My most pressing thoughts within 24 hours of the election. Presented without attention to order, spelling, or the normal constraints of profanity on a blog.
1) So you know how the Republican members of the Senate - without any legal authority or political precedent - have held up President Obama's nominee for the Supreme Court for almost seven months? Is there a way to duplicate this strategy and apply it to Trump? For say - and this is just a random number, right off the top of my head - four years?
2) I'm full willing and ready to accept the results of this election, no matter how vile and disturbing they are. But - and I say this on the manic end of my ever fluctuating mood spectrum - what if we could get the Russians to "admit" to tampering with our elections; give us one more chance to get the vote right. I mean, there's a 7% chance they already did it, a 40% chance Putin would admit to it just because it would make him an uber badass, and a 53% chance we could push the deal through by relinquishing the rights to some famous American athletes or actors. I mean, who really needs James Franco anyway? We've got Dave. Dave's fine.
3) I realize that the GOP would never allow us to make Election Day a holiday - as suppressing voter turnout is actually a large part of their strategy - but can we all come together and make the day after Election Day a national holiday? It doesn't impact the election at all, but it rewards people for staying up till 3 AM to watch the results and connect with their civic duty. And, as a bonus, also rewards people who drank a lot of whiskey while watching said civic duty unfold.
4) I was hoping that it was avoidable, but a Facebook purge is coming. There aren't many people who support Trump on my feed, but I can't continue to stare at and rage-boil over these people's posts. I'm losing a considerable amount of time and blood vessels.
5) On a related note: New York City is the best bubble to live in throughout this endeavor.
6) Does anyone remember the Family Guy episode, "I Am Peter, Hear Me Roar?" Long story short: Peter makes a bunch of sexist remarks at work, and when threatened with legal response from one of his co-workers, has to attend sensitivity training (which he fails), and a "women's retreat" in the woods. After being told he can only appreciate/understand women after experiencing the pain of childbirth, he promptly falls down a tree and has his lower lip pulled to the back of his neck. Now knowing their pain, he spends the rest of the episode as an extremely effeminate feminist.
I think this was a lot of men's "lip extending moment." As a man, I knew that women often we're treated as second class citizens. I knew they faced discrimination in the workplace, in the higher levels of our academic and scientific communities, and really just in the world in general. I know there were many different "reasons" people didn't vote for Hilary, but I really didn't believe that so many people would vote against the better candidate on the sole grounds that she was a woman. On the bright side, at least I'm personally closer to truly understanding the bias women have to fight through.
7) While we're on the topic of women, how the FLYING HELL did so many women vote for Trump? Yes, Hillary did have a higher percentage of women voters than Trump: 54% to 42%. But how did 42% of women vote for Trump? I seriously don't understand it. Love her or hate her, she's inarguably trying to better your standing in the country, while being explicitly attuned to your needs and struggles. How can you not support that? Especially when the other option is a man who has devalued women on too many levels to keep track of, and literally thinks he can grab you all by the pussy? My brain can't wrap itself around the disconnect. Are 42% of women in the country in some sort of kidnapping situation where they were allowed to vote, but only at the whim of their male captors? Because that is legitimately the most plausible scenario I can think of. Hundred of thousands of women in dog cages being dragged to polling places across the country.
8) I'm having very mixed opinions about "third party candidates." I believe they are a valuable part of our political system, and a necessary escape hatch for people who feel strongly compelled not to vote for one of the two major parties' candidate. But, in specific sentiment to this election, FUCK THEM. This was not the time for a protest vote. This was not the time to get cute. The votes wasted on Johnson and Stein could have swayed the election in Hillary's favor in several key states. Sensible people across the country should have united their votes against Trump. The biggest evil, requiring the most directed of attacks. But people squandered votes on hopeless candidates with no chance of victory. Well, at least it'll give Gary a chance to figure out what the hell "Aleppo" is before 2020.
9) Van Jones is my spirit animal.
10) Do all of Trump's pending legal issues just suddenly disappear? As far as I know - which is all that I could gather from the Wikipedia page "Legal Affairs of Donald Trump" (A THING THAT EXISTS) - our next president has several outstanding court cases. He's facing civil and federal action for his involvement with Trump U; and is in the midst of proceedings for breach of contract, assault, discrimination, charity misuse, and fraud. And that's not even mentioning the stuff he wants to sue other people for. Which as President, can he do? Can he just continue to sue people at will? And does he receive - whether implicitly or explicitly - political leniency on everything else? Or do they just build a HUGE penthouse onto the nearest DC courthouse?
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