Nancy Flanagan retired from teaching music in Michigan public schools after a long career in the classroom. She then turned blogger and writes one of the best school-related blogs. In this one, she mirrors how many of us feel right now.
She writes:
A few weeks back, I wrote a blog about my fascination with a Michigan Women for Harris Facebook page—a community now numbering upwards of 85,000—and how the (mostly) women there morphed from showing off their blue fingernails and Chuck Taylors to sharing heartbreaking stories of neighbors and family members who are die-hard Trumpers. From stolen signs to the ruin of holiday dinners, it was a kind of running anthropological study of what it’s like to live in Michigan right now.
I’m still following the page which has become a kind of lifeline for many women, if you can believe the poignant and distressing posts appearing now. The blue fingernails are bitten to the quick and we’re all sick of 24/7 political ads in Michigan—holy tamales, they’re disgusting—but we seem to have reached a nadir. Shaky marriages, the destruction of truth, firing squads and Nazis.
Not to mention fake hillbillies and a Supreme Court bent on violating federal law.
But I live in a purple state. And I think Lyz gets this right:
The myth tells us that America is cut up into places that are insulated and isolated from one another. Red states where they can pretend their kids aren’t gay. Blue states where they can pretend that abortion access is easy.
The reality is and always has been that if you are insulated from the realities of American politics, you are rich or a white guy (or both!). And there is nothing more political than that.
The only real bubble is wealth — enough cash money to paper over a series of political injustices and enough access to move around the barriers to health care, childcare and education.
There’s only one America, and we all live here.
Which is why I’m more than a little terrified of November 6.
That’s not a typo. I’m not afraid of the election results. I think they’ll be OK. I’m afraid of post-election anger and post-election fear. Plus post-election violence. When the bubble of wealth and privilege is punctured, and folks who have held power are threatened.
In The Washington Post, Ruth Marcus articulatedher emotional state: “I am guessing many of you are in the same condition in which I find myself: uneasy, drenched in anxiety and layered with dread — a flaky napoleon of neurosis. If you aren’t feeling this way, congratulations; I’ll have what you’re having.”
So–I am not looking for ways to decompress. And while I admire the efforts to bring “both sides” together, I’m not ready to make nice with people who are sheltered and protected but unwilling to look at injustice. I understand that a better world is both possible, and very hard to achieve.
We’re not going to get there without some fear, some anger and a lot of hard work.
Only one America.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“I’m not afraid of the election results. I think they’ll be OK. I’m afraid of post-election anger and post-election fear. Plus post-election violence. When the bubble of wealth and privilege is punctured, and folks who have held power are threatened.”
Can you believe someone like Elon Musk telling the American people we are going to have to suck it up for a while? Assuming a Trump win.
BTW, Donald and Elon, no one watched the Dodgers/Yankees games with the idea that, if their team didn’t win, then the other team MUST have cheated. That’s sick-mind stuff.
Like Trump thinks, if he THINKS or WANTS it then it must be so. What kind of idiot even thinks that way? ANSWER: Apparently, the MAGA kind. CBK
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Assuming the Presidency at the depth of the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt helped the American people regain faith in themselves. He brought hope as he promised prompt, vigorous action, and asserted in his Inaugural Address, “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
Franklin D. Roosevelt | The White House
“During the Great Depression, an estimated two million people were considered homeless, with many living in makeshift communities called “Hoovervilles” across the United States, while unemployment rates soared to around 25% of the workforce, leaving millions impoverished due to widespread job losses and economic hardship; this translates to a large portion of the population experiencing homelessness and poverty simultaneously.”
As individuals we cannot change what is happening. So, why let fear consume us?
To overcome fear, do what it takes to release the feel good hormones.
There are several ways to release feel-good hormones, including:
I left out the last one when I copied and pasted, because that one, that also releases the most feel-good hormones in a Biblical flood, would probably offend someone. Curious to find out what’s missing from the list, Google what I did: How to release the feel-good hormones.
Now, I’m going to go outside and achieve two things: mow and trim the yard and release some of those hormones at the same time. Weeds and grass do not care what the convicted rapist, fraud and felon does. They are going to keep growing anyway.
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Many of us share in Flanagan’s sense of agita in these uncertain times. Harris must have nerves of steel to have endured all the fake news, vile comments and horrendous lies. She’s like the old Timex commercial. She takes a licking and keeps on ticking. She’s tireless and stalwart.
We remain a divided nation. I agree with Flanagan that the largest divide is between the ultra-wealthy and the rest of us. If the rest of us could set aside the political division, we would be a force of nature that could create a better, more equitable society for all of us little people. Instead, we remain ensnared in culture war distractions and polarization mostly funded by the super rich. I am crossing my fingers for Tuesday while I am preparing myself for all the post election fallout. Carry on and buckle up for a wild ride!
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Tireless and stalwart are good qualities in a President, I think. I also think Harris’s greatest gift is precisely what you’re suggesting here: Letting us know that–together– we *could* be a force of nature.
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cx: better not more better, yikes
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Weird. That is what Walz said. This afternoon on the local broadcast of the Titans game I sat down in Q4. Two commercial breaks yielded two Trump commercials. Why is the Trump campaign spending money to try to convince male voters (and three women who watch football?) in Tennessee to vote Trump? Does not make sense.
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The problem is that if Harris wins, it’s not the end. It’s just the beginning. We aren’t getting rid of the half of the country that wants fascism or the so-called “Republican Party.” Or the social media and misinformation and propaganda machines that poison us. All of this will have to make us super vigilant in the future. It’s going to be exhausting probably for the rest of our lives.
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Mamie, correct. If Harris is elected and MAGA wins control of either House, they will block her at every turn. Its just the beginning.
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