I’ve already mailed in my ballot, and I volunteered to be a poll worker (though they haven’t gotten in touch). With a week (maybe two) to go before we get the result, I feel caught in a limbo. It feels more important to me to be copying my important documents and organizing go-bags to be ready for a crisis than it does to do anything at work. I also recognize that that is probably a reaction to stress and anxiety and isn’t helping me. That said, I’m part of many groups that the right-wing hates and is openly threatening, so feeling unsafe doesn’t feel unreasonable either.
How are you all holding up out there? And tips for me to deal with this better?
Honestly, other than voting and trying to get those around me to actually give a shit, I’m not. Like in the past two elections, I’m having trouble grasping the fact that half of the (voting) country wants to elect a fascist. My mother told me over the phone that one of her neighbors is voting for Trump because “his wife is absolutely gorgeous”. Like, how do you even respond to that, especially in any calm way?
Oh, and someone here reminded me: cannabis. Lots and lots of it.
If you vote for someone because you think their wife is hot I don’t think you should be allowed to vote.
Oh, and someone here reminded me: cannabis. Lots and lots of it.
I shudder to think about how poorly I’d be handling things if I didn’t have cannabis lol
I figured out who to vote for and mostly lost faith in the American people. I deeply understand that the system is broken but electing a fascist is not the way to fix it unless you want it completely broken. Honestly pretty depressed about the whole thing because prospects are grim and I have little hope for the future after the past 10 years.
I do think Harris will win, but the fact that it’s this close is disconcerting.
People outside of US have the right to worry about this election as well imo. It’s one of many currently on-going battles of autocracy vs democracy and this election will heavily shape the battlefield.
I wish all of the luck to my American friends and really that’s all non-americans can do so I’ll just grab a joint and catch up on the new season of What We Do In The Shadows until this blows over.
Well, my folks and I will stay in that night. We’re in a heavy Trump area, and I’m more concerned about if he loses than wins. I honestly never thought we’d have to deal with Trump after his horrible presidency, so I’ve been on high alert since he was confirmed their canidate. My mom has all of us renewing our passports as well.
I know this is dramatic, but I may actually stay home “sick” if Trump wins. To reconcile with the fact that people would vote this absolute embarrassment in again would make me so terribly disappointed in my countrymen. And this was the campaign I really put my money where my mouth is: I volunteered, donated (when I could) , even protested. It’s not so much that I like Harris, but the future that Trump and his cohorts has painted has been horrific. I would need some time to “grieve” so to speak.
Election night, I plan to have good weed when it’s all said and done, because good God. Even if Harris makes it, this whole thing had been exhausting. And it won’t stop. If Harris makes it, we still have so much fucking work to do, and just thinking of that wears me out.
As shameful as it may be, I’m reducing my stress by reminding myself that I, personally, will be fine regardless.
But I fear for many friends, loved ones, and strangers who may not fare as well.
This is where I’m at. I’m part of every majority group, but I can’t feel comfortable because I know that anyone who’s not is a potential target.
I’ve been writing postcards and letters to voters. It’s a little too late to jump on the postcard wagon but letters can be written until 10/29. It’s super easy, you’re provided templates, instructions and addresses, you just need paper, envelopes and stamps.
I wrote a ton of both and it did wonders to distract me and give me something of purpose to do at the same time.
I’m pretty sure text banking and phone banking is still going on too.
I’ve already resigned myself to the fact that a) my candidates of choice likely won’t win, and b) the results will be contested with complaints, nit-picking, tantrums, and probably violence across at least several states, and a final decision won’t be known for a few weeks.
I’m trying to avoid political topics and articles a bit more than usual. I also have a lot of things going on in my personal life (not necessarily bad things, but lots of responsibilities) that are keeping me busy right now.
I had also saved up a couple of TV shows that I’ve been wanting to watch, to fill in some of the little free time I have right now.
Edit: fixed a word.
Shit, man, I dunno. I already voted. I fly my blue-team flag in a red town. I hope that most of the people voting for him are just insensitive clods who aren’t as personally hateful as the jokes they’ll laugh at, or that they’re somehow stupid enough to have been genuinely convinced that our creaky business-friendly center-left coalition is some sort of economy-dooming experiment in socialism. So yeah, I’m reduced to hoping that a large percentage of my fellow citizens are idiots and/or assholes, rather than actual fascists.
It’s too close to know who will win, so things could turn out kinda okay if the Democrats pull it off. If Trump wins, maybe they don’t manage the Senate and little of longstanding legislative harm gets passed. Sotomayor should be okay for the next four years, so for SCOTUS itself the damage is likely already done. Finally, I still mostly think that Trump will be content to line his pockets for four years and then pardon himself on the way out. He’s too old to inspire any energy to repeal the 22nd amendment, and I don’t see anyone behind him ready to slot in as an heir apparent, so maybe the less intensely awful republicans will reclaim some measure of control, or a gaggle of pretenders fragments their base and they can’t really get organized to win nationally. A second Trump term is going to fucking suck, though, and a lot of innocent people are going to get hurt all across the world, many more than in a Harris administration, IMHO.
Shit’s grim, and the Christian Nationalists see this as their time, possibly their last good chance in their current form, to really seize the reins of power.
Planning my Amerexit. I don’t want to leave, we have a decent country, but if Trump wins this place is going to go to hell fast.
We survived one term, this one will be worse, but if we stop being idiots and let them distract us with 1000 tiny controversies then we can solve anything.
He had nearly unlimited power last time and we did OK, though McCain helped and that corporate tax cut was brutal.
I think America has become politically lazy, sometimes you have to take a stand for your principles, and we’ve gotten used to expecting the idiots on TV to do that for us.
If he ‘wins’ and we put 10m people on Pennsylvania Avenue, I think we can make it clear that he serves us, not the other way around.
But we won’t do that, we’ll expect everyone else to instead…
Last time there were a lot more guardrails, though. It also wasn’t entirely clear if he was going to be a fascist either.
Honestly a reasonable person in 2016 could consider Trump to even be a moderate Republican (yes, really). Corrupt and lazy, sure, but I was expecting the American equivalent of someone like Rob Ford, not some insane idiot who is begging people in his party to literally rig the vote in his favor.
Where are you planning to go?
Not the person you asked, but I’ll give my answer: I don’t know where I’d go, but I’ve been learning French for the last few years, in part, to increase my options.
(The other reason I picked French is that I’ve also been considering getting a sailboat and becoming nomadic, and France owns a whole bunch of tropical islands.)
Depends how quickly things devolve. If things get bad too quickly, I may move to China for a bit. Yes, really. I know that’s a bit ironic. But I have family there, so getting residency is trivial for me. Day to day life is chill there, just don’t piss off the party. In America, I’d be considered a political enemy if the Republicans go full fascist, so ironically it would be safer for me.
I’d hate to lose American working opportunities, salaries, my house, my friends, and my family. But if things devolve really quick I don’t want to be here and that’s my fastest way out.
If there’s a fair bit of time to move, Japan, Spain, Netherlands, even Germany would all be decent picks for me.
My long term goal is honestly Japan - competent society, free and open, outstanding food, low pollution, safe for kids to be independent with good educational opportunities, few drug addicts, and high social respect.
Come to California. We’ll be the center of any resistance.
Thank you for fighting, unfortunately there are millions of morons who think Trump is amazing and I don’t feel having my family get caught up in dying for this bullshit.
Ignoring it.
Bought a farm a few years back in northern Europe, it’s beautiful, wife and kid moved, I’m communiting.
If shit hits the fan I’ll be there, but some part of me has faith in my country, and even if the trash take over, I think we’ll somehow survive.
Wife is thrilled to be out, kid is doing great. It’s basically America but better, except without Amazon.
Besides, I survived the south, and I was a kid back then. I’ve seen their bigotry naked when they were strong and I was weak, i have no fear for them anymore. And if civil war does break out? I am an extraordinary engineer, particularly when it comes to military drones. Parry that with your crappy ar15 you filthy casual.
It helps knowing you literally can make a difference if you absolutely have to, so I recommend picking up a useful skill if you didn’t during covid.
I left Canada when the politics started to mirror that of America’s. Went to Europe, and while there are a lot of problems here as well (an increasing amount to boot), I’m happier overall.
Around 2008, basically all the Texans who screwed up US politics saw their gravy train ending and ran north to exploit Alberta’s new oil.
I’m sorry, but it’s like apologizing for locusts.
Voted early.
Disconnected completely from any news source.
Doomscrolling, exercise, and looking up firing ranges near me. Been a few decades since last I went
What exercise plan, if any, are you following? I let my fitness slip pretty hard during COVID, and haven’t had good luck getting back into the groove with anything I’ve tried so far
Honestly, me too and I don’t have much of a plan. I tried doing some pushups the other day and was shocked how much capacity I’ve lost. Following the wisdom that the hardest part of a run is lacing up your shoes, i’m just telling myself to do something every day. 3 sets of pushups. Squats during ad breaks. Walk to the store for a snack. That kind of thing A little bit of physical activity is a great distraction from the anxiety in my head
I don’t need to look up the closest firing range because it was recently all over the news when one of the members went up on a roof and tried to shoot this guy who was running for President.
Not the most recent would be shooter, the one before that.
Hell of a fall for the leaves, though.
That it is
A particularly insidious strain of Christianity trained me to resign myself to a premature death when I was still a teenager. Hasn’t happened yet, and I’m in no hurry, because I care deeply for others. While I hate religion very much, it did instill in me very little fear of death… I’m afraid for the fate of humanity so much more than my own.
Not great… I’m not a US citizen yet so voting isn’t possible. Only thing I could do is vote with my feet… so I moved out of Texas for good earlier this year. I think my current location is as safe as it gets in regards to avoiding political violence (since I’m not exactly in a group that the right isn’t threatening) so there’s that
Other than that? Nothing… If the worst happens I’ll just hole-up in the building and ask my boss for permission to work from home
I feel you on voting with your feet. I left beet-red Indiana for a Democratic-leaning swing state a few years ago. And yet, once you get outside the city by just a few minutes, it’s Trump signs everywhere. Doesn’t feel very reassuring.
It’s cliche to talk about moving to Canada after a US election, but I have started to collect my passport and papers and look at multiple countries for ease of entry, in case shit hits the fan.
Head down just trying to do my hobbies, my job and some fun stuff like a virtual Bob Ross painting session tonight.
There’s really nothing I can do besides voting and having others vote.
Writing my reps just gets me form responses.
The only country I can flee to is Ukraine since I was born there and uh…
