet) womanizers (Kennedy (D), Clinton (D), et al.--well, maybe not so quiet...),

- one who decimated the Native population (Jackson (D)),

- one who dropped two atom bombs on civilian cities (Truman (D)),

- one who got us into Vietnam (Kennedy and LBJ primarily (D and D)),

- one who got us into Iraq (Bush (finally found an R!)),

- and one who tried to "stuff" the Supreme Court with extra judges and put the Japanese in internment camps (FDR (D)).

@Mrs. Lion: it was so crazy that I had to look at it myself!

@mrs green grass: and @madison43: I completely agree that Trump is not nearly as conservative as his horrible rhetoric would suggest. My fear is that since he's a directionless moron, in terms of policy, Pence will step in to bring us back at least 50 years.

Honestly, as a moderate who tends to vote conservative, but has major left tendencies, this election surprised me and it shouldn't have. Obviously, I think that we have to consider why Trump won. Is it because of the rhetoric? The dislike for Clinton? The outrage over Obama's legacy? The vaguely Republican policies?

Personally, I plan on continuing to be informed and active in my local and state government and teaching my children to be kind and respectful. I may not have voted for him, but enough other people did that I need to reevaluate why they did and determine what I can do to address their concerns so they don't feel a need to resort to Trump again in 4 years.

Now, we have to channel this outrage and sadness into sustainable energy where we stay knowledgeable and involved in our politics.

We need to vote in every election including primaries. (Primaries are especially important in states that typically always vote one party and we need to reclaim elections from the fringe voters who dominate the primary elections.)

We need to know what legislation is being reviewed and make sure our politicians know where we stand.

We need to get others to be involved as well.

And most importantly we need to raise our kids to be kind and thoughtful, to be able to think critically and to be respectful and embrace the differences in our country that make us great.

@petitenoisette: With two brown babies I'm disgusted that so many Americans voted for him when the entire world can see how unfit he is. We are the laughing stock of the world. I'm genuinely unclear why even 1 single person would vote for him.

I didn't like Trump's rhetoric either, but I have a hard time believing that all votes for him were because of his rhetoric. An underlying theme of much of what he said was about the economy and national security, which are very relevant issues for people to vote on.

I will try to keep in my mind a vote for Trump was not a personal attack. I will also make my voice heard more by weighing in on issues that my elected leaders are tackling.

@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: Daniel Dale was a Toronto Star reporter who followed the Trump campaign for 18 months (he's getting a lot of publicity right now because he kept an ongoing list of all the false things Trump said at every event). He said today that while he hears a lot of talk about disenfranchised voters and people outside the big cities voting on change and the economy that for him, getting out of the city centres and talking to rural voters made him believe more, not less, that it was about racism. His quote: I'd read the analysis about econ anxiety, then I'd talk to people and hear about imprisoning Muslims, cutting off welfare to lazy blacks.

@erinbaderin: Anecdotally, this is true for me. I just had a long, incredibly frustrating conversation with my dad which started out with him talking about how Trump is going to bring all the jobs back and quickly devolved into a rant about keeping Muslims out and ending handouts to welfare queens.

I just find it incredibly ironic and sad that a large percentage of the people that believe Trump is their savior - blue color, underemployed people like my dad - are the ones that are going to get fucked the most when the jobs don't come back and the government safety nets that they rely on are gone.

@travellingbee: I didn't cherry pick anything. I was responding to Mama Bird's list--please see the prior page.

@erinbaderin: that is horrifying

I am guessing that with time people will get over it and move on. Right now I'm at the point of wondering when do we call it irreconcilable differences and just give up? But I'm sure that will not happen and soon people will calm down and get on with their lives. At least until the next big election.

Personally, I think I'm going to become a contributing member of the ACLU and either Planned Parenthood or some kind of climate change advocacy related group. I want the groups that need protection or can do the protecting to have the help they need. To be fair it won't be a huge sum, but I also want to be more active in general. I work in healthcare and if the ACA is threatened I will be in DC standing up for the rights for my patients! I work with a very underserved population in a non-medicaid expanded state and have a lot to say about protecting Obamacare.

@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: I like your approach. I also really liked Obama's speech yesterday, especially when he reminded everyone that "Ultimately, we are all on the same team."

@yoursilverlining: The organization has been in our local news, so I knew what to look for (I did a quick search in case this particular organization is in other cities, but it doesn't look like it.). We actually mostly have Congolese families settling at the moment, and in my really white homogenous city, they're easy to pick out in a crowd, so I've seen them around. I'd been intending to sign up but hadn't gotten around to it. I hope you can find something similar!

@yoursilverlining: Absolutely. We actually had a huge resettlement of Hmong families in the 80s, which brought some great and interesting culture to the community (I was ages 0-5 in the 80s, so I don't know about any of the resistance.) News reports have sited a ton of opposition to the current resettlement of refugees in general, but the families have reported that no one has been mean to them, which is heartening (although I'm not so naive as to think that it would be the same for a Muslim family.) My city is pretty liberal, so they're probably isolated from some of it. I am excited for more diversity here. The group I'm working to volunteer for also holds educational events about the struggles the families are coming from (not specifically about any family, just why there are Congolese refugees, etc.)

@codeitall: I am in awe at your comment because it is by far the most mature, rational and intelligent thing I've heard from someone who is anti-trump. I am an educated, affluent working Mom who voted for Trump and for years I've felt like my point of view is completely unrepresented by the mainstream media. There are a lot of people out there like me who are not racists, bigots or sexist and wanted Trump to win just as badly as you all wanted Hillary. I think the reason this was all so shocking is the media's fault. They dismissed us, called us names (like immature children) then proceeded to write articles for each other to read. I absolutely did not have a voice during this election and I only hope the response to all the shock is to finally start listening to the other side.

@Modern Daisy: If you don't want to get into it I understand because it's a fraught subject but if you don't mind, could you explain how you square the fact that you are not a racist, bigot, or misogynist with the fact that your candidate is? Do you think he was exaggerating for media attention? Do you count on the other levels of government to temper him?