c-jags said:
dermdoc said:
Prayers for peace and reconciliation.
Many prayers this morning. Just got off a long call with my boss this morning
My boss and I are both conservativish independent/libertarian/christians. we keep our politics (but not our faith) to ourselves in the office and we've had a lot of concerns for this election. We travel a lot together and can be a bit more open with our politics there than we are in office.
we were both reluctant Trump voters, acknowledging his many moral and political failures, but the immigration and economy answers from the other side were just too overwhelming to ignore. remove abortion, LGBT stuff, we just couldn't continue as a nation in my opinion with those two issues.
as a small company, we're 70/30 conservative/liberal, so he told everybody to keep up their work and take as much time as needed yesterday and today.
when he called this morning and we both had the same sense of mourning. we're not "happy" our side won. we're regretful that neither offered up a better option. it was one of the hardest calls i've had with him in 10 years of working for him. he's a second father to me and it felt like we just won one of the most phallic victories ever.
in 2016 i probably delighted (sinfully) in some of the wailing and gnashing of teeth from the other side, whereas today i'm just sad for people that are so distraught. so many Christians i love are lashing out at Trump voters and calling them vicious names. my wife was beside herself at some of the things people from our church were posting.
I won't say that Trump voters wouldn't have done the same (they 100% would,) but I had told my family, if it doesn't go my way, I'll wake up and say "Jesus is king" and go about our day glorifying him. there was no other answer.
even though "my guy" won, i'm just so sad that so many people have bought into the hysteria of believing Hitler has been elected. but also, i'm angry at the people that wound them up so much saying every awful thing about the other side without an ounce of nuance. no, every immigrant isn't about the be deported. no, the constitution isn't about to be thrown out. no, we aren't entering into the handmaid tale. no, we aren't firing up internment camps. honestly, i love my fellow Americans, but I absolutely hate the media and politicians that have put this paralyzing fear in people.
and i'm equally angry at the Fox News, Tucker Carlson, right wing media side as well if the roles were reversed because they've done the same thing.
Jesus is King, but i'm just sad today.
I regret that I have but one blue star to give you.
I consider myself to be fairly moderate in terms of party loyalty, maybe not all dissimilar to you but mirrored across the middle of the political spectrum.
Kamala felt like a 'safe' choice in a candidate in a number of ways. She presents very polished and sensible. And everyone of her speeches feels written by AI and delivered with a 'This is my politician voice' cadence.
The last 4 years of illegal immigration into the country is a big problem. I like to point out that neither political party has any appetite in actually addressing immigration in any meaningful way. . . . . but its really hard to ignore the numbers. And I think we tend to dramatically inflate the president's role in the economy. Kamala just felt like a very 'okay, safe, status quo' kinda vote. And its not that I like the status quo, but there are worse things than our status quo.
Going into last night, the election felt very lose-lose to me as well. If Trump had lost, I know that a lot of people would have been upset. The way this election had been built up and the rhetoric from both sides meant it was going to be impossible for half the county not to be angry. Either we were about to all live in a fascist dictatorship or all be forced to have sex change operations.
I look at past Republican candidates and presidents like the Bush's, Romney, and McCain. And I look at the Republican leaders and would be candidates from previous years and none of them scare me. I didn't agree with many of them, but they didn't scare me. Trump scares me. I might be disappointed today if we had just elected someone like Romney or Kasich, but I would have been fine with it.
I think the existential threat to this country is not economic and its not related to immigration. I think that perhaps your post begins to hit on it. Politics is gross. Politics has always been gross, but this feels different to me. We've entered a political era where political party loyalty is valued above loyalty to what is best for our country. Political candidates are outspoken about their disdain for those that disagree with them. And laws are passed or not to inflict pain on political opponents rather than to do what is best for everyone.
Please don't take this as commentary on anyone who voted for Trump. . . . but I cannot find a single redeeming quality about Trump personally. There are plenty of things that he did in term 1 that I thought were fine or even good at times. But, without exaggeration, I have trouble imagining anyone being more hateful, mean, gross, or selfish than him. He has aligned himself with Christians, pays lip service, and passes laws and appoints judges to maintain that alliance. . . . but, he is about the least decent person I can imagine. He has built his entire political career on hate and fear, plain and simple.
And that is why I'm sad. You deserve better. The Republican party deserves better. This country deserves better. I consider myself to be very empathetic and pride myself on being able to put myself in other people's shoes. But, I just cannot understand why we've let this guy become our leader. He is just a horrific human being. . . You can look through 15 or so years of posting from me and I think you'll find that statement very out of character for me. I just don't get it.
One last thing. I acknowledge the hysteria from the media. I don't think that we're going to become a fascist regime, throw out the Constitution, or find ourselves in the Handmaid's Tale. However, I have made the mistake, in the past of not understanding what my neighbors on the other side of the aisle value. And I think that I've been guilty of trivializing things that have frustrated Christians or Republicans. While there are plenty of fears out there that are not well founded, I would beg you not to devalue what is valuable to your neighbor.
If we are interested in reconciliation, we need to be interested in advocating for officials that protects the values of those that voted for the 'other guy'. Liberals need to learn to advocate for Conservatives and visa versa.
