Yesterday was a day of shock and the five stages of grief. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to take the day off. I let myself mourn, I let myself worry, I let myself rage. I distracted, and created, and loved. And Tumblr was what snapped me out of it, because of course it did. Tumblr, the liberal bastion that is making so little money that it has only been minority corrupted by capitalism.
But today it’s time to start looking into what to do. Firstly, managing the emotional toll. First step, re above, was just letting myself feel everything I needed to. Without judgement, without shame. We, as a country, lost something yesterday, even the people who voted for it. Taking care of the mental health aspect of it is the most important, because everything is filtered through that lens. Ignoring your mental health (which includes tamping down your feelings) is the best way to lose before you even start.
Then on to the practical! Found a good article, in that someone on Tumblr posted it and I saw it, titled: ’’ Now this article is not messing around. There’s a certain amount of being an American that has seeped into my bones. We’re ’Murica. We’re awesome. A beacon of democracy, the land of the free and home of the brave and all the rest of that rhetoric, which really is the main reason for the rise of the MAGA regime. (Is anyone calling it that yet? I feel like it makes the most sense.) I’ve been aware and watching the slow(?) descent of the once powerful USA with a sad acceptance but somewhere I still believed in it. That America would stay the country I love.
Which is why I was so shocked (along with like…everyone) when Trump won in 2016. And even more shocked when he won two days ago. Because I assumed democracy would work, because ’Murica! We’re supposed to be free and safe and inclusive…right?
And reading this article was a slap on the face. “People who have lived under authoritarian regimes’. That’s who I’m accepting advice from. Because that’s an actually, real threat. Trump’s rhetoric, 2025. It’s fascism. (Oh good, scrivener doesn’t ’know’ the word fascism. I have to teach my word processor ’fascism’. Sigh.) we’re talking about direct comparisons to Hitler and the Nazi regime and not in a childish Internet argument where I don’t like your opinion so I’m comparing it to Hitler and Nazis, but in a very real world, adult, we are staring at fascism in the face in the United States of America way. We have been living the rise of a new fascist regime in real time.
People who are so scared at the charges in the country, who were then manipulated into even more fear, and remained so narrow minded in that fear that they voted for that…man. That they believe that things will get better if we kill all the immigrants, and the blacks, and the trans, and the gays, and put the women back in the kitchen to be used for sex and baby-making like God intended! And those fears will allow democracy to be overthrown. Safety over freedom.
Am I over-reacting? I sure as pie hope so. I hope that we collectively look back at this article in four years and you laugh at me, tease me about these predictions while we celebrate our new freely and fairly elected president. I hope. I really hope.
