Somehow, Palpatine Has Returned
Nov. 6th, 2024 08:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jakebe
Well.
What hurts the most is that after everything we've seen, 70 million Americans chose a convicted criminal to run an authoritarian government for the next four years. Somehow, over 50% of the people who voted looked at January 6th, scores of felony convictions, blatant misogyny, contempt for the rule of law, the promise of a government for the rich, and said..."Yeah, that's my guy."
It's hard to believe that this country is willing to become such a twisted version of itself, but here we are.
I'm surprised that I don't feel more shock and despair, but maybe those emotions are lying in wait for me at some future date. In 2016, I felt genuine grief for the future we would have to lay to rest; maybe in 2024, some part of me knows there's nothing left to mourn. How can I identify with a nation that props up the worst of us to lead?
My focus, right now, is on whatever I can control. I should have done this already, but I'll make a point of renewing my passport ASAP and making sure my forms of identification are as current as they can be. I should (finally) gather my various 401Ks and transfer them to a single IRA at my credit union. Just in case same-sex marriage is repealed (or banned) nationally, I should set up Snepperboo as my legal proxy if anything should happen. I should look up a local mutual-aid network and encourage a more active, formalized support network among my friends. For me, the name of the game is self-reliance.
At the very least, I can anticipate the government to be incompetently run for the next four years. The next administration has already signaled it will be intensely anti-science, anti-social, and deeply uninterested in protecting the vulnerable among us. All we have is each other; best-case scenario, we can just pretend the government doesn't exist so we can get shit done ourselves.
But the worst-case scenario is so, so bad. We could be dealing with mass deportations (even in blue states), an administration dead-set on taking out their grievances on political enemies and consolidating power; tariffs that will effectively break the economy and possibly throw us into a depression, a wildly-chaotic foreign policy that favors other authoritarian regimes. There will be no forward movement on climate change, and in fact most of the policies that have been quietly implemented by Biden will probably be shredded a hundred different ways by Trump and the Republican-controlled Senate. Wholly unqualified, deeply undemocratic people will be appointed to positions where they can deepen the damage through neglect, hostile policies, and aggressive dismantling of the social safety net. The courts, which will be filled with judges willing to weaponize the law to gain power, won't stop any of this. Our system of government is going to be so, so hostile to our way of life.
And I'm in California. I can only imagine what this looks like for people in Texas, Florida, the Deep South. So many Americans are held hostage by neighbors who want them to disappear. I am a queer black neurodivergent Buddhist. I know this country doesn't consider me a part of it, but I'm relatively insulated from direct experience on that. So many friends are in worse positions, and it's important to me that I hold myself together enough to show up for them.
2016 threw me into a depression spiral that took me years to come out of -- years to even realize I was in one. I don't aim to repeat that experience, but I also don't aim to burn myself out on rage and sadness either. I don't know what actions I can or will take to make the world a better place from here, but I'm committed to doing more than shivering in my burrow at least.
We're in for some dark times. But each of us can be a light to help each other through.
What hurts the most is that after everything we've seen, 70 million Americans chose a convicted criminal to run an authoritarian government for the next four years. Somehow, over 50% of the people who voted looked at January 6th, scores of felony convictions, blatant misogyny, contempt for the rule of law, the promise of a government for the rich, and said..."Yeah, that's my guy."
It's hard to believe that this country is willing to become such a twisted version of itself, but here we are.
I'm surprised that I don't feel more shock and despair, but maybe those emotions are lying in wait for me at some future date. In 2016, I felt genuine grief for the future we would have to lay to rest; maybe in 2024, some part of me knows there's nothing left to mourn. How can I identify with a nation that props up the worst of us to lead?
My focus, right now, is on whatever I can control. I should have done this already, but I'll make a point of renewing my passport ASAP and making sure my forms of identification are as current as they can be. I should (finally) gather my various 401Ks and transfer them to a single IRA at my credit union. Just in case same-sex marriage is repealed (or banned) nationally, I should set up Snepperboo as my legal proxy if anything should happen. I should look up a local mutual-aid network and encourage a more active, formalized support network among my friends. For me, the name of the game is self-reliance.
At the very least, I can anticipate the government to be incompetently run for the next four years. The next administration has already signaled it will be intensely anti-science, anti-social, and deeply uninterested in protecting the vulnerable among us. All we have is each other; best-case scenario, we can just pretend the government doesn't exist so we can get shit done ourselves.
But the worst-case scenario is so, so bad. We could be dealing with mass deportations (even in blue states), an administration dead-set on taking out their grievances on political enemies and consolidating power; tariffs that will effectively break the economy and possibly throw us into a depression, a wildly-chaotic foreign policy that favors other authoritarian regimes. There will be no forward movement on climate change, and in fact most of the policies that have been quietly implemented by Biden will probably be shredded a hundred different ways by Trump and the Republican-controlled Senate. Wholly unqualified, deeply undemocratic people will be appointed to positions where they can deepen the damage through neglect, hostile policies, and aggressive dismantling of the social safety net. The courts, which will be filled with judges willing to weaponize the law to gain power, won't stop any of this. Our system of government is going to be so, so hostile to our way of life.
And I'm in California. I can only imagine what this looks like for people in Texas, Florida, the Deep South. So many Americans are held hostage by neighbors who want them to disappear. I am a queer black neurodivergent Buddhist. I know this country doesn't consider me a part of it, but I'm relatively insulated from direct experience on that. So many friends are in worse positions, and it's important to me that I hold myself together enough to show up for them.
2016 threw me into a depression spiral that took me years to come out of -- years to even realize I was in one. I don't aim to repeat that experience, but I also don't aim to burn myself out on rage and sadness either. I don't know what actions I can or will take to make the world a better place from here, but I'm committed to doing more than shivering in my burrow at least.
We're in for some dark times. But each of us can be a light to help each other through.
no subject
Date: 2024-11-07 12:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-11-07 04:45 am (UTC)It's been so exhausting for so very long and I sincerely thought we were starting to recover.