Stay
President Obama has left us with a very important, lasting legacy: The ideology that when they go low, we go high. Those weren’t just words for an election; they are a rallying cry that we need to put into place always. Not just for the next two years until the mid-term elections. Not just for the next four years as we endure the new administration. Not just in politics.
We need to keep going high.
We need to keep facing racism and homophobia and antisemitism and misogyny and… well… this list is frighteningly long. But we need to keep facing these lows and going high.
Our family will not be going anywhere. We will be staying right here and continuing to fight the good fight so that we can actually keep America great since it’s pretty damn good as is.
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Though, of course, there are plenty of places beyond the isms that we can fix.
Two years from now:
- There are at least 33 Senate seats up for election.
- There are at least 435 House seats up for election.
- There are at least 36 governorships up for election.
Rather than joke about moving, stay and help love trump hate by getting out the vote in those elections.
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Week ago, my father slipped a Madam President magnet on my refrigerator, and it has been making me smile every time I made dinner. Looking at it this morning made my heart hurt, but I’m not taking it down. Clinton may not be our first woman president, but she — like Susan B Anthony and Shirley Chisholm — is a stepping stone toward that goal of assuring our daughters that they really can be anything.
So I’m leaving it up. She’s staying.
16 comments
Deep breath.
YES.
Yes. Yes. Yes. My comment to my daughter this morning, when she asked if “our Hillary” won was “No. but that just means YOU can still be the first woman president.” We are staying. We will fight the good fight. We will stay true to ourselves and our honest values. We. Can. Do. This.
When I talk about moving, I’m not joking. I am tired of fighting an uphill battle in a historically red state where it seems most of the electorate is too apathetic to get out and vote and the rest support positions and candidates I can’t support.
Yes!
Yup. We are not going anywhere. So we stay here and get to work I guess. After an appropriate mourning period.
She ALMOST did it. She got a whole lot further than any other woman before her. She actually won the popular vote. As she herself said today, it’s only a matter of time, and hopefully sooner than later. In the meantime, it’s up to all of us to continue to fight the good fight.
To be honest, growing up, and for a long, long time as an adult, I found it hard to believe that a woman would ever be elected president of the United States within my lifetime. (And now I am left wondering again if I will ever live to see the day.) On the other hand, I most certainly thought I would see a woman take that office before a black man. So life does hold surprises…
I am old enough to remember other times, other elections, when the result seemed horrific & unthinkable. For example: the elections of Ronald Reagan & George W. Bush (twice!!), the election of an openly separatist government for the first time in Quebec (1976) and not just one but two referendums on Quebec independence (1980 & 1995). It wasn’t always pretty, but we survived. This too shall pass. Maybe not soon enough or without inflicting damage, but eventually…
I don’t understand the US voting system. Any chance you could do a blog post to explain how it works please? In my eyes the person who gets the most votes wins and that wasn’t Trump!
Sian, here are a couple of articles that explains the U.S. electoral college system. It’s not very well understood (not surprisingly…!).
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/09/us/politics/how-does-the-electoral-college-work.html?_r=0
http://www.npr.org/2016/11/06/500660424/how-the-electoral-college-works-and-why-you-don-t-want-to-think-about-it
We stay high. Yes, this.
And we stay.
The thought of moving isn’t a joke to me. It’s an exit plan for if things get too unsafe here. I pray I never have to use it. But I need it to be there.
To be blunt, it’s easier for those of us who are white and not of one of the targeted races, religions, sexual identity/orientation, etc. to talk about staying. There are certain groups who should be justifiably scared.
Oh, yes. It is beyond time for the US to let a woman lead your country.
Thank you ?
I have always admired your willingness to hear people out – alongside your refusal to let anyone of either side of the argument get nasty. Now more than ever the world needs that kind of attitude.
I’m wondering where these Americans who talk about leaving think they can go. Canada has strict immigration requirements, so does Australia. Europe has millions on its doorstep who are living in tents because their homes are in rubble, and are quibbling about how many to let in. There’s been a right-wing surge in Britain, and France might end up voting in an extreme right-wing party next spring.
Wasn’t it Michele Obama who said “when they go low, we go high” though? I wouldn’t object to her being our first female president, but I doubt she’d ever set herself up for that kind of nonsense. She’d probably be better than anyone we’ve had for the past century.