Election aftermath: frustrated and sad
Nov. 10th, 2016 05:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mtbcFrom exit polls we know that the Trump voters tend to be rural, low-income, low-education, older people. If they are having trouble making ends meet and do not feel prosperous then can't help but wonder what on Earth they were thinking. Clinton wanted to raise taxes on the rich and preserve social security and the affordable care act subsidies. She wanted to preserve the trade agreements that keep products cheap in Walmart. She was encouraging of the immigrants who boost the economy (mostly in cities, and who pay tax accordingly) more than the average native-born American and she wanted to make college affordable for the latter. Did they want the government to be taking less money from the wealthy, giving less money to the poor, or did they just want to be paying more for goods and healthcare? I don't see the mechanism here that brings the jobs in manufacturing or mining or whatever back though perhaps they were planning to smash up the computers too. The unkind side of me looks forward to watching these voters reap what they just sowed.
Except, now we get to watch Obama's legacy burned to ashes: our lesson for audaciously investing in a politics of hope. A look at rumored appointments is already alarming enough and Myron Ebell leading the EPA transition team says it all. We are going to see business largely free to pollute, exploit, whatever it likes: they will take the profit and everybody will pay the price. Healthcare and education costs will freely rise. Now I have had time to sleep and think on the outcome of the election I am distracted and sad. I hope it passes in time but I am unusually avoiding political news to be able to actually get my paid work done. I wasn't upset by Bush Jr's election in any similar way despite thinking him not even credible as a candidate but it is hard for me to ignore my sense that this latest outcome will significantly harm so many people in so many long-lasting ways, it's tragic.
Update: Further reporting on exit polls now suggests that many Trump voters are more affluent, though not educated. Some kind of xenophobic insularity does appear to be a supported hypothesis; perhaps the rise of social diversity engenders fear of the unknown.
Except, now we get to watch Obama's legacy burned to ashes: our lesson for audaciously investing in a politics of hope. A look at rumored appointments is already alarming enough and Myron Ebell leading the EPA transition team says it all. We are going to see business largely free to pollute, exploit, whatever it likes: they will take the profit and everybody will pay the price. Healthcare and education costs will freely rise. Now I have had time to sleep and think on the outcome of the election I am distracted and sad. I hope it passes in time but I am unusually avoiding political news to be able to actually get my paid work done. I wasn't upset by Bush Jr's election in any similar way despite thinking him not even credible as a candidate but it is hard for me to ignore my sense that this latest outcome will significantly harm so many people in so many long-lasting ways, it's tragic.
Update: Further reporting on exit polls now suggests that many Trump voters are more affluent, though not educated. Some kind of xenophobic insularity does appear to be a supported hypothesis; perhaps the rise of social diversity engenders fear of the unknown.
