Since election night I've moved through Kubler-Ross' stages of grief: Denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. I spent the most time with anger and depression which is pretty normal for me. I wrote two blog posts which I'll probably never publish. The blog posts represent anger and bargaining. A week later, I've begun to climb out of depression and here's what I've learned on the road to acceptance.
Lesson Number One: I need to do more cardio. Yoga is great, but it times of great duress I need me some cardio. So I'm back on the run train, joints be damned.
Lesson Number Two: Unfortunately, those of us who did not vote for the orange dump are going to have to engage and fight over the next four years to stand up for our values. People like myself are going to have to suck it up and get involved politically. I was inspired by this episode of "Chelsea" titled "Do Not Despair About our Country". I thought the title was great given that's exactly what I had been doing over the last week. In the show the host (Chelsea) interviews Barbara Boxer (a liberal politician), and she talks about the importance of showing up and being politically involved. They also talk about how it will be important to hold the orange dump accountable in the next four years. For example, where are the tax returns you promised orange man? It was an honest and inspiring 27 minutes.
Lesson Number Three: Anyone can be president. Truly. I can be president. For the first time in my life I believe this and why shouldn't I? I'm more educated than the president elect. I'm a more coherent speaker. I'm smarter. I'm at least as likable as he is. I lie very little and generally stick to my story. I have a sorted past but you can be sure there are no tapes of me talking about trying to have sex with married men or attempting to grab men's penises with or without their permission. In fact, compared to the president elect I'm looking pretty good even in my younger, wilder, years. And last but not least, like him I have absolutely no political experience which half of the American people believe is an asset.
Lesson Number Four: This lesson is finely stated from another famous personality, Russell Brand. Those who voted for the orange dump, must be extraordinarily desperate to have voted for him. As a country we must have failed these people that they should be so desperate. We need a better understanding of what is going on in our country and the circumstances that have allowed this national disaster to occur. Lesson number three enabled me to feel some sense of compassion for those who voted for orange man. Compassion had been out of my reach in the last week at which time I had only pure rage. Grade A Rage.
Lesson Number Five: Orange man really hit a home run with the non-educated voters. It's easy to call them a bunch of dumb asses but maybe we all play a bit of a role. Perhaps as a country we need to do a better job with the free education we are so proud of. It shouldn't take an advanced degree or private school to discern that orange man is mentally unstable, not very smart, and dangerously unqualified to run a powerful country. It behooves us all to have educated citizens with reasonable critical thinking skills.
Lesson Number Six: The electoral college must be destroyed. Hillary won the popular vote. The electoral college should have been destroyed in 2000 when it failed. No one did anything and look what happened. No excuses this time people.
Lesson Number Six part two: In my younger years I would have looked at the electoral college map and said that we should divorce the south and make two countries. And I know plenty of people up in the northeast and west coast are saying this very thing. However as a southern transplant and more mature person I realize it's not that simple. Most of the people I know voted for Hillary. And in fact, if I compare the percentage of orange man votes between my current state of Tennessee to my former home of Connecticut, the difference are not as shocking as one might think. In Tennessee 61.1% voted for him, whereas in Connecticut 41.7% voted for him. Yes 20% is a big deal, but it's not as though no one voted for Hillary in Tennessee. In fact, from a raw numbers standpoint she received more votes in TN than in CT. The lesson here is that the electoral college is misleading in more ways than one. Don't just look at an electoral college map and declare all the "red states" are garbage.
Lesson Number One: I need to do more cardio. Yoga is great, but it times of great duress I need me some cardio. So I'm back on the run train, joints be damned.
Lesson Number Two: Unfortunately, those of us who did not vote for the orange dump are going to have to engage and fight over the next four years to stand up for our values. People like myself are going to have to suck it up and get involved politically. I was inspired by this episode of "Chelsea" titled "Do Not Despair About our Country". I thought the title was great given that's exactly what I had been doing over the last week. In the show the host (Chelsea) interviews Barbara Boxer (a liberal politician), and she talks about the importance of showing up and being politically involved. They also talk about how it will be important to hold the orange dump accountable in the next four years. For example, where are the tax returns you promised orange man? It was an honest and inspiring 27 minutes.
Lesson Number Three: Anyone can be president. Truly. I can be president. For the first time in my life I believe this and why shouldn't I? I'm more educated than the president elect. I'm a more coherent speaker. I'm smarter. I'm at least as likable as he is. I lie very little and generally stick to my story. I have a sorted past but you can be sure there are no tapes of me talking about trying to have sex with married men or attempting to grab men's penises with or without their permission. In fact, compared to the president elect I'm looking pretty good even in my younger, wilder, years. And last but not least, like him I have absolutely no political experience which half of the American people believe is an asset.
Lesson Number Four: This lesson is finely stated from another famous personality, Russell Brand. Those who voted for the orange dump, must be extraordinarily desperate to have voted for him. As a country we must have failed these people that they should be so desperate. We need a better understanding of what is going on in our country and the circumstances that have allowed this national disaster to occur. Lesson number three enabled me to feel some sense of compassion for those who voted for orange man. Compassion had been out of my reach in the last week at which time I had only pure rage. Grade A Rage.
Lesson Number Five: Orange man really hit a home run with the non-educated voters. It's easy to call them a bunch of dumb asses but maybe we all play a bit of a role. Perhaps as a country we need to do a better job with the free education we are so proud of. It shouldn't take an advanced degree or private school to discern that orange man is mentally unstable, not very smart, and dangerously unqualified to run a powerful country. It behooves us all to have educated citizens with reasonable critical thinking skills.
Lesson Number Six: The electoral college must be destroyed. Hillary won the popular vote. The electoral college should have been destroyed in 2000 when it failed. No one did anything and look what happened. No excuses this time people.
Lesson Number Six part two: In my younger years I would have looked at the electoral college map and said that we should divorce the south and make two countries. And I know plenty of people up in the northeast and west coast are saying this very thing. However as a southern transplant and more mature person I realize it's not that simple. Most of the people I know voted for Hillary. And in fact, if I compare the percentage of orange man votes between my current state of Tennessee to my former home of Connecticut, the difference are not as shocking as one might think. In Tennessee 61.1% voted for him, whereas in Connecticut 41.7% voted for him. Yes 20% is a big deal, but it's not as though no one voted for Hillary in Tennessee. In fact, from a raw numbers standpoint she received more votes in TN than in CT. The lesson here is that the electoral college is misleading in more ways than one. Don't just look at an electoral college map and declare all the "red states" are garbage.
Candidate
|
TN %
|
TN #
|
CT %
|
CT #
|
Orange
Man
|
61.1
%
|
1,517,402
|
41.7%
|
637,919
|
Clinton
|
34.9%
|
867,110
|
53.9%
|
823,360
|
I like charts
And if all else fails maybe we'll have a somewhat opposite "Atlas Shrugged" phenomenon where all the communal thinking people go away and create a utopia and allow the ultra capitalists to feast on each other's flesh as they destroy the country as we knew it. But hopefully not.
Bonus: Soundtrack for election emotions.
Not sure what to do now? "sShake It Out"! Warning, song contains a Shakespeare reference.
Bonus: Soundtrack for election emotions.
Not sure what to do now? "sShake It Out"! Warning, song contains a Shakespeare reference.
Thinking about moving to Canada? "Stay"! Warning, video includes a bathtub scene.
Thinking about giving up? "Stay Schemin"! Warning, song contains bad words.
Still want to give in to the demons? If all else fails "Be a Better Son/Daughter." Warning: Some well placed fucks in this song.
Really good post. Couldn't pick up the Will reference.
ReplyDeleteThanks! She talks about a "pound of flesh" I thought that was Shakespeare.
ReplyDeleteYes, 'pound of flesh' is Will. I didn't hear that. I'll have to listen again.
ReplyDelete