I hope everyone is feeling okay-ish today. I’m feeling much better, thanks for asking. Baby hippos are helping.
Regardless of who you voted for I need you to remember a few simple, but hard truths as we tread carefully forward like a baby hippo headed to bite her Momma’s face:
1. Former President Trump is our President-elect through a fair and just election. I have 100% faith in our elections. I always have. I know some of you want to say, “But look how they acted when they lost…” and I get it, I do. But that’s who they are, not who we are.
We are sensible, kind, and honest. We are emotionally intelligent. We do not storm government buildings because our candidate lost. We cry and scream and then start working toward the next election.
We put boots to ground, fund-raise, and start in our local communities. I know we are exhausted just thinking about all we will need to do in the next four years. We know because we did it before, but please remember we only have to get through two before the mid-terms and I do believe the 2026 elections will come with a reckoning. Just like they did before.
2. We are a diverse country
Our country was founded by immigrants who brought with them cultures, ideas, and religions from which they came and we are stronger for it.
Our country was also founded on a separation of church and state meaning that no one, single religion rules every citizen. Maybe that’s not what our forefathers meant, only how we interpreted, but we are fucking rebels and we do what we want. #BabyHippos
Your religion–even if it is a form of Christianity–is not the will of all citizens.
I appreciate that many of you are leaning on God right now, but please keep in mind that we have different Gods and different grieving processes and vastly different reactions to our election.
And many of us do not have a God to lean on. We lean on humans and humans have repeatedly let us down. Please exercise patience and grace. Those are tenets the Gods and humans should agree on.
3. The only path forward is one of acceptance, kindness, and empathy. We know that half the country tends to disagree with that (supposedly, but I ain’t buying it) but please don’t let them change you. Head up, pink Birkenstocks forward.
But remember to be graceful and forgiving. To bear witness when you are called. To extend a hand in times of need.
4. Our president-elect and his people have no real plan or idea how to implement the majority of their crazy-ass ideas. They don’t understand how our country works.
Not to mention the fact that he will not have the backing or money, even with a majority senate. Real Republicans will step in and the REAL America will step up.
I know some of you have bought into this, “He’s a Nazi and he is going to take control.” And I absolutely believe the HE believes HE is and will. But I’m gonna tell you a little secret.
Come here, come closer, lean way in so I can whisper: We ain’t those people and it ain’t those times. We have TikTok and Everything Bagels. Times have evolved and so have we.
5. Our loved ones will come around just like they did in the years before and if they don’t come back to their senses you have every, single right to walk away from them.
It doesn’t matter if it’s your parents, your siblings, or your best friend. If they are against human rights, you can say goodbye. I am living testament to this. I’ve walked away from several people over the years and frankly I’m better for it.
6. We are the United States of America. I know the united part is hard to see right now, it always is at election time, but we will come back together eventually. And when we do, how will your friends and family, regardless of their political lean, remember you? How will you remember them? Who will still be in your life and how will you feel when you look in the mirror every morning?
Only you can figure that out and I know it will take some time. Take all the time you need. I’ll be around. Just watching baby hippo videos and fighting the good fight.
M.
Melissa Goodnight 