I’ve already mailed in my ballot, and I volunteered to be a poll worker (though they haven’t gotten in touch). With a week (maybe two) to go before we get the result, I feel caught in a limbo. It feels more important to me to be copying my important documents and organizing go-bags to be ready for a crisis than it does to do anything at work. I also recognize that that is probably a reaction to stress and anxiety and isn’t helping me. That said, I’m part of many groups that the right-wing hates and is openly threatening, so feeling unsafe doesn’t feel unreasonable either.
How are you all holding up out there? And tips for me to deal with this better?
i’m at the intersection of several groups that right wingers hate and all of them are fodder for this election when it comes to immigration; lgbt rights; the social safety net; and neuro divergence visibility. the goal is to make you feel unsafe and, to be clear, you should ALWAYS be aware of your surroundings in this country if you’re any kind of minority.
i’m doing okay because i’ve seen this playbook used multiple times since the 1980’s starting with biden and now with trump. minorities have always been excellent political fodder used to invigorate voting bases for as long as elections have existed and; up until recently; it had only been used for scapegoating. starting in the 2012 election, it was used for liberal virtue signaling and now the harris campaigned has REALLY perfected it as a cudgel to attack both the left and the right. they use it against the right to show how regressive the republicans are and they use it against the left to paint them as selfish/stupid for throwing minorities under the bus.
i was scared too the first time i heard biden’s anti-gay tirade in 1988 and then when clinton did anti-gay marriage in 1996 it started to dawn on me that it was a political ploy. they trot us out like show horses when they think it’ll help their cause. so i think that the best tip i can give you is to read up on the history of the last 40 or so years worth of elections to help you get a broader perspective of our political system so that you can manage that fear you’re carrying around inside you and also to see how the only thing that’s different about it this time around is the STAGGERING amounts of difficult to trace campaign donations (thanks citizens united) and all the fuckery it’s enabled.