It is raining in NYC today. This is a really crappy day. A day of horror I could even say.
Trump president of the United State. That happened. I never really believed he would win.I am not sure if it was because I truly thought he could not win, or because I just did not want to think about the possibility he could.
I am not American, and yet this election and its result will have an impact on me. Because today I lost a little bit of my faith in Humanity and us, people.
I just cannot understand we live in a world where such a man can become president of one of the most powerful countries in the world. During his campaign, and way before actually, he has insulted women, gay people, LGBT community, black people, latino people, disabled people… I truly feel sad for all the people from the minorities he had shown no respect to, but I think as a woman I feel even sadder a man that said such awful things, who basically say it is okay for men to attack, harass and rape women is not held accountable, and even in a way encouraged to continue. I feel sick.
I am not American so I feel like I cannot really blame people who voted for Trump, they must have had their reasons. Whatever that could be. But a part of me just cannot understand how, especially a woman, could vote Trump. I really cannot.
I know this election was not a real choice. It was a choice between bad and worst. Like any election. How many elections like this we had in France. And the next one will probably be exactly like that too. « Bad or worst ». This is what politics has become. Or maybe how it always was, except now we have access to more information. I really feel sick whenever I think about politics. I could cry, I want to scream, I get so angry so I prefer to stop thinking about it. Politicians and elections make me feel helpless as if the basic right of choosing my government was taken away from me. This is not a democracy when the only choices you have are not real ones. And I think that is what a lot of American thought when they went to vote. What a lot of French will probably feel in a few months.
These were a lot of talks about voting for Hillary because she is a woman (and a lot of hashtags stressing that she is a woman #imwithher etc.). I get this is a thin argument. But I think what was not really well explained was that the decision was not entirely based on that fact. If we look at French politicians, I would NEVER vote for Marine Le Pen for the simple reason that she is a woman and that it would be nice to have a woman president. Marine Le Pen has the worst stand I could imagine on about everything, woman or not my vote will never go to her. But Hillary Clinton had some really good ideas, some good points, made some good speeches. So yes, of course, she is still a politics, she is not perfect and she would probably have made mistakes or not did what she said she would do during her campaign (exactly like Obama and every other politician). But choosing her, in part because of her ideas and in part because she is a woman, was a pretty good deal, at least I think it would have been. A woman President of the United States, what a powerful message that would have been. To every little girl, to every woman, and to every man on the planet. That would have been as epic as President Obama’s election. Yesterday America could have made a great step forward, but instead choose the rich, racist, misogynist, narrow-minded man. I really feel sick.
Only one thing is keeping me from crying, and that is the idea that politics is shit, and cannot do a lot for us. We should stop waiting for a « Messiah » who will never come. We need to remember the power is in our hands. It has always been but we let politics and industries make up believe they had it. And somehow, this is true, in making us believe they had all the power, they gained some real power. But what need to be remembered is that we can take that power back anytime we want. Politicians, industries, they want to make us believe they are leaders, but they are not! They are followers! Followers of the People, followers of the customer. If we come together and, for example, buy only organic, industries will have no choice but to make only organics in order to survive. And politicians will have no choice but to make laws and regulations in order to protect and promote organically produced products. I know this is a bit of a stretch, but the core idea is here: we can make real changes if only we start to DO something instead of waiting for someone to do it for us. Because that will never happen.
And the most beautiful part of this idea is that it can become a reality so much faster that we dream to believe.
I feel good again.
"To all the little girls watching...never doubt that you are valuable and powerful & deserving of every chance & opportunity in the world." Hillary Clinton
