Politicalmovement-blog - Stand Together

It happened.

The time for mourning is over. Time to pick up the pieces. 

It might feel like we’ve woken up in a new world, but the truth is, America is the same as it was before. We elected him. We did this, because this is what is at our core. Trump is merely a byproduct of the cancer that has infected us. He is the effect, but not the cause.

So we have to keep on, moving forward and chipping away at the hatred that has shaped this election. We have to be vigilant. We have to be proactive. They are in control now, and they will be working around the clock to retract our steps in social progress. They will not be kind to those of us in the minority: the women, the people of color, immigrants, and those who do not share their faith. Their policies do not favor us. They never have.

So we have to stay on our toes.

The next congressional election is in two years, when all 435 House seats and 33/100 Senate seats will be up for grabs. We have much work to do before then.

Now I will return to your regularly scheduled Star Wars. Here if any of you need to talk. It’s a dark day for everybody, whether they realize it or not.

Anyone thinking that Trump means that progress for this country is over forever needs to look at Germany. Both in terms of what we absolutely must not roll over and let him baby-goose-step us into and in terms of where it is now even after it got as bad as it’s possible for a man like that to make it within what is still living memory.

Explore the 5 eras that help make up our incredible 100 year history>>

“So What Do We Do Now?”

*pulls your face real close to mine* Listen. To. Me. 

You fucking fight

I’m not american, I can’t imagine how terrified those who are LGBT+, POC, Disabled, Female, Islamic, and any other minority of the US must feel right now, despite how scared I am myself. 

But you wake up tomorrow and you fight. You show that fucking orange dickbag that you will not go quietly. You will survive. You are smart, brave and important to your country no matter what anyone tries to tell you. 

You fight to keep yourself safe, you fight to make your voice heard, you fight for your future, you fight for those around you. 

This is not the end, this is the beginning of a long road ahead but I believe in you. 

Stay safe, look out for yourself, stay informed, and survive just to spite them. 

I love you all. Let me know what more I can do. 

Protest in Berlin

Two years ago, at the Brandenburg Gate and all around the neighborhood, Berlin was celebrating. Festival foods, Glühwein, music, videos of the city’s history, people whistling “Wind of Change,” and – the highlight of it all – a wall of lights. It was the 25th anniversary of the Mauerfall.

Once upon a time, this country’s citizens, suffering deeply, decided to point the finger of blame at people on welfare, people suffering from addiction or disabilities, liberals, gay men, academics, promiscuous women, racial minorities, and non-Christians – all accused of “ruining” their country. That kind of bigotry literally tore their country in two. Hence, a wall, blocking them off from each other. A self-begotten purgatory, the legacy of their choices.

For catharsis, I went to the Brandenburg Gate tonight, seeking at least some semblance of the celebrations of 2014. Festivities in honor of unity. Healing. Brotherhood. The ultimate victory of love.

There was none of that though. Instead, for reasons no one seemed to know, the bank adjoining the U.S. Embassy was lit up in red – not its typical color, but fitting. Meanwhile, the accoutrements of peaceful protest sat in front of the embassy. Candles, posters, flowers. One deeply disheartened American even discarded his old passport on the ground here earlier today; it was gone by the time I arrived. Americans, Germans, a Canadian, and a Brit stood around, expressing confusion and shock. Just a few paces away, a street violinist (unaffiliated) played “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” only heightening the sense of the surreal.

Nobody was confrontational. No sense of danger, no one in riot gear, just respect and good faith in everyone’s mutual civility, despite the political disenchantment. The beauty of a truly democratic society.

Tonight’s peaceful protest on the streets of Berlin was significant for another reason too. Decades ago, on this very night, all across Germany, there was violent mass rioting, motivated by xenophobia (Kristallnacht). Then, decades later, on the same date, the Berlin Wall started coming down. Germany wrecked itself with hate, suffered its own poisons… but then it healed. It took decades, but it healed.

I’m not sure what the road ahead looks like for America. But I have faith that America will heal too.

White house staff watching Obama welcome Donald Trump as president. 

You are going to run this country, and this world, very soon. So you will not listen to this man, or the 75-year-old, doughy-faced, gray-haired nightmare men like him, when they try to tell you where to stand or how to behave or what you can and cannot do with your own bodies, or what you should or should not think with your own minds. You will not be cowed or discouraged by his stream of retrogressive babble. You won’t have time to be cowed, because you will be too busy working and learning and communing with other girls and women like you, and when the time comes you will effortlessly flick away his miserable, petty misogynistic worldview like a fly on your picnic potato salad. He is the present, sadly, but he is not the future. You are the future. Your strength is a million times his. Your power is a billion times his. We will acknowledge this result, but we will not accept it. We will overcome it, and we will defeat it. Now find your team, and get to work.

‘Parks and Recreation’: Leslie Knope Writes Letter to America Following Donald Trump’s Victory (via Yahoo)

I know there are a lot of people terrified of a Trump presidency for a lot of reasons, but some of the most vibrant horror I’m seeing is coming from young queer people. These people were in middle school or grade school when Obama was first elected, when Glee came on with its revolutionary act of portraying a blatantly Disney-saccharine gay love story. RuPaul and Ellen are huge tv stars, Sulu owns Facebook. RENT is a musical theatre standby performed in high schools. Marriage equality and bathrooms have been their biggest fights. So this? Looks like the apocalypse.

It’s not. Within my lifetime, a president laughed at hundreds of thousands of people dying of AIDS. Within my lifetime, that was a death sentence, not a footnote on a Grindr profile. Within my lifetime, “transsexuals” only existed as cruel punchlines. The only trans guy I had even heard of at 19 was from a movie about him being murdered. Ellen was a pariah who had lost her show for coming out. Being gay was career suicide if you were anything but a hairdresser. It was automatic dishonorable discharge from the military.

This is not saying Trump couldn’t undo a lot of that. But not all of it. And even if, EVEN IF he did? Queer people survived. Flourished. Got to where it is now. And where it is now includes a younger generation who will not go back, and in another 20 years, will be the CEOs, the senators, the governors, the president.

If you don’t give up.

Don’t you fucking dare give up.

Please spread the word on tumblr, twitter, via text message, facebook, and your communities! On Dec 18th we will be having a country wide walkout from work and school to peacefully protest our way to the state capital building in your area to change the minds of the college electoral voters to vote for Hillary. If we succeed, Hillary will win by electoral votes along with popular votes and officially become president. Join the petition (2.2 million already) on our blog to accomplish this also!

#NotMyPresident

choncegiving:

The electoral college does not vote until December 19th. We have 40 days.

What does this mean?

Right now, the presidential election results are only a PROJECTION of the election outcome. They are PRELIMINARY RESULTS. A candidate still needs to earn 270 electoral votes to win. Hillary Clinton won the popular vote, which means that more than 50% of the voters wanted her for president. The electoral college shouldn’t guarantee an override of the public’s opinion– and it doesn’t have to.

There are 21 states that do NOT restrict which candidate the electors vote for. Out of these 21, Hillary lost the following:

As you can see, these states are worth 166 electoral votes. As it currently stands, Hillary Clinton is projected to receive 232 votes. Trump is projected to win 306. This means that 37 votes need to be taken away from Trump to bring him down to 269. Hillary Clinton needs 38 votes ADDED to win 270. These electoral voters can also abstain, which means that they can refuse to vote for either candidate. If 37 of the voters within these states abstain then no candidate will have reached the required 270. In this case, the vote would be taken to the House.

Trump won Pennsylvania, a state that typically votes blue, by less than 100,000 votes. While it is highly unlikely to get all 20 electoral voters to cross party lines and vote democrat, it also isn’t impossible to convince a few of them to be “faithless electors.” We only need to convince 38 out of the 166. That is 23%. There are SIXTEEN states we need to focus our attention on.

A move like this would be unprecedented. However, as we all saw on November 8th, odds don’t guarantee reality. Trump had a less than 20% winning, yet given the circumstances, enough people came together and made it happen. We can make this happen. 

Ask yourself this: What do we have left to lose? We can stay complacent and accept that this country will be run by a racist, sexist, islamophobic, homophobic, ablest bigot, or we can at least try. 

How?

SPREAD THE WORD. Trend #NotMyPresident to let people know that we do not accept being led by a man who does not care about our wellbeing. Email your professors, email the dean of your colleges. The last thing a university wants is negative press. Millenials can take a stand, but that doesn’t mean we have to be the only ones. Church-led events helped bring a lot of disillusioned voters to the polls. Spread the word in any way possible, whether it be on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, or even in person. Stage a peaceful protest. Hand out flyers. Let the people around you know that you don’t accept this man as your leader when he won’t even accept you as a citizen with your designated rights.

These 166 people need to face the consequences of electing this man. 

Do this for the people who couldn’t vote. Do this for the people who live in the very real fear of being deported. Do this for the people who will have to face the rise in hate crimes. Do this for the people who have a very real possibility of losing their rights. Do this for the people who will no longer afford necessities.