<p><span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://mastodon.social/@film_girl" class="u-url mention">@<span>film_girl</span></a></span> Today, for me, feels much like the day, decades ago, when I realized all of democratic voting was a scam and that not one political party has MY BEST INTERESTS at heart. I am disabled and require $1,000 pair of glasses every few years. I live in Canada and have never received this money from the government. My mother had to pay for my glasses all my life.</p>

<p>In a lot of ways, today doesn’t feel like 2016 to me - it feels like 2004 (which was my first election). The despair and heartbreak I feel today feels like that. The anger too. 2016 was a system shock. But 2004, the electorate decidedly rejected the values I held dear in favor of a proven con man and cadre of cronies and criminals. And there is something much more painful about that reality. When you have to acknowledge your work and your values weren’t enough. And maybe your tactics were wrong.</p>

<p><span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://mastodon.social/@film_girl" class="u-url mention">@<span>film_girl</span></a></span> Goes both ways. If my coping mechanism is to offer warmth and reassurance and try to close ranks and build together, that&#39;s surely might as much as it&#39;s your right to wail and gnash your teeth.</p><p>The work is never enough, it was not enough before we got here and it will not be enough when we are gone, but we do it anyway. Sometimes we do it undismayed, sometimes we do it with our eyes streaming tears. But we don&#39;t quit.</p>

<p><span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://mastodon.social/@film_girl" class="u-url mention">@<span>film_girl</span></a></span> Just as the children yearn for the mines, the conservatives yearn for fascism. I don’t know what the work people think we’re going to do.</p>

<p><span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://mastodon.social/@film_girl" class="u-url mention">@<span>film_girl</span></a></span> <br />Yes.</p><p>Dealing with the grief is an important first step, no matter what you&#39;re going to do next. </p><p>Repressing does not end well.</p>

<p><span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://mastodon.social/@film_girl" class="u-url mention">@<span>film_girl</span></a></span> absolutely. I am angry as fuck too. I feel sick to my stomach. But as a gay person of color with a Z in his last name, the one thing THEY will NEVER get from me is being afraid. That’s all I am saying. Never ever ever ever. I will go to my grave being unafraid of them. We fight like hell.</p>

<p><span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://mastodon.social/@film_girl" class="u-url mention">@<span>film_girl</span></a></span> seems to be the strategy that&#39;s the issue and not the work. That&#39;s the maddening thing.</p>

<p><span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://mastodon.social/@film_girl" class="u-url mention">@<span>film_girl</span></a></span> I&#39;m an Uber driver at Disney World. Today (not kidding) 5 of 7 rides going back to airport were PA folks. 4 Philly, and 3 the &quot;T&quot; (ie: red area) of PA. OF those, Only 2 people in one of my rides voted - AT ALL! They said they were too sick of all the constant ads in PA! 2 people of 16 found it in their hearts to early-vote before escaping to WDW! Oh, and they told me all this without me asking a thing! Each of the 5 rides just brought up the election.</p><p>This hurts. It really does!</p>

<p><span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://mastodon.social/@film_girl" class="u-url mention">@<span>film_girl</span></a></span> Truly underestimated the level of hatred and inability to empathize, it’s such bullshit</p>