Hello, Friends. How are you doing? I woke up so angry again today. Every once in awhile I realize how many people are still supporting Trump and I’m furious.
Brené Brown shared this quote the other day:
“Historians have a word for Germans who joined the Nazi party, not because they hated Jews, but out of a hope for restored patriotism, or a sense of economic anxiety, or a hope to preserve their religious values, or dislike of their opponents, or raw political opportunism, or convenience, or ignorance, or greed.
That word is “Nazi.” Nobody cares about their motives any more.
They joined what they joined. They lent their support and their moral approval. And, in so doing, they bound themselves to everything that came after. Who cares any more what particular knot they used in the binding?”
— Andrew R. Moxon
I realize that Trump supporters don’t see themselves in this quote. They don’t see themselves as being anything like Nazis. What they don’t seem to have realized is that the term “Trump Supporter” now carries its own negativity, oppression, and evil, just as the term “Nazi” does. You’re a Trump Supporter and you don’t think the term Nazi applies to you? Okay. You should know the term “Trump Supporter” is just as bad.
You watch: Every Trump Supporter you know in real life will one day deny they were ever cheering for Trump. They will try to hide it. They will pretend it never happened. (Of course, it’s different now than the 1940s, and much harder to hide — the internet remembers everything.) If you’re a Trump Supporter and still reading here, you should know I don’t make content for you.
On a separate but related note: I find I have two brains these days — the house renovation brain and the election brain. (The photo at top is the new doorway making a suite between the bedroom and bathroom.)
I’m finding it really hard to make time and energy for other creativity and problem-solving (like writing) beyond those two brain categories. I have a dozen blog post drafts waiting to be finished up, and a newsletter to send out, and every time I sit down to finish things up and hit publish, my brain starts moving like molasses. Anyone else?
Now to the link list. Here are a few things I’ve wanted to share:
–“We need to take away children,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions told prosecutors. This will make your blood boil.
-Have you ever taken the U.S. dialect quiz? It could totally tell I grew up in Utah.
-Republicans couldn’t tell the truth about Trump anymore, even if they wanted to.
-This looks cool. H&M has a machine that knits shoppers’ old sweaters into new ones on the spot.
-“A decade from know we will understand this pandemic as a moment of staggering regression for gender equality.”
-Ben Blair and I binge-watched Ted Lasso this week (thank you Laura Mayes for the recommendation) and it’s the BEST. It makes you feel so good.
-Colin Kaepernick is publishing a set of Medium essays from folks like Angela Davis, and Kimberle Crenshaw, called “Abolition For The People: The Movement For A Future Without Policing and Prisons.” There will eventually be 30+ essays in total.
-I just found out that Barbie (yes Barbie!) has a really good youtube channel where she “vlogs” about important topics. A great resource for kids. Here’s a vlog where she discusses racism.
–This part is hard. You’re doing a great job.
-Oscar suggested that instead of pjs this year, we should all get raincoats from Uniqlo — on sale now. (I’ve had mine in navy since 2017 and I love it so much.)
-My God + Guns + Protecting Your Family thread is now an essay on Medium. New and improved! There’s even a new conversation with God about wearing masks.
Here are some tweets I saved for you:
–Normalize giving people money.
-Did you watch the VP debate?
–Domestic terrorism by white supremacists is the thing making me the most angry today.
–This reminds me of my God + Guns thread.
-White women, we can do better.
-She is so dang good at this.
-Conservatives talking about a “strong economy” drive my batty.
-I guess we must conclude that men are too emotional and uneducated to vote.
–This tweet and the responses made me laugh so hard. It’s a been a long time since I lived in New York and had to deal with a A/C window unit, but I’m still traumatized.
–Yep. I feel seen.
–Hahaha.
I hope you have a good weekend. I hope you stay healthy. I’ll meet you back here next week. I miss you already.
kisses,
Gabrielle
Of course your mind has troubled focusing, but you’ve written amazing stuff of the past weeks already, it’s okay if you take a break! It’s not a break though, you’re focused on your renovation, that’s hard work, plus life, plus covid, plus elections; that is so much! Every body needs time to think clearly.
Thank you so much for these links and the first quote is powerful. All the best, from Paris (anxiety is starting to grow, since monday…).
This is such an anxious time! I start every day by checking Nate Silver’s forecast of whether Trump will win. Today it’s only 14%, the lowest yet! Still, I feel like it won’t be until Biden is installed in January that I will feel a lot of relief. And even then, we as a nation have a lot of major challenges still ahead.
And I can’t believe people thought Pence beat Harris in the debate! She dodged a few questions like whether she thinks the the Supreme Court should add justices and the outer limits for legal abortion, but he wouldn’t even commit to a peaceful transfer of power! He was a less hysterical and angry Trump puppet. Meanwhile Harris practically had to moderate the debate herself since the moderator otherwise would have let Pence completely steamroll her and talk for 90% of it.
Me too! Our country— heck, our world— cannot survive four more years of this. I mean climate, human rights, workers’ rights, the pandemic, economics…
A-men! My focus is shot for writing (a book set in Utah, and the dialect quiz absolutely pegged me as being from there!). Fingers crossed for an upcoming surge of creativity, justice, democracy, and hope. Thanks for being here and promoting all of these things.
I love the dialect quiz. I live in the Chicago suburbs but grew up in central Michigan. I know some of the language differences having had a waitress stare at me blankly when I said I wanted a pop, but it is amazing to me how accurately this 25 question quiz can narrow my language influences. I’ve taken it several times over the years and sometimes flip my answers from my Michigan roots to my Chicago locale to watch how the analysis changes at the end.
I’m the same with the lack of focus, which isn’t great when I’m beginning a job search. :(
The tweet about white women being Susan Page is spot on. I hope we learned a lesson in 2016 and do better (much better!) in 2020.
Thank you for this. I look forward to “A Few Things” every Friday and appreciate it coming today.
I took off a whole week of reading news a while back because of how it fueled my fear that Trump would be re-elected–it took energy from places that required focus in these covid times. I’m back reading again and finding hope in recent polls.
I’ve taken that language quiz before, but I took it again today. Same result: Deep South. Totally accurate. :-) I’ll be interested to see how my kids score.
I appreciated this interview with Arlie Hochschild from the podcast On Being for its willingness to consider with empathy the concerns and life experiences of Americans who identify with the political right. https://onbeing.org/programs/arlie-hochschild-the-deep-stories-of-our-time/
Don’t forget to be gentle with yourself – I’ve got way less (kids, projects, topics) on my mind than you, and I’m finding it impossible to focus lately. You’re balancing a lot and doing a great job. I’m living for your reno updates every single day!!
Honey, why do you think your anger is helping to solve the problem? Haven’t we learned that contention is of the devil? The only way our country can be healed is to show mercy to those who need it and to love unconditionally. I know your religion professes those truths but I find it disappointing that you (who has great influence) would continue to spew words of hate and division. That is not the way to solve any problem. Every person has a right to their opinion and the right to express it–that is freedom. I look to you to exemplify compassion, understanding and leadership through these troubled times. Bless you in all your efforts!
Susan, you are full of sh*t. I can see what you are doing. You are an ashamed Trump Supporter and you don’t want to experience consequences for your actions. Go away. You are not welcome here. I do not make content for you.
Bubbler always gives me away as being from southeastern Wisconsin.
You might be interested in this expose about forced labor in the human hair industry.
I cried on the day that Trump tweeted that he felt 20 years younger and that no one should let Covid “dominate their life”. That was a low, bad day. But every day since – I’ve felt better daily, watching the wheels fall off the White House so catastrophically this week. Kamala’s debate (it really was HER debate wasn’t it!) went a long way to lifting my spirits. I’ll be in a state of extreme anxiety until January really, but I am really feeling hope right now. And yes, the few Trump supporters I know — they have ceased to exist on my mental/social/emotional radar. I would actually back away from someone on the street if they identified themselves as such.
What an amazing quote at the top of this piece today. I just read it to my son. He’s preparing for his (zoom) Bar Mitzvah in 2 weeks. I will be sharing that with others.
I saw this article today and felt a glimmer of hope. In these (rare) hopeful moments of mine, my heart wants to feel like many of this year’s swing voters will be people who voted for him in 2016 because of single issues around their faith and are finally realizing just how antithetical he is to their religious values. I’m sure tomorrow me will call today me a fool, and so much can happen before election day, but I’ll take this feeling when I can get it.
A lot of food for thought for me in the “you’re doing a great job mom” link. I had pretty much the opposite experience today. Tonight when I was walking the dog with my 4 year old and 1.5 year old, the 4 year old took off on his bike and was lost for maybe 5 terrifying minutes. He wasn’t trying to run away, he was just excited about being able to go fast on his bike. The lady who found him and helped him find me literally yelled at me- as if I didn’t feel like a terrible mom already. When I read your post I was reminded that this particular time is just one season of life (and parenting), and that it’s just tough sometimes, for all parents.
oh you’re a great mom: you’re kid was excited to ride his bike (as he should be), he trusts the world enough to go on an adventure, that’s perfect! well done! he will get lost again; teach him your phone number, and that when he can’t see you anymore, then it’s too far. That lady was probably scared but for other reasons.
(also, you could start the walk, leave your kid behind and as soon as he doesn’t see you he has to bike to reach you!). You’re doing perfect! (your kid is 4 and can bike!)
Hi Cara,
This is Julie, I wrote the essay Gabby links to. I just want to say that the woman who yelled at you sucks. If I had found your son I would have told you about the time my one year old simply walked out of our house to check out the action on the street. We all have these moments. Well, a lot of us do. Hang in there. This part really is hard. You are really doing a great job.
The dialect quiz is crazy! I live in California and no one hear would say we have any kind of dialect or accent. This quiz pin-pointed THE TOWN I LIVE IN, not just the area. 🤯
I’m too mad to talk about the other stuff. We were literally on fire (again) this week and not a peep from what’s-his-name.
I retook the quiz today answering as if I’d never left my hometown almost 30 years ago and my result was a city 60 miles away! Crazy.
Yes, Trump-supporters are akin to the “good Germans” who supported the Nazis. And I hope there are Nuremberg-like procedures putting Republican party members on trial for colluding in Trump’s crimes against humanity.
I really, really appreciate your insightful and impassioned posts.
Oh my goodness, YES! I have two brains these days, one of them completely dominated by the campaign and election. I realized this week Trump has been quashing my creativity at a time I desperately need the other brain for several ongoing projects. I had to take a break from news for a couple days to re-balance, but it’s a slippery slope and I’ll have to be strong.
Speaking of strong, today I took strength from you and so many other strong people out there and made a stance against Trump to a cousin who is more like a sister and has previously declared her love for him (I know, I know…). She has not yet responded to my communication, but frankly I don’t care. I’ve already had to distance from others who support him, including an actual sister and brother-in-law, birthers from the beginning and still staunch T supporters. While I deeply lament the change (loss?) of these relationships, I can no longer abide them accepting him and just stand by. I truly believe our democracy is in the balance. There will be two sides of history, as the quote so beautifully states, and I know which side I choose to be on.
I listened to the NYT podcast “The Daily” the other day, the episode about the importance of Pennsylvania in the upcoming election. The focus of the podcast was that working class voters without college degrees are leaving the Democratic Party in droves. These are people who voted for Obama, twice. But now they embrace Trump, not just begrudgingly, but they wait in line for hours to get Trump yard signs.The main reason these white voters like Trump is that apparently he makes them feel good about themselves. White people feel so threatened by the idea that systemic racism is a reality that they flock to Trump. Astonishing, and depressing. I am not optimistic about this country in the near term.
Gabby, your lists are some of my favorite things to read :) Thank you so much for encouraging us to distance ourselves from Trump supporters and to make them FEEL the weight of our disapproval. I have a neighbor who is a Trump supporter and when she came over today to try to talk to me about politics while I was in my driveway (at the time I was making a chalk Biden-Harris sign), I told her politely to BACK UP (she was getting too close without a mask on) and walked away from her. If it made her feel uncomfortable — GOOD. She does not deserve my time or respect.
I was just reading “Good and Mad” by Rebecca Traister and when she described how Maxine Waters encouraged people to make GOP lawmakers uncomfortable at restaurants, when they were out and about, and make sure they did not feel welcome anywhere, I really felt that. It reminded me of what you had to say about the consequences of supporting Trump. I saw a quote via Amanda Seales that went something like, “we’re lucky to live in a time when it’s so easy to tell when someone is a jackass” – haha!!
Just wanted to pipe up to say…I TOO HAVE LISTLESS BRAIN and every time I sit down to write something even remotely literary or blog post-y, I just want to curl up into a ball. And yet…that’s what I most want to read. Have you seen the #thisiswhy2020 hashtag on IG? Those posts are filling me with such…FEELINGS. I want to write more, too, but can’t seem to push through the fog, or beyond my action-oriented voter turnout suggestions.
But I’m going to keep trying, gently. I refuse to let Trump, COVID and personal grief and anxiety get me down permanently.
You might feel like you have two brains nowadays, but you’re a whole person who brings herself into everything she does, and this reader deeply appreciates it!