5 Ways to Get Involved

This is what we decided to do as well! If family members feel they don’t want to donate and instead send gifts anyways (despite our requests) we are donating or returning those gifts.

Too bad. Racism, sexism, misogyny, homophobia, and ableism weren’t a deal breaker for you? Get your lifestyle blog fix elsewhere if you don’t like the message of resistance to the normalization of hatred.

Have been a COJ reader for six years and will always be because of her ability to speak her mind without alienating people ??? This “liberal cry baby” has no tears for privilieged people who wont be affected by oppression.

I am not going to dismiss your angst just because I don’t agree with your viewpoint. Instead, I will leave this here and hope that you will read it and it will resonate. I am not religious by any stretch of the imagination but this is one of the most personally powerful pieces I’ve read on why people are feeling so personally hurt by Trump’s election. As a young college grad, I hope you’ll be able to keep an open mind as you read it and understand where so many of us are coming from. http://www.shannondingle.com/blog//i-want-to-help-you-understand-my-lament

While I am truly sorry you feel hurt and lost I would ask you for a moment to step into the shoes of those that will stand to lose the most by the policies he has promised to put in place. He is an unapologetic bully, racist, misogynist, xenophobic and on and on and you decided, with your vote, all those things were not deal breakers. To many that is the end of the story and the beginning of intense and sustained positive action standing up for the most underrepresented and unseen among us. And if you feel how you voted is not who you are then use the power you have to create positive change that will lead to greater understanding and respect among all people.

Brooke – thanks for your perspective. I agree it is important to be open and to listen. My respectful and optimistic suggestion to the Trump supporters who are frustrated with being called racists and bigots is to prove us all wrong. You obviously have some legitimate reasons to support Trump, at the same time, I hope you are hearing the voices of marginalized and frightened communities. He has opened a pandora’s box of frightening and hateful rhetoric and empowered some of the ugliest factions of our society. Your guy won – and you have a tremendous power (and I would argue, a responsibility) to use your voice as a Trump supporter who rejects that rhetoric to (1) acknowledge that the rhetoric is out there, and that Trump played a part in unleashing it, (2) accept that people are rightfully frightened by it, and (3) denounce it, loudly and often. You can be optimistic about his presidency and excited by some of the things he promised AND STILL stand up for the marginalized people in our community. THIS is how we can come together.

Thank you for shedding more light on why you voted for Trump. I am a lifelong republican and was around in the days of Ross Perot v Bush Sr v Clinton. The idea of an outsider non-politician who stemmed to blast through the usualsually norms of politics was intriguing. This time around I was so fundamentally and morally opposed to Trump from the day he announced his candidacy and then even more so ever time he opened his mouth or prowled during the campaign and could not stand behind the party this go. Not that I still doesn’t hold onto my fiscally conservative and more minimal government beliefs. Also, many times in life I have felt like I’ve told a dog person I love cats when I bring up moderate right thoughts to the left: like they are disgusted and can’t even fathom the idea of why one would even like a cat without hearing why I might, while the expect me to dote affections on their unleashed dog as it jumps on me and licks my face, and I am thinking “aren’t they all animals that deserve kindness”. Anyhoo, David Brooks of the NYTimes wrote an interesting opinion “The Conservative Intillectual Crisis”. As a young conservative, you may find it interesting, too.

I do pride myself in equality for everyone. Mr. Trump does not. He is very clearly telling us that he does not believe in equality for women, people of certain ethnicities/religions or for people with disabilities. It’s unmistakable. To top it off he has just signed Mr Bannon on to his team. He has sparked fear in millions and it’s not just in the US. I appreciate that people have their reasons to vote for whomever and I don’t believe that all those who vote for Trump are racist (though some are, that doesn’t mean people who put their votes elsewhere don’t have their own issues). I haven’t seen personal attacks for those who did vote for Trump, I see a blog that is here to support those millions who ARE devastated by the results of this election.

Brooke, I am happy Mr. Trump has treated you well. I hope he finds it in him to settle our fears and treat the rest of the people in the country with the same respect as he gave you.

Brooke, I don’t believe for a second that you or a lot of people who voted for Trump are racists. I don’t even think Trump himself is aware of the damage his rhetoric as well as some of his policy choices – while well intended – are. It was wrong for HRC to call those who voted for him “deplorable”, there’s been some pretty deplorable things happening on both sides of the fence. I’m glad you were able to voice how things feel for you. You’re not the enemy, the concern that lots of us have is who Trump is placing into some major areas of power. Steve Brannon is a well-known White Nationalist and Carl Paladino has actually made the claim that Obama is a practicing Muslim with ties to a terrorist organization. They are the wolves we’ve allowed into the door and we need your help now more than ever to help us stop them. You voted because you believed in what was best. They are going to hurt us, and hurt us badly, I know you don’t want that. Thanks for listening.

Brooke – Agreed! There are terrible and wonderful Democrats and terrible and wonderful Republicans. Is Trump perfect? Was he our ideal candidate? Absolutely not! But just as many people on this blog think that Trump is dangerous, so do Trump voters think that Hillary is dangerous – and probably more so. Since homophobia and sexism have been brought up so much… what about her? She received millions and millions of dollars from countries who imprison and/or execute gays and women (Saudi Arabia I think being the largest donor with seemingly the harshest “punishments”) yet claims to be progressive for gays and women. A very real question: Do Hillary supporters 1. not know about that, 2. not believe it, or 3. ignore it? It seems more and more people are blind to the scandals surrounding her just for the chance to have a woman president. But please don’t forget that she abandoned OUR people in Benghazi. She has lied countless times over the years and continues to do so (do any of you younger people know about Whitewater, Travelgate, the Tuzla Dash to name a few? Look them up.). And people seem to be ignoring the fact that she lied to the FBI (something Martha Stewart went to prison for) and ignoring her private email server, which – yes – was likely compromised by foreign agencies. Does anyone know about her connection to George Soros? Look into him too; he is the real and evil racist and a huge financial backer of Hillary’s. And one final note… as a mother, I will NEVER be ok with someone who supports late-term abortion. You may not believe it’s a baby in the first trimester, but you KNOW it’s a baby in the last trimester. And that is unequivocally murder. All of that said, I do understand that many people are hurt and scared and think that America is now going to hell in a handbasket, but please look into the facts – not just what CNN tells you. All Hillary-lovers should really see “Hillary’s America” and if it doesn’t at least make you THINK, then you really are blind. Some people voted for Trump as their only way to effectively vote against Hillary. Because that scared us more.

Brooke,

Thank you for taking the time to explain why you voted for Trump… I think these conversations, thought difficult, are important to helping people on both sides of the divide understand each other better. This election has shown that the country is so polarized, we rarely have the chance to venture beyond our own bubble world of like-minded people.

You feel “lost and hurt” as a result of being perceived and judged as something you’re not (racist, misogynistic, etc). I sympathize with that. But there are many Americans who feel lost and hurt too — AND who now also legitimately fear for their physical and psychological safety and for the erosion of their rights. Since last Tuesday, perhaps your own day-to-day life hasn’t been too affected and you still have the luxury to escape reality and “relax and indulge” by visiting this blog (as do I). But this is not the case for many others who belong to minority or marginalized groups that Trump deliberately targeted during his campaign.

All the reasons you listed for supporting Trump I would find more compelling if Trump could actually discuss those issues and policies (terrorism, the economy, immigration, etc) with any sort of depth, thoughtfulness and principled, intellectual rigor. But he mainly repeated grandiose slogans that had very little substance behind them and gave little indication that he grasped the complexities and nuances of those issues. HOW is he going to enact policies and keep the promises he made when he couldn’t even study up enough to prepare for a debate? Just read the transcript of any of his debates against Hillary and you will find that he couldn’t speak to any of his talking points with any level of detail, nuance or deep understanding. This lack of detail allowed potential voters to project onto his stances whatever they wanted to hear. (In fact, the WaPo reported his DC policy shop that was tasked with fleshing out his campaign platform and preparing him for the debates essentially closed because they found he was not receptive to it, that he didn’t need it to appeal to voters, and because he didn’t pay them. No really. Turns out it’s not just contractors that he will stiff.)

It’s interesting that you say you cannot accept the “new tone” on CoJ, yet you can somehow abide Trump’s. The thing is, whatever your own beliefs, you still proudly voted for a man who called Mexicans “rapists” in his very first speech announcing his candidacy and continued from there to willfully stoke racial and social tensions throughout his entire campaign. He set the tone from the beginning. History has shown time and again that any time a populist leader harnesses these emotions, fueling and feeding off an atmosphere of fear, mistrust and hatred, in order to galvanize the masses and gain power, it never ends well for the country. You may personally not be a racist, but you can’t deny that racists across the country responded to Trump with fervor. And his victory further emboldened them, leading to an actual rise in hate crimes. Trump’s rhetoric is not just harmless words — it has unleashed dark forces.

You implore us who supported Hillary to give Trump a chance. I would like nothing more to be proven wrong about him. Yet one of the first very steps he’s taken as president-elect is to appoint Stephen Bannon, an avowed anti-Semite, racist and misogynist (who spread and encouraged those views through Breitbart News — that was literally his job) as his chief strategist, an official role in his White House on a par with chief of staff. If you say you are not a racist, sexist etc, then this should dismay you. And you should stand up against it.

Sallyk, you’re welcome! I thought it articulated how I felt . Unlike many others here, I do believe that everyone who voted for Trump in spite of his hateful rhetoric is complicit is complicit in, at the very least, upholding institutionalized racism, ableism and sexism. And for me, that’s personal.

Courtnay, I don’t really know what to say and maybe I shouldn’t say anything, because really, how often do people actually try and listen to one another, but you’re ‘facts’ are not at all true. 1. Political candidates cannot take money from foreign powers, so no, Hilary did use money from Saudia Arabia for her campaign. 2) Martha Stewart did not got to jail for lying to the FBI, she went to jail for insider training. They are very different. 3) Late-term abortion accounts for less than 1% of all abortions in the US and are classified as abortions that occur after 20 weeks. The youngest preemie was born at 21 weeks and 6 days. So no, I do not KNOW that it’s a baby. And if you’re so concerned with late-term abortions, how about helping women get access to contraceptives or, shock, abortion within the first 8 weeks instead of trying to restrict them further. 4) George Soros is a flawed billionaire but is not, in fact evil. His main flaw was capitalizing on the British Pounds sharp depreciation. Please send me any credible evidence of his racism, since I have only ever seen him fight against racial injustice. 5) Hilary’s America is propoganda, not a credible documentary. I am a liberal but can concede that Michael Moore are in the same boat. The director, Dinesh D’Souza, has, among many other things, said that the problem with Africa is not that it was colonized, but that it was not colonized for long enough. He is, among other things, a racist, a homophobe, a Christian apologist and a sexist. I do not get any of my facts from CNN. I read critically and understand how to dissect both my personal bias and the author’s. However, I do believes facts still exist and hope the above help.

As for the ‘scandals,’ Bhengazi and the email server, Hilary was cleared of all charges. She did not cause Bhengazi, she followed precedent from both Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice when she set up her server and I do not hold a woman responsible for the sins of her husband. I do however, hold a person to his own word. As Maya Angelou said “when someone shows you who they are believe them; the first time.” Trump has shown us who he is over and over, and I for one, believe him.

Have you heard of Go Jane Give? They are perfect for this sort of thing. https://gojanegive.org

Sarah, I just want to tell you you’re amazing!

Love this idea! If anyone is interested in donating to a refugee organization in particular, I’d highly recommend the International Refugee Assistance Project. They do really wonderful, truly impactful work.