"Joy and pleasure are as real as pain and sorrow and one must learn what they have to teach. . . ." -- Sean Russell, from Gatherer of Clouds

"If you're not having fun, you're not doing it right." -- Helyn D. Goldenberg

"I love you and I'm not afraid." -- Evanescence, "My Last Breath"

“If I hear ‘not allowed’ much oftener,” said Sam, “I’m going to get angry.” -- J.R.R. Tolkien, from Lord of the Rings

Wednesday, November 09, 2016

Shell Shocked

In the immortal words of Quicksilver, from the last Avengers movie, "I didn't see that coming."

Chicago dyke left a comment at Joe.My.God. that touches on what happened, I think:
people just have to face it: she ran a campaign that appealed to the brain, he ran a campaign that appealed to emotion. 9 times out 10 the latter will beat the former, in politics.

She's right: Clinton ran a campaign heavy on substance, designed to appeal to the educated, thoughtful voter. The proportion of those in the electorate has been shrinking over the past number of years -- how else to explain George W. Bush? Twice?

There's also the Republican hate Clinton machine, which has been on overdrive since long before this election season. And it hasn't been the usual suspects -- Fox "News," Rush Limbaugh, and their ilk. The FBI managed to weigh in, at the time calculated to do the most damage, and our "news" organizations did their part, in spades.

So, what's next? Trump was very conciliatory in his victory speech, issuing what some are terming a "call for unity":

I pledge to every citizen of our land that I will be president for all Americans and this is so important to me. For those who have chosen not to support me in the past – of which there are a few people – I am reaching out to you for your guidance and your help so that we can work together and unify our great country.

It may come as no surprise that I don't place a great deal of confidence in that. Think about it: this is a man who listens to no one reaching out for guidance? This is a man whose entire campaign was devoted to dividing us calling for unity? Color me unpersuaded.

I may start weighing options, once this has really sunk in. Canada's too close. South Africa's a possibility, or New Zealand. Australia looks to be almost as dysfunctional as we are, at least with the Liberals in power. Argentina, I'd have to learn Spanish.

And those romantic little islands in the Pacific are not likely to last as long as I do, particularly if The Hairpiece does as little about climate change as I expect.

I'm really sort of sorry I don't drink.




2 comments:

Pieter said...

I tried a couple of nips of gin. Didn't help. Might as well have left them in the bottle.

Hunter said...

I finally said "screw it" and went to the Zoo. Even the animals were depressed.

And I just discovered a playlist of Javanese gamelan that I didn't know I had (Windows Media Player does its own thing, sometimes), which is proving to be very calming.