How about those elections? (USA 2016)

[doctortomoe]

Well, considering he'll have both houses, the courts, and the presidency, I say again, he'll have all the power. And it will be easy for him to just bully and force them to his insane whims.

And considering his base eats it up, there won't be an uprising. They supported it. They'll go for it.

So yes, worry about him imprisoning his political opponents. He has the Justice Department under his control. He has the Judiciary under his control, and none of the cowards in congress will dare stand up to him.

I say it again.

Who is going to stop him? The courts he appoints? The congress that his party controls and did nothing to stop when it was clearly obvious he was running for dictator? When you have all the levers of power, and you have his personality, why wouldn't you bend them to your whim for as long as you can?

Let's face it, we are in a dark, dark time, and it's going to get much much worse before it gets better.

Besides, the policemans union endorsed him. They'll go along with it

I said it elsewhere. We won't be okay. He ran on making things not okay for certain people. His voters put him in power based on making things not okay. That's what they want. They'll be mad if he doesn't ruin their lives.

Don't delude yourself into thinking he's not coming to get you, when he clearly ran and stated on the platform of coming to get you.

[Blueysicle]

I am beyond livid.

You know what this just told me? You know what message I got from this result? That no matter what, no matter how grossly incompetent and unqualified a man is for a position, he'll always be preferred to a woman.

If this isn't the ultimate example of the glass ceiling, I don't know what is.

I am ashamed that the majority of this country gave in to hatred and fearmongering instead of unity and facts. I am ashamed that a man that had no substantial platform aside from "The heck with anyone that's not a white, straight, Christian, cisgender man" (And must be all of the listed!) freaking won.

EDIT: Adding onto the above statement, I just saw a chart that showed that white men and women favored Trump overall, while black and Hispanic men and women overwhelmingly went towards Hillary. In other words, just promising that he'll stick it to racial minorities was all it took for the majority of white people to throw themselves at his feet. So if you ever needed (more) proof that racism is alive and well in America on top of the aforementioned sexism, there ya go.

I'm not sure if anyone's posted any, but if not, I might as well. If anybody needs them, here's Wikipedia's list of Suicide Prevention Hotlines for various countries.

...and honestly, the fact that these need to be spread around at ALL should speak volumes of how messed up this whole thing is.

[Celestial]

Alright, everyone, enough with the doom and gloom please. Things are bleak enough without you making it worse for yourselves. You still have your constitution and a bill of rights. Trump is not going to take that away from you. He can try very very hard but he will not destroy in four years what has been build up since 1776.

Let us wait and see what happens and what he starts doing. If he begins to jail his political opponents, he will have an uphill climb to fight against thd courts and the rule of law. His own party already turned against him and will keep doing so based on what the voters say, which he will as Shinko said, alienate. Once poor rural whites that voted for him realise that perhaps he does not have their best interests at heart, they will begin to turn on him.

And I want to remind everyone: you have power. Just because your voice lost does not mean you can't keep advancing your cause. It is what we have been doing over here in the UK. If you are a straight white person (especially a man) and see hate crimes emboldened by the Trumpet, confront them. Let people know this is unacceptable.

Doesn't America have a long proud tradition of not letting the government do as they want? That tradition does not have to be confined to a bunch of nuts with guns, because they all support the Trumpkin anyway. So all of you, instead of wailing doom and gloom, speak up. Let him and the others in his party know you are into standing for the bullying and intimidation.

The last thing you should do is roll over.

[Breakingchains]

doctortomoe So, uh.

I get that the stress is real right now. I get that people are scared and need time to process. There will definitely be measures passed that will hurt pretty much all of us, and will especially hurt anyone in a minority group. But promoting terror and helplessness over it is kind of a bad idea, and I don't find it realistic.

For starters, "no uprising"? No opposition? From anyone? Trump and Hillary were almost matched in terms of popular vote. That's not counting the third-party people, who differ ideologically but can still be pretty cleanly be categorized as #Nevertrump and therefore largely anti-fascist. Anti-trumpers are not some tiny fringe group.

Suppressing free speech and the free vote works all right when you're dealing with smaller numbers, sure. But start messing with that many people (and yeah, good luck with the money and manpower on that) or even just the people who speak for those people, and you're looking at numbers impossible to successfully shut up, let alone imprison. Besides this, anyone who approved such an idea would have to have a death wish--and I'm not even talking "death wish" as in people losing their seats, I'm talking about people losing their heads, a la French Revolution.

They are not gonna come git you because you didn't vote for the great pumpkin. It won't come to that. Some of them probably believe in it, but it'd be completely off-the-wall insane to try.

Finally, let's also recall that in two years, much of congress is up for re-election. Yes, some very bad stuff is going to go down in that time. But it's a limited amount of time. That is key. We have opportunities to regroup and push back.

[Celestial]

Here's a handy article that our one and only Zylaa shared on Facebook about what you can do. I will add to this that first you should calm down, get a non-alcoholic beverage of your choice (I know booze is tempting but don't) and go look at a video of puppies/kittens/birds/anything cute. A list for you.

Feeling better? Maybe not. Calmer? I hope so. You're going to need time to process this. I know. Your reality was mine on the 24th of June when Brexit happened and I'll tell you, that was not a good day. That said, even Brexit is right now being challenged by the courts, by the various different parts of the UK and other parties (You have a two party system, which is harder, but do you really think prominent Democrats will shut up and sit down over this? Or do you think they will keep shouting louder to protect all they have worked for now that it is under threat?). You still have the courts. You still have the Constitution. You have a large number of people who opposed Trump.

If he was in any way effective, yes, I would be worried. However, he is a demagogue full of hot air. He has no realistic way of achieving any of his policies (remember his meeting with the Mexican president? I know that was a while ago but it happened.) and no real understanding of how the system works. Much like Brexit, he has no plan and that will be to his detriment. He'll soon discover the presidency is not like being a CEO. He has shown he would be unable to handle the pressure and the criticism that comes with the position. Nor has he shown himself to ever make good judgements. Added to that, he is an unhealthy old man who throws a fit when people are mean to him on Twitter. You really think he will be able to stand up to a country where about half of the people mock and hate him?

Personally, now his followers can get a good taste of what exactly they bought and I suspect they are not going to like it. The bright side of this (yes, seriously) is that those followers now have no excuse for riots and violence and there will be no pressure from them building up for next time.

Things are going to be very difficult but they are not going to be impossible. And you[/b] need to make it as difficult for him as possible. Voting is not the only way to change the system. *pokes the HuffPost link above* And if you really, really don't want to do that, weather it out. This is not forever.

And I cannot stress this enough:

LOOK. AFTER. YOURSELVES.

This is no reason for any of you to do anything drastic. As I said, I am more worried about you guys as individuals than your country. Your country will chug on somehow. If you succumb to despair, you won't.

(That said, yeah, I'm angry that a qualified woman was beaten by an idiot of a man. There's no words to make that okay.)

[Tiger]

Well. Had the feeling this was going to be how it went when I went to bed. I am pretty disgusted and disappointed. What a load.

But remember - he's incompetent. His claims of being a good businessman rely on him a)being able to sneak away from businesses he bankrupted and b)likely cheating the tax system. Now that the spotlighy's on him - yeah, good luck, walking away from your screwups now, jackhole. He's not well-liked by even a significant chunk of his own party, which is a situation that should only get worse because Trump is incapable of diplomacy, so he might not have as much support from Congress and the Senate (and I hope the Democrats pay back some of the bullcrap the Republicans were doing during the Obama administration and block as much of his garbage as they can) as it would seem. And he doesn't have as much power as he thinks. Among other things, he can't reverse the Supreme Court decision on same-sex marriage, he can't declare war, and he can't whip anything into or out of law. There will be time to oppose and protest and return the favor by making his life hell every time he tries to do something awful.

Still. Hugs to everyone here, holy freaking crap @_@

And please everyone going out thw next couple days, be careful; I'm reading there was a spike in hate crimes after Brexit and there have already been aome incidents during polling, so it's not unlikely the same will happen here. >___>

[Reiqua]

I wanna say something encouraging, but Celestial already said it all...

I will add, though:
(Was trying to find an up-to-date version, but this still makes the same point)


A majority of Americans are generally not okay with Trump. And I guess that also means they're not okay with the hate, racism, and intolerance that his presidency might foster.

I love you all and my thoughts will be with you as you try and stand up to all the not-okay stuff.
I already believed America could stand up to him and his ilk, but looking at that graph helps give me a bit more confidence too

[Carolyn]

If nothing else, this may finally inspire people to get involved with politics/tracking how voting on laws is split. Yes, there is great fear, but that can be turned into investment and activism.

The American people are a loud one; there will be outcry upon the voting of each law that might alienate a group. There will be protests. This will be a term of civil disobedience and response. If there's good in this situation, it's that we need our people to be involved and invested. We have become so disenfranchised and apathetic, and that will change.

Am I deeply saddened? Yes. Is this the end? No. And I truly believe that, too.

More than anything else, this will be a time that requires much love for the people in our lives. We must show compassion and kindness in the face of confusion and doubt. To let those who grieve know that they are not alone and that we can do something.

[Geodude 🌻]

Well. Umm. I actually don't have words to say now.

President-elect Donald Trump will be our 45th president.

Our country might just regress 50 or more years.

[Celestial]

Nov 9, 2016 7:39:35 GMT -5 Geodude 🌻 said:

Well. Umm. I actually don't have words to say now.

President-elect Donald Trump will be our 45th president.

Our country might just regress 50 or more years.

Well, if you don't want it to, I suggest you go out there and make your voice heard if/when the legislation that you don't like starts coming in.

"The only thing necessary for the truimph of evil is for good men to do nothing", I believe the quote goes? Your ability to do something does not stop at the ballot box. Write to your senator/congressperson/whoever if they are doing stuff you do not like. They do not just represent the people who only voted for them in this election. And if you're straight and/or white and/or male and you see somebody who is not being harassed, let the harasser know that is not okay. Let the victim know they are loved and wanted. Here's a great comic which deals with Islamophobia but it can be applied to other types of harassment.

I will keep repeating it until it sinks in: do not succumb to despair.

[Geodude 🌻]

I'm in the wrong state. Pat Roberts, Jerry Moran and Kevin Yoder haven't been listening for years. Unless they suddenly start listening because of this new development. It's worth a try for the whateverth time I guess.

[Tiger]

Nov 9, 2016 7:34:09 GMT -5 Reiqua said:

I wanna say something encouraging, but Celestial already said it all...

I will add, though:
(Was trying to find an up-to-date version, but this still makes the same point)


A majority of Americans are generally not okay with Trump. And I guess that also means they're not okay with the hate, racism, and intolerance that his presidency might foster.

I love you all and my thoughts will be with you as you try and stand up to all the not-okay stuff.
I already believed America could stand up to him and his ilk, but looking at that graph helps give me a bit more confidence too :)

I'm trying to find numbers but it's also a good bet that there are more people who don't support Trump than those who voted for Hillary; I've been seeing warnings and predictions that third-party voters were going to split the non-Trump votes such that Hillary couldn't outnumber him for months now. Most likely a big chunk of them are very anti-Trump as well - but they wanted to pick a candidate "better" than Hilary, and I think a lot of people were too idealistic and stubborn, and didn't take to heart that this was not the time to try and break out of the two-party system. Frustrating, yes, maddeningly so - but they're at least not on Trump's side at the end of the day. And hopefully this will be a wakeup call, and they'll channel that "fight the system" urge into fighting the system Trump wants to set up.

[Shinko]

It should be pointed out also that, as I said before, not everyone who voted for Trump necessarily likes him. In fact I've heard it said over and over, by a ton of people, that both of the candidates suck and it's a matter of picking which one sucks less- and I talked to people today who explicitly admitted they think he's an idiot, but they just really, really hate Hillary. Those people are going to severely regret their choices in not too very much time, which means even more people to stand against his corrupt policies.

[Tara]

I don't even want to live in this country anymore. Only in America will you be celebrated for having a bigoted, sexist, and racist opinion. This is the worst thing that could've happened. I called it early on though, because Hilary is a women. Americans aren't ready to take women's rights seriously or let alone let us have leadership in anyway.

I am infuriated being being made of three different minorities myself. I know my rights won't be taken seriously from this day forward. All my civil liberties will be questioned. Thanks America for choosing a man who made a campaign out of hate.

[Ian Wolf-Park]

My sympathies to you, America. In fact, not only am I seeing deja vu to Brexit, but also to a former Toronto mayor (anyone remember a certain person named Rob Ford?)


doctortomoe- I think you're overthinking the situation. Yeah, Trump and the party have control, but some of the things you mentioned, he won't be able to do, not without consent. Expect challenges from his own party, the general public, the courts, the media and other governments now that he's in the limelight for the next 4 years.