I come from a long line of diehard democrats. My great grandpa supposedly quit talking to my great granny for a few days because she said she might vote for a republican one election year. So yeah my family was diehard Dems at least until this damn election. My own dad voted for Gary freaking Johnson which only further proves to me that old white guys aren’t ready for a female to run this country. Even if that old white guy is my dad.
I also live in Arkansas. What was once a largely democratic state and the home of Bill Clinton now is all aboard the orange Trump train full speed ahead. So during the election I supported Hillary from the comfort and safety of my living room and on twitter. I yelled at my TV often and ranted to B and the kids about all the lies I read daily involving this election. See when the majority of your FB friends decide they are now political analysts whose expertise is finding the most derogatory meme’s to post hourly you sort of give up on expressing your opinion in that venue. They believed all the lies and propaganda. Anyone who disagrees is the enemy. I’ve even had some friends delete me for just liking articles that I found interesting, one of them was a local preacher. Call me a coward but I have a dog whom I have to support (he eats a lot ok) and children still in school who I didn’t want coming home from a fist fight because of Mama’s political views.
It’s scary around here y’all. I never thought there would be a time that just expressing that I am a democrat would bring out such hate from people whom I love. I really do love most of these folks. I’m disappointed and hurt by the fact that our differences really are too big. Not for me but for them. I’ve never agreed with most of them on the political front but I didn’t think that meant we couldn’t all just get along. I never thought my religious beliefs would be questioned because I disagreed politically. I also never thought everyone who publicly admitted they supported HRC would get the labels of lazy, unemployed, liars, crooks, baby killers, and other words I won’t repeat. The only tiny bit of relief I felt on Election Night was that I believed the name calling and ugliness would dissipate afterwards, after all they won right. To my surprise it didn’t. It’s just as ugly out there as it was before they announced who our president would be. I don’t just mean on FB either. I stopped by a local restaurant and heard the sweetest looking group of older gentlemen having a field day bashing not only Hillary Clinton but all democrats. I live in a county who 10 years ago people said you have to be a democrat to win an election in. Now if you run as a democrat here you lose and you lose big. I’ve realized that people don’t love Trump they just love to hate.
So this morning I did some weeding out of friends because frankly I’m sick of their shit. It’s not about disagreeing with me it’s about being racist, misogynistic, hateful jerks. I don’t need anyone who is fueled by hate or who if I happened to post something they disagree with attacks me verbally. Frankly I don’t know why I was ever “friends” with some of these people anyway. I’m pretty sure a couple of them have done jail time. I don’t need someone to tell me that my anger, fear, and disgust with our new president-elect isn’t valid because it is to me. I’m not whining and crying because my gal lost, I’m mad that people were fooled so easily by that orange bozo in a suit. That they read the headline or the meme’s and believe those rather than doing a little reading of actual news that doesn’t come from propaganda websites. It does make me sad for my own kids because they already know better than to express their own opinions at school because they will be attacked or treated differently by both students and teachers for having them.
I don’t think I’m that much different than most people around here. I work hard, pay taxes, say my prayers, and try hard to be a decent human being. I listen to everything from Loretta Lynn to Beyonce’ and like watching John Wayne movies as well as musicals. I like county fairs, my chicken fried, and I talk with a drawl. My oldest daughter just got her concealed carry license and I’m real proud of her for that. If you are my friend, you are my friend. I don’t care if you’re broke, busted, what you drive, who you lay next to at night , what football team you root for, and don’t judge you to hard if you drink un-sweet tea instead of sweet. I wish that was reciprocated by the people I’m surrounded with but these days it doesn’t seem likely.