If you're in the US, how are you preparing for the election and dealing with the stress?
If you're in the US, how are you preparing for the election and dealing with the stress?
I’ve already mailed in my ballot, and I volunteered to be a poll worker (though they haven’t gotten in touch). With a week (maybe two) to go before we get the result, I feel caught in a limbo. It feels more important to me to be copying my important documents and organizing go-bags to be ready for a crisis than it does to do anything at work. I also recognize that that is probably a reaction to stress and anxiety and isn’t helping me. That said, I’m part of many groups that the right-wing hates and is openly threatening, so feeling unsafe doesn’t feel unreasonable either.
How are you all holding up out there? And tips for me to deal with this better?
Honestly, other than voting and trying to get those around me to actually give a shit, I'm not. Like in the past two elections, I'm having trouble grasping the fact that half of the (voting) country wants to elect a fascist. My mother told me over the phone that one of her neighbors is voting for Trump because "his wife is absolutely gorgeous". Like, how do you even respond to that, especially in any calm way?
Oh, and someone here reminded me: cannabis. Lots and lots of it.
Until the election happens I'm going about my life as normal, because I'm not about to self destruct while she still has a chance. If she wins I'm going to celebrate that I can keep living as I am.
In the meantime, I'm also making my exit plans in case Trump wins. I'm an openly leftist, transgender, neurodivergent, latina immigrant and performance artist. I'm going to be in the first wave of people rounded up.
People outside of US have the right to worry about this election as well imo. It's one of many currently on-going battles of autocracy vs democracy and this election will heavily shape the battlefield.
I wish all of the luck to my American friends and really that's all non-americans can do so I'll just grab a joint and catch up on the new season of What We Do In The Shadows until this blows over.
I figured out who to vote for and mostly lost faith in the American people. I deeply understand that the system is broken but electing a fascist is not the way to fix it unless you want it completely broken. Honestly pretty depressed about the whole thing because prospects are grim and I have little hope for the future after the past 10 years.
Bottled water and prepping the generator. I fully expect the racist fucks out here to cause real problems, regardless of outcome. We already have daily parades of giant lifted trucks covered in Trump flags doing burnouts and screaming the n-word at people. In 2020 we had some protesting high school kids get attacked and beaten by adult Trump supporters, cops looked the other way. My town has a giant painting of a Nazi on its largest building, which is a Mason hall. I hate this place.
Well, my folks and I will stay in that night. We're in a heavy Trump area, and I'm more concerned about if he loses than wins. I honestly never thought we'd have to deal with Trump after his horrible presidency, so I've been on high alert since he was confirmed their canidate. My mom has all of us renewing our passports as well.
I know this is dramatic, but I may actually stay home "sick" if Trump wins. To reconcile with the fact that people would vote this absolute embarrassment in again would make me so terribly disappointed in my countrymen. And this was the campaign I really put my money where my mouth is: I volunteered, donated (when I could) , even protested. It's not so much that I like Harris, but the future that Trump and his cohorts has painted has been horrific. I would need some time to "grieve" so to speak.
Election night, I plan to have good weed when it's all said and done, because good God. Even if Harris makes it, this whole thing had been exhausting. And it won't stop. If Harris makes it, we still have so much fucking work to do, and just thinking of that wears me out.
I've been writing postcards and letters to voters. It's a little too late to jump on the postcard wagon but letters can be written until 10/29. It's super easy, you're provided templates, instructions and addresses, you just need paper, envelopes and stamps.
I wrote a ton of both and it did wonders to distract me and give me something of purpose to do at the same time.
I'm pretty sure text banking and phone banking is still going on too.
I've already resigned myself to the fact that a) my candidates of choice likely won't win, and b) the results will be contested with complaints, nit-picking, tantrums, and probably violence across at least several states, and a final decision won't be known for a few weeks.
I'm trying to avoid political topics and articles a bit more than usual. I also have a lot of things going on in my personal life (not necessarily bad things, but lots of responsibilities) that are keeping me busy right now.
I had also saved up a couple of TV shows that I've been wanting to watch, to fill in some of the little free time I have right now.
Edit: fixed a word.
Shit, man, I dunno. I already voted. I fly my blue-team flag in a red town. I hope that most of the people voting for him are just insensitive clods who aren't as personally hateful as the jokes they'll laugh at, or that they're somehow stupid enough to have been genuinely convinced that our creaky business-friendly center-left coalition is some sort of economy-dooming experiment in socialism. So yeah, I'm reduced to hoping that a large percentage of my fellow citizens are idiots and/or assholes, rather than actual fascists.
It's too close to know who will win, so things could turn out kinda okay if the Democrats pull it off. If Trump wins, maybe they don't manage the Senate and little of longstanding legislative harm gets passed. Sotomayor should be okay for the next four years, so for SCOTUS itself the damage is likely already done. Finally, I still mostly think that Trump will be content to line his pockets for four years and then pardon himself on the way out. He's too old to inspire any energy to repeal the 22nd amendment, and I don't see anyone behind him ready to slot in as an heir apparent, so maybe the less intensely awful republicans will reclaim some measure of control, or a gaggle of pretenders fragments their base and they can't really get organized to win nationally. A second Trump term is going to fucking suck, though, and a lot of innocent people are going to get hurt all across the world, many more than in a Harris administration, IMHO.
Shit's grim, and the Christian Nationalists see this as their time, possibly their last good chance in their current form, to really seize the reins of power.
Weed, booze and benzos
Voted early.
Disconnected completely from any news source.
I’m going to go drop off my ballot and sit back and wait for the results. There is nothing more I can do so there’s no sense in worrying about it. Focus on things you can actually change.
A particularly insidious strain of Christianity trained me to resign myself to a premature death when I was still a teenager. Hasn't happened yet, and I'm in no hurry, because I care deeply for others. While I hate religion very much, it did instill in me very little fear of death.. I'm afraid for the fate of humanity so much more than my own.
Ignoring it.
Bought a farm a few years back in northern Europe, it's beautiful, wife and kid moved, I'm communiting.
If shit hits the fan I'll be there, but some part of me has faith in my country, and even if the trash take over, I think we'll somehow survive.
Wife is thrilled to be out, kid is doing great. It's basically America but better, except without Amazon.
Besides, I survived the south, and I was a kid back then. I've seen their bigotry naked when they were strong and I was weak, i have no fear for them anymore. And if civil war does break out? I am an extraordinary engineer, particularly when it comes to military drones. Parry that with your crappy ar15 you filthy casual.
It helps knowing you literally can make a difference if you absolutely have to, so I recommend picking up a useful skill if you didn't during covid.
I've already voted. I don't have the ability to volunteer for anything, so I'm working on removing all the doomer posting and adding blocks on my feeds. No point in stressing about something I have no more ability to help with.
Head down just trying to do my hobbies, my job and some fun stuff like a virtual Bob Ross painting session tonight.
There's really nothing I can do besides voting and having others vote.
Writing my reps just gets me form responses.
The only country I can flee to is Ukraine since I was born there and uh...
Not great... I'm not a US citizen yet so voting isn't possible. Only thing I could do is vote with my feet... so I moved out of Texas for good earlier this year. I think my current location is as safe as it gets in regards to avoiding political violence (since I'm not exactly in a group that the right isn't threatening) so there's that
Other than that? Nothing... If the worst happens I'll just hole-up in the building and ask my boss for permission to work from home
I'm going to be in Hawaii for Election day. I already voted. Nothing more I can do personally. Gotta focus on the controllables in life. Going to try n enjoy paradise and tune it out as much as I can.
Compartmentalization. I only focus on what I can control. I read local news and mostly ignore national stuff because it is beyond my ability to affect change.
There's no stress. There is zero that I can do about any of it other than vote. And where I'm at my vote really doesn't mean anything. I'm still going to vote, but my state isn't going to even come close to turning red.
If he wins I need to make an ernest attempt to find a quiet far away place to get the fuck out.
We're honestly just kind of stuck in the track we're in. With the current state of affairs we need billionaires who are okay with being taxed to send sufficient amounts of money into campaigns and fight off corporate entities on our behalf to no benefit of their own. Back in the Nixon and Reagan days we had a chance to have voices heard and run protests and stamp out some of the corruption but we're well past that now.
We need to put laws in place to stop the propaganda engines into wrest power from the oligarchs. But even the left doesn't truly want all that to happen.
I used to be worried about having to idle on a hill while driving a manual transmission vehicle. Like backsweat.
But I got used to it. Time and practice. You start to see all the subtle motions and patterns; you start to know what you didn't know you didn't know.
Now it is just a basic part of the driving experience. It's a road condition, like weather. Voting, especially in federal elections and especially the general one every four years for president, is not the only or even the main course of politics.
Same story with parallel parking--which would be, I dunno: primary voting in this metaphor. Where the promise of a better way gets crammed between two other poorly parked cars and you always end up a few inches too far from the curb.
"Loosen your shoes
Don't listen to news
That keeps you up at night."- Chris Smither
Simply ignore the media. Nearly all of them are owned my synclar entertainment and are designed to keep you mad and engaged for more money.
Cut off the corporation news helped me considerably with my mental health. Also cutting out fascist pro Trump people in my life helped a lot.
Remember the media is designed for keep you mad sad and fucked up so they get more and more views and clicks. Do not engage, and your life will be considerably better.
There is really nothing you can do about it besides wait and see. Just surround yourself self with things/people you love. Ignore political anything sense it's nothing really going to change anything doom scrolling it.
Get informed, vote, try to change things in your small circles and just live your life and cut out the things/people who actively are trying to enrage and anger you.
Stay busy. Get your to-do list done. Take overtime shifts. Spend the angsty energy so it doesn’t turn inward and render your gut into sieve.
I’ve made my peace with either result. If Harris wins, I’ll assume it’ll be relative status quo and a continuation of the last four years, a slow-motion decline. If Trump wins, our deaths are assured and everything falls to shit that much sooner. There may be some personal benefits and opportunities I can try to take advantage of before we all die, but none of it will really matter in the end. My personal romantic life is in such a shitty spot right now that I honestly don’t really care anymore.
... That said, I’m part of many groups that the right-wing hates and is openly threatening, so feeling unsafe doesn’t feel unreasonable either.
i'm at the intersection of several groups that right wingers hate and all of them are fodder for this election when it comes to immigration; lgbt rights; the social safety net; and neuro divergence visibility. the goal is to make you feel unsafe and, to be clear, you should ALWAYS be aware of your surroundings in this country if you're any kind of minority.
How are you all holding up out there? And tips for me to deal with this better?
i'm doing okay because i've seen this playbook used multiple times since the 1980's starting with biden and now with trump. minorities have always been excellent political fodder used to invigorate voting bases for as long as elections have existed and; up until recently; it had only been used for scapegoating. starting in the 2012 election, it was used for liberal virtue signaling and now the harris campaigned has REALLY perfected it as a cudgel to attack both the left and the right. they use it against the right to show how regressive the republicans are and they use it against the left to paint them as selfish/stupid for throwing minorities under the bus.
i was scared too the first time i heard biden's anti-gay tirade in 1988 and then when clinton did anti-gay marriage in 1996 it started to dawn on me that it was a political ploy. they trot us out like show horses when they think it'll help their cause. so i think that the best tip i can give you is to read up on the history of the last 40 or so years worth of elections to help you get a broader perspective of our political system so that you can manage that fear you're carrying around inside you and also to see how the only thing that's different about it this time around is the STAGGERING amounts of difficult to trace campaign donations (thanks citizens united) and all the fuckery it's enabled.
A combination of this and avoiding political news and discussion altogether (as much as I can anyway). What's the point of reading and arguing when in the end the only thing that matters is your vote (and money/time if you're able and so inclined).