I woke up filled with hope…and nerves…and excitement…and feeling just really scared…therefore Bert, our pet alpaca seemed like the appropriate mascot for Nov 4, 2024. You see, our sweet, sweet Bert is surprised and scared by his own reflection, multiple times a day. “Intruder!! Alien! New Ugly Lover to mount!!” Whatever he is thinking, he’s both scared and excited, and I really get that today. I wrote a 5-page rambling essay over the weekend with my thoughts and feelings about how and why I haven’t really expressed said thoughts and feelings about the election here. And then I saved it to my journal drafts and started this post. It wasn’t a specific strategy, it just never felt like I was the right one to add to the conversation, which might be wrong but that’s what it was – and it says a lot about this election. It felt to me like once the Democrats had a viable candidate most people made their choice (secretly or vocally), with very few actual “undecideds” to sway. For those voting for Trump the spell seems unbreakable, and no design blogger or “influencer” was going to move the needle. Y’all, we’ve known this guy for 8 years now. He is the house guest that will not leave. We can all quote his nasty insults because they are so frequent and sadly “normal”. This time? … election #3 with this orange fellow? I think people are either 1. reluctantly voting for him, prioritizing other conservative values, 2. are willing to ignore his antics and threats to democracy because his policies benefit them (or make them feel more comfortable), or 3. for many, they have learned to enjoy his brand of personality and governance, finding it all refreshing and rebellious. “Sticking it to the man!” Even if he is the actual man. Regardless it’s all out of fear, right? People are scared of change, scared of moving forward, scared of staying the same, or (for many of us) really scared of going back. Imagine a country where every single person right now is scared. It’s like Saw and Squid Games had a baby, and we all have to take care of it.
I wrote about these same political fears four years ago here and honestly, on the bad days, where I’m angry at those who don’t see things the same way, it has helped me reframe it all and understand the other side. Here’s how I break it down: Republicans are scared that a Democrat will be too progressive and shove “wokism” down our children’s throats, that they’ll dismantle what they consider normal family values, defund the police, take away guns, open the borders, and jack up our taxes to pay for the things that people should really be doing for themselves. I get those fears – I don’t have the same ones, but I’m sure there are some Dems who are more extreme and the conservative news loves to highlight them. Democrats, on the other hand, are afraid that a Republican will dismantle important social and climate programs, restrict our personal freedoms and rights (especially minorities, LBGTQ, and women’s), and privatize everything – inflaming capitalism’s negative effects and making the oppressed even more oppressed. All of these fears, on both sides, come from our personal experiences, values, religions, communities, and peer groups – we don’t just decide to be scared. But we sure do react badly when we are. So we choose a side that aligns more with our values and for a lot of people, it’s being a Republican. But y’all…Trump is not a normal Republican. He is extreme, to put it lightly. We have known this about him for years, he’s been very clear about his goals and yet here we are.
Me? I’m scared of some of the above in a normal election, but this year so much more – I have “Trump 2024” specific fears. I’m scared of the freedom he’ll give the tech world – unregulated AI and social media are real threats to our kids’ mental and physical health and Musk is buying recklessness. I’m scared of the power of the conservative Supreme Court – reversing the social progress we have made towards equal rights on every front (including basic women’s reproductive rights, not to mention racial and LGBTQIA+). It could be really, really bad. Again, he is not a normal Republican. I think many of us would do anything for Mitt Romney to be the candidate. Not Trump. Never Trump.
And yet, I’m also really scared of how we are talking to each other and ironically I’m scared of posting about this all on the internet. I have years of evidence that people are behaving badly right now and that regardless of what anyone says, the attacks will come. I call it the “toddler-dom of the internet’ – a nation full of anonymous kids in a full temper tantrum and there seems to be no parent in charge. The rage that would never exist IRL really thrives on the web – because social media is young and we haven’t yet learned how to properly behave. Our internet frontal lobe is still developing. To be clear, the internet on a good day feels scary, tbh, but during an election cycle with the algorithm pumping out the worst of the worst ugly lies and extreme stories from both sides? It’s a mental minefield.
If you haven’t voted because you weren’t motivated yet, please DO for the love of god. I hear Harris is the better choice:) And if you are on the fence, or feel weird about voting against the party that you’ve identified with for a long time – I get that, but he’s not your guy. Not this time. Again, he’s not a normal Republican.
So all I can say at this point is the cringy phrase of “thoughts and prayers”. Crossing all these sausage fingers and rubbing our pigs and alpacas for good luck. This season of “America, the TV show” will surely be gripping. And I hope for the sake of every. single. American. that our breakout star will be our first female president. Plus, if Trump loses, he and I can go back to having our one special thing in common: our mutual love of a bad self-tan after too much self-indulging. We both do that so well.
*Photo by Kaitlin Green
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