I Found This Necessary

I had originally planned to write about something else for today, but my mind won't stop going in circles over the election.

I'm too much of a pessimist to be entirely surprised by the result, but I'm still disappointed. I had hoped Trump would lose, but was bracing in case he didn't. Pessimism is a good defense against unwelcome outcomes, normally. This one actually put me in a bit of a haze, the kind where I feel like I must be in the middle of an elaborate prank or soap opera. The last time I recall feeling it this strong was seeing my uncle in a coma in the hospital over a decade ago. But it's reality, unfortunately. So I'll do what I usually do when presented with setbacks and obstacles: Curse about it a lot while putting my head down and pushing ahead.

My major concern, beyond how bad things are likely to get for people in practically every minority group, is we may not get the chance to fix this. The Republicans are quite fond of making sure people who don't agree with them can't get their votes in. Gerrymandering districts, bullshit voter ID laws, intimidating voters at the polls. Now they control two of the three branches, and will undoubtedly shove a conservative judge into Scalia's vacated seat as soon as they can. I'm not sure how much more damage they can do, but I expect they do as much as they can get away with.