according to this textbook, because president hayes, elected 1876, was elected as the result of several disputed votes, he was sometimes referred to as “his fraudulency”. and i sincerely love that
I want to talk for a moment about the infamous Trump Happy New Year tweet. We’re all familiar with it. It went like this:
“Happy New Year to all, including to my many enemies and those who have fought me and lost so badly they just don’t know what to do. Love!”
The general reaction could best be summed up as, “What an asshole!” But I’m glad he tweeted this, because it really clarifies things. Trump views everyone who didn’t and/or doesn’t support him as a conquered enemy. This ought to put to rest any talk of Trump “uniting the country” or “giving him a chance.” In fact, you know what, Donald?
If you are going to treat me like a conquered enemy, then I have to assume I am now living in an occupied country. And that means that from me, you get:
* no benefit of the doubt
* no cooperation
* no respect
and
* no legitimacy.
That tweet frees us all from any remaining scruples any of us might have had about rejecting his legitimacy and authority. You can’t be someone’s “enemy” and be their president at the same time.
Thank you for putting into words what was skeeving me the fuck out about that tweet, in a manner more eloquent than the “dear non-faith-specific God, he sounds like a literal supervillain out of central casting” that was springing to mind.
watching trump slowly figure out what the presidency actually entails is a lot like what i imagine gilderoy lockhart looked like when the hogwarts teachers called his bluff and sent him into the chamber of secrets
I do take some small, cold, bitter satisfaction in one thing, and that’s the fact that Trump is going to be absolutely fucking miserable for the next four years.
He’s an entertainer and an attention whore, not a public servant. He wants to be on TV and in front of crowds, not actually working a difficult, grueling, stressful job he can’t opt out of. He’s going to have to sit through SO many meetings, be forced to read SO many briefings, get shoehorned into serious business all day every day, without crowds to perform for, and he’s going to hate Every. Single. Minute.
And then, when he doesn’t deliver on his promises, when he doesn’t build the wall or create jobs or make people rich, when it becomes clear how incompetent and buffoonish he is, the country and all his supporters will turn on him. They’re gonna start blaming him for everything, and those crowds that cheered for him are going to start booing. He’ll be humiliated at every turn, and leave office with the lowest approval rating ever, and he’ll be universally despised.
Because if he’d lost to Hillary, he would have played the martyr forever, called everything rigged, and had a cushy gig on Fox News complaining every day about how he would have done it better. But now he’s going to have to actually WORK, he’s going to be forced to deal with RESPONSIBILITIES, while surrounded by people who hate him and don’t respect him, people vastly more intelligent and competent than him, and he will be exposed as a loser. And then, we’ll fire him. He’ll go down as the worst president in history. And he’ll have no one to blame but himself.
I know this isn’t much against the fear of what’s going to happen, but friends, hear me. We are going to make Donald Trump’s life a living nightmare, and I for one take immense pleasure from that.
Does this mean “Thanks, Trump” is going to be the new “Thanks, Obama”?
He’s also going to learn that, even with Republican majorities in Congress, and even with all that work he will have to presumably put into the job, being the President still isn’t going to be like being a CEO (recall: George W. Bush had a majority in both houses for his first six years, Obama had a majority in both for his first two years).
The things a President wants to get done are not going to happen quickly or easily, if at all. Passing important legislation is complicated and boring and lengthy. Even signed legislation can take a while to be enacted and is then always subject to appeals and challenges (recall the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate ultimately having to go before the Supreme Court).
The Constitution will not allow for a lot of Trump’s more horrific ideas to ever get close to reality (this ACLU piece written before the election breaks it down better than I ever could). His Supreme Court nominee has to be approved. His cabinet members have to be approved. Just about everything needs to be approved. And even with majorities in Congress, that’s far from a swift guarantee.
There are checks and balances. We lived through 8 years of Bush (including those first six I mention), followed by the economy collapsing; there are more vigilant eyes and ears watching now than there have ever been. The likelihood of a Trump administration getting away with shit without a drawn-out, bloody fight is slim. Especially when you remember that he’s facing a civil RICO trial at the end of this month plus numerous more lawsuits that have yet to be settled. Especially when you remember that he has no law degree, no political science degree, and has never held a political office of any kind. Especially when you remember that he lost the popular vote. His cabinet and staff will not be filled with the best and brightest because he alienated so many of them, even in his own party.
And most importantly, one or both of the House and the Senate could be flipped in 2018.
We’re all scared and worried and rightfully so. And the people who voted for Trump are as much a daily threat as Trump himself could hope to be. But this President’s only got two years before his legislative legs can be cut off. Two years from right now.
Learn who your representatives are, at every level. Figure out how to get in touch with them and get in touch with them, repeatedly. Relentlessly. It doesn’t matter if they’re Republican or Democrat or Independent. You don’t have to wait for some terrible Trumpish idea to get going in Congress – you can write to them about restoring the Voting Rights Act or preserving the Affordable Care Act or protecting LGBTQ rights or fighting climate change right now. These people do not have a job without you. You’re younger than them. The future matters more to you. I’ve seen the working life of a Congressman up close and let me tell you: you can reach them (surprisingly easily, actually). You can get through to them. You can put a face to these issues and you never let them forget it. Be relentless. Be memorable. If they ignore you or forget you, you let everybody know about it. We have the platforms to easily and quickly tell others. Let relevant activist groups know. Let the whole fucking world know.
“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.” - President Obama
This is the post. This is the one giving me the most hope. This is the one turning most of my sadness (not all, lord knows I will never be rid of all of the sad) in to vindictiveness, into bitter action, into spite. Into action.
I feel like nobody ever gives Green Day credit for how brave they are. These guys have guts. They were the only artists at the AMAs who had the courage to all out drag Donald Trump, the President-elect, on national television. Everyone else either danced around the topic or made awkward jokes about it but it was only Green Day who came out, guns blazing and hands in the air, and screamed “NO TRUMP, NO KKK, NO FACIST USA!!”
I voted for Trump, so I’m automatically a fascist and a KKK member. Guess what, performers, we pay you to perform, not to voice your political views.
yeah, you are automatically a fascist for voting Trump! glad you got the memo on that one
also Green Day released American Idiot in 2004 which was directly tied to the election of George W. Bush, they’ve literally been voicing their political opinions from day one, it’s part of their entire identity as a band, them performing and them voicing their political views are one in the same, you filthy damp sponge
I’m honestly getting really tired of this idea that performance should be free from politics. Or that actors/musicians/artists shouldn’t be allowed a political opinion on anything.
“Keep politics out of theatre!”
“Keep politics out of music!”
“Keep politics out of comedy!”
“Keep politics out of film!”
Like, I don’t know what kind of boring theatre, film, music and comedy thehannibalbarca has been consuming before, but art, and performance art is inherently political. And the people who provide this incredible art are also human beings. Politics affects them as much as anyone else, so why the hell shouldn’t they be allowed to express their ideas? Jeez…
Studies have shown that people are more likely to trust entertainers than people in positions of authority on a subject (like scientists and politicians). It’s because we connect with them on a different level. Entertainers have more power to get people’s attention and educate them on important subjects than anyone else. “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.“
Trump’s an entertainer, he’s a reality TV star and even before that he sought attention from entertainment news agencies and took acting jobs. Ronald Reagan was an actor for 32 years before getting into politics. Clint Eastwood spoke at the 2012 Republican Convention. “Entertainers need to stay out of politics” is something I only ever hear when the entertainer isn’t representing republicans.
I was up until almost four last night with terror. I stopped watching the polls at two-thirty, and I have yet to make myself watch our “illustrious president-elect’s” acceptance speech. I feel as if I’ve been diagnosed with something terminal–my heart is pounding and my head is spinning and my hands are shaking so hard I’m having trouble writing.
Let me tell you some things that you may not be aware of.
I am a person who gets into shouting matches when I see hijabi girls mocked or shouted at in the street.
I am a person who believes that Black Lives Matter.
I am a person who once shut down an entire classroom to fight with someone grandstanding about how “homosexuals are going to hell,” and I am a person who almost cried when the one trans kid in my school came up afterward and hugged me and said that no one had ever protected him before.
I am a person who was raised Jewish and aches for the anti-Semitism I see on the street and directed toward my friends.
I am a person with no ties to most of my family’s history except that we were Romani and we fled to this country under a false name for the capital crime of striking a soldier.
I am a person who has survived six sexual assaults and remembers every single day that the statistics for being raped go up after each assault.
I am a woman who, until this morning, was reasonably confident that–while it might be hard and people might try to stop me–I would be able to get a safe, legal abortion if I ever needed it, I am a woman who believed that no one would use my gender as a reason to stop me from having a voice.
I am fucking QUEER. I cried when the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage, I kiss girls and boys and everything in between because people are beautiful and I don’t see why I shouldn’t revel in that, and until this morning I believed that I could marry anyone I wanted.
Let me be perfectly clear. If you voted third party because “your conscience demanded it” and you “just couldn’t vote for Hillary,” you have condemned us to this. Your devotion to your ideals is laudable. Your complete disregard for the actual lives that will be lost is not. You bear responsibility. Congratulations on voting your conscience. I’m sure it’s a great comfort to you this morning.
If you voted to “Make America Great Again,” you have voted for a racist, misogynist, xenophobic monster. You have told everyone who ticks even one of these boxes that you do not care about them, that their safety, their well-being, their inalienable right to Life, Liberty, and pursuit of Happiness, does not matter to you. You have told the world what America is really made of, what our ideals really are. I am appalled that I share a country with you. You have gone down in history for this. Imagine what future generations will say about you.
TL;DR: I’m here, I’m queer, and I genuinely do not think I’ve ever been so angry and terrified in my life. If you voted for Donald Trump, I cordially invite you to unfollow me immediately and never speak to me again.
After all. I’m a dyke bitch who supports people of color and immigrants and believes that locker room talk is a real threat. If you voted for Donald Trump, you probably don’t want to talk to me either.
On the other hand, if you’re like me, do not go fucking gentle. Stand up and fight for those who cannot fight for themselves, defend your right to be a human being. I have your back.
