It Was Just A Dream

I have to admit, I've worn myself ragged over the last year and a half. The future of our country has been the only thing I've been able to think about. So it's not surprising that on election night, of all nights, I was so exhausted that I fell asleep before the returns started coming in. I just couldn't keep my eyes open. My poor brain was so hyper-focused on the desperate need of the American psyche for this election to end that it ended up doing some pretty crazy shit to me in my sleep. I had a terrible nightmare. I woke up in a sweat thinking America had elected an openly racist, misogynistic, xenophobic monster as president and given all three branches of government to the farthest right wing we have seen since our country's inception. What it would be like if it had been real ... but thankfully, it was just a nightmare.

Our next commander in chief is not the candidate who insulted Gold Star families and POWs.

Our president-elect didn't promise to meet with Vladmir Putin before getting the keys to the White House.

The next leader of the free world hasn't openly dismissed NATO and decided it should be a thuggish pay-for-play operation.

America's beloved President Obama won't be followed by the racist trash who started and perpetuated the birther movement.

America did not just pass the nuclear football to the candidate who reasons that the use of nuclear weapons is logical, because they exist.

America didn't just decide that they didn't want to have affordable healthcare covering pre-existing conditions and their children until they got out of college.

America didn't just decide to empower the extreme right wing with the educations of our babies.

America didn't just ensure decades of having the 2nd Amendment being interpreted to mean that anyone should be allowed to own an arsenal and carry it openly.

America didn't just hand our economy to the candidate who has been responsibile for it's recent historic drop just by potentially being elected.

The candidate who said that climate change is a hoax won't get to decide on the health of our planet just a year after the Paris climate deal.

The candidate who bragged about being a sexual assailant because of his status wasn't just given the highest status position on the planet.

The fate of marriage equality and abortion rights and voting rights and campaign finance reform hasn't just been upended by handing Congress the gift they were waiting for so they could continue to deny a moderate SCOTUS appointee and wait for the next president to nominate the most vile creature in a robe they can find.

Well, I'm awake now. And I'm ready to go into the future all of the pollsters assured us of. I'm ready for the next President who has been voted the most respected woman in the world 20 times. I'm ready to read about the futures of the small business owners who have a real champion on their side. I'm ready to have our new President and new blue Senate work on gun control measures like background checks and keeping guns out of the hands of abusers. I'm ready to see today's college students who are going to make our world a better place get help with their college debt. I'm ready to finally see the Equal Rights Amendment get passed. I'm ready for our new President with the new blue Senate get started on taking Obamacare to the next level so it can work for everyone. I'm ready to see what compassionate immigration reform does to open the hearts and minds of my American brothers and sisters who love the story of our melting pot. I'm ready to finally get a fair tax structure where the rich pay their share and those of us in the middle and at the bottom get a break. I'm ready to see so many Americans get put back to work rebuilding our infrastructure. I'm ready to see the green jobs of tomorrow. I'm ready to see criminal justice reform.


Wait. I just checked the news. That wasn't a nightmare? That really just happened?

You know what America? Go fuck yourself. Hard.

Dear Media: Think Of Your Mothers

This election season has been more detrimental to the American psyche than any in history. The women, especially, have had to suffer in ways that should be unimaginable in 2016. We have had to endure repeated reminders that one of the candidates running for the top office in the land feels entitled to sexually assault women because of his status. We have, of course, then had to witness the media allow his surrogates to repeatedly tell us that it was just 'locker room banter.' #GrabEmByThePussy is now a thing. It's become a joke. The women in America who have been sexually assaulted now live in a country where our discourse has embraced the mentality of 50 years ago. You did that.

American women have endured a media acceptance of a candidate who rates us from 1 to 10 and dismisses our accomplishments. He has told us that breastfeeding is gross. And said if we are sexually harassed we should find another career. He has said sexual assault against women in the military is the fault of the women who wanted to serve. He said women who seek abortions should be punished.

We have heard him call us dogs, fat pigs and disgusting animals. We have waited patiently for you to bother to tell America about his rape accusations (still waiting ...). We have waited for you to report on his fantastically inappropriate comments about many young girls, 10-17, and how he wanted to date them. We have had to contend with the idea that pedophilia is being discussed, but not discussed, when an aside is offered about his various comments about his own daughters, back to the time when Tiffany was a baby. American women have suffered this election season in countless ways from this 'man' and the coverage you've afforded him. Your mothers endured this normalization, thanks to you.

We have heard you tell America that we, the millions of women so excitedly cheering on, volunteering for and celebrating our candidate, don't exist. It made for a more sensational story, I suppose, to ignore us and have hours of discussion about why Hillary Clinton didn't have much support with women. But our absence on your news coverage didn't negate our existence. I'll bet many of your mothers were with us on this journey and have told you privately everything I am telling you today.

So I implore all members of our failing media to consider your mothers if Hillary Clinton wins the election tomorrow. I understand that you have executives in your ears telling you about ratings. I understand that you believe those ratings are contingent upon tabloidesque conversations. I understand that you have conditioned yourselves to not have meaningful dialogue. But tomorrow night, think of your mothers sitting at home watching your coverage of the election of the first woman president. Think about whether or not they would like to be asked to consider all of the disenfranchised white men who will exist after a Clinton win. Think of your mother who will be sitting at home crying, both in celebration of this monumental achievement for women, and for the fact that she raised you and your focus on her night is on the white men who have run our country since its inception.

A Hillary Clinton win is not about ratings. A Hillary Clinton win is not about the people who supported the other candidate. You will have 4-8 years to report on their supposed lots in life. A Hillary Clinton win is about the accomplishments of a woman who never stopped fighting to do the right thing. A Hillary Clinton win is about a woman who pushed forward while you participated in degrading her by spreading rumors like teenagers about scandals that always turned out to be baseless. A Hillary Clinton win is about a woman with a history of civil service that you haven't managed to highlight over the last year and a half because supposition about emails was more likely to get you ad buys. And, most importantly, a Hillary Clinton win is about every woman who is sitting at home watching your coverage waiting for a beautiful embrace of this moment in our grueling history where, after enduring universal abuse by our media who allowed misogyny to permeate our airwaves for the last year and a half, our hard work has merited this moment.

Give us our night. If you can't do it for ratings, if you can't do it for your audience, if you can't do it because it is newsworthy, if you can't do it because it's the right thing to do ...

DO IT FOR YOUR MOTHERS!

Kiss Kiss ... Mean Progressive