5
 
 
  
10:05 AM, Thursday, November 10th, 2016:
 
<tap, tap, tap>
 
Is this still on? Are we still here? I think that was the sun... whew.
 
The haze is starting to lift and the stages of grief worked pretty fast. Yesterday I was even joking around. Amazing. This might be hard for people to believe right now, but this kind of needed to happen.
 
<wince>
 
I don't mean that maybe there will be some good that comes of this, I'm not putting this in a "good" light, I'm saying that as a democracy of idiots? This had to happen. The stupid apathetic people who don't remember the lessons of the past had to repeat this. This awful cycle was probably always going to happen. I said repeatedly during this campaign that Trump losing would have just kicked the can down the road for 4 years. The supporters would've gotten louder and just what if someone smarter than Trump who really was a brilliant psychopath got the reins? That has been avoided and we're left with this man. Here are the realities:
 
1) No, we didn't just lose the supreme court. We lost the opportunity to stack the supreme court.
 
He will replace Scalia with another Scalia. So progressives are in the EXACT SAME SPACE they've been for decades: 5-4. Ya know, the place we were when Roe V Wade happened? That wasn't a "liberal court" that said: "the government can't tell you what to do with your body". It wasn't a "liberal court" that legalized gay marriage. Process that. Understand that. What was lost was the ability to attempt to get a 6-3 majority progressive. Would've been nice to protect those rights for generations, alas, it won't happen.
 
You do indeed need to root for the health of Ginsburg and Breyer (83 and 78 resepctively). That's nerve-wracking, but entirely feasible.
 
2) The overwhelming majority of what Trump said, was absolute horseshit.
 
I mean that in the most resepctful way possible. He knew it, we knew it and honestly?  A lot of his supporters knew it. There will not be a deportation force. There will not be a wall. There will not be a ban on Muslims. He will not erase the trade deals. And here's a sleeper pick: they will not actually repeal Obamacare. They will act like they have. They will technically repeal the Act and replace it with something nearly identical and call it something different. Dems will go along with it for the good of the people, the GOP will do it to get a "win" and we will all move on. Why do I say this? Because the tenents of the ACA that are already in place about 98% of the electorate LOVES. No pre-existing conditions clauses, children on your plan until 26, forcing the insurance companies to put a certain amount towards healthcare and not administrative costs, etc. Of course those of us in the know realize those realities are IMPOSSIBLE without mandating coverage for the young healthy people. The GOP will find a cute way to do the same thing and something will get done and they will take ALLLLL the credit for it. It will require the republican governors to expand medicaid (which now they'll happily do) and it will be the most hypocritical shit you've ever seen. Because, remember? The indiviual mandate was actually a GOP idea. They were just against it because the black dude agreed with them. It's fucked up, but that's the reality.
 
3) BOTH POLITICAL SIDES ARE NOW FOCUSED ON THE MIDDLE CLASS. Let me repeat.
 
BOTH POLITICAL SIDES ARE NOW FOCUSED ON THE MIDDLE CLASS.
 
It took a tantrum, but the Democrats are finally listening. Not every Trump supporters is racist. Some of them care more about their wallet than the fact that racists like him. I can't blame 'em. Sorry. They're tired of hearing about the programs to help the poor. Tired. Our government presently protects the rich first, the poor second, and the middle class does indeed get squeezed. We need outside of the box thinking on these issues. The middle class low education jobs are, not, going, to, return. Those that can't adapt will eventually have nowhere to turn but the government. We're entering that future that we dreamed about in the 1950s - when technology made our lives easier. It will soon be cheaper to give a basic minimum income to our electorate and let the ambitious make a fortune than to continue lying to them and tell them they can bring these jobs back at livable wages. It's unsustainable. I read this from Krystal Ball of all people, and it's spot on:
 

"Consider this: in 29 states, truck driving is the number one job and it is one of the few jobs left that can provide a middle class living for high school grads. What will happen to the 1.5 million families who get their daily bread from a truck driver when all of those jobs are eliminated by driverless trucks? It’s not a matter of if but when. Are we going to teach all those drivers to code or retrofit windows or whatever other pathetic nonsense we’ve held up as a solution? This new reality is upon us. The markets are not going to magically fix it. Trumpism is nothing but a con by a charlatan who’s spent his life figuring out how to screw people. So it is up to us to figure out what a radically new social compact looks like that keeps America from devolving into a broken zero-sum game."

 
I know that no one wants to hear "universal basic income" but, yeah... that's kind of what we're looking at for segments of the population who don't have the talent or acumen for college or higher training. The jobs where you bend metal on a factory line are gone. There is no way to make a sustainable income in the 21st Century doing jobs that can be done for slave labor around the world and will even further down the road be made by robots. This is why Donald Trump bought his steel from CHINA.

This will now come to the forefront. His supporters will be disillusioned. They will be open to listening to, gasp, socialism. You can have a hybrid. We're rich enough to have a market where capitalism allows the talented to shine and socialism allows the less talented to live. The money for universal basic income would go RIGHT back into that economy.
 
4) A Constitutional Test
 
Everyone keeps bringing up Hitler, Germany, etc. We do have three branches of government, we do have checks and balances, there are indeed limits to what can actually be done. Trump is the biggest test of our constitution we've ever had. It's not even close. There has never been anything remotely resembling his character with that much power. If we pass this constitutional test, we're the greatest country on the planet. Bar none, no doubt, holy shit. It's awful that we have to have this test, but now we get to see what we're made of.
 
5) The Emboldening of the worst among us
 
How the fuck is that good, Adam? Because they've always been there... now they're fucking loud. They're still the minortiy and their loudness will get equal and then MORE outpouring of support for the LGBT community and minorities.
 
We're going to see a lot of awful shit now. Swastikas, "Niggers go Home" signs. We have emboldened the worst among us. No longer is bullying going to be just hurtful words or mean memes. We've become pretty think-skinned and that skin is about to broken open. That makes you fight. That makes our communities stronger. An entire generation (hell, two or three) never understood the 60s. Couldn't grasp the awfulness. They're gonna grasp it now. And an overwhelming majority isn't gonna buy into it. This will be different than 50 years ago. It won't take FOREVER for that love to take hold. That is the advantage of social media: change comes pretty fast. It's also bred some apathy. There are people protesting in cities all over the country right now. Fuck them for suddenly getting it, but, well, they get it. They are no longer going to be apathetic. The turnout in 2020 is going to be un, fucking, believable.
 
I could go on, but there's enough here for people to process. We needed this. Sorry, but I really feel that way. To the apathetic people that thought he'd never win (there are literally people protesting that the POLLS LIED TO US - that's how fucking whiny and entitled these bastards are), you needed one giant slap in the face. Consider it slapped. It will be slapped repeatedly for the next couple years.
 
Won't be apathetic now, will you.
 
If you were wondering... here was a bit of my election night...
 
 
It's time to see what's possible everyone. We're here.
 
Adam