A Few Post Election Thoughts…

It’s been about a day since it became clear to me that Donald Trump was going to become the next President of the United States. Despite what the polls were saying, I knew there was a chance—this wasn’t a complete shock to me—but like many I truly thought Hillary would win the presidency. If you know me, you know that’s what I wanted. I believe she was truly qualified to hold our highest office. In fact, I supported her when she ran against Obama in 2008. But like so many others, I believed Donald Trump to be dangerous. I still do. And I’m sad, angry and more than a little scared that he won. That’s where I’m at right now.

But here’s also where I’m at right now. We can’t do anything about what happened. We can learn from it and we can prepare ourselves for at least four years of challenges and sadly, steps in the wrong direction. We can support, help and stand up for our fellow Americans, particularly in the face of hatred. We can make donations to the causes that we believe in. And we can comfort each other during the scary times. Because, my friends, it IS going to get scary at times.

But there’s one other thing that I plan to do. Plenty of Trump’s support came from hate groups. We really need to be honest with ourselves about that. But we also need to be honest about the fact that MOST of his support did not. In fact, many people who voted for him did so with little enthusiasm. Remember, he was one of the most unpopular candidates in history (unfortunately, so was Hillary). For many people, he really was the lesser of two evils. Personally, I don’t understand how someone can see a person who has said and done the things Trump has as a lesser evil than Hillary, but that doesn’t mean I don’t respect you if you do.

I have a lot of concerns regarding the state of our nation, but one of my biggest is how divided we are. I’ve seen a lot of tweets or Facebook posts over the past 24 hours telling people to unfollow them or unfriend them if they supported Trump. Well, for myself, that’s not what I want. I’m not sure how many Trump voters are following me on Twitter or have friended me on Facebook, but if you’re one of them, please don’t unfollow me. Clearly you’ve put up with all of my pro-Clinton posts over the past six months, which suggests you’re tolerant of other views. That’s a good thing. In fact, considering the state we’re in, I’d say it’s a great thing. And I need to get better at this myself.

If you voted for Trump, I will likely never agree with your politics and you probably won’t agree with mine, but I can still respect them and try to understand them. We can both strongly feel differently about something and still engage with each other, be friendly, and ultimately agree to disagree. That’s what I see missing in so much of the social media discourse on both sides, and don’t kid yourself if you’re more liberal like I am, we liberals are as bad about it as conservatives. I get that many people are angry—like I said, I am too—but that anger can’t warp us into seeing citizens who disagree with us as our enemy.

So yes, if you’re a Trump voter who didn’t vote out of hate (let’s be clear, I have zero respect for racism or sexism), but still feel like Trump better reflects your beliefs than Hillary did, don’t unfollow me and don’t be afraid to express your disagreement if I tweet something politically that you disagree with. You’re not likely to change my opinion and I realize I’m unlikely to change yours, but we can still remain friendly with each other. As Americans, we need to understand other perspectives, even if we don’t agree with them. Otherwise, we’ll never be able to work together, and it’ll always be a fight, with the side out of power angry and hateful toward the side in power. That will literally tear our country apart. If our nation has any chance of healing this divide—and I realize that if it’s even possible, it’s going to take a while—it needs to start at the personal level. And I intend to do my part.

5 thoughts on “A Few Post Election Thoughts…

  1. My sentiments exactly. I’ve posted some pretty sharply critical anti-Trump posts on my website. But Tuesday night as I saw that he was winning, I resolved to take a more open, let’s-work-it-out attitude in future posts. Clearly, Trump is promising stuff that real people really need (racism, etc., aside). I’m hoping that, if I can manage to get in touch with my better angels, other angry folks of all persuasions will notice and do the same.

    PS I too supported Hillary way back when.

  2. Tim, Your post was beautifully stated. Though I wasn’t a super-strong Hillary supporter, I liked her enough this time around to do some volunteer work for her campaign — mainly making phone calls to swing state voters to get out the Hillary vote. One of my strongest motivations for doing this was that Trump and his views truly frightened and even disgusted me.

    The vast majority of my friends and family voted for Hillary, but I have many old acquaintances (mostly former classmates) who voted for Trump. I’m making a point of remaining good friends with them, and not letting our political differences destroy our friendships.

    I can also understand why so many people in the rust belt states voted for Trump. Many of them have seen their lives and financial situations unravel for the past eight years, and they think no one, particularly in Washington, is listening to them. Many don’t particularly like Trump but, they’re so pissed, they’ve become desperate and are willing to try something else … just to see if it works.

    Oh, and one last thing we should keep in mind: yes, Trump won the election fairly and squarely under the current rules … but Hillary got 400,000 more votes than Trump did. And that’s pretty strong proof that a majority of Americans preferred Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump.

  3. Hi dad, this is Dylan. school is great, i love band, and i got a wonderful teacher.
    and also hi Barbara and hi Jon. i cant wait to see you tomorrow. what i think about trump is a bald guy wearing an eagles nest who get’s kicked out of his own casino’s.
    i realized that Hillary and Donald trump should not be president because one is a total a-hole and the other is way to hard on the us military. i just want a president with a kind heart who cares about his or her nation and doesn’t pick fights with other kings or president’s. I think that we should be grateful for are nation’s military because you know what, everyday they risk their life’s for us, they protect us and they serve us. thank you dad see u tomorow.

  4. hi im Dylan Thur Tim beedleś son i think trump won because hilary clinton wasnt kind to the millitary if only she was kind

  5. Hey dad its Dylan Thur, i just wanna tell you that i discovered something very funny, i can speak in a perfect southern old-man accent when im neither of those things, its down right hilarious when i do it and i cannot wait to show you. I also want to say that the kings did us good by winning that game. that really put the golden nights team and fans in their place. i also want to say that i could never ask for a better dad because i already have the best package. Thank You.
    -Yours truly
    Dylan Thur

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