***Political
Parties are referred to as colors just because I feel like it.***
On Wednesday, Nov
9th, 2016, the world woke up with a collective post election hangover. This
election cycle has been the worst. It was a circus, it was messy, and we were
given the worst possible candidates on all sides. In the Red was a shady
businessman, in the Blue a corrupt life-long politician, and in the Yellow was
a guy who probably smoke more pot than he should have and didn't have a chance
to win.
After the results
were in, some people were happy, some were calling the suicide hotline. Oh, and
as the results poured in, the Canadian Immigration website crashed due to all
the people who wanted to leave America.
My stance through
the whole election cycle was "No One 2016" and "Anyone Else
2016". I knew I was going to focus on the local elections, but the
Presidential one? I walked into the voting booth not 100% sure what I was going
to do, and I left that section for last. I tried to make the best decision I
could based on my own independent research of the candidates, and I'm just
going to leave it at that.
I went to sleep
early in the AM (before the announcement was made) with the conscious decision
to be at peace with whoever was elected. It wasn't going to be healthy for me
to be all emotional about the results and pissed off for the next four years.
I've been pretty convinced that no matter who was going to win, we were screwed
one way or the other.
With the election
hangover subsiding, we're having news reports of protests, riots, cry-ins, and
hateful behavior. Now, not everyone that is "protesting" or
"rioting" is doing so because of the election. Some just like to have
a reason to cause damage and loot. The sad part is that small businesses are
being affected and the behavior is hurting hard working Americans. It is also
hurting those cities being affected.
Is this the
behavior you want your kids to see?
I'll address the
cry-ins and the "it's the end of the world" mentality in a minute.
Now, for the name calling and other hateful behavior. It needs to stop...on
both sides. If you have a child, do you really want to teach them that telling
someone to kill themselves and just throwing around terms like
"racist," "Libtard," etc is OK? If you truly want to improve the
future, this isn't the behavior to model for your child. Some of us are raising
the next generation and we have the choice to be positive or negative roles
models. Hate only begets Hate.
Also, in regards
to the name calling, stop lumping everyone in together. To quote my best friend
of many years, "Isn't lumping people into groups based on a single
quality they may share dangerous and ignorant? Just because they voted for
someone doesn't mean they are for all the same things as everyone else that
voted for the same candidate. It also doesn't mean they have the same level of
maturity. It also doesn't mean they've faced the same challenges that lead to
that vote."
Not everyone who
voted for Trump is a racist, bigoted, xenophobic, misogynistic homophobe. On
the flip side, not everyone who voted for Clinton are socialist, commie
"See You Next Tuesdays" (I'm not spelling that word out on here). If
you dumped a friend because of their political beliefs, and solely because of
it, or if you only see a person because of their political beliefs, then you
have deeper problems to address. My best friend and I definitely don't agree on
a lot of things, but I love her to death and will never abandon her over
politics. People are much more than their political beliefs.
If you want to
protest, do so in a way that doesn't impede traffic or put anyone in danger.
Trump supporters, if you're going to go around spewing hate, you need to get some perspective. It's unnecessary and ridiculous to behave like this.
Is it really the
end of the world?
No, its not. If
you put emotions aside for a moment and think about it, the world is still
turning and life will continue.
If you are an
immigrant and are here legally, you're not going to be deported. For crying out
loud, Trump's wife is an immigrant. Government agents aren't going to be storming
around the country and ejecting every foreigner here. The government doesn't
have that kind of manning or funding.
If you're married
to your same sex partner, you're going to stay married (unless you two decide
to get divorced). It's much like abortion, the Supreme Court has made the
decision and that decision will stay in place.
On the KKK parade
planned for NC: 1) They parade all the time. 2) It's only like 10
people. Trump has disavowed and denounced the KKK on multiple occasions. The
KKK is still highly irrelevant this day in age.
If you're afraid of him defunding various things, don't be. There is a process and he can't just arbitrarily go doing things. Even with a Red controlled House and Senate, they need the votes to pass anything and their control isn't staggering.
Why is everyone so
afraid?
This one is easy.
Because the media told everyone to be afraid. There is a reason that I read
British, Australian, and Japanese news with regards to American news. They
generally have just a straight story with facts and figures. Hell, even on
election night, Australia's Sydney Herald updated faster than The New
York Times as the night went on. Our media, across the board, has
perfected fear-mongering.
As Christopher
Titus said in Neverlution, "And let's define 'terrorist organization'.
A terrorist organization is an organization that scares you on a daily basis
and makes you change your behavior. What does CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC do on a
daily basis?" He said it to be funny, but sadly, there is a lot
of truth in it. Check out the clip below:
Our society are
puppets to the media. They say "believe this" and people do...without
doing independent research. Hence, why I read foreign papers and
delve deeper beyond what the media says.
On that note,
People, stop believing things your friends and family share on social
media. Don't share them either and continue the cycle. I can guarantee you
that 99.9% of the things your friends share, are provably false. I know my
friends and family are probably sick of me debunking everything they post, but
I'll keep doing it.
Those posts are
meant to illicit an emotional response without the person fact-checking. It is
only click bait for revenue and truth be damned. That goes for everything
from the "1 like = Amen" for a stolen photo of a sick or injured
child to most fear-mongering articles on health and politics.
Emotions can get you or someone else killed, don't let these things make you emotional. Take a step back and do your own independent research. All American media has a spin to it. Just like I refused to be brainwashed by the Air Force, I refuse to be brainwashed by the media.
So, what happened?
Blues, I'm sorry
to say, you only have yourselves to blame. You may have showed up to vote, but
your fellow voters did not. It may have been a troll, but I read a post on
Qoura where a Clinton supporter was absolutely sure that Clinton had it in the
bag and voted for Trump to be funny. Again, it could be a troll, but it makes
one wonder how many may have actually done something similar. Seriously, there
were like 15,000 votes for the dead gorilla, Harambe. I don't put it past any
voter to vote for the opposite candidate to be funny.
The Reds numbers
are just about even from 2012, but the Blue turnout was down. Clinton has
actually received around 4.8 million fewer votes than Obama did in 2012. Overall
turnout was at a 20 year low, with about half of eligible voters turning up to
the polls. At current count, anyways.
While the Reds
turnout was about even to prior years, why didn't the Blues turnout in force?
Well, there is that whole Sanders/DNC debacle that pissed off a lot of Sanders
supporters. They may have stayed home or voted independent because of that.
There is another segment that figured that Clinton had it in the bag, and
didn't bother to go to the polls.
By all accounts,
no one really expected Trump to win. Multiple news outlets showed him behind
and even one of his own guys said, "We'd need a miracle to win this,"
the night of the election. Even he didn't expect to win.
If Bernie Sanders
had been the Blue's candidate, I bet you anything that he would have won in a
landslide. I didn't support him, either. I really haven't supported anyone
since 2004. Apathy, thy name is Coffeeshop Curmudgeon.
Final Thoughts
Some will read this and dismiss it. That's
fine. I just felt like putting my thoughts out there. Just keep this in
mind. You are a role model for the future generations. If you truly don't like
the current climate, run for a local office and work your way up. Blocking
traffic in protest, calling for people to kill themselves, calling for
violence, or telling others to go back to their country isn't as effective as
if you ran for an office, worked your way up, and changed things from the inside. You have control of your
attitude and we have control of our destiny. This country has survived 44
Presidents and we will survive 45. We can survive it divided or together, it's
your choice.
Live and laugh! It's the best medicine and
Remember
what's really important here: alcohol and video games. We're Gen Xers!
