As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
Daily Dose of Cute
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
Recommended Reading
[Content Note: Misogyny; racism; queerphobia; Islamophobia.]
Rebecca Solnit in the Guardian: "Don't call Clinton a weak candidate: it took decades of scheming to beat her."
Jonathan Capehart in the Washington Post: "Why millions fear the looming Trump presidency."
Nell Irvin Painter in the New York Times: "What Whiteness means in the Trump Era."
A Few Things
For those who aren't on Twitter, here's a catch up of some of the stuff I was talking about this weekend.
Not going to "give him a chance." I'm going to resist every single thing he tries to do, b/c he's used every chance he ever got to hurt ppl.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) November 11, 2016
Please remember that. He's used every single chance he's ever gotten in his very privileged life to hurt people.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) November 11, 2016
Don't give him a chance. Resist mightily.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) November 11, 2016
WHAT IF -- hear me out -- instead of just telling us to empathize with straight white men, you told them to empathize with us?
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) November 12, 2016
"Accommodate his demand." https://t.co/QhIm0JcA2c
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) November 12, 2016
"He'll surround himself with good people." No, he'll require fealty and acquiescence to his tyranny.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) November 12, 2016
Every single one of the people with influence who said Trump was unfit before the election should be saying the same thing now. More loudly.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) November 13, 2016
Trump is not going to "denounce racism." He's bringing white nationalists & people from SPLC-identified hate groups into the WH as we speak.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) November 13, 2016
Trump is not going to "denounce sexism." His transition team is exclusively men, and he's not withdrawn threat to sue his abuse accusers.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) November 13, 2016
It is WEEK ONE, and he's showing us that he's going to be exactly who he has always been. Pretending it could be otherwise is apologism.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) November 13, 2016
We know how this is going to go. Every legal option should be used to stop him now. Institutions won't protect us w/ no checks and balances.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) November 13, 2016
The only argument for NOT doing it is that people might get hurt. Well, those people are going to get hurt anyway. And we all know it.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) November 13, 2016If he changes, it will be for the worse, because he now has nearly unlimited power and believes he has a mandate to use it to do harm. https://t.co/4qK8r7qTxk
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) November 13, 2016
Know this: Arguing to "give him a chance" is an argument that comes at the cost of marginalized people's safety and lives.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) November 13, 2016
Priebus as chief of staff. Bannon as chief strategist. As equal partners, thus marrying the GOP establishment and white nationalism.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) November 13, 2016
Do 👏 not 👏 normalize 👏 this. 👏
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) November 13, 2016
"I told the truth; I didn't come to fool ya."
For anyone who may have missed it, this was the cold open on Saturday Night Live this weekend: Kate McKinnon, in character as Hillary Clinton, who she played throughout the campaign, at a piano, playing and singing "Hallelujah," the song by Leonard Cohen, who just passed away.
Lyrics here. At the end of the song, she turns to the camera and says, "I'm not giving up. And neither should you. And live from New York, it's Saturday night."
Just when I think I'm done crying, it turns out I'm not even close to being done.
The Virtual Pub Is Open
[Explanations: lol your fat. pathetic anger bread. hey your gay.]
Belly up to the bar,
and be in this space together.
On the Agenda So Far
[Content Note: Privilege; classism.]
1. Dismantle net neutrality.
2. Reverse course on climate change.
3. Lower taxes.
4. "Phase out Medicare and replace it with private insurance for retirees." And disabled people.
They're not just going to roll back progress of the last eight years. They're going to roll back everything since the New Deal.
And who's going to stop them? I keep seeing people talking about "checks and balances," but we are on Day Three and those are already a quaint relic of the past.
Checks and balances my fat ass. Who's gonna provide them? The GOP Congress who wouldn't stand up to him when he WASN'T president?
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) November 11, 2016
Is the corporate media going to provide these checks and balances? The media that just false equivalencied his ass into the White House?
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) November 11, 2016
Is the Supreme Court going to provide checks and balances? How about after his nominees sail through?
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) November 11, 2016
His presidency will be unchecked and unbalanced. He will demolish to rubble the fragile institutions that have imperfectly protected us.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) November 11, 2016
This is what happens when people demonize "the establishment" with broad strokes, suggesting that the entire system is irredeemably corrupt. The door is opened for someone who has no interest in fixing the pieces that are broken, but instead wants to demolish the entire thing and erect his own ego in its place.
If anyone who wanted "change" because "the establishment" had been "corrupted" by "elites" thinks that Trump's plan to stack the deck with a bunch of authoritarian millionaires and billionaires just like him looks like an improvement on the admittedly flawed system we already had, what they wanted wasn't change but a doubling-down on everything they claimed to despise.
And by the time Trump is done, their sniveling worries about brown people and uppity ladies and kissing boys will pale in comparison to the shit their dear leader gives them to deal with.
Unfortunately, we'll all be dealing with it, too.
Thank You, Harry Reid
Outgoing Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (who is retiring) has a few thoughts on the election:
I have personally been on the ballot in Nevada for 26 elections and I have never seen anything like the reaction to the election completed last Tuesday. The election of Donald Trump has emboldened the forces of hate and bigotry in America.
White nationalists, Vladimir Putin, and ISIS are celebrating Donald Trump's victory, while innocent, law-abiding Americans are wracked with fear – especially African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Muslim Americans, LGBT Americans, and Asian Americans. Watching white nationalists celebrate while innocent Americans cry tears of fear does not feel like America.
I have heard more stories in the past 48 hours of Americans living in fear of their own government and their fellow Americans than I can remember hearing in five decades in politics. Hispanic Americans who fear their families will be torn apart, African Americans being heckled on the street, Muslim Americans afraid to wear a headscarf, gay and lesbian couples having slurs hurled at them and feeling afraid to walk down the street holding hands. American children waking up in the middle of the night crying, terrified that Trump will take their parents away. Young girls unable to understand why a man who brags about sexually assaulting women has been elected president.
I have a large family. I have one daughter and twelve granddaughters. The texts, emails and phone calls I have received from them have been filled with fear – fear for themselves, fear for their Hispanic and African American friends, for their Muslim and Jewish friends, for their LBGT friends, for their Asian friends. I've felt their tears and I've felt their fear.
We as a nation must find a way to move forward without consigning those who Trump has threatened to the shadows. Their fear is entirely rational, because Donald Trump has talked openly about doing terrible things to them. Every news piece that breathlessly obsesses over inauguration preparations compounds their fear by normalizing a man who has threatened to tear families apart, who has bragged about sexually assaulting women and who has directed crowds of thousands to intimidate reporters and assault African Americans. Their fear is legitimate and we must refuse to let it fall through the cracks between the fluff pieces.
If this is going to be a time of healing, we must first put the responsibility for healing where it belongs: at the feet of Donald Trump, a sexual predator who lost the popular vote and fueled his campaign with bigotry and hate. Winning the electoral college does not absolve Trump of the grave sins he committed against millions of Americans. Donald Trump may not possess the capacity to assuage those fears, but he owes it to this nation to try.
If Trump wants to roll back tide of hate he unleashed, he has a tremendous amount of work to do and he must begin immediately.
The President-Elect's Cabinet
As part of his transition, the president-elect will be starting to select people to fill his cabinet. And, as you'd imagine, the possibilities are terrifying.
A new report suggests, for example, that Rudy Giuliani, who was being floated for Attorney General, is now being considered for Secretary of State. The other name being floated for State is Newt Gingrich.
Utterly appalling.
Here are a couple of articles on the other names being floated for various cabinet positions: [CN: disablist language] Tim Murphy at Mother Jones: "Trump's Cabinet Is Going to Be as [Indecent] as You Thought," and Nancy Cook and Andrew Restuccia at Politico: "Meet Trump's Cabinet-in-Waiting."
And then there is this:
Steve Bannon of Breitbart being considered for WH chief of staff --
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) November 10, 2016
For everyone who thought Trump was just joshing about that whole racism thing. Nope, he's centering white nationalism in his administration. https://t.co/CigaNLLN5A
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) November 10, 2016
Of course Trump is going to have a cabinet full of monsters. Were you not paying attention when qualified career bureaucrats opposed him?
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) November 10, 2016
Even if Trump WANTED a cabinet of qualified career bureaucrats, they don't want the jobs. This is why who supported him mattered.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) November 10, 2016
I said from the very beginning of this campaign that part of assessing candidates is looking at their campaigns to see who might end up in the White House.
In the president-elect's case, he surrounded himself with nightmare dregs of conservatism and was repudiated by the intellectual wing of conservatism—economists, intelligence officers, military strategists. I fundamentally disagree with those folks, but I also respect the fact that they're career bureaucrats who don't want to destroy our democracy. And when they rejected the president-elect, that mattered.
He's picking people based on fealty and surrounding himself with dangerous sycophants who will absolutely not keep him in check.
Many of the people who voted for him had this bullshit fantasy that, even though he's clearly erratic and unprepared, he'd "surround himself with smart people." No, he won't. And he was never going to.
That was manifestly obvious. And anyone who ever believed otherwise was catastrophically misinformed or deluding themselves. Or both.
Veterans' Day
Today is Veterans' Day in the US.
Veterans' Day is a weird sort of day for me to recognize, because I don't feel like I'm honoring our servicemembers to treat them as a monolith with an easy catchphrase like, "I support the troops."
I remember seeing a segment on CNN, on Veterans' Day several years ago, about a young man getting the Medal of Honor, who said quite candidly that he was angry to be getting it, because it comes at such a cost. Some generic, feelgood, unqualified, blanket statement about supporting the troops doesn't get at that complicated reality; its vagueness feels like cowardice.
On the other hand, I don't feel like I'm particularly honoring them by pointing out that among the troops are war criminals and thieves and miscreants who harm their fellow soldiers, whose behavior I categorically do not want to support, or by using this day to talk about my objections to the multiple wars and not-wars we're currently fighting, even as I acknowledge the soldiers who honorably staff those wars don't have a choice where they're sent.
It's easy to politicize this day, especially right after an election, to talk about meaningful proposals, or the lack thereof, to begin to address some of the ways in which we've let down our veterans, or express concerns about the bellicose grandstanding that suggests we will never not be at war, ever again. But I don't want to do that, either. Not today.
Which always leaves me not really knowing what to say.
So I'll just say this: Thank you to all the women and men who have served this country with decency in a military capacity, who have been willing to risk their lives to defend its borders, resources, and people.
And this: When I write about social justice issues every day, I'm advocating for veterans.
I'm advocating for veterans whose bodies and/or minds were changed by war when I write about disability and healthcare access. I'm advocating for veterans who were sexually assaulted when I write about the rape culture. I'm advocating for veterans who are not allowed to serve openly when I write about LGBTQIA rights. I'm advocating for veterans who are denied opportunity and equal pay when I write about gender equality. I'm advocating for veterans when I write about visibility of people of color. I'm advocating for veterans who are not getting adequate healthcare, who are homeless, who are unemployed, when I write about funding a comprehensive social safety net. Whenever I'm writing about people in need in the US, I'm necessarily writing about veterans.
If we center that idea, if those of us who are not veterans or active military ourselves vigilantly remember that veterans are part of our community, not a community separate from our own, and that when we advocate broadly for social justice we advocate for veterans, every day really is Veterans' Day.
Please feel welcome and encouraged to drop suggestions in comments for how to teaspoon on behalf of veterans today and every day.
I will suggest making a donation, if you can, to the Pets for Vets program, which trains and matches shelter animals with veterans, for companionship and/or service.
Open Thread
Today will be another light day, as I'm still slowly picking myself up off the floor. I'll continue to post a few things, as I have the wherewithal, and will probably return to a regular schedule next week. My profound thanks to Aphra for her terrific contributions the past couple of days.
Love Will Be the Center of My Resistance
As I mentioned, on Election Night, a small group of friends gathered at my house. Between the six of us, we represented a number of the communities who were targeted by our president-elect during his campaign: Women, Latinos, immigrants, Jews, gay people, disabled people, survivors of sexual assault.
We were a decidedly pro-Hillary house. We hoped to celebrate, and feared that we would not. When the results came in, and our fears were realized, we were relieved to be together in that terrible moment.
In the middle of that long night, my phone lit up. More friends on the end of the line, sobbing with the pain of rejection and fear. A Black mother, queer men, an Asian couple, feminist women, a person who relies on Obamacare. All of us crying each other's names and saying, over and over, "I love you."
They were words of comfort and reassurance, but they were also our first words of resistance to each other.
We are the resistance. And part of resisting this mandate of hatred is caring hard for one another. Valuing each other. Meeting the politics of division with solidarity.
Tonight, I am sitting in the thought that "I love you" were the first words for which we reached as the sickening realization washed over us that we were emerging as the resistance. I am holding onto that hard. It's all I've got right now, even though I am keenly, agonizingly aware that love won't save our lives.
Love won't stop determined state-sanctioned harm. Love won't prevent death resulting from a lack of access to healthcare. Love won't slow climate change, or fund Planned Parenthood, or convince our president-elect not to institute stop-and-frisk across the country, thereby ensuring more deadly encounters between people of color and police.
Love won't save our lives.
But it's a place for me to start, to ground myself for this fight.
To love and to value people who are under attack. To make clear that their lives matter, their rights matter, their safety matters. To center empathy. To remember to love myself.
There are people in this country who want to tell us they think we are worthless, but they cannot make us believe it.
Because even in defeat, love trumps hate.
People will resist for different reasons, with different motivations. But this is mine. I will fight with rage, with grief, with tenacity, with passion, with fear, with hope. But I will fight from a place of love. Fierce, fixed, expansive love for the people who have been targeted by hatred.
What I want you to know is that I will be fighting because you matter to me. And there isn't an office on this planet powerful enough to subvert that, no matter who fills it.
Notes on Resisting Trump, from a Bush Survivor
Yesterday and today I have spent a good deal of time, online and in person, with devastated people. We cry. We hug. We shake. We are exhausted. What, we ask, what are we going to do?
We talk about Barack Obama, how great his presidency has been, and how scary it is for his legacy to be left with Trump. He is, for many of my millennial friends, the first president they voted for, the president they came to political maturity under. And as we licked our wounds and comforted each other and tried not to freak out, I thought back to the Bush years. Thinking about how I and others felt and acted is helping me map out my plan for resisting Trump.
I really related to a lot of the concerns I heard from younger voters in this election, because they echoed things I thought and felt in 2000 and 2004. I was in my late 20s in 2000, and totally uninspired by the Democratic party candidate. Both he and his opponent were scions of privilege, inheriting wealth and political names. I was disgusted that the Democrats had as their best nominee a wealthy political insider, out of touch with ordinary people. Today I think of Al Gore as a good candidate, but I didn’t then. I’ve tried to use that to understand the way some progressive people felt about Clinton, as someone they struggled to support. I was also beyond disgusted with the Republican party, of course. But both parties seemed mired in corruption and complaisance.
I voted for Nader. I didn’t care who won, I told myself. The parties were the same.
As the election returns came in, I began to feel sicker and sicker about it. As I waited anxiously and it became clearer Bush would assume power, I realized that I actually *had* preferred a candidate. I had wanted Gore to win. Not that walking disaster of a Bush. So if you are one of those folks out there who voted 3rd party and is feeling sick today, I really feel you. I really do. Even though I knew my vote hadn’t “counted” (I didn’t live in one of the hotly contested Florida counties where Nader votes might have made a difference) over the years I reflected on it all and decided that in future, I would vote strategically. I didn't have the luxury of always voting the person who matched my views best, so I would pick the one who had a chance to win and would do the most good.
In 2003-2004 I got enthusiastic about a candidate: Wes Clark. He was an outsider and an idealist, not a typical politician, and I loved his plans for healthcare and education. (Sound familiar?) I also thought, in the rah-rah riled up pro-military Bush era, that an Army man might be able to persuade some GOP voters to go Dem. When Clark dropped out I was devastated. He urged his followers to support John Kerry and so I did, though not with any great enthusiasm. Slowly I warmed to him—he was, after all, a good and decent person. His platform was not as liberal as I was, but it was in the right direction. I was appalled at the media coverage of him and the way the GOP took one of his great strengths, his Vietnam service, and mocked it and lied about it and turned it into a liability. All of which are dynamics some folks have seen with Clinton this year, too.
In that year, we were certain of victory. As in this year, we woke up to a nightmare. No one saw it coming. And now we had the execrable W for four. More. Years.
I share all this with an eye to using lesson from those dreadful years as a guide to surviving President (ugh) Trump. If you are in a place where you want to start planning and strategizing, this is for you. (If you’re not, that’s totally and completely valid, of course). For me, it’s part of how I am coping.
Let’s acknowledge the obvious. Trump is worse than Bush. For all his many many many flaws, George W. Bush was at least a decent husband and father. To my knowledge, he is not a serial sexual assaulter. In his dim little way, I think he cared about doing the right thing, even if he was always horribly, terribly, disastrously wrong about what the right thing was.
By contrast, Trump has no such compunctions. He seems to be a horrible human, one whose moral compass points only towards himself, to his own enrichment and aggrandizement. Bush sowed death and destruction and was a disaster for the nation and the world. But we know that Trump is probably going to be worse.
Deep breath. Okay.
Under Bush, what did we do? First and foremost, we found communities. The election of 2004 was a turning point for me, and I think for many others. We found blogs, mailing lists, and other online spaces, where we commiserated, organized, and kept the faith alive. I found Shakesville at that time, along with Daily Kos and Pandagon and Pam’s House Blend and many others, some now defunct or changed beyond recognition. Like Liss said in her piece this morning, I made friendships that have lasted over a decade.
With the mainstream press acting as Bush lapdogs, we became our own journalists and pundits. We marched. There were lawsuits, petitions, and protests of all kinds. We worked to elect progressives to the House and Senate. We gave money to progressive causes, to keep them alive. We Gen Xers listened to the Baby Boomer who had done this in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. We adapted. We learned.
We loved and supported each other. Financially and emotionally—we used Paypal and other tools to help those in need, those who, thanks to Bush’s policies, became homeless, needed medical care and couldn’t afford it, who went bankrupt.
I’ll be honest: we also fought amongst ourselves. We squabbled over big things, and over little things. Those with privilege often silenced and marginalized those without. We were imperfect, sometimes very wrong, and often not well organized.
But we had rare victories, and we cherished them. We looked for bright spots. In 2000, one of my small comforts was Hillary Clinton’s election to the New York Senate. A First Lady had a political career of her own! A feminist, fabulous First Lady! In 2004, I had the pleasure of voting for a guy called Barack Obama as my Senator. I never imagined then that 4 years later he would lead the Dems to victory as the first black president, but I sure knew he was going to be a star.
So, applying the lessons of history, what can we do to survive under Trump? Here are some things that I think I will do.
Well, let’s start with finding progressive politicians to support. It’s vital for the country that the Dems cultivate new blood. Elizabeth Warren is fantastic, but she is 67. Fortunately, there were a few bright spots Tuesday night, that Liss has highlighted. Could Tammy Duckworth be the next Barack Obama? Or Kamala Harris? I don’t know, but I plan to find the good ones and support them with all my might. I’ll try to stiffen the spine and encourage any Dem who’s willing to stand up to the awful legislation and policies that will doubtless come from the right. I’ll cheer them –and DONATE-- if they use every trick in the political book to slow the harm and stop the hate.
Speaking of donations, I plan to find organizations to support that will help resist Trump’s evil and support those in need. The ACLU will be filing lawsuits, I’ve no doubt. Planned Parenthood is going to be in a fight for its life. The NAACP will need support (and you do not have to be African-American to join). Older organizations like NOW and HRC, and newer movements like Black Lives Matter and the anti-DAPL protestors, will need money as well as people. I’ve sometimes been impatient with some of the groups I listed because they are not always as intersectional and inclusive, or as radical, as they could be. But to be honest, I think I will be a bit more forgiving in the near future, because who knows how Trump will crap on them and try to shut them down. I won’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good, at least not until we get the Democrats back in charge. I hope to give those fighting him every weapon I can.
Today we have so much more media than we did under Bush, and we have more and more ways to organize and connect every day. There will be petitions. There will be protests. There will be Tweetstorms. There will be actions of many kinds. I will support them as I am able to do so.
On a personal level, I am going to hug my friends and family closer than ever, as well as take good care of myself. I will remember that self-care is a feminist act, and in Trump’s America, it’s going to be a downright radical act. I will defy him by valuing myself when he and his movement try to convince me I am less. Not all of us will be able to march or sing or lay down on the ground. But simply surviving in our queer bodies, in our brown bodies, in our black bodies, in our disabled bodies, in our female bodies, in our Muslim bodies, in all of our “lesser” bodies, is going to be a rebuke to Trump and Pence. Take that, you hateful asshats.
I hope to pool resources with those hurt most by his policies, try to keep each other going physically, mentally, and economically. In the areas where I have privilege, I will try to wield it to promote, and if necessary, to protect the voices and persons of those without privilege. I will give food to those I find in need, and I will give shelter in my home to friends who may become homeless under Trump. I’m going to find inspiration where I can and use it to nourish my soul. Like Liss, I will be the light when I can.
Now, is there anywhere where I think we of the resistance will have the upper hand? Sort of. One thing is: we know Trump. We have his number. He’s made no secret of his plans and he has years, YEARS, of history to guide us as to his moves. George W campaigned on “compassionate conservatism,” and we really didn’t have a full picture of how badly he would govern. With Trump, we know what we’re getting and have a sense of how bad it will be. Small comfort, I am sure. But it’s better to see the storm coming, to strengthen the area it’s going to hit, than to be taken by surprise. We can predict at least some of his awful moves.
And in one area, we have a real embarrassment (literally) of riches with Trump: there is no shortage of scandal, corruption, and crime in his past and present. The Republicans have used investigations and threats of impeachment for years to hamper progressive politicians and organizations—I’m sure they will do it under Trump, too. I remember Whitewater, which started as an investigation into land deals in Arkansas before winding through everything else in Bill and Hillary’s past before finally finding ONE THING to stick—Bill lied about an affair. We’re not going to have to look that far with Trump. The main thing will be getting there before his people burn the documents. (And even there we have a chance—they’re so fucking incompetent I’m sure they will leave us plenty.) If the GOP convinced a lot of people that a basically nice, honest, helpful Methodist lady was a crooked lying demon, then I think there’s a good chance we can convince people that an actually awful human is an awful human.
It’s true that the Democrats are a minority, so they can’t tie up Trump in Benghazi-style hearings (except these would be about actual real things in the world). But individual Congressfolk and Senators can investigate and publicize. I have little faith in corporate media, but there was some genuinely good journalism about Trump’s frauds (albeit coming late). At least some will take his threats to loosen libel laws and weaken journalistic protections seriously and investigate him further and publicize his crimes. This will weaken him politically. I plan to donate and/or subscribe to those news organizations that actually cover his crimes in a meaningful way as much as I can.
I will do all I can do encourage those politicians and people who exploit the divisions within the Republicans in order to stop their harmful agenda. Trump’s election has left the GOP in charge, and yet in disarray. That they control both houses and the White House is scary and will be very harmful, I’ve no doubt. But Trump is already miffed at some of them because they denounced him. I don’t see him being able to maintain a unified front. And as Trump’s awfulness continues to pile up, I rather suspect some of them will not want to stand with him. And I will encourage every Republican who defies him in a meaningful way. I won’t approve the rest of their garbage agendas. I’m not making nice with racists and homophobes. But I’m willing to work with anyone who will fight against hate, and I’ll encourage Dems to work across the aisle whenever that rare creature, a Republican with a sense of decency, is spotted in Congress.
And I’ll also encourage them to exploit every stupid thing Trump does to full effect. If Obama’s motto was “don’t do stupid stuff,” then Trumps is surely DO ALL THE STUFF--THE STUPID STUFF---BIGLY AND MUCHLY. I don’t mean to make light, because unfortunately some of his stupid stuff will be grievously harmful to the nation and the world. But I have little doubt that he will also hinder himself through his incompetence. He has a certain low cunning, I will grant. But honestly, he’s not too bright. He’s so intellectually lazy, his brain makes sloths look like Olympic sprinters. He’s going to be hoisted on his own petard at some point, and I plan to cheer it on.
Of course we can’t overlook Pence, and all the others he has on his team who are equally morally bereft, but far better at getting their evil shit done. Impeaching Trump and putting Pence in office sounds pretty bad, so I don’t entertain it. But I predict a certain disarray and disunity will slow them down as well. I’m going to work like hell in the 2018 elections for the Dems; I imagine they will have plenty of fodder to exploit as we try to get at least one house back.
Finally I’m not going to minimize how much this is going to suck, how deadly and dreadful it may become. But right now I am trying to imagine my resistance, to see what it’s going to be like, so when the time comes, I can do this.
Many people are familiar with Winston Churchill’s “We Will Fight On The Beaches” speech, given in 1940, as German armies swept across the continent of Europe and allied forces withdrew from France to the UK. (And yes, I’m aware there is huge irony in using a racist, sexist, imperialist like Churchill to talk about resisting Trump. But humor me for a moment). The speech reads in part:
…Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender…
Do you see what he is doing? He is giving the listener specific visions of resistance. The places, the methods, listed out in detail. There was power in that. There’s a reason it’s a famous speech. At an hour when actual Nazis were threatening to invade, when the British people had every expectation that German soldiers would be upon them in weeks or even days, Churchill asked them to see themselves fighting, to think of it, to internalize it.
And if you’ve ever listened to the speech ( there’s an excerpt here), you know that Churchill’s sing-song delivery is almost matter of fact. His voice rises at “We will never surrender,” but only after the remarkably undramatic listing of the very dramatic scenes he’s invoking. It will happen, this fighting, these acts of resistance. It simply will, because it simply must.
I’ve been writing my own fighting on beaches speech in my head, trying to imagine and visualize what I can and will do. I don’t think there’s one single way to put it for all of us. As mentioned, for some, simply surviving will be what we do. Some will fight quietly. Others will fight more openly.
I can’t even begin to imagine the fear and anxiety of the people Churchill was addressing with actual Nazis at their door. But I certainly have an idea of how fearful Americans are today, indeed, how fearful much of the world is today. Trump may not fit the actual definition of a Nazi, but he certainly enjoys the support of Neo-Nazis, white supremacists, virulent misogynists, violent homophobes and a slew of other, yes, deplorable and violent people. He has pledged to wage war on the very pillars of our democracy, to assail what’s left of our safety net with all his might, to persecute the powerless with glee and delight. And that’s just at home. I am still reeling from the implications of what he will do abroad.
But like those people nearly 80 years ago, I am trying to imagine myself in the fight. I do not know quite what it will look like yet, but I am planning. I take some comfort in knowing I am not alone, and I will not be alone during the Trump years either.
We will support each other, we will love each other, we will strengthen and protect each other, in our many different ways. We will never surrender.
We will be, now, in the future, and always: Stronger Together.
If Your Election Postmortem Ignores Racism and Misogyny, It's Probably Wrong
[Content note: this post contains descriptions of violence, as well as specific examples of racism, misogyny, and anti-Semitism. Linked material may contain triggering images.]
Dear white male pundits:
I’ve been reading some of your post-election analyses, which are, uh, interesting. If I’m understanding you correctly, the Democrats are horrible elitists who ran an “establishment” candidate in a year when “the people” wanted change. And also, Democrats don’t understand the poor or people in rural areas. And also, we are mean, very mean, to poor Trump supporters, who, after all, are the ones who are going to suffer the most under Donald Trump’s presidency.
Gentlemen, I have three words for you. They are What, The, and Fuck.
In a world where the KKK newspaper endorsed Donald Trump how the do you shut your eyes to the racism undergirding his win?
In a world where “Trump That Bitch” became the favored slogan of the winning candidate’s rallies, how do you shut your eyes to the misogyny undergirding Clinton’s loss?
And don’t “yes yes sexism… BUT” me. Don’t even start. If intertwining misogyny and racism are not a key part of your analysis, then you are quite simply wrong. And we can’t afford to be wrong about this election.
Let’s start with this: Barack Obama’s election enraged America’s racists. Hate groups have proliferated since 2008.The so-called “alt” right has become ubiquitous online and in social media. They harass and attack people of color in person and in every form of social media, in vicious and terrible ways. They have been loud Trump supporters. Acting as if that has no political effect, or as if they are an irrelevant part of 2016’s political calculus, is dangerously naïve.
And those are only the most visible of the racists supporting Trump. Even if they weren’t burning crosses and wearing sheets, his voters roared in approval at his plans to break up immigrant families, oppress Muslims, and “do something about” the alleged hellholes that are black neighborhoods. Do you know what it really means when he promises to end welfare and promote gun rights? Of course you do. And so do they.
Spare me the fantasy that Bernie Sanders would have magically reached these people. Trump ran an openly anti-Semitic campaign equally full of capitalist fantasy and fervid anti-Jewish conspiracies. The only way you can imagine that an elderly Jewish socialist was going to win over Trump’s voters is if you ignore who his voters really are and what they were voting for. Having listened to Fox News for years, having bought into the bigoted fake “news” Breitbart, do you really think they were ripe for reasoned economic arguments about democratic socialism? Do you imagine for one minute that Bernie Sanders would not have been vilified in the ugliest terms as the Jew who is coming for your guns, who’s going to “give” your hard-earned money to “those people”? I won’t tread any further down the road of the awful cartoon he would have become, the horrific treatment and physical threats he would have endured, but take a look at what Trump supporters did to Jewish journalists before dismissing anti-Semitism as a key factor in Trump's campaign.
Spare me, too, the blame you’re placing on people of color for not voting enough. Really? Racist voter ID laws almost certainly played a major role in the Wisconsin results. We lost North Carolina, where Republicans bragged about keeping black people from voting. This is our first election since the 2013 gutting of the Voting Rights Act. Instead of bemoaning some alleged lack of enthusiasm from African-American citizens, how about denouncing the racism that denied so many of them the ballot?
Spare me as well the claim that Hillary Clinton was a “weak” candidate. Or rather, take a long look in the mirror and see the sexism embedded in your analysis. Hillary Clinton utterly decimated Donald Trump in three debates. She ran, overall, a smart and disciplined campaign, which produced some truly excellent videos and ads. She crisscrossed the country, campaigning hard, with a stamina and strength and vigor that many half her age would have trouble matching. She and the Democrats staged an overwhelmingly positive and uplifting party convention that showcased the diversity of the party and the country. Were there mis-steps and mistakes? To be sure. But not of the variety that doom a presidential campaign.
And yet, this lawyer-advocate, former academic, First Lady, Senator, and Secretary of State was somehow less appealing than a buffoon of a man, whose only qualification—his alleged business success—is a lie and a sham. Every woman has seen this story, in our offices, in our organizations, in our lives: the eminently qualified woman passed over for a less qualified man, her every flaw nitpicked and magnified while he gets pass after pass. Don’t bother gaslighting us by saying that’s not going on here. We know.
She came with “baggage”? You mean like a foundation that does actual good in the actual world, which has been obsessed and nitpicked over, largely on the basis of right wing lies, while Trump’s joke of a charity received zero media attention? Why did major outlets only pick up on it in September? Why the obsessive coverage of her alleged crimes at State (which turned out not to be crimes) and her possible-maybe-gonna-happen kinda-pending indictment (which didn’t happen), and not of the actual fraud trial facing our president-elect over his fake university? She's "establishment"? More so than a New York (alleged) billionaire who embodies just about every kind of privilege I can think of? Who waltzed into a political party spewing nonsensical hateful garbage and walked out with its nomination, while his opponent has worked for years to build and support and sustain the Democratic Party--and still had to fight like hell for the nomination? If the double standards at work are not baked into your analysis, then you have lost the plot.
No, Hillary Clinton is not perfect. She’s said and done some unwise and even hurtful, harmful things. The very fact I have to keep saying that, more than I ever have for any male candidate, should tell you something. Hillary Clinton has “baggage” mostly because the right has been demonizing her for decades, largely because she burst onto the national scene as a woman who was unapologetic for having a career—indeed, for being her family’s main breadwinner—and for working for progressive causes all her life. Every action, every word, every dollar earned, has been scrutinized through a lens fabricated on the assumption that she is a liar and a crook. Yet her opponent, whose relationship with the truth is distant at best, and who (again) has multiple lawsuits pending over his shady business deals, was for months portrayed as amusing, maybe even lovable, in the press. Meanwhile, his followers cried out for her death, and sold disgustingly misogynistic buttons, signs, and shirts, in some cases literally portraying her as meat. (And that’s not just at Trump rallies—it’s a meme seen again and again from Republicans, and even pre-dates Trump. This is the mainstream Republican party, folks.)
All that, and still there are white male pundits contorting themselves into every possible position to argue that sexism has nothing to do with Hillary Clinton’s alleged unlikeability. This is illogical. This is wrong. This is highly dangerous.
It is dangerous because denying that misogyny is deeply embedded in American culture is exactly why we have a self-confessed sexual abuser heading for the White House. The sexism that supposedly doesn’t exist is why a man who brags about being a peeping Tom is soon to be the ultimate executor of American law. The misogyny that you refuse to fully acknowledge is why young boys and girls will soon have as their ultimate role model a man who judges women numerically on the basis of how much he wants to fuck them—and considers this an excellent topic for public conversation.
I could go on, but really.
Ah, but a majority of white women voted for Trump so there is no sexism in his victory, and we can get back to talking about how this is all Hillary’s fault…!
Nope. No. Oh HELL no.
Instead, let’s think about the fact that a majority of white women apparently have brushed off Trump’s serial abuse of women. What kind of culture do we live in where that doesn’t alarm every single woman? What kind of internalized misogyny are American women living with? As well, what kind of racism is so embedded in white culture, that white women prioritized the building walls to keep out brown people allegedly to be rapists, rather than keeping a man being sued for the rape of a child out of the White House? And hey, it’s not just white women. An even larger majority of white men are apparently perfectly okay with sexual assault.
Again: A sizeable majority of white male voters approve and affirm that Trump’s behavior is normal and acceptable.
And this is not all: I could talk about related prejudices against people’s bodies and genders that are embedded deeply in this framework. A majority of white voters in this country are also fine with mocking those with disabilities and attacking them. A majority of white voters in this country give a thumbs-up to keeping mostly nonwhite immigrants out via religious bans. A majority of white voters voted in approval of somehow undoing same sex marriage and denying trans folk the very basics of bodily safety. Let’s face it: a majority of white voters voted for hating the Other in this election.
Let it sink in. Let it all sink in.
And that brings us back to where I began: Trump voters. If you’re talking about their economic anxieties and religious beliefs, without contextualizing those things, then you don’t actually understand them. At all. You simply cannot wrench away their hatred for NAFTA from their racist claims that undocumented immigrants are taking away their rightful jobs. You cannot take their anti-abortion obsession away from the misogynistic version of Christianity that fuels it. The voters who voted against Hillary Clinton because she “kills babies” are more concerned with controlling women than in addressing the reasons that women seek out abortions. That’s misogyny. That’s the context.
Don’t tell me I don’t know them, that I’m a feminist coastal snob who just doesn’t get Trump’s America. I was born in a rural state and I live in a rural state, in a rural area. I’ve spent the vast majority of my life living in small towns and the countryside, not in cities or suburban developments. Trump voters are my students, my family, my neighbors, and yes, my genuine friends. They can be kind and generous. I truly, personally, love some of the people who voted for Trump. But my eyes are not shut to the flaws of those people, to the hateful frameworks of belief that pushed them to support him, that triumphed over their better angels. I can’t afford to ignore this, because the people who will be harmed by Trump are also my friends, families, neighbors and students. The queer folk, the immigrants, the people of color, the sexual assault survivors, the people falling into so many hated categories.
Real people. Real harm.
Trump was elected in a wave of backlash against progress of many sorts, against the reality that white able-bodied straight male Christian privilege is no longer a guarantee of power and preference in the United States. This is not incidental; it is fundamental. Those who analyze this election as if it existed outside of patriarchal white supremacy, that it all comes down to deracinated economics or ungendered media coverage, or whatever, are a danger. They are enabling the very things they ignore.
To fix a problem we must first understand it.
Listen to us. Learn from us. And then, let’s attack the hate together.
We Will Be Light
There will be many thinkpieces written on why this election turned out the way that it did. I will not be writing one of them. What I will say is only this: This election was a referendum on how this country values the humanity of marginalized people, and the message we received is that we are not valued by a vast number of our fellow countrypeople.
That, for me, is partly why this loss is so painful. Our president-elect's bigotry and abuse was so explicit, so vastly more aggressive than his predecessors. That so many people voted affirmatively for the naked hatred around which his platform was centered is excruciating. And it is terrifying. I am afraid in a way I have not been before.
And I am angry. I am very angry.
I'm angry about a lot of things right now, but one thing I keep coming back to is how fucking hard our side worked. How hard Hillary worked. How hard her staff and volunteers worked. How hard activists who supported her worked.
Three times as many field offices. An expansive ground game. The colossal GOTV effort. The tens of thousands of words of policy. The open letters from experts in their fields. The writing, the art, the flash mobs.
And he didn't do shit.
All he had to do was repeat bullshit talking points about her and disgorge disgusting bigotry during unscripted stream of consciousness garbage monologues, and then coast to victory on a wave of hatred.
And now, we are going to have to work even harder. Exhausted and spent after a brutal fight, we are going to have to find the reserves deep in ourselves to begin a whole new fight.
I'm so goddamn angry about that I can barely breathe.
And I am profoundly sad. I'm sad in a way that has made my whole body ache.
I want to crawl into a hole and never come out. But this is not a time to retreat, nor is it a time to be alone. Not for me, anyway.
I couldn't have gotten through election night without being surrounded by people I love: Iain, Deeky and Cam, and the Space Cowpokes. Our grief was overwhelming. We needed each other desperately; I was so grateful that we were together when the worst happened.
Yesterday, steeped in this lingering sadness, I had the thought that I have these friends because we forged fast and lasting and meaningful friendships in this space—a space that was formed in opposition to George W. Bush's presidency.
I was not hoping to emerge from this election in the posture of resistance, but I also cannot ignore in this moment the impact that being stronger together in resistance has had on my life.
So many of my closest friendships have built within the boundaries of resistance. Resistance to conformity, to judgment, to oppression.
The other contributors and moderators at Shakesville have been my heart for more than a decade. We have faced trials together, as a group and as individual people facing personal challenges, and each trial has been total shit—and also an opportunity to express love and support and solidarity for each other.
I have built friendships with individual Shakers with whom I've shared parts of my life, and theirs, that mean more to me than I can say. I have cried tears of joy at GoldFishy's wedding. I have cried tears of sorrow when Jon Swift and Maud and Phil Barron died.
I love so many people whom I met in some form of resistance. I love them hard and faithfully.
Shakers, you are a part of my life that is indescribably important to me. We commune together in joy and defeat. We take up space in solidarity with one another.
I didn't want this outcome, and I want a better world for you.
Given this moment, however, my heart implores me to recognize that you have been light in darkness for me, and I will always try mightily to be light in darkness for you.
We will resist. We will be light. And we will find our way together.
Some Good News
We have four new Democratic female Senators: Tammy Duckworth in Illinois, Kamala Harris in California, Maggie Hassan in New Hampshire, and Catherine Cortez Masto in Nevada.
Duckworth, a disabled Iraq War veteran, will be the first Thai American to serve in the U.S. Senate.
Harris will be only the second Black woman to serve in the U.S. Senate. (Carol Moseley Braun from Illinois was the first.)
Cortez Masto will be the first Latina to serve in the U.S. Senate.
In addition to Harris, there are three new Black Democratic members of Congress: Lisa Blunt Rochester in Delaware, Val Demings in Florida, and Don McEachin in Virginia.
There were also a number of progressive provisions on state ballots that passed, some of which y'all have already been sharing in comments, and I welcome and encourage you to continue to share them in this thread.
This Is Why We Supported Her
If you want to watch Hillary Clinton's concession speech, I've got a new piece at Shareblue that includes video.
Hillary Clinton ran a campaign of integrity and decency. In defeat, nothing has changed. We were stronger together before, and we are stronger together now.
UPDATE: Here's the transcript.
Thank you.
Last night, I congratulated Donald Trump and offered to work with him on behalf of our country. I hope that he will be a successful president for all Americans.
This is not the outcome we wanted or we worked so hard for, and I’m sorry we did not win this election for the values we share and the vision we hold for our country.
But I feel pride and gratitude for this wonderful campaign that we built together –- this vast, diverse, creative, unruly, energized campaign. You represent the best of America, and being your candidate has been one of the greatest honors of my life.
I know how disappointed you feel, because I feel it too. And so do tens of millions of Americans who invested their hopes and dreams in this effort. This is painful, and it will be for a long time. But I want you to remember this: Our campaign was never about one person or even one election. It was about the country we love -- and about building an America that’s hopeful, inclusive, and big-hearted.
We have seen that our nation is more deeply divided than we thought. But I still believe in America –- and I always will. And if you do, too, then we must accept this result -– and then look to the future.
Donald Trump is going to be our president. We owe him an open mind and the chance to lead.
Our constitutional democracy enshrines the peaceful transfer of power, and we don’t just respect that, we cherish it. It also enshrines other things –- the rule of law, the principle that we’re all equal in rights and dignity, and the freedom of worship and expression. We respect and cherish these things too -- and we must defend them.
And let me add: Our constitutional democracy demands our participation, not just every four years, but all the time. So let’s do all we can to keep advancing the causes and values we all hold dear: making our economy work for everyone, not just those at the top; protecting our country and protecting our planet; and breaking down all the barriers that hold anyone back from achieving their dreams.
We’ve spent a year and a half bringing together millions of people from every corner of our country to say with one voice that we believe that the American Dream is big enough for everyone -- for people of all races and religions, for men and women, for immigrants, for LGBT people, and people with disabilities.
Our responsibility as citizens is to keep doing our part to build that better, stronger, fairer America we seek. And I know you will.
I am so grateful to stand with all of you.
I want to thank Tim Kaine and Anne Holton for being our partners on this journey. It gives me great hope and comfort to know that Tim will remain on the front-lines of our democracy, representing Virginia in the Senate.
To Barack and Michelle Obama: Our country owes you an enormous debt of gratitude for your graceful, determined leadership, and so do I.
To Bill, Chelsea, Marc, Charlotte, Aidan, our brothers, and our entire family, my love for you means more than I can ever express.
You crisscrossed this country on my behalf and lifted me up when I needed it most –- even four-month old Aidan traveling with his mom.
I will always be grateful to the creative, talented, dedicated men and women at our headquarters in Brooklyn and across our country who poured their hearts into this campaign. For you veterans, this was a campaign after a campaign -- for some of you, this was your first campaign ever. I want each of you to know that you were the best campaign anyone has had.
To all the volunteers, community leaders, activists, and union organizers who knocked on doors, talked to neighbors, posted on Facebook - even in secret or in private: Thank you.
To everyone who sent in contributions as small as $5 and kept us going, thank you.
And to all the young people in particular, I want you to hear this. I’ve spent my entire adult life fighting for what I believe in. I’ve had successes and I’ve had setbacks -– sometimes really painful ones. Many of you are at the beginning of your careers. You will have successes and setbacks, too.
This loss hurts. But please, please never stop believing that fighting for what’s right is worth it. It’s always worth it. And we need you keep up these fights now and for the rest of your lives.
To all the women, and especially the young women, who put their faith in this campaign and in me, I want you to know that nothing has made me prouder than to be your champion.
I know that we still have not shattered that highest glass ceiling. But some day someone will -– hopefully sooner than we might think right now.
And to all the little girls watching right now, never doubt that you are valuable and powerful and deserving of every chance and opportunity in the world.
Finally, I am grateful to our country for all it has given me.
I count my blessings every day that I am an American. And I still believe, as deeply as I ever have, that if we stand together and work together, with respect for our differences, strength in our convictions, and love for this nation -– our best days are still ahead of us.
You know I believe we are stronger together and will go forward together. And you should never be sorry that you fought for that.
Scripture tells us: “Let us not grow weary in doing good, for in due season, we shall reap, if we do not lose heart.”
My friends, let us have faith in each other. Let us not grow weary. Let us not lose heart. For there are more seasons to come and there is more work to do.
I am incredibly honored and grateful to have had this chance to represent all of you in this consequential election. May God bless you and god bless the United States of America.
Open Thread
Hillary Clinton is about to deliver her concession speech. Here is a thread for discussion of her speech and everything else we're all feeling at the moment. I will have more to say at some point, but I still need some time.
It's Over
Hillary Clinton called Donald Trump to concede. Trump is giving his acceptance speech.
I am so very tired and sad, but mostly I am just angry. Angry because this election was a referendum on how this nation values marginalized people, and the message is loud and clear and terrifying.
We had a chance to elect a woman who is the most qualified candidate ever to run for office, and instead we elected a sexual predator and avowed bigot who has never served a day in public office.
The last 18 months of my life, I've spent virtually every waking moment trying to avoid this very outcome. I am gutted.
And now, since it is three o'clock in the morning, I am going to bed.
There will be an open thread again sometime tomorrow, when we are ready to begin modding again. Until that time, I take up space in solidarity with you, friends.
