All of us here are upset, angry, emotionally to our limits; trying to figure out how to deal with the outcome of this election. The wounds are fresh and the cuts are deep.
I understand we are all trying to find some sort of comfort to justify our feelings and finding a path forward. This brings me to the topic of this diary. It is in response to another diary currently in the recommended list that really upset me and I truly believe it will bring us down the wrong path.
The diary starts off reasonably:
Anecdotally one hears 'I don't like her', 'I voted for Obama the second time, I was not voting for her' 'She lied' 'Washington is broken and she is part of the system '.
But then it takes a weird turn:
It is like Democratic and Democratic leaning voters are teenagers having a temper tantrum and they put the responsibility of dealing with the terrible consequences of their own actions on others.
The author suggests grown adult voters do not have the maturity level of your average teenager. Not just regular adult voters, but Democratic adult voters. My neck did a little twerk and my head cocked a little trying to understand.
Then we got to the portion of the diary that blew me away and just pissed me off:
So Democratic voters who stayed home, handed over government and Congress to Trump's minions parading revenge and punishment as morality, because 'they don't like her’
Democratic voters who stayed home have put 20 million Americans’ health insurance at risk because they 'don't like her', 'he said we could keep our doctor'. No insurance is better than Obamacare. Good job!
Wow, can we take a moment to digest all of that? The author of that diary is suggesting that the non-voters in this election willfully and negligently handed our “democracy” to the hands of an authoritarian dictator for the simple reason that they “don’t like her.”
Well, simply put, that is absolute nonsense and a disgrace to the fact based discussions that we have here in the DailyKos community.
First, how dare the author even pretend to know why, or why they did not, vote for Hillary? Because of an “anecdote” in a newspaper? The author based their whole premise on that anecdote and therefore condemns all of the non-voters! Absolutely ridiculous.
Second, how dare we, as an open-minded community, sit here in judgement as to why people decided to vote, or not vote, as they did? We can analyze and try to figure it out. We can decide what messages worked and what didn’t, but never before have we sat here and typed an absolute judgement and blame non-voters for the results of an election! Despicable.
Millions of Americans decided not to vote. Over a hundred million eligible voters did not vote to be more precise. Trump has barely the same amount of voters than McCain and Romney. Clinton is winning the popular vote and in the end she should end up at almost 2 million more than Trump. Those are the facts.
Yet, the author to that diary presumes to blame non-voters for their indefensible action of not voting for Hillary. How dare them not for Hillary!
This is where it gets nasty and I thank you all for sticking to this point. Here is my comment in response that diary:
I am truly sorry, but I cannot sit on my hands while people continue to blame the victim for not acting accordingly as they wished them to. I am so sorry for you that millions of Americans who will suffer at the hands of a Donald Trump presidency decided to stay home and not vote for Hillary. I truly am. But you cannot blame the victim deciding they could not vote for her.
How many women of sexual abuse decided not to go to trial because they do not want to face extreme attacks on their character? How many immigrants decide to hide in the shadows because they are afraid to bring attention to themselves? They are the victims and we need to stop blaming them for their actions! They decided not to vote for whatever reasons they felt.
We do not know their reasons so stop being so high and mighty to think that you know. Many could not even freaking vote because of the voter suppression laws that have been established in many states across this country. I hope you feel better now for instead of trying to understand why people did not vote for Hillary, you tried to make yourself feel better by blaming the people who are going to be victims of a Trump presidency for not voting for Hillary.
Yeah, that’s going to inspire them to vote for us in future elections. Unfreaking real.
So, yes, the author of the diary blames non-voters for this electoral outcome. I will say I slightly agree. If they would have voted then yes, the outcome would have been different. But the author never explains how they would have persuaded them to vote and instead decides to continue to call them “teenage” entitled brats.
Here is how the author ended that diary. Once again, blaming teenage attitude instead of trying to find some sort of understanding as to why they decided not to vote.
Certainly non-voters with the temperament and judgement of teenagers having temper tantrums who refused to vote because 'we don't like her' cannot be the ones preserving it. Good luck.
