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Stomach churning day
I’ve been dreading today but it’s finally here. It’s so easy now to appreciate how good Obama was as president when I know how everything is descending into hell at a rapid pace. I finally changed my Facebook avatar today to a totally black image, per the suggestion of the Scientist. It’s a simple reminder of how dark a day it is for the world. I’m not sure how long I will keep that up there but it might be a while. After all, it took over a year to remove the image of our cat who died in November 2015.
In the past I often avoided posting about too much political stuff on Facebook but I decided I was going to do exactly what some of my family and a very few of my friends have done. I am going to post constantly about things that man is doing and why I think it’s wrong. The main difference will be that I won’t be posting a bunch of crap…which is what I call most of the fake news that was share with me over the past years. And I’ve been trying to post lots of Obama positive articles because that’s how I feel. I know he wasn’t a perfect president but he was pretty good as most of them go. And he was and still is very classy in the face of all the garbage he faced. I suspect he’d have been better had he not faced the onslaught of right wing America/world.
Normally I would stay up to watch the inauguration but I will be giving it a miss this time around. There is no way I want to acknowledge Trump as president in any way, even after he is sworn in. I know it’s going to happen but I just can’t stomach it.
Anyway, I’m meeting the Scientist in the city after he finishes work and we are planning to head to Fremantle for the latter part of the afternoon to partly escape from reality and also to enjoy some yummy food. I’m mostly looking forward to going to Gabriels, a chocolateria of sorts which has some amazingly good ice cream made with their homemade chocolate.
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Still stewing
It’s now eleven days post-election and I am still stewing about the result. I remember when Al Gore was robbed of the election in 2000 and I don’t remember feeling anywhere near this mad. My stomach is churning quite as much but it is still churning. Part of me is so glad I am not there but I think if I were there I might feel more equipped to take an active part in things.
Fortunately there’s not nearly as much garbage being posted as there was. But there are still jabs at Obama, which aren’t in the least bit warranted. I don’t get the hatred. I like Obama and always have. He has been somewhat disappointing in some areas but as presidents go he’s been decent and he’s a class act.
An interesting point is that I didn’t really care for Hilary Clinton all that much in the early days of campaigning. I leant towards Bernie Sanders back then although I wasn’t sure he was capable of winning against anyone from the Republican party. It’s hard to know how he really would have done but I honestly doubt he’d have beaten Trump either. After all, he’s a socialist and many of those same people voting for Trump hate socialism at all levels. Later on in the campaign I started considering Clinton more seriously. I think she had the experience and power to get things done in ways that Sanders possibly wouldn’t have. Towards the end of the election season, my feelings towards her were more positive than ever. I think what got to me was the way she held herself against all that on-going antagonism. It reminded me of when Julia Gillard was prime minister and receiving similar treatment although not on anywhere the same scale as has been levelled at Clinton. Hillary stood head and shoulders above the opponent right to the end. My respect for her has grown considerably.
It would have been really cool for there to be a female president. That doesn’t mean I was ever going to vote for her just to have a woman in office though. In the end there just was no competition to beat her.
Meanwhile, I look at my Facebook feed and I see the hatred is alive and well towards Obama. I had to look beyond my filters to see that but it was there. My cousin (who isn’t gullible like so many in my family) posted a story about Trump claiming Ford jobs stayed in the US because of him. Or something along those lines. The comments on that article proved to me that people are happy to believe anything that agrees with their view, regardless of facts. Also that two people can read a news story and come away with totally different information. I don’t get how that can be so different.
Although I don’t want to continue having the churning stomach I don’t want that anger to go away because I want to have that motivation to fight back in any way I can. Even though I live in Australia, the United States is my home and I am worried that it will turn into a place I can’t return.