holding off posting that i voted until i can get my facebook app to again give me the option of joining in the "i voted" activity.
November 8 at 12:21pm ·
remember in 2004 when the meanest things got was that jibjab video of bush and kerry?
November 8 at 5:32pm · Grand Junction ·
i really do love that in my office of seven people, there are votes for at least five different presidential candidates.
November 8 at 8:51pm · Grand Junction ·
i suspect the new outlets are announcing the states that trump has won earlier in the evening to keep the suspense (and ratings) up.
...at least i hope so, because this is the first time during this whole campaign that i've actually been nervous.
😶
November 8 at 9:52pm · Grand Junction ·
a month or two ago a friend of mine said that he thought there were a lot of people who wanted to vote for trump but were afraid to admit it.
i thought that was a silly idea.
November 8 at 10:15pm · Grand Junction ·
watching the results and hearing how many counties that voted for obama now voted for trump shows how much people REALLY don't like hilary.
November 8 at 10:46pm · Grand Junction ·
i feel like i want to watch "dr. strangelove" this weekend...
November 8 at 10:56pm ·
sometimes it's helpful to laugh...
November 8 at 11:22pm · Grand Junction ·
janelle pointed out that "back to the future part 2" ended up predicting not only the cubbies but also donald trump/biff tannen.
November 8 at 11:57pm · Grand Junction ·
anyone watching that colbert thing on showtime?
any good?
November 9 at 1:09am · Grand Junction ·
y'all can give me crap for saying this, but trump's victory speech was better (more humble and more gracious) than i was expecting.
(although that's not the time nor the crowd to close with "you can't always get what you want." all those people there got exactly what they wanted.)
November 9 at 6:11am · Grand Junction ·
oh man, you guys, i had the craziest nightmare last night...
November 9 at 7:41am · Grand Junction ·
the sun still came up this morning.
i think things will be ok.
it's been over two years since i last hit the "new post" button and have been wanting to get back to writing for a while, and last tuesday was the kickstart i needed.
i wanted to write last wednesday, to record to my feelings in the moment, because this feels like one of the most notable events in the country's history since 9/11 in terms of an unexpected event that surprised almost everyone. although while that really unified us, this feels to have divided us sharply.
election nights are usually safely boring. it was cool that obama won in 2008 (he was inspiring and exciting, mccain seemed like a stuffy old man, and the thought of sarah palin being vp was scary), and i figured obama would beat romney in 2012 (and even though i voted for mitt, i liked both of them.) and last tuesday janelle and i (and a lot of the country) thought we'd clearly watch hillary clinton become the first female president and we'd turn it off and get ready for bed around 9:30.
instead, janelle and i checked the results shortly before going to the grocery store around 8:30 and were surprised that the early reporting states were favoring trump. as i said on facebook, i suspected that the news outlets were holding back announcing the blue clinton states to create some suspense, although for the first time during the whole election season, i was a little nervous.
but there just wasn't any real chance of this happening. sure, it went from funny to weird as he kept winning the primaries, and him actually getting the nomination was uncomfortable. the republican convention was looking crazier each day and i felt like the republican party was collapsing in on itself and become so far from what most americans wanted. i wondered if there'd be a new major party emerging within a few election cycles.
nope. the republicans control the house, the senate, and the presidency, and the head of the republican party has recently been named the chief of staff.
i can't bring myself to say that the republicans are doing fine, but they've got plenty of power.
i suppose it's probably best that the results aren't revealed all at once, like the winner of america's funniest home videos, but are tallied state by state. it softened the blow for all of us, with this gradual realization that, holy crap, this is happening. he's winning.
either monday or tuesday morning, the new york times gave hillary a 73% chance of winning. a few months ago i read an article looking at the stats and showing that trump would have to win all five key swing states in order to win, and that just wasn't very likely. and as i just looked through my large collection of bookmarked links to unsuccessfully find that article, i saw that most of the articles i've saved had the tone of "there's no chance." and these aren't sites with a hard leftist slant, but mainstream news outlets like the new york times, the washington post, and fivethirtyeight.
yet while the news came gradually, it was never really a contest. except for perhaps early in the evening before i started watching, trump was always ahead and the lead just increased. the news reporting teams (i ended up settling on whichever one george stephanopolous works with) tried to remain neutral but were visibly as surprised as they knew their viewership was.
again, for my own record or as a record of the moment for my future children, this was never supposed to happen, in part because there's never been anything this crazy. in 2012, when newt gingrich was briefly ahead as the republican nominee, i got an icky feeling because he seemed about as slimy as they come, but compared to trump, i would've had no problem with gingrich. for all the elections that i can remember-- bush v. dukakis in '88, bush v. clinton (v. perot) in '92, clinton v. dole in '96, bush v. gore in '00 (i was in japan, so didn't really follow that fiasco), bush v. kerry in '04, obama v. mccain in '08, and obama v. romney in '12 --there's usually been one guy i like more than the other, but i was never seriously
but this has been different. and when i asked my dad if he'd ever seen anything like this--where someone who openly and blatantly seemed unqualified, unprepared, and dangerously unfit to be president was a serious contender--he didn't have a time, either.
and that guy won.
despite needing to get up early in the morning, janelle stayed up with me until around 11:30, when she finally had to go to bed. but i wanted to stay up until the very end for this historic night (although a much different feeling than the historic night when president obama won.)
we saw footage of the hq where the clinton supporters had gathered, where people were still waiting but in a much more somber mood than they'd been expecting. the stage platform was transparent (glass?) in the shape of the united states, although the podium was empty. the news reporter said that there was a glass ceiling above the stage as part of a victory celebration that would not be broken that night.
i stayed up until 1:30 a.m. and watched donald trump give his victory acceptance speech in what seemed to be a (surprisingly) moderately decorated hotel ballroom (mom and dad were out in nyc for dad to run the marathon and left that monday morning; mom said that they were in the hilton, which she was told was the hq for trump celebration that night.)
 |
| posted this on facebook the next morning. sad to find out that any sort of optimism was too much for some people. |
i don't remember the rest of the details (and i'm sure they're available somewhere, like here), but it wasn't nearly as bad as i'd expected. in fact, it was almost kind of good.
and i went to bed that night with a really weird feeling. it all just seemed so unreal. and thinking about the reality of it all, what it would mean and what would come was too much.
