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The first Presidential election I remember with Ford v. Carter. In my 8-year-old mind, this was a no-brainer. On the one hand, there was Gerald Ford, the President of the United States. I loved the guy, for reasons that aren’t clear to me 40 years later, and I thought he was doing a fine job.
On the other hand, there was Jimmy Carter, a peanut farmer from Georgia. Was this a joke? What on earth would make anyone think a peanut farmer should be President?
I remember being furious when Carter defeated Ford.
I see some parallels in this election. One the hand, there was Hillary Clinton, former FLOTUS, Senator, and Secretary of State, the most qualified yet most maligned, investigated and targeted for libel and slander candidate in the race, and arguably in history.
One the other hand, there was Donald Trump, a (predominantly failed) businessman, misogynist, xenophobe, and racist, the target of ongoing fraud investigations and the bringer of thousands of lawsuits. The least qualified candidate in the race, and arguably in history. He is everything our nation should stand against. What on earth would make anyone think this man should be President?
This time, I’m not furious. Last night as results rolled in, so did my anguish, and later, despondency.
Last night, evil won.
Hatred won.
Fear won.
Misogyny won.
Racism won.
Homophobia won.
Exclusion won.
Othering won.
And love lost.
But this is not the end. No, in fact, it is a new beginning. This battle may be over, but the war against oppression, the war for inclusion for everyone at the table of the American dream, that war wages on.
It is time, my friends, to roll up our sleeves and really get to work.
This work will be hard.
This work will be discouraging at times.
This work will be thankless at times.
But we cannot afford to assume someone else is going to do it. We cannot afford to think that love will magically prevail. We cannot afford to allow fear to deter us.
Last night, I was terrified and hopeless and, frankly, suicidal.
This morning, I am strapping on my armor, lacing up my shit kicker boots, and mustering all the forgiveness and love and faith I can manage.
This morning, I am ready to fight for all that is America. This morning, I am ready to fight for love.
Join me. Because we are still stronger together.
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Click the red “Now What?” button above to join our #Stop Racism group. Or, join The Good Men Project in a future Social Interest Group (“SIG”) on post-election reconstruction. Send a brief letter of interest and introduction to gmpsocialinterestgroups@gmail.
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Photo credit: Pixabay
You are a warrior of no thing. You don’t even know the ethos of such a person. Shameless, self-involved writing by yet another beneficiary. Self-publishing is truly a hydra.
Fear mongering, and not what this country needs any longer. There were people of every race, creed, color, sex and sexual orientation voting for both candidates, and the election was not won by oppression, but votes by American citizens. It was one by the voted of an entire class of people that have been left out, put upon for far too long: the middle class working American. to call this a victory for evil is to accuse half the country of being such, and that is not at all conducive to unity, but just more divisionism, opportunity for internet trolls… Read more »
DJ…when did the country ever ‘need’ fear mongering? When Trump was at the helm using it himself? Actually, the election was won by the electoral college. Which I am not entirely sure how that works out. The actual American citizens elected Hillary Clinton since she won the popular vote. Also, while people of every race, creed, color, sex and sexual orientation did get out there and vote, there were clear and strong disparities about who was voting for who. Trump received most of his votes from white men. Hillary won among women and minorities. She won huge among minorities. I… Read more »
Don’t get it and never will, which is exactly why America was forced to rise up and shut it all down. Crush it in fact (279 to 228). The shock is not based on some hysterical mistake, it is the result of not listening, so many with blinders on, silencing and shutting down the participation of so many, bullying and bowling over so many others (especially if they are white and male), rather then seeing what was really happening beyond the self censored realities that so many live. I know that, because I’ve been trying to speak to deaf ears… Read more »
People are not simply frustrated with white males because of what happened 100 years ago. That is a disgustingly gross minimization and over simplification of a complex history and network of male power over other groups of people. We have a continued history of denying women and minorities an equal place in society even today. The fact that we all just witnessed a highly polarizing, sexists, misogynistic and racist figure become the President is not a symbol of white men being a marginilized group here. You seem to forget that women and minorities are still struggling to make ‘firsts” in… Read more »
In recent news, it looks like so far trump’s cabinet is shaping up to be all male and all white. It’s stilll early but would anyone be surprised by this? You don’t have an effective government when white men act like they are entitled to be the dominate authority for women and minorities. At least black people got Obama. Women simply get more sexism and reinforcement of male power and white men feeling entitled to make choices for us.
“You seem to forget that women and minorities are still struggling to make ‘firsts” in this country where white men have held the most power and privilege over any other group.” That’s not always a bad thing for women. Just this year or maybe last year there was a state that executed it’s first woman. Let’s not forget all the ways that women have been advantaged. Men are still also waiting for firsts. The first DV shelter to open in a particular area among multiple women’s shelters. Stop by the mens rights sub reddit sometime. You’ll see a few firsts… Read more »
John – I can’t even really believe the things coming from you right now. Yes, it is bad thing that in a country where men and women are both 50% of the population, women are still struggling to achieve ‘firsts’ in things men have long had power over. And if you can’t even understand that much, our conversation was over before it begun. The white house is suppose to represent us all. It is not a place for men *only* to hold power who make choices for men and women alike. It would be nice if America could get on… Read more »
@ Erin “Actually, the election was won by the electoral college. ” There was concern from the small colonies that they would be bullied by the larger colonies, hence our system of government. The number of vites in the senate would be the same regardless of the size of the state at 2. The number of representatives (votes) in the house was based on population with bigger states getting more votes so in congress larger states would have more say, but they’d have to get at least a few of the smaller states to agree in order to get things… Read more »
Again, I point you to Vox to read an article called “Why the Electoral College is the absolute worst, explained.” I still am having a hard time figuring it all out but I am not convinced that the electoral college is a good thing. The popular vote went to Hillary and yet, Trump is president. This is the exact thing that makes people feel like there is no point in voting or that their vote doesn’t count and that they do not have any control or voice. I have no clue why I went to vote at this point. My… Read more »
@ Erin Clinton got about 47% of the popular vote so there wasn’t a majority if people who voted for her as popular belief would have you believe. If anything, it maybe should have forced a run off and not been a Clinton win as people are claiming. It was the Clinton camp that wanted every one to accept the results of the election, but now won’t accept the results of the election because they didn’t get the result that they wanted. Isn’t that the bottom line? You didn’t get the result that you wanted even though everyone knew the… Read more »
John Final tallies: Clinton 59,939,290 Trump 59,704,886 Neither candidate got 50% of the vote. Clinton got 47.7% and Trump got 47.5%. What are you talking about that Clinton didn’t accept the election results? She gave a concession speech. She never played any of the games Trump did to scare people about a ‘rigged’ system. Which ironically, no one is saying anything about anymore. I have no idea either what is truly fair when it comes to the electoral vote. I would be curious about how other countries solve this issue and how they vote but I know absolutely nothing about… Read more »
@ Erin I agree with much of what you said about demographics (sure I agree with you from time to time), but you’re not being entirely fair. Trump got over 50% (the majority) of white women’s votes. Does that mean that everything he said to and about white women isn’t misogynistic anymore? I’d also be interested to see more breakdown. They make a big deal about education and how low educated whites broke for Trump. Granted I’m distrustful of the main stream media as I think they are more agenda driven activists than impartial journalists, but I wonder why there… Read more »
John Is it my turn to share how often I agree or don’t agree with you? Or my thoughts on your ideas about how ‘fairness’ shows up in these conversations…or rather doesn’t? I think you will get a lot of the answers you seek about why white women voted for Trump in an article over at Vox titled, “Why Women Are Still Voting For Trump, Despite His Misogyny”. It addresses the collective anger over women having gained more presence in society as people who deserve equality, but who still are denied it in comparison to men, even from among certain… Read more »
@ Erin The dirty little secret is that there are a lot of voters who voted for Clinton because they wanted a woman president even Clinton played that up. There’s a youtube video of her making that assertion 13 times and that was only what the author compiled several months ago. She may have said it a few times since then. Even in her concession speech she hopes girls will now their worth and mentions nothing about hoping boys will know theirs or attain their dreams even though girls are far surpassing boys in education. Isn’t it ironic that it… Read more »
John – When Hillary ran in 2008, she was advised to downplay her gender. Men are not forced in such positions to worry about how their gender will effect political outcomes. Men take this part of society for granted. Men achieve high positions of power because society supports and celebrates that in men. We don’t question men’s gender to accomplish things in society when it comes to powerful corporate or political positions. We however don’t support and celebrate that in women. We rather women be pretty then accomplished. So this time when she ran, she didn’t downplay her gender. She… Read more »
I am just not there yet Lisa. I might not be there for a while yet, if ever. I feel a sense of despondency and disillusionment over the sheer amount of hate people still have for marginalized groups in this country and the power and privilege that has and always will exist for the straight, white heterosexual male. But now we are suppose to band together with those that supported a man who enjoys degrading and marginalizing us? How do you do that? when it came down to what really mattered, no one was there for those of us in… Read more »