If you’re a progressive minded, compassionate human being, you likely woke up on November 9, 2016 to a nightmare of epic proportions.
If you’re a progressive minded, compassionate human being with election-anxiety-induced insomnia, like me, you likely never went to bed. In that case, you didn’t wake up to a nightmare because you never went to sleep, and instead watched the nightmare unfold, growing sicker and sicker with every change to the electoral map.
(If you’re not a progressive minded, compassionate human being, you probably won’t bother to read the rest, so have a splendid day : ))
First came the headaches. Then the blurred vision, the sweating, and the loss of appetite, as you realized that more than 58 million of your fellow Americans elected a president who is not only sexist, racist, and narcissistic, but also impulsive, repulsive, undignified and rude.
If I hadn’t already been out of bed, I don’t think I could have found the strength to get up that morning. Thoughts of suicide began to swirl around in my head, as I wondered what the next four years would be like, and whether I wanted to be around to witness the carnage.
Do I want to be around to watch the Republicans in the House and Senate dismantle the Affordable Care Act, and leave millions of people without access to basic health care, I asked myself. Do I want to be around to see my friends, neighbors, and family members go without treatment because the insurance companies will again be allowed to cancel policies for any reason and deny people coverage for preexisting conditions?
Do I want to be around to watch as our duly elected representatives proudly and mercilessly gut Social Security, slash education spending, and eliminate environmental protections while earning salaries, pensions, and benefits they don’t really deserve since they barely show up to work? Do I want to be around to see them roll back the laws that protect women, minorities, Muslims, and LGBTQ people from hatred and ignorance? Do I want to be around to watch them cast aside our veterans who are suffering both physically and mentally?
Do I want to see what will have become of this country afterward? After they’ve accomplished all their stated goals AND redrawn all the congressional districts to ensure their continued power. After they’ve rewritten all the tax laws to guarantee their own continued prosperity while doing everything else to ensure that no one born to the underclass has even the slightest chance of escaping poverty?
And today came the nausea as people claiming support for Trump launched attacks on innocent people simply because they could. Emboldened by Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric and the right’s refusal to castigate the crazies in their party, people claiming support for Trump are assaulting Muslims on college campuses while their children attack their Hispanic classmates in elementary schools. So this is how we make America great again? Bravo.
If this is how it’s going to be you can keep your greatness, thank you very much. I don’t want it.
Nor do I want to hear anything more about the election or the upcoming inauguration. Unless it’s breaking news about a catastrophic meteor strike that has wiped out D.C., sparing only Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and all the innocents among them, I don’t need anyone to tell me about it even after it’s over. Keep it to yourself. Friends don’t make friends want to slit their wrists, and all that.
Meanwhile, if there is anything else you want to talk about, I’ll be over here in my own little corner of Walker’s Hell, writing, grieving, and heaving, and waiting for a miracle cure.
the uncommon blonde 