This is US?

Each election is an opportunity to endorse your values by voting for the candidate who is most aligned. My takeaways from yesterday include the baring of the American soul as it lives and breathes these days. I was so wrong about the true character of “the land of the free and the home of the brave.”

Well, if Donald Trump is representative of the majority of this country, it means people here are dishonest, bigoted, misogynist, uncaring, rude, and motivated, above all else, by greed and “winning.” I thought the majority of folks in my country were kind, understanding, helpful, intelligent, and fair who could consider issues beyond knee-jerk sound bites and would save democracy. Wow, was I wrong.

Personal experience has taught me that most people I encounter are good people who would jump to help someone without first asking personal questions to ensure worthiness. When I’ve engaged in conversations with strangers along the way, similarities abound. Despite the emergence of MAGA and the first election of Trump, I’ve held close that they are the minority, although I live in a thick red county.

The orange, lying, cheating, sexually-assaulting, offensive, 78-year-old wins the popular vote and the electoral college, paving the way to a second term. Republicans are in control of Senate and House. And I find myself, like Nancy Kerrigan, despairing, “Why? Why? Why?” All of the things flutter down through my mind, including mass deportations, total abortion bans, further estrangement from allies while Putin’s getting his sticky little fingers in every soft place he’s found, fucking Jr and Eric, first lady Melania because she loves being that so much, privatizing our nation’s most precious public lands for oil, and generally an increased meanness in people. I hope I’m wrong some more.