Originally Posted by
IMPress Polly
You really need an explanation? Really? Like you never saw the Twitter account or listened to even one speech?
It would take days just to list all the $#@! I could here, so let's keep things simple by just starting out with one aspect, which is that Trump was not a sexist, he was a cartoon. The guy literally owned beauty pageants and strip clubs and was recorded plainly admitting to an entire, highly believable lifestyle of voyeurism and sexual assault that literally hundreds of women stepped forward to confirm their experience with, and somehow got (technically) elected anyway despite having exactly zero qualifications for the job he was seeking. And the man's family fortune came from a brothel his grandfather owned in New York. President. Best candidate for the job. And was one seriously expected to miss the fact that this was the man chosen to run against the one who'd have been the first female president or just write that up to coincidence as if it weren't an intentional choice meant to signal the extremity of conservatives' collective hostility to the whole idea of there ever being a woman president? The Democrats nominate a woman for the first time and the Republicans respond not just with a man, but specifically with a $#@!ing cartoon misogynist you couldn't make up 'by coincidence'. Not a coincidence. Under no other circumstances could such a man as that been elected president.
Guy gets (technically) elected and acts very much like he possesses the corresponding attitude indeed, picking a bunch of wife beaters to staff his cabinet and supporting every pedophile and sexual predator he comes across with an R by their name (e.g. Roy Moore, personally nominated Brett Kavanaugh, etc.) and becomes the first sitting president to personally attend the annual march for forced motherhood. And also does not renew the Violence Against Women Act. Even pays off porn stars so they won't disclose their affairs with him that were had while he was married to his brainless fashion model trophy wife decades his junior.
I know a few things about working in strip clubs and brothels and I know what the attitudes of the owners are. Yes, that this man managed to win somehow, but even more so under the aforementioned circumstances, reopened old wounds. It was painful beyond belief. People here will recall that I left the VIPs here on tPF and had to quit posting for months in response. That's how painful it was and how intensely it felt like everyone, my whole country, hated me for being me and also pretty much everything I ever stood for for that matter. If it hadn't been for the Women's March the following January, I honestly don't know what I'd have done. It was really, really intense depression. And I mean Trump's not exactly the consoling type either, ya know? He's the type who likes to pour salt on wounds because that's how he gets his rocks off, so that's what he did at every turn. That the 2017 Women's March turned out to be the biggest single-day demonstration in American history and polled with the support of some 60% of the women of this country was absolutely the factor that stabilized me emotionally. Just like I needed that basic reassurance that this wasn't most people, that my country didn't hate me, that women didn't hate women that much. I just needed the catharsis and validation of it to know that I wasn't crazy after all for feeling the way I did or alone in my pain; that lots of other women, most in fact, felt similarly. From there my prevailing emotion went from extreme depression to anger, and that was a better state to be in. Right now, at this point, I would say that I'm in a place of calm and better understanding. I wasn't ready to be understanding of the 2016 election for a while. I just needed space to be allowed to be in pain and to vent and protest. For a good while, I would even just turn off any report that criticized Democrats, close out any window that included such criticisms, and avoid any and all left wing infighting like it was the coronavirus not because I liked Democrats (I didn't even vote for Hillary Clinton!), but because it was like contextually a validation of this monster in my eyes. That's called trauma and it was real and I was far, far, FAAAAR from alone in experiencing it.
And here I have just barely scratched the surface of the kind of abuse and trauma that our former president (I just love saying that phrase: former president) visited upon much of this nation. I haven't touched on any policies and promises besides those dealing specifically with women here even! Just the beginning.
Different people respond to trauma differently. Some don't have the tools necessary to cope. Some take more time to heal than others. Most people in fact never truly heal, but only improve.