As the inauguration looms ahead, I’ve been trying to ease into a new normal. It should be said that the protections I enjoy as a white hetero cis American citizen may make this easier for me than for some of my friends who are wondering if they are about to be deported, if their marriage will still be valid, and if they will be able to afford medical treatment. The increase in gay weddings and IUD purchases illustrate the specific fears of groups who feel vulnerable, who feel like rights and privileges granted to them are no longer guaranteed.
Those who speak out are not only criticized by Trump supporters, but also have to deflect a possibly deserved rhetoric from the down-trodden for not doing enough. If the backlash against Meryl Streep for her impassioned anti-Trump Golden Globe Speech doesn’t make you want to hide under your bed, you are made of stronger stuff than I am.
In a previous post, I called upon you to mobilize, to finish your grieving and to act. Since then, I have….well…I’ve made a few phone calls. That’s not really very impressive. I keep waiting for something to happen. I dreamed of a rogue electoral college, a stray New Year’s bullet, a miracle.
If you still hold out hope for divine intervention, today may be a good day. The news is filled with unsubstantiated claims that the Russians have both financial and personal dirt on Trump. This seems entirely plausible to me, but fake news has made me both wary and weary. And I am left to wonder what Trump could possibly have done that would conceivably turn his voters against him. I do not think paying hookers to urinate on him is enough, but what do I know? I already think he has committed any number of more egregious acts than that in public, and here we are. I am sadly not in the mood to enjoy the myriad of pee jokes already hitting social media. Still, we should be concerned. While our security is thankfully not dependent on the sexual proclivities of one man, it is dependent on having elected leaders who cannot be blackmailed.
Still, Donald Trump is very likely to be president 9 days from now. What are we going to do? It’s never fun to lose, but this particular loss has exposed the dark underbelly of the right-leaning disenfranchised, and sooner or later we are going to have come out of hiding and decide if those people are still our enemies.
pinkdogdem 