Election night, six months later

[Fuzzy Says: "Abolish NPR!"]

Three or so days before the election, I got very, very scared that Trump would win. So scared that on the Sunday before the election, I couldn't sleep. I remember sharing these feelings to a friend of mine, who reminded me that "This is the same country that elected Barack Obama twice. Trump's screwed." By the time Nov. 8 rolled around, though, that had passed and I was exuberant imaging a smashing victory that would send Trump back to his gilded tower with his tail between his legs, end Mike Pence's political career and have the deplorables weeping into their MAGA hats.

It was the worst night of my life, and for several hours I contemplated suicide.

I say this for your own good: Please stop paying attention to politics. Do you not understand the value of life? Do you really think Trump's victory has made life that much worse for many people?

To those of you reading this besides the person I quoted, most of you see a problem with this. Our media has brainwashed our nation. That anyone could contemplate suicide because The Other Party Won is awful. To those ideological, demagogical, horrible, horrible news networks I say: you have so demonized your opponents that when you lose your supporters contemplate suicide. In the name of humanity, I beg you to stop. You have shot no bodies with bullets. You have proven the pen mightier than the sword, words stronger than any punch. You don't shoot bodies with bullets - you brainwash minds. Let us suppose MAINEiac is the only one who contemplated suicide. Would you not even stop for one human life? I know the powers that be, the media I rant to in my mind will never read this, but it can be said that I did not speak out. Soon, that will change. Soon, your hate will be exposed.

It never used to be like this, but it's this way now.  Ideological political parties and non-stop news media input hasn't Made America Reasonable Again.

I do think there are some who need a sabbatical from politics to regain a measure of mental wellness.  As nauseating as I find Hillary Clinton, I can't see myself reacting rashly to her election victory, which I thought would occur.  I thought that somehow, someway, she'd pull it off.  Still, if President Hillary Clinton were the worst thing I had to deal with, I'd be fortunate, indeed.

That being said, maybe it's time to stop demonizing and awfulizing Donald Trump.  Criticize his policies, advocate against them, but he's not the end of the world.  At worst, he's just another Republican Plutocrat, and I've lived through a few of those. 

[HagridOfTheDeep]

Three or so days before the election, I got very, very scared that Trump would win. So scared that on the Sunday before the election, I couldn't sleep. I remember sharing these feelings to a friend of mine, who reminded me that "This is the same country that elected Barack Obama twice. Trump's screwed." By the time Nov. 8 rolled around, though, that had passed and I was exuberant imaging a smashing victory that would send Trump back to his gilded tower with his tail between his legs, end Mike Pence's political career and have the deplorables weeping into their MAGA hats.

It was the worst night of my life, and for several hours I contemplated suicide.

I say this for your own good: Please stop paying attention to politics. Do you not understand the value of life? Do you really think Trump's victory has made life that much worse for many people?

To those of you reading this besides the person I quoted, most of you see a problem with this. Our media has brainwashed our nation. That anyone could contemplate suicide because The Other Party Won is awful. To those ideological, demagogical, horrible, horrible news networks I say: you have so demonized your opponents that when you lose your supporters contemplate suicide. In the name of humanity, I beg you to stop. You have shot no bodies with bullets. You have proven the pen mightier than the sword, words stronger than any punch. You don't shoot bodies with bullets - you brainwash minds. Let us suppose MAINEiac is the only one who contemplated suicide. Would you not even stop for one human life? I know the powers that be, the media I rant to in my mind will never read this, but it can be said that I did not speak out. Soon, that will change. Soon, your hate will be exposed.

It never used to be like this, but it's this way now.  Ideological political parties and non-stop news media input hasn't Made America Reasonable Again.

I do think there are some who need a sabbatical from politics to regain a measure of mental wellness.  As nauseating as I find Hillary Clinton, I can't see myself reacting rashly to her election victory, which I thought would occur.  I thought that somehow, someway, she'd pull it off.  Still, if President Hillary Clinton were the worst thing I had to deal with, I'd be fortunate, indeed.

That being said, maybe it's time to stop demonizing and awfulizing Donald Trump.  Criticize his policies, advocate against them, but he's not the end of the world.  At worst, he's just another Republican Plutocrat, and I've lived through a few of those. 

Just because he's not the end of your world doesn't mean he couldn't be the end of someone else's. You can make whatever pleas you want, but it is simply dumbfounding that you and others like you can't see how Trump is uniquely threatening. Here's my plea that will obviously fall on deaf ears but that is nonetheless worth making: Let's not normalize a president who has made it an explicit goal to make life worse for folks who've been Othered. Let's not lower the bar and accept that what this president and this administration are doing is somehow okay or within the realm of what we should accept from our leaders.

This president's first few months in office have been a mix of embarrassing, incompetent, dangerous, unfriendly, combative, corrupt and who-knows-what else. And all these wounds have been self-inflicted. Can you honestly look at this period and say Trump has been good? Truly?

That people can is perhaps the saddest story of all.

[Unapologetic Chinaperson]

Trump (Clinton supporter)

***

It was a chilly day that night. I walked out of the pizza bar onto the windy streets of Baltimore, thinking about the happenings that I saw on television. A lot of those who came with me – fellow members of our College Democrats club, with a smattering of others – also left, including the club president. They left mostly with feelings of annoyance, anger, and possibly even range. Why hasn’t Wisconsin turned blue yet? How the hell is Trump winning?

I left shaken. Not too shaken, only a bit, but still shaken. For I knew, in my gut, that it would be mere hours before the Apocalypse was upon us. For the past few months, my friends and I never thought that it would occur, whether because we assumed that the American people would never vote for someone with such base morals, or because we took for granted that the blue wall would hold.

No state was taken for granted as much as Pennsylvania was. Many friends who go to college there thought it was safe enough to vote absentee with their New Jersey addresses. I heard friends say that Pennsylvania would never go red. I heard friends say that it was a fake swing state. To be fair, who could blame them when rallies in Florida and North Carolina dominated the airways?

But that night, Pennsylvania became real. While walking down those windy streets of Baltimore, I still held up hope for Wisconsin and Michigan. Please go blue, I thought, please go blue. I know you two can. But Pennsylvania? It was still blue when I left on the TV. But in my heart, I knew it will turn red.

***

From the moment in Spanish class when my incredulous classmate said “Donald Trump is leading in the Republican primaries,” I feared the day that he would come. Every day I looked at FiveThirtyEight, eying their maps and eying their snake. Every week I contemplated whether my very existence, as a Chinese-American who immigrated here as a child and adopted its liberal values, would even be compatible in his worldview.

A week or so ago, I made a bet with some of the other College Dems. If Trump wins, they collectively owe me twenty-five dollars. In one sense, this would be a consolation prize; at least I would get something from an otherwise terrifying night. But on the other hand, it was my signal that I knew that a Clinton victory was far from assured.

Two, three days before that fateful night, I tossed and turned. What if Trump does win? Will I even be considered “American” anymore? Hell, what is the worst that could come, whether to me and my people or otherwise? Deportation? Internment? Genocide?

Part of me resisted. Trust me, Hillary will win! We will get a female president and those Trump supporters will learn a lesson! But as the night went on, I knew that I couldn’t assume that would be the case. I knew that I had to be ready for the worse.

What if it won’t be so bad? I thought. Even if Trump does win, what will he actually do to you? I thought some more before finally sleeping, before finally telling myself that, as Mary Poppins said, anything can happen.

***

From that night on, I made peace with the prospect of a Trump victory. Thus I was only a bit shaken as I walked back to my college dormitory. As I walked in, though, I saw rooms filled with college students huddled around Macbooks and smartphones, anxiously awaiting the electoral returns. Clearly, they had not made peace.

I walked up the stairs to put my stuff down. On the way, I heard two of my floormates storm up the stairwell in utter fear. “Oh my god, oh my god, my god,” one of them said, her mousy-brown hair shaking with the rest of her body. Her fears were not unfounded, as she is bisexual. How would she survive in a world where Mike Pence, promoter of conversion therapy and homophobe extraordinaire, is the vice president?

I looked at her roommate. Months later, I would learn that she voted for Trump, fearful of whatever horrors a Clinton presidency might portend. Maybe; to this day I’m still not sure. But at that moment, she too had fear in her eyes, as much as the rest of us. Perhaps she was fearful of the horrors that she had helped unleash. Perhaps she would be fearful no matter who won. But there was fear in her eyes.

I put my stuff down in my room, threw my Hillary campaign poster at a wall, walked back down to the first floor and went into one of those packed rooms. I surveyed the small crowd of people just sitting there, medium-sized pods of anxiety just waiting to be burst. It was a diverse group – Indians, Hispanics, whites, all desiring to know the state of their future.

I looked at one of my friends. She was sitting there, in one of her usual blue dresses, stroking her dark black hair. She is, like me, an immigrant from China, though one who immigrated under much different circumstances – a girl who, long ago, was put up for adoption and was taken in by a loving family from Durham.

I sat down. “I’m sorry,” I said to her, knowing well that I was not responsible for the results from North Carolina.

“It’s okay,” she said. She feigned calmness in her words, but I saw anxiety in her eyes and worry in her tone. I see in her a young woman with much potential, but what would someone like Steve Bannon look in her? Perhaps just scum who ought to be deported lest they ruin civic society and replace it with someone else’s babies.

Knowing that, I embraced her in a hug. “It’s going to be okay,” I said, “it’s going to be okay.”

“I know,” she said in turn, not sure if she could say these two words truthfully.

Then one of the others in the room raised his head and lowered it again in resignation. “They just called Pennsylvania,” he said. “It’s over.”

***

I was back on third floor. By then, people were out in the hall discussing the ramifications of the inevitable. “Riots are happening in Pittsburg,” I overheard. “That’s why we call them cheese-eating mangeheads!” a student from Illinois said, referring to the now-red Wisconsinites.

I ignored those conversations. I headed straight for the door and knocked. Slowly, my friend came out, her eyes red from the tears that stream down her check, her soggy her tie-dye shirt providing a stark contrast to the atmosphere of the moment.

“It’s happened,” she stammered, her words barely coherent through her sobbing. “It’s…happened.”

Throughout the summer, I occasionally told her the need to plan for a Trump victory. “It won’t happen,” she always replied. Then again, it didn’t help that at that time I, like most others, treated a Trump victory as something that would never happen. “We need to move to Canada” is not exactly a serious solution for serious people. Even so, part of me did feel the joy of schadenfreude in seeing her insistent predictions be knocked down spectacularly.

But I knew that this was not the time for schadenfreude. This was a time for sorrow. One of the bravest, most confident people I know had been reduced to a pile of tears. And for good reason. As a Pakistani-American and a practicing Muslim, she had much to fear. She would have to live under a President who called for the complete and total shutdown of Muslims coming into America. She would have to contemplate registering in a database of Muslims, not unlike what the Jews had to do under the Germany of Hitler.

So as before, I hugged her. “It’s going to be okay,” I said once again, my shoulder touching against the dampness of her tears. “It’s going to be okay.”

***

I walked back in front of my room, where my roommates were huddling around their Macbooks. Some of them were doing Calculus II homework. I sat. I saw on the screens: “Donald J. Trump Elected President.” I saw Trump himself ascend the podium, calling for the unity of Americans at a time when there was anything but.

“Come here,” one of my friends said. A white male with an imposing 6’4” frame, one would think that we would be privileged under a Trump presidency. Yet he too was not pleased at tonight’s happenings. How would he enjoy any newfound gains, after all, if all of his friends must suffer from their newfound oppression?

On his screen was Van Jones, also in tears, trying to explain the night to the other talking heads. “It was a whitelash,” he said.

We all tried to comprehend his words.

“This is a whitelash.”

And we knew what he said.

After a while I went back to bed. But I did not sleep. From time to time I checked my social media, a furious mix of news articles and desperate pleas, pleas from friends experiencing shock and horror when they expected elation. Nobody had expected the Apocalypse to come this day, and few had elected to make inner peace beforehand.

At least I did. So I laid in bed, eyes wide open, knowing that me and my friends will have to face a brave new world. Perhaps everything will be okay. Perhaps not.

[Deblano]

Three or so days before the election, I got very, very scared that Trump would win. So scared that on the Sunday before the election, I couldn't sleep. I remember sharing these feelings to a friend of mine, who reminded me that "This is the same country that elected Barack Obama twice. Trump's screwed." By the time Nov. 8 rolled around, though, that had passed and I was exuberant imaging a smashing victory that would send Trump back to his gilded tower with his tail between his legs, end Mike Pence's political career and have the deplorables weeping into their MAGA hats.

It was the worst night of my life, and for several hours I contemplated suicide.

I say this for your own good: Please stop paying attention to politics. Do you not understand the value of life? Do you really think Trump's victory has made life that much worse for many people?

To those of you reading this besides the person I quoted, most of you see a problem with this. Our media has brainwashed our nation. That anyone could contemplate suicide because The Other Party Won is awful. To those ideological, demagogical, horrible, horrible news networks I say: you have so demonized your opponents that when you lose your supporters contemplate suicide. In the name of humanity, I beg you to stop. You have shot no bodies with bullets. You have proven the pen mightier than the sword, words stronger than any punch. You don't shoot bodies with bullets - you brainwash minds. Let us suppose MAINEiac is the only one who contemplated suicide. Would you not even stop for one human life? I know the powers that be, the media I rant to in my mind will never read this, but it can be said that I did not speak out. Soon, that will change. Soon, your hate will be exposed.

This is the result of a society that blatantly disenfranchises and polarizes its voters.

You get a population that is hopeless and resorts to political violence or self-harm to get its voice heard when the ballot box wont work. We NEED electoral reform NOW if the American experiment is to survive.

[Deblano]

I always believed that this election was a tossup despite what the polls said, and I was not ENTIRELY surprised when Trump pulled a surprise upset.

However, I considered skipping class the day after election day, because I was expecting horrific rioting and civil unrest, especially since I was living on a college campus.

However, the earth continued to keep turning, and the Wednesday was as peaceful as any other day. I've taken this as a lesson not to let myself have such low faith in my countrymen even when our homeland is in tough times.

[The_Doctor]

For note I do not think this election ended well but it was no 1980 for Democrats. The winning party lost the popular vote and is in possession of a fragile coalition that isn't united and constantly wars. This may actually disturb both the left and right because if an actual crisis hits the GOP coalition and Trump are not politically equipped to handle it well. 

I think basically everyone really lost out in 2016. The GOP didn't fix their problems and inherited the nation's problems and a undisciplined rookie president while the Democrats flat out lost. Trump is so undisciplined that his legacy is at risk and I don't see him learning fast enough on the job. Meanwhile of course the Democrats are shut out of power. The Congressional Republicans are saddled with Trump.

The long run suggests the Democrats may be the beneficiaries. They don't have to deal with the problems facing the country and they can oppose freely. They also now have the freedom to retool their ideology.

The biggest loser in the election was stability and the ability to govern the nation by anyone. But in my cynical view… that was coming anyway.

So yeah 2016 wasn't great. But had Hillary won it would've been only marginally better.

[Deblano]

For note I do not think this election ended well but it was no 1980 for Democrats. The winning party lost the popular vote and is in possession of a fragile coalition that isn't united and constantly wars. This may actually disturb both the left and right because if an actual crisis hits the GOP coalition and Trump are not politically equipped to handle it well. 

I think basically everyone really lost out in 2016. The GOP didn't fix their problems and inherited the nation's problems and a undisciplined rookie president while the Democrats flat out lost. Trump is so undisciplined that his legacy is at risk and I don't see him learning fast enough on the job. Meanwhile of course the Democrats are shut out of power. The Congressional Republicans are saddled with Trump.

The long run suggests the Democrats may be the beneficiaries. They don't have to deal with the problems facing the country and they can oppose freely. They also now have the freedom to retool their ideology.

The biggest loser in the election was stability and the ability to govern the nation by anyone. But in my cynical view… that was coming anyway.

So yeah 2016 wasn't great. But had Hillary won it would've been only marginally better.

Agreed. For the Democrats, I feel like it was a "pick your poison" moment

[Devout Centrist]

Thought Clinton would win, knew she would lose when I saw the first returns from Michigan.

Feelings and thoughts? Anger. Pure and unadulterated anger. My thoughts were rather awful, if I'm being honest and the negative feelings from that day, and the whole year, haven't really gone away. I don't think I have it in me to forgive those who supported Trump and had the same income as my family and me.

Not that they care, but still, I feel very negative about upper middle class Trump voters.

[Bojack Horseman]

It was like being stabbed in the gut when I had to tell my mother that night that we were going to lose.

[TheSaint250]

This thread seems to be all about hatred for Trump voters and thoughts that we are all going to die.

I never said any of this when Obama won.

[HagridOfTheDeep]

This thread seems to be all about hatred for Trump voters and thoughts that we are all going to die.

I never said any of this when Obama won.

Yes, because Trump is the Republican Obama.

You're an idiot.

[Rookie Yinzer]

This thread seems to be all about hatred for Trump voters and thoughts that we are all going to die.

I never said any of this when Obama won.

Trump is a combative idiot who openly accepts racism and other forms of discrimination. And speaks vehemently about American citizens who do not agree with all parts of his agenda. Please inform me when Obama spoke about American citizens as animals the way Trump has?

[TheSaint250]

This thread seems to be all about hatred for Trump voters and thoughts that we are all going to die.

I never said any of this when Obama won.

Trump is a combative idiot who openly accepts racism and other forms of discrimination. And speaks vehemently about American citizens who do not agree with all parts of his agenda. Please inform me when Obama spoke about American citizens as animals the way Trump has?

Lol nice try.

None of these so-called "racism" accusations thrown at him during the campaign made any sense

[TML]

I had always expected a Hillary victory, based on almost all of the polls (both state and national). On that morning, on my way to work, I stopped by my local polling station and cast my vote for her. [FYI: Hillary did end up winning my local precinct by about 54%-42%. However, it turned out that Trump won several precincts within several blocks of my home.] Even when the results started trickling in that evening, I wasn't worried initially, since the first few states which were called were either solid R or solid D. My initial worry was when I saw Trump leading in Virginia. I did some calculations and determined that if Trump carried Virginia along with North Carolina, Florida, Iowa, and Ohio (but not Nevada, Colorado, New Hampshire, Maine, or Pennsylvania), he would win 272-266. However, my worries there were quieted somewhat when I saw an article in the NY Times where it was mentioned that due to the unique nature of how Virginia reports its election returns, it was to be expected that the Republican candidate would initially lead, but then as Northern Virginia (the areas near DC) report their results, the Democratic candidate would make a comeback - which has been the case for each election since 2008. Surely enough, by the time Virginia was at about 90% reporting, Hillary had overtaken Trump and ended up winning that state. However, I then saw that Trump was leading in Michigan, which I wasn't expecting. Furthermore, between 9-10 pm, the NY Times' overall forecast had progressively shifted in Trump's direction, so when I went to sleep at about 9:30 pm, I literally had to pray myself to sleep. My prayer was something along the lines of "God, whatever happens in this election, you have allowed it to happen." A couple of hours later, I woke up briefly and went online to check, only to find that Wikipedia had called Wisconsin for Trump at that point. I again prayed myself to sleep, since by that point I had a feeling within myself that the identity of the ultimate winner was all but confirmed by that point - and it was not my candidate. I then woke again about 4 hours later, and when I logged online then, the election had been called for Trump, with even Pennsylvania flipping to him (after Hillary had held a lead there for most of the night). I was speechless the next day when discussing the election results with my parents and my coworkers - the most diplomatic explanation I could think of was a repeat of "Dewey Defeats Truman" in 1948.

Now, I would still vote the same way I did back then, if it were a rematch of these two candidates. However, I suspect that Hillary might turn out to be a Democratic version of George H. W. Bush in terms of electability. Still, unless he somehow dramatically changes his ways by pursuing policies that I actually like, I very much look forward to the day when Trump leaves office (I've always had a feeling that he would not last two full terms - if he continues his current ways he may end up suffering a fate similar to that of Nixon).

[Rookie Yinzer]

This thread seems to be all about hatred for Trump voters and thoughts that we are all going to die.

I never said any of this when Obama won.

Trump is a combative idiot who openly accepts racism and other forms of discrimination. And speaks vehemently about American citizens who do not agree with all parts of his agenda. Please inform me when Obama spoke about American citizens as animals the way Trump has?

Lol nice try.

None of these so-called "racism" accusations thrown at him during the campaign made any sense

K.

[Devout Centrist]

This thread seems to be all about hatred for Trump voters and thoughts that we are all going to die.

I never said any of this when Obama won.

Obama didn't go on tape admitting to sexual assault or at the very least, thinking little of women.

At the end of the day, you decided those words were defensible and it's utterly shocking that anyone would be willing to defend what he said. You share those values as a result.

[TheSaint250]

This thread seems to be all about hatred for Trump voters and thoughts that we are all going to die.

I never said any of this when Obama won.

Obama didn't go on tape admitting to sexual assault or at the very least, thinking little of women.

At the end of the day, you decided those words were defensible and it's utterly shocking that anyone would be willing to defend what he said. You share those values as a result.

No, I don't.  They were disgusting.

[Devout Centrist]

This thread seems to be all about hatred for Trump voters and thoughts that we are all going to die.

I never said any of this when Obama won.

Obama didn't go on tape admitting to sexual assault or at the very least, thinking little of women.

At the end of the day, you decided those words were defensible and it's utterly shocking that anyone would be willing to defend what he said. You share those values as a result.

No, I don't.  They were disgusting.

But then why vote for him? Why not vote for McMullin/Finn or another conservative?

[Canis]

It was like being stabbed in the gut when I had to tell my mother that night that we were going to lose.

Exact same thing happened with me my mom started getting worried after North Carolina so she fell asleep in the morning the burden of telling her we lost was on my

[PregnantChad]

I voted for Hillary and expected her to win.  I wasn't shocked that she didn't b/c I trusted 538's 30% chance that she'd lose the EC.  30% is anything but trivial.  I was a bit shocked at how well he did in the EC vs. what was expected, but perhaps I shouldn't have been.

before election night
My politics are quite liberal, and I virtually always vote for the Democrat in federal elections, but I'm more of a left-leaning swing voter for state and local elections.

In early '16, I was glad Trump was doing well in the Republican primaries - not just because I thought he'd be pretty beatable, but he seemed less partisan, less tied to the religious right, and less connected to DC than the other candidates.  And I do have a streak of "let's take care of own first" but w/o the ugly side of nationalism that we're still seeing - in many countries lately.  For around a day or two in July, after Comey first stuck his neck out but before Pence was on the ticket (and certainly before that bizarre convention), I contemplated voting for Trump.  Between July and the first debate, I vacillated between voting for Hillary or not voting at all.  When Trump and Hillary finally faced off on the same stage, she was saying "don't trust him with the nuclear codes"  and he was more worried about Rosie O'Donnell.  That sealed it for me.

I've had a bit of a news addiction for a while now, and b/c the election was so strange and ugly, and b/c I really started loathing and fearing Trump, I became more and more agitated and obsessed (checking 538, these forums more frequently) as we got closer to Election Day.

Election Night/Next Morning
I was working part-time and got into work a little late after voting in the morning.  I'm in NJ, but taking no chances I voted for Hillary and was fairly proud to do so despite some misgivings.  I had an assignment that absolutely needed to be done by the next morning, but I kept focusing on the news.  There were plenty of early signs that it would be a bad night, but I downplayed them or, not having access to this forum, simply didn't recognize them at all.  I was hoping she'd do well enough in FL that that state, and basically the election would be called pretty early and comfortably so I could attend to my work (it turned out that even a FL win would not get her to 270).

Between 8 and 10 ET, it was obviously going to be too close for comfort.  FL looked close for a while, but looked (and was) lost when Broward was counted, the votes were even, and there were only some parts of the panhandle left to be counted.  I remembered from the previous cycle or two the way VA returns come in, and although she ultimately did alright there, that state bothered me more than I thought it would've -- in the meantime FL and NC were gone, but I knew she still had the ~279 firewall path.  I had been comparing returns to CNN exit polls - I think I looked at FL (dicey), PA (dicey), OH (fuhgettaboutit).  It didn't ever occur to me to look at MN/WI/MI.

I went back to my work thinking that it's gonna be razor thin, but she can still pull it out.  No sense in obsessing every minute - just wait for the firewall states to be called.  I checked in around 10:30 and almost laughed to myself in disbelief how easily he won OH.  Even then, w/o the real-time wisdom of these boards, I naively thought she'd eek out those firewall states. Around midnight, I see that his EV count was nearly 270 and was shocked when I looked at the map and saw WI colored red.  At this point, I realized she needed a miracle.  Social media is lit up like a Christmas tree with jubilation for some friends but panic for most. When I was done ranting and chatting, I checked the map again, I see him over 270 and that PA was the clincher.  Between the thoughts of "it's OK - I'm white, middle class, and live in suburbia" and "well Austria was nice when we visited there once" I managed to finish my work.  I sent it off and drove home as the sun was rising.  Walked in the door, let out a guttural scream, and had a hard time settling down but eventually fell asleep (I think after watching the concession speech).

afterward / my perspective for some of the younger liberals who've posted their experiences and feelings
There is some good advice above that bears repeating - from people of a variety of political persuasions.  Most importantly: your life and health are far too important to cede to friggin Donald Trump. 

I am almost middle-aged.  From my perspective this country has been in decline for around my whole lifetime (40 years) and I'll never understand the Reagan worship.  I've dealt with electoral disappointment (2004) and the sting lessens over time.  Having said that, 2004 made me sad; 2016 made me angry.  I still am.  I never thought I'd say it in a million years, but if you kept Cheney and Rumsfeld out, I'd love W Bush to be president instead of the absolute vile trash we have now.  I've never seen or learned about anything like this in modern American history.  My hope is that we can come out of it and reverse some of the damage (and not get blown up in the meantime).

While there are some educated and very thoughtful people on here who, for their legitimate reasons, are happy about the election result, I've had to cut people out of my life b/c of it.  Their behavior during the election season and afterward showed me their ugly side -- their Trump cheerleading was a symptom of bigger, uglier problems - in sum, the lack of empathy toward others they feel are not like themselves.

My advice is rather than stew, worry and be angry, get involved - not necessarily in ugly politics but in defending the people and causes you believe are threatened.  Pick a couple that are most important to you.  Consume the news in small doses - or, when it gets to be too much, ignore it for a few days.  (I tend to go in cycles with this.  Lately I've been watching more since I feel like I'm watching a historical circus of a scandal unfold, and we just might get out of this thing sooner than feared.)  I'm sure my mid-life shifts in people and priorities have something to do with it, but I've given up a corporate career and am taking a pay cut to do something that will impact people more directly.  If these 6 months post-election have revealed anything, it's that getting active can beat back some of the worst threats and that there are so many more of us than there are of the real deplorables.  We have families who have braved worse political conditions than these in order to give us better lives.  My family's been here long enough that my grandfathers played their small roles in defeating Nazis and kamikaze pilots.  Surely we have what it takes to outwork, outsmart and eventually minimize a life-long scam artist with a pee fetish.

[Horus]

I was close to 100% sure that Trump would win.

[Kingpoleon]

This thread seems to be all about hatred for Trump voters and thoughts that we are all going to die.

I never said any of this when Obama won.

Obama didn't go on tape admitting to sexual assault or at the very least, thinking little of women.

At the end of the day, you decided those words were defensible and it's utterly shocking that anyone would be willing to defend what he said. You share those values as a result.

Do you now support all the words Hillary spoke ten or twenty or thirty years ago?

[Devout Centrist]

This thread seems to be all about hatred for Trump voters and thoughts that we are all going to die.

I never said any of this when Obama won.

Obama didn't go on tape admitting to sexual assault or at the very least, thinking little of women.

At the end of the day, you decided those words were defensible and it's utterly shocking that anyone would be willing to defend what he said. You share those values as a result.

Do you now support all the words Hillary spoke ten or twenty or thirty years ago?

Not necessarily, but if an audio recording of her saying she sexually assaulted men or used derogatory terms to describe men came out, I would have voted for Johnson.

[Mr. Smith]

This thread seems to be all about hatred for Trump voters and thoughts that we are all going to die.

I never said any of this when Obama won.

Funny, that's precisely what I remember when I lived in Appalachia, it was all about how Obama was the Anti-Christ back then. Them Liberty folk were probably the most disconsolate.

I can still remember how people were when the state stayed for Obama despite trailing the state all the way until the last hour or so. Couldn't go to a Food Lion without someone ramblin' and stocking up.

I remember how Romney was supposed to flip Pennsylvania and Florida and Nevada and all that.

[Kingpoleon]

This thread seems to be all about hatred for Trump voters and thoughts that we are all going to die.

I never said any of this when Obama won.

Obama didn't go on tape admitting to sexual assault or at the very least, thinking little of women.

At the end of the day, you decided those words were defensible and it's utterly shocking that anyone would be willing to defend what he said. You share those values as a result.

Do you now support all the words Hillary spoke ten or twenty or thirty years ago?

Not necessarily, but if an audio recording of her saying she sexually assaulted men or used derogatory terms to describe men came out, I would have voted for Johnson.

What about her blatant threat to the women Bill Clinton sexually assaulted?

"I think we're going to find some other things. And I think that when all of this is put into context, and we really look at the people involved here, look at their motivations and look at their backgrounds, look at their past behavior, some folks are going to have a lot to answer for." - Hillary Clinton

"It was a lapse, but she says to his credit he tried to break it off, tried to pull away, tried to manage someone who was clearly a 'narcissistic loony toon;' but it was beyond control." - Diane Blair

You must be logged in to read this quote.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/11/politics/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-bill-clinton-accusers/


To vote for the Clintons because of Trump's alleged record on sexual assault is lunacy, plain and simple.