“So What Do We Do Now?”

listen.

even if trump wins, it doesn’t mean it’s over. congress will not let him do most of what he wants to do (i mean, a lot of it’s unconstitutional, lmao). even if they do, it will a take a long time, perhaps even bleeding over into the next president’s term (and i hope to god that next president is a democrat). so do not assume that everything he proposes will happen! and voting is not our only way to participate in the government. protest. lobby. fight. don’t just accept a trump victory. if he wins, we need to fight harder than ever. we can’t give up. we can mitigate the effects of a trump presidency, but we need to fight.

millennials are a powerful group. we can make our voices heard. i know it’s scary. but it’s more important than ever to fight. don’t give trump an easy victory. fight as hard as you can for the entire 4 years he might be president. and help each other, protect each other. lift up your head and fight together. it’s easy to be discouraged, but the fight is not over.

i’m scared, too. i’m scared for my life. and take the time you need to take a deep breath and get away from everything for a little while. but in the end, if trump wins, we cannot make that easy for him. people are making a trump presidency seem like doomsday right now, but congress, checks and balances, and the actions of people – like us – can stop most of it from happening. the only bad thing that is really guaranteed to happen under a trump presidency is the appointment of some conservative supreme court justices (but even then congress has to approve them).

so tl;dr: if trump wins, the fight is not over. take a deep breath and hold your head high. he cannot, and will not, do everything that he’s proposed. so keep fighting and don’t let him destroy everything we’ve worked for.

To the young people in particular, I hope you will hear this. I have spent my entire adult life fighting for what I believe in. I have had successes and also set backs. Sometimes really painful ones. (..) This loss hurts, but please, never stop believing that fighting for what’s right is worth it.

Hillary Clinton, in her concession speech a few minutes ago. (via taylor-svift)

i’m not giving up on america, even though america gave up on me. i’m here to fight.

#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. 

skaian-heretic:

i texted my dad and told him i’m terrified. he called me and said this: 

“I know you’re scared. I know you feel isolated and helpless. But you aren’t alone. You have me. You have our family. You have your friends and your readers and millions of other Americans who are going to scream down the mountains with you. I know a lot of queer people grew up with just them against the world, but that isn’t how it is anymore. Even if he wins, you’ll be alright, because you aren’t alone.” 

and now i’m crying. 

Reminder that popular vote does not decide the president. Electoral vote does. Donald Trump is not president yet.

The Electors meet on December 19th. Their votes are counted January 6th. They have voted against the will of the people before and it’s highly possible they could do again. The fat lady hasn’t sung yet. Hilary still has a snowball chance.

We will not truly know until January 6th. The only thing we can do now is hope for a miracle, but there is that hope. (Especially given that there’s also a chance that Trump will be in prison by that time and would be disqualified regardless.)

This is how it is: Trump gets sworn in January 20th. We’ve still got 2.5-ish months under the Obama Administration. Between now and then there’s the chance to make a media circus out of Donald Trump’s upcoming sexual assault trial, creating more friction between him and his party, giving us at least a little breathing room in congress. He’s appointing three new judges this term, so checks and balances (which weren’t really adjusted well for a two-party system) won’t be in good working condition for the Democrats (which counts third-party and non-voters and basically any minority because welcome to reality). 

So first thing: fight for that media circus. House reps will do ANYTHING for reelection. Friction within the party will force them to pick sides.

Second thing: VOTE IN 2018. Mid-term elections are a thing. ALL 435 SEATS OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES WILL BE CONTESTED. Go out and VOTE. We can win back the house. That’s one victory we sorely need. 33/100 SEATS OF SENATE WILL BE CONTESTED. We can win that back, too. 38 GOVERNORSHIPS WILL BE CONTESTED. If your county’s red, time to turn that around. VOTE ON NOVEMBER 6TH, 2018.

The clock is ticking guys.

If you hate Donald Trump, listen up.

There is a petition that we can sign to change the outcome of this election. This petition will be given to the Electoral College before they vote on December 19 and it tells them why they should cast their votes for Hillary and get this dangerous man away from the presidency. we need to take back our country from the racist, sexist, homophobic, islamophobe that is Donald Trump and his supporters. We can do this. The petition already has over 1.5 MILLION supporters. join the fight to take back our country. please. do it for our future. do it for our human rights. please sign and share this petition with your friends and family so we can gather more supporters and change the future. sign the petition here: https://www.change.org/p/electoral-college-electors-electoral-college-make-hillary-clinton-president-on-december-19?recruiter=626583473&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink

A letter to America from Leslie Knope, regarding Donald Trump

"People are unpredictable, and democracy is insane."

::::ugly cries:::::