I’m devastated. I cried in bed Wednesday morning, before it was officially called, and then pulled some of my colleagues into quiet asides at work. To my surprise most were also saddened, and one officemate wouldn’t discuss it. That made me wonder how the unspoken rule of not talking about politics or religion at work (or at the dinner table) started. It feels like a way to stifle women and/or anyone who disagrees with the status quo, and I will not go along with it anymore. You don’t know me if you don’t know my politics and frankly, I don’t believe you really know your women and queer friends or family if you’re not listening to the alarms that they’re raising right now.

Though, there is one positive outcome so far. Sisterhood is on fire.

“The Election” can no longer be. We have for years referred to the 2016 election this way, and now we have to either find a unique modifier for 2024 or perhaps pluralize it and hope that we don’t have as many unprecedented president wannabes in the future. The memes about the difference between voting with hope in 2016 and voting with anger in 2024 are all too accurate. I wish I was still in my twenties like I was then, because I worry my stamina for prolonged rage and activism is nowhere near what it once was. And apparently I’m not the only one with this thought.

Even still, this rage is profoundly felt across the internet.

Women are amazing. Men are scared. Women should lean into that. I’ve been watching a lot of supernatural or witchy movies and shows and I assert that a lot of the fear that drove the witch trials centuries ago is the same that drives both men and misogynist women to fawn over Trump now, denigrating any politician who doesn’t or who isn’t an example of or at least a mouthpiece for “traditional” (Puritan) values, especially women (HRC, Rashida Tlaib, AOC, and Harris).

As a whole Trump supporters and his acolytes are dumb and weird, firmly believing lies that they either made up themselves or were spoon-fed by Trump himself, Fox “News”, and other vehicles for outright disinformation:

-at least one man convinced himself that Obama was to blame for 9/11 even though he was not the president then

-they believe the earth is flat and disparage a lot of science overall

-they cosplayed as their leader during the Republican convention wearing gauze over their ears to show their allegiance

-they believe what he says about taxes even though at present the average person’s taxes are higher from the plan he signed into law 6 years ago

-they believe him to be some kind of messiah, someone practicing the same religion as they are despite his philandering past and the way he continues to bad mouth any type of person/group that doesn’t bow down to him

For this reason, I am disappointed in anyone that DOES still believe in facts sat this one out. If those voting their morals wanted to choose Stein, it doesn’t make sense that she only received .5% of the national vote. I cast a ballot for Harris/Walz because they seemed like the most smart and capable team that could win, but I’m appalled that at the time of this writing there appear to be at least eleven million less votes than in 2020. The turnout wasn’t there. I wouldn’t go out of my way to berate a person into agreeing with me, but I would go out of my way to persuade someone to vote, full stop.

I saw a video tutorial about how to vote radically and the first step is to acknowledge that once the candidate has been elected, they become your enemy. I do not know how to explain to Trump fanatics that Democrats do NOT make their candidate their entire personality. In fact I was not at all jazzed about voting for Biden again mostly because I didn’t think he could win, and so fervently wish that if he’d had any doubt he’d have to bow out before Election Day that he’d have done it two years before he did, to allow a real primary and convention to take place.

Harris was too deeply shrouded in Biden’s shadow, unable to distinguish herself from the same messaging she herself repeated about almost everything, and her biggest misstep was likely her stance on Israel. I never felt like I aligned with her but I let myself get excited about the symbolism of what her presidency could mean, how she’d have the opportunity to be her own person, a woman on the driver’s seat of our nation, finally. It wasn’t meant to be. Even so, it hurts.

How is it that Republican voters would like us to all stop the “name-calling” and move on? Which ones should we stop using: racist, convict, dangerous, authoritarian, cult leader, misogynist, liar? Frankly I’d go as far as calling him an outright buffoon (and more) simply because it’s true, but I will move on because it’s hard to argue a factual point when your opponent doesn’t “believe” in facts. (Overheard in the office: one person said global warming is just something for people to talk about and it’s unlikely to be an actual thing. He said having warmer weather more often when it’s not spring or summer is just because of fluctuating weather patterns. I left the conversation saying I won’t give this my time if we’re not willing to discuss the evidence before us: every year continues to be the warmest on record.)

Blaming people for using identity politics as a way to keep people who do not self-identify the same way or are otherwise scared of what they don’t understand and/or getting language wrong (pronouns)—they do not understand that being politically correct has nothing to do with toeing a line that denotes bigots from woke sycophants, it is just about respect. If you’ve ever made a joke when you introduce yourself to someone and they call you by Mr. or Mrs. [Your Surname] and you laugh and say “no that’s my father/mother” then you understand and are pretending you don’t by claiming that trans and nonbinary folks are being dramatic when to correctly attribute their pronouns is as simple as using a nickname.

How do we go about saying that America is hurting for community (that once used to be mostly found at church) and then shame people who are making their own by seeking out others who identify as LGTBQ+ or Muslim or Black??? How do we so easily forget how America was built and predicated on identity politics, driving thick outlines around slaves and then any group that wasn’t white, including Jews, Irish, and Italians as non-white as well. We have a common enemy and it is white patriarchal supremacy.

I hate to even use that language, picking sides and alienating voters who have a history of switching back and forth from Republican to Democrat and back again, but I also feel like I’m entering an era of not caring about alienating others because I’d rather stop stifling myself and my opinions to make anyone feel more comfortable. I’m going to stop living like women have been expected to for millennia, to be quiet and proper and delicate, and outwardly show how I really am, which might be loud and blunt and chaotic because I’m so done giggling to make men not feel threatened. I want them to feel how women have felt, it’s time they feel more of our open dislike and anger so we can quickly reshape the feminine narrative and show, once more, that we are still fighting for equality because we do not have it. How could they be so surprised how many women would rather be alone with a bear than a man?!

As someone who required major medical intervention less than six months ago, I will continue to prioritize my own physical and mental health above everything because my long-term goal is to see the change that we are about to fight for, and the one thing I can do to ensure that these… not-so-nice guys do not continue to get their way, is to live long enough to see it. (I also have to find where my hard out is personally, if a peaceful protest ends my arrest. I’m okay with that, but if I get a bad vibe that makes me think the situation could turn physical and violent, I cannot and will not subject my body to that. I can’t take that risk.)

Lucky for me I’m a reader and I’m a writer (in that order) and when I am taking the time and space I need to focus on my health, I usually have a book in hand. Additionally, for the last several years now, my nonfiction reading has far outpaced my consumption of novels and it will continue to be that way. If you are similar to me, and you don’t know what you can do on your own, I’m happy to talk with you about books that I’ve read that I think everyone should be reading.

***

Dropping some videos that have provided some level of comfort this week.

Check your privilege, and make an amended TBR. “Stories are and forever will be powerful because books and reading [are their] own form of resistance.” And we have got a lot more learning to do:

hidithescribe

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Building on fear is unsustainable. There will be action in the present and then we have to deal with the consequences when we’re already burned out and accepting the mess we’ve made. What do we want to learn next so we can move forward with a feasible longterm plan?

One fabulous writer I admire and follow on Instagram has a lot to say about this online and in her multiple books, the most recent of which could be a guiding late for all of us right now. Do check out her titles and listen:

ijeomaoluo

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Sit down and listen to Rachel and Alexandria too. Get your “pirate energy” ready and your organizing boots strapped on tight:

maddowshow

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aoc

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I will add that as AOC so aptly addressed—as much as we are inclined now during Trump’s win, we cannot and should not be throwing up our hands and separating ourselves into camps. Sectarianism will not win, though I will qualify this statement by saying that if your viewpoint hasn’t changed in the last decade, you know there are lost cases out there, people so lost within their twisted and brainwashed notions of reality that there is no way to speak with them.

Protect your peace, for sure, but try to be open to whoever else is. The millions who didn’t vote, that’s who we need to be having conversations with. The working class, whether blue color or white, do have a lot of the same interests—we sometimes use different language, but collectively we really do all care about other people, I think, but sometimes it is less obvious when people get in their head about how elites are going run/ruin their lives, but if we’re to simplify it, everyone working for a living is right now looking for ways to continue to care for their families, and not have them broken apart by laws that may remove their rights to be a family, for one example, or have their kids’ lives eventually be plagued by laws and rulings that reverse much of the progress of the 20th century.

How do we get more of the working class to realize that we’re on the same side, that grassroots Democrats aren’t snobs or out of touch, but on some level most elected politicians are?

We need to reshuffle the deck that is the cast of characters that are always up for election and try to shake them out of the grasp of moneyed interest groups, we need to focus on the basics: accessible and transparently affordable healthcare (single payer federal mandated insurance is its own beast), worker’s rights including making the country as a whole a right-to-work nation, provide free childcare on top of public education, caps on rent, property tax increases, and the cost of food.

I’m thinking a lot about who I want to be. Do I want to be perceived as someone in support of asinine scare tactics and against science? Am I okay with being openly hostile to the ideologies I do not condone or respect? Will it count as following the Golden Rule, treating others the way they want to be treated, if the people voting on the other side don’t realize that in voting against the interest of their friends and neighbors and children, they are putting a stranglehold on the future they once could have had and is now no longer within their reach??

I want to be a friend, an ally, a leader, an agitator, a hellion, a respected woman. I won’t see the rights of myself or my friends be rolled back. I want to be the worst, vocal opponent of patriarchal fascism, and I will. But I will also be trying to stay levelheaded to the point where someone I’m verbally sparring with wouldn’t be able to accuse me of a low blow. I’ll be strong, and I’ll be blunt, and I will not be spoken over. And if said opponent believes it to be disrespectful to be pointing out facts that serve my agenda, I will be guilty of that, yes. I will not allow any time for or let them give any breath to false statements and conspiracy theories either, so it’ll be a fine line. My shoes are laced up though, I’m ready to walk it.

Music will always be the balm that gets me through any heinous day. The lines that are standing out the most to me today?

“I think there must be more to this, than sitting around and dying.”—from “Not Depressed (Enough to Get Paid for It)” by Hyber

“Fuck off and reap what you sow.”— from “Without Remedy” by Stoned Mary

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