It's going to be ok
I promise.
Hi guys. Well, we are finally here. It’s the election.
Look, there’s no way to really speak to the extreme anxiety many of us feel if the worst happens and Trump is elected. It is ever present. The text messages I receive on a daily basis are full of fear. I am scared, too. I want to believe that Americans will reject his message of hatred and chaos, but I am not completely convinced we will. I am nervous this morning. Like most of you, this election will consume my every thought today. I am worried.
But it will be ok.
What if Trump prevails? What if he loses and challenges again because we know he will? What if attempts to curtail voting are successful? What if we have another four years of Trump or Trump and Vance? What if they immediately begin anew to tear down the fabric of American democracy?
It is going to be ok.
We have been through worse.
We have been through a Trump presidency before. We survived.
Folks we have been through an onslaught of losses in our lives. Family members, friends, lovers. We have lost.
And we survived.
We will be ok.
Regardless of who wins, we have work to do. There is still injustice in this world. There’s a genocide going on right now in the Middle East. Our roads and bridges are in disrepair. Our healthcare system is still awful. Puerto Rico is still a colony. So are Washington, D.C., American Samoa, Guam, and the Virgin Islands. Climate change is real. Our education system is in shambles.
Ladies and gentlemen, the work remains.
If Trump wins, things will be harder. God knows what he’ll do to the Supreme Court. We have local elections. We can get active there. Play the long game. Rebuilding this nation needed to happen a long time before that charlatan showed up. He’s just the rotten cherry on a melting banana split.
I am not downplaying your fears, especially those of historically marginalized peoples here. But if I know anything, it’s that those groups through their own resistance and persistance may be tougher than any others. God knows we’ll all need your strength.
But worries won’t help us today. Remember your friends. Your family. The reasons you get out of bed in the morning and do what it is that you do. Lean on those relationships. Leverage them for strength. Remember that today and every day people love you and look to you.
No matter what happens.
It is going to be ok.
Now breathe.
We got this.
Together.
-JWH
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Sorry, but I think you need to read Tim Snyder. If Trump wins, as looks exceedingly likely, and he has a majority in the House, Senate, and Supreme Court, which seems to be the case, our democracy is over. It won't take long, and there's nothing to stop it. Ukraine will fall and Russia won't stop there, especially once Trump pulls out of NATO. China will be emboldened to go after Taiwan. The billionaires will crater our economy, will all of us regular people paying the price. Millions of immigrants families will be destroyed, and so will the communities from which they're forcibly removed. After that the targets will be all the other "enemies from within". As a historian you should know enough to know that it's not only possible, but now very likely. No, everything will not be alright.