Like many Americans, I watched the election results unfold with a mix of shock and horror. I was excited to have cast a vote for the first woman president. Trump was simply unthinkable: completely unqualified, openly racist, an accused child rapist with a dozen sexual assault accusations in the weeks before the election, someone who openly mocked disabled people and treated the parents of a fallen war hero with scorn, a person who was willing to race-bait to win votes, a candidate with the endorsement of the KKK, who threatened to jail his opponent and threatening her life–encouraging his “second amendment” followers to “take action.” I was appalled to see FB friends call things I had seen him say & do with my own eyes “liberal lies” and to excuse his boasts of sexual assault as mere “locker room talk.” I had assured my kids that America was too great a place to let someone like this get elected to the highest office in the land. So I thought.
What I saw as a bug was a feature to many of his supporters. To others who voted for him despite these things, his objectionable qualities were something they were willing to overlook as a political expedient for various reasons. Although I am not a democrat and was lukewarm on some of Clinton’s policies, I could not bring myself to vote for a candidate so unfit even if I had liked his policies. Everyone has their limit. If I were hiring staff for my business, I would have disqualified him for his thin-skinned tweets alone. Handing him the nuclear codes seemed reckless at best.
We now have a president who is such a prolific tweeter that his tweeting style has become a meme. You can see his style used to tweet the classics of literature, read about how to write a fake Donald tweet, or see his tweets likened to whiny emo lyrics. In today’s post, I wanted to document a few tweets from the wake of that election night that I felt were particularly on point.
How many of us feel.
https://twitter.com/Ju_JustGetsIt/status/796213259959435264
On the topic of racism, this. And if you’re not openly racist, but you’re OK with using racism to win the election, guess what . . . race-baiting is racism.
https://twitter.com/EMZ_ARTS/status/796225094204801024
Technically, the child rape is a civil case because the statute of limitations has run out, but as Trump himself pointed out, rich guys get away with this stuff. They can just pay it off.
Another great point.
https://twitter.com/jenstatsky/status/796219946069938176
This isn’t the liberal media, folks. This is Trump actually doing this. Spin and context don’t change the fact that he’s literally mocking the disabled.
Nobody liked hearing this one.
Prof. Ben Park agreed.
Trump’s prophetic, I’ll grant him that.
How do I see the different views of women each candidate represents?
How I certainly felt as the results came in.
And this.
The hypocrisy of the religious right really pissed me off. Still does.
Watching Utahns vote for Trump in droves was another blow.
https://twitter.com/heydudekyle/status/796204383482433537
I wasn’t the only one unhappy with what’s Utah’s vote reveals.
Not-so-strange bedfellows.
Many of us wondered how could this happen?
Fake LDS Newsroom weighed in.
Why were people so blind-sided?
https://twitter.com/bartonswaim/status/796210549172371457
When whites decide to act like a disenfranchised minority.
Ricky Gervais, nailing it from across the pond.
In response to the church’s form response to the president elect, encouraging members to pray for him.
Any port in a storm.
If he tries something crazy? IF??
Another political irony.
https://twitter.com/casinclair/status/796209559618498560
Trump is all about family values.
BCC’s astute observation on the gravitas we’ve grown to expect from the right.
Ever the pragmatist, Bobby D. doesn’t want the Secret Service paying him a visit. And thus, the healing begins.
Ah, a silver lining.
And from the group Pantsuit Nation, a group of 3 million (mostly) women supporting Hillary, a group I was proud to join.
https://twitter.com/3L_belle/status/796586819819372544
Van Jones, coining a term we’ll be hearing more of. I choked up listening to him speak on CNN.
Ultimately, this was the only thing of comfort for a lot of us.
https://twitter.com/hawkgrrrl/status/796577966125973504
There were many more, but these are just a few I wanted to share. Did any of you follow the election on twitter? Any poignant tweets to share? Please keep your responses to 140 characters or less.
Discuss.
P.S. As to the election, what’s done is done. My path forward includes the following:
- I do want to understand what so many of us overlooked–the feelings of our fellow citizens that led to this outcome. Can we find conciliatory policies to meet their needs that don’t endanger minorities or set civil rights back or normalize rape culture? I will hope that we do. I will hold this administration and my fellow citizens accountable for it to the extent I am able.
- We must all stand together against racism, sexism and homophobia. We must model the behavior we want. This can’t result in erosion of liberties for the most vulnerable among us. Civil rights should never be a “trickle down” approach, and neither should racism. Emboldening racists, particularly in rural communities, was a dangerous strategy. The Golem is out–we need to keep it under control.
- With a GOP in control, it’s time to see if conservative policies are effective or not. Conservatives did the unthinkable to gain power, but that’s done, so now it’s a question of results. Second terms happen when first terms yield good results.
- We need more women running for office and running for president if we want women’s interests to be taken seriously and understood. This election was a blow to many of us who care about the status of women, not only as capable leaders, but also as worthy of respect and basic human dignity, not simply pussies to be grabbed. If AZ didn’t pay so little for these offices, I’d even consider a run.
Wheat & Tares 
I’m not a Trump fan and he is neither statesman nor gentleman, but he won fair and square in fair and free voting. It is untrue and uncharitable to characterize all Trump voters as racist, sexist, or stupid, or to characterize LDS voters for Trump as unfaithful.
We need to sustain and pray for him.
You’re grieving a loss. I’m sorry for your loss. Life goes on.
Beyond me how Pres. Tangerine will pass background check and get security clearance.
I think it is disingenuous to support the view that varying forms of prejudice were the primary motivating factor for Trump supporters. Obviously it did play a part, but I think we are doing ourselves a disservice by not understanding the myriad of reasons why he won (full disclosure: I was riding the Never Trump Train to the bitter end). Here are other factors that contributed to Trump’s win:
-Voter suppression
-More enthusiasm about Trump than Clinton
-Clinton was not a good candidate
-Trump acknowledged real concerns that people have
Clinton’s choice to run as anti-Trump rather than pro-Clinton in hindsight was a poor choice
For all who didn’t vote for him, I think we need to understand Trump voters’ concerns to understand why they could possibly support a guy like him. I don’t see the value in continuing to denigrate Trump supporters: that only serves to deepen the polarization in our already fractured country. Go have a heart-to-heart with Trump supporters you know. I’ve been doing that the past couple days and it’s been helpful (though I’m still convinced he’s a terrible choice).
For everyone who is still up in arms about Trump, just think about how you’d react if Clinton won the Electoral College, lost the popular vote, and Trump supporters were protesting/rioting.
Let’s get more Democrats in at midterms and keep Trump to a single term president (if he’s not impeached by then for dong something crazy).
The ones who “weren’t” racist were willing to vote for a racist president.
Don’t rationalize or fool yourselves. This is nothing short of a national disgrace and possibly the end of American democracy.
@anon
In answer to my own question, the prez don’t need no stinkin’ security clearance.
https://news.clearancejobs.com/2016/07/25/kind-security-clearance-president-get/
Oh well. Hoping the Peachy One will be impeached & plucked before he nukes somebody who offends him on Twitter.
What I think we are all starting to see is that, like every president we’ve ever elected, he intends to drop the majority of his most outrageous campaign promises. Whew!
@angela
“he intends to drop the majority of his most outrageous campaign promises”
Exactly. My wife and I are pretty scared and depressed, and we talked about it on our road trip this weekend: (1) The founding fathers were pretty wise, and we can only hope that the system of government they designed so well is strong enough to withstand even this disaster. (2) Despite what he thinks, the prez elect isn’t a dictator–he’ll have to work within the system and, hopefully, that will help mitigate any damage. (3) We intend to redouble our efforts to support causes and people who now need our support more than ever: the environment, immigrants, minorities, LGBT, and planned parenthood, to name a few.
John Oliver expresses what I’m thinking: https://www.youtube.com/user/LastWeekTonight
The most important point that Oliver makes, in my view, is that we musn’t *normalize* the prez elect and what he represents. We must remind ourselves every day that what he represents isn’t normal and it doesn’t represent American values.
Ji, I think we got where we are because bright people got it all wrong ie they ignored their feelings and those of others. It’s part of their education.
Trump is our darkside, our shadow. That may explain why Utah voted for him, maybe he says the things out loud that nice people don’t want to say. I’m hoping that we will start taking into account what we struggle with, and work on it, in order to increase civility.
Clearly we don’t manage that when we stick our fingers in our ears and whistle a happy tune.
Thanks for these tweets, they document a process, we need to know our history in order not to repeat it.
I pray for him, but with little faith given the lies that he has told in order to get into office. I believe in dealing with reality. I won’t sustain him or anyone else when they do evil, I’ll call it out to the best of my ability.
It’s important to know that we are not alone in the effort to resist evil.
Donald Trump wasn’t my 1st choice in candidates, but he’s pulling in some people who were in primaries past. I hope everyone is pleasantly surprised by his programs in the next two years.
Thanks to ji for the comment. Much more rational than the others, that reek of isms/ists/phobes; completely ignoring the documented evidence against HC.
It’s a comedian’s Nirvana.
I live in rural America and watched with horror as my fellow community members drove Trump support entries in our small town parade early in the summer. I couldn’t understand how they could overlook everything Hawkgrrrl highlighted. As I was watching on the news at what was going on in Portland, I was contrasting that economically successful city compared to the impoverished county I live in. They have recovered from 2008, this county has not. They have lots of doctors and great hospitals. Rural America continues to have doctor shortages and even though they may have insurance, it is hard to find a doctor that is taking new patients. More people have Medicaid programs, but Medicaid programs have made cuts, so people with pain have difficulty getting MRI’s, specialized care, or surgery because they do not get prior authorization. Jobs are not abundant. Social issues that have been milestones of Obama’s admin are not at the top of the priority list for rural Americans. I noticed as did friends of mine that on freeways between cities, Trump signs were almost the only signs you would see.
I am shocked that this voting block made the difference. I wouldn’t have guessed that they would have had that much unified power. I suspect many of the people in my rural community are closet Trump supporters. I don’t believe he can bring rural America the change that those supporters are hoping for, but those supporters at least sense it is on his radar.
The Hillary tweet I would like to have seen:
Bernie, tomorrow’s debate may ask how to help people in Flint, MI affected by water contamination. Thought I would share a heads up out of fairness.
I was against Trump on many levels, but I absolutely couldn’t get past his disgraceful, disgusting talk about women.
Sorry JI: If you voted for him there are only two options: 1) you either didn’t hear it (uninformed) or 2) you were ok with it (sexist).
One tweet I found entertaining and accurate:
@mike_giglio
Iraqi officer in Mosul on the Trump win: “this is going to be like Hurricane Katrina hitting all 50 states.”
Clinton was not likable nor did I like the pay-to-play history of the Clinton foundation. Nor Benghazi. And yet, Clinton was my only option in this campaign.
The bigger question I have is what could Trump have done that would’ve been so abhorrent that it would’ve turned the vote away from him? The only thing I can think of: If his sexual assaults had been on boys and men rather than women, that might have turned the vote. But only maybe.
Multiple marriages
Married to a Eastern Block country spouse
Wife has history of nude modeling
History of infidelities
History of sexual assault
History of poor business practices
Didn’t pay his venders
Over 3000 lawsuits
Multiple bankruptcies
History of misogyny
Mocks women
Mocks the disabled
Mocks Gold Star parents
Hold grudges
History of petty revenge actions
Does not read. Ever.
Trump managed to capture the attention of the vast forgotten masses. People who had not managed to accomplish their goals or aspirations seemed to see Trump as their savior. Men who felt finacially afraid and want to keep their gender and race privilege and women who see their biggest accomplishment in life as being pretty supported Trump. It was sad to see how many of those people are out there.
The only positive I see is that Trump is so disenfranchised from the RNC that if he messes up while in office, there will not be anyone around to support him. Impeachment could be an easier process.
Anon, 11:18:
“Despite what he thinks, the prez elect isn’t a dictator–he’ll have to work within the system and, hopefully, that will help mitigate any damage. ”
Hopefully, but with Giuliani and Bolton seemingly likely to be Secretary of State and Attorney General–both/either laughable, the damage control will not be in the purview of Congress or The Supreme Court. And Bannon being anywhere near the oval office is already an unmitigated disaster from the “optics” alone! And, the GOP leadership pledging to support Trump’s agenda it is more of the “party before country” and “anything to get re-elected by this newly discovered Trump-like voting bloc. And, the list goes on and on. He wants top security clearance for his children!
If we extrapolate this ______ from just his first week across 4 years of more, or worse, hope is a very optimistic, naive wish.
Utah Active Mormons. All Mormon’s, active and inactive make up slightly more than 60% of Utah’s population. If 1/2 or these are active (optimistic), that is 30% of active Mormons who are in the state.
Trump received about 47% of the popular vote for President. Hillary 28% and McMullin 20%.
I would argue that many, many active Mormon’s voted for McMullin — that almost all of his votes came from active Mormons.
Pointing fingers at fellow Mormon’s in this case is misplaced.
@fbisti
“hope is a very optimistic, naive wish”
I know. I’ve been following recent developments, and I am terrified. The situation is so volatile, I can’t begin to predict what might happen. Trump is basically a psychotic narcissist who never acts without his own interests as the top priority. Just imagine what he might do when he gets his hands on classified information and has the power to launch weapons at a whim. You are absolutely right that bringing his family into the Whitehouse–like the Beverly Hillbillies–magnifies the problems enormously. And, if Trump somehow self-destructs in the next couple of months–a distinct possibility, given the way things are starting out and his track record–then the second in line is Mike Pence. Pence, at least, seems psychologically balanced, has a law degree, and has experience governing. On the other hand, he’s a religious nut who doesn’t believe in evolution, LGBT equality, and womens’ rights. Not much better than Trump, ideologically, but at least he won’t blow up the world. There’s that. I guess you can say I am hopeful, not in the positive sense that everything will work out for the best. More like, I am hopeful that Trump won’t somehow manage to start WWIII. Because he’s an idiot.
In my ward thepower group se e m to believe that being a good member equals being republican, and we are in Australia. A number of them have lived in Utah.
Since the election we hace had facebook message that Trump is a good man.
And then a few days later that Trump was Gods choice.
Both of these get support from a member of the Bishopric.
None of the mainstream parties are anywhere as far to the right as the Republican Party, so very extreme by local standards.
Lily, I think there’s a third choice much more common. Everyone heard what Trump said, and many people aren’t happy with it….
But until we decide that how the female half of the planet is viewed and talked about is important, the third choice is the popular one: I can’t let it matter to me; we’ve got bigger problems.
Thank heaven my husband voted third party/write in. It’s one thing to accept the above approach from your neighbor or ward friends, but I couldn’t have stood it from him. And I know there are lots of happy couples out there who both voted for him. Just sayin’ I couldn’t go there.
There was a great article in vox today explaining why so many women voted for Trump. There had been a pre-election article showing that Trump’s popularity correlated with hostile sexism among his supporters. This post-election article explained why women will support a hostile sexist. http://www.vox.com/identities/2016/11/15/13571478/trump-president-sexual-assault-sexism-misogyny-won
This was a great roundup of tweets. Also I need to start following you on Twitter.