Your feelings the night Trump was elected? A short reflection two years later.

[realmirage]

When Gore and Kerry lost I felt disappointment, but not so much a sense of doom. When Trump was elected, I've never had a feeling like that tied to an election. It wasn't about losing a contest of ideas. It felt like America was driving in a car and an error was made and I'm in the backseat while the car is sliding off a bridge. I felt scared for the country. I knew we were getting a demented conman who could do anything in the name of self interest. A conman who tricked the Republican base into believing he was suddenly their champion.

Looking back, my feelings were correct. From his frighteningly petty twitter attacks on anyone and everyone, to his claim at the U.N. that he's the greatest... A guy that would actually try to say that the laughter was support... THAT IS A FUCKING SCARY KIND OF CON ARTIST. A guy like this could get us all in deep shit and I just hope we're not all living in the woods in survival mode before his 4 years are up because he destabilized everything.

I never know what the hell kind of chaos this loose cannon is going to cause. Looking back, that feeling I had on election night was an omen. I know I wasn't the only one.

[Goodheart]

1. Like I'd been hit by a truck.

[realmirage]

5. Definitely

[angstlessk]

2. Twice in my life I went to bed assured, my 'guy' won.

The first was Gore...he led everywhere...except in the SCOTUS

The second was Hillary...I KNEW she would win!..Never knew about the ruskies!!!

[realmirage]

6. Yeah sucks to lose when you actually won

[leftieNanner]

3. I had the same dread

Chose not to go to bed that night. Stayed up until dawn watching stupid TV to take my mind off of the doom ahead.

It has actually been much worse than I thought. He has dismantled and destroyed so much of what has been good in America. I do hope we can right the ship after November.

[realmirage]

4. I couldn't sleep either. Tossed and turned

That has never happened to me before. Actual dread that we'd elected a hitler type con artist

[dameatball]

7. I only watched until they called Florida for Trump. Then I turned it off.

I knew then that something was terribly wrong with the election itself as well as what our nation had become. I was also wondering who the hell stayed home and didn't vote.

[SWBTATTReg]

8. Angry. And also that DU was down...someone had attacked our website and crashed it...nt

[SharonAnn]

56. That was devastating to me. Surrounded by GOP, I neede to share my feelings.

And down for a week or more! It was really hard to keep any semblance of sanity during that time with no safe place to vent.

[Johonny]

9. I really never dreamed someone this deeply not qualified for the presidency could win

I see Trump as the culmination of a society pummeled by FOX noise and hate radio. He's your typical FOX viewer becoming president. I see no way it will get better in the future. The next generation of GOP are born and raised on FOX noise. They're true believers. In 2016 I saw Trump as a horrible mistake. In 2018 I see Trump as the beginning of a wave of stupid. The GOP is broken. There's no mechanism to fix it. The nature of America's political system forces a 2 party system to exist. Thus, the American political system is broken. Sure, Dems might come to power where FOX noise is laughed at, but once again a two party system means the current GOP as broken as it is will always be around. You'd have to "fix" propaganda and there's no mechanism to do it.

[suegeo]

23. The GOP weaponized propaganda, while aided by mobbed up Russians

We were attacked, the traitors are never going to fix it, or stand up for us.

They aren't us. They hate us, when they stop to think of us at all. They are being blackmailed, which must take up most of their thoughts.

They are Putin's money laundering, pole dancing whores.

[Va Lefty]

10. I had a bad feeling that day.

Went to the polls and there were huge crowds. I live in deep red Virginia. Not what I was expecting. I'd had an uneasy feeling since Comey reopened the crap about emails. Didn't watch the election returns. Started drinking around 5pm. Kathy and I watched a couple of movies we have on DVD and went to bed around 10. Woke up around 1 am and had to see what was going on. Checked on Huffington Post and saw the headline "Nightmare Scenario". Tried to go back to sleep, really couldn't for an hour or so. Got up at 6:30 and saw the results. First disbelief. Then depression. Had to goto work and sit in on a meeting that morning with a bunch of coworkers who could barely contain their glee that Hillary was defeated. Terrible day, but can't wake up from this nightmare.

[Solly Mack]

11. Momentary disbelief then anger.

Then disgust.

[Hoyt]

12. I knew early we lost. Kentucky votes came in and Clinton was not even close to projections.

The thought of that pig trump and his vile policies, and a victory for ignorant white wing racists, sickened me. Plus, DU was hacked. I’d rather forget.

[LisaL]

29. I also had a feeling this was not going well early on in a day.

So I didn't wait for the results and went to sleep. I felt sick.

[SoCalDem]

40. as soon as he was the nominee I knew he would win

[malaise]

13. My feeling that night

They stole it - how do we get out of this mess?

[PJMcK]

14. I got drunk

As the night wore on and the unbelievable happened, I couldn't stop trying to kill the pain.

Fuck you, Trump. On top of everything else, that hangover was your fault, you cockwomble!

[kimbutgar]

15. I stopped watching political talk shows on msnbc for a year and half since Nivember 2016

The only one I watch gully is Joy in the weekends. And snippets of msnbc no longer than 5 minutes. I used to watch At least 3 hours daily. Couldn’t stomach watching the orange maggot and hearing how awful Hillary ran her campaign.

At 7:45 pm pst I started feeling sick and turned off the tv in horror.

[Afromania]

16. That I truly didn't understand just how much of the white population in this country STILL

hated me, and other brown folks enough to vote for a complete momo. I felt a little bit lost in my new understanding of just precarious things are.

[lunasun]

20. Same . I realized many smiling faces weren't smiling anymore even before election night. Exposed

during the trump campaign they became more emboldened and outright nasty it was hard to miss it as it got close to the election, but didn't realize how large a portion felt that way because some will always smile in your face .
I already knew that years before trump and it's really nothing new, but I could see even the fake civility crumbling

I mentioned it here saying he could win but was accused of being negative or something because Hillary would win and trumpers were not that large a group just louder, don't worry , more of us than them, how dare you of little faith, yada.

So listening to that bubble and living in a dem city , I did not realize it would be more than half of US whites, and their majority pick in 2016 would be Trump/Pence .

I really thought Clinton would win. I was more worried if trumpers would turn violent after losing

So that election night I realized so many were on board with his multiple horrible policies, comments and rallies but didn't attend or show it in public, just happy to express it in the voting booth by voting for a complete hateful idiot.
I thought of Germany and how easy it was to sway German citizens to embrace Hitler and Nazi power.

[a kennedy]

17. I'll NEVER GET OVER IT.......

[Awsi Dooger]

18. I was thinking about Simplistic Angry Males

I met that type in Las Vegas in 1984. I was astonished at the stupidity and the bigotry and the hatred toward Democrats and toward women in power. They would even mock the handful of female sportsbook supervisors in town.

I deal with that type on sports message boards every day.

During early 2016 I attended several PGA golf tournaments and saw them in force with their MAGA hats. I heard all the hateful comments toward Hillary, especially at Trump's own event here in Miami at Doral.

Consequently I never underestimated Trump's chances. But once Hillary had a late polling lead I thought she would narrowly escape.

Not until the Florida voting expert Steve Schale tweeted at about 8:45 PM that Trump was pulling higher margins than any Republican in 20 years in 47 different Florida counties did I gulp and realize it was over. That dynamic would attach to other pivotal states.

That's it. The Simplistic Angry Males (SAMs) and their SAMantha counterparts had summoned enough fear and stupidity to actually elect this moron and damage the world

[ChubbyStar]

61. I Love You

Forever and ever.

[The_jackalope]

19. Horror.

The next morning I began taking antidepressants. I'm still on them. And I live in Canada, FFS.

[mountain grammy]

37. If I bring my Xanax can I come stay with you?

[ooky]

21. Shock. Pure shock.

My worst fear realized. And not just because he is such a bad man, but the risk the Supreme Court would go to the right, that the Republican trifecta would destroy the ACA, and that McConnell and Ryan would go wild destroying our social programs and safety nets. Just a real downer.

[suegeo]

22. Dread, from the time that shit head Comey threw it

It was over at Comey, the boys weren't going to cede an inch. I voted for the democrats, even though I knew we were fucked.

I went to sleep, without watching any newstainment, knowing we were fucked.

Then I read more about the Putin garbage, and saw it was another coup, just like 2000. The bizarre "you're the puppet" that the sociopath repeated during the "debate" -made more sense.

The day after, I knew it was a coup, the fascists were rising, Le Pen in France might be next, and Angela Merkel was the new leader of the free world

[Bettie]

24. I felt despair

and could not share it because DU was down.

I was right to despair.

I'm just now beginning to be hopeful that this nightmare might end some day.

I'm glad I can be here with people who understand.

[Blue_true]

25. I became physically ill. I was stunned that the composite American electorate could elect such a

pig. Yes, I know me and 66 million plus other Americans voted for Hillary, but just the reality that he was President elect was physically sickening.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

26. Shock and disbelief.

That's still mostly the way I feel.

[3catwoman3]

45. I am stuck in Kubler-Ross' first stage...

...of denial and disbelief.

Every time I see his FUGLY face, my brain screams, “Donald Fucking Trump?” Seriously?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

50. Yeah, I'm kind of there too.

I keep thinking, "How the fuck did this happen?"

[KPN]

27. Insomnia!

[meadowlark5]

28. I was totally shocked and incredulous of what I was looking at on the tv

The next morning, I woke up and had that bad feeling. The only thing I can liken it to is if you are waiting for a medical test to come back that might tell you that there is something seriously wrong. Just a feeling of anxiety and dread.

[Sidthelib]

30. Sick to my stomach

I knew we’d be screwed. The economy would tank, which it hasn’t yet but I’m still afraid it will. I felt like we wouldn’t exist as a country much longer..... we’ll be lucky if we make it through his first term with the way he treats other countries. When Kavanaugh gets in and goes scorched earth we’re all screwed.

[Turbineguy]

31. As I was leaving the gym to day this summed it up:

A guy wearing a tee-shirt that said " I pooped today".

We're in the trump era and this is the message.

[AllaN01Bear]

32. had go go else where to find election nite rather than here because i

was locked out and not a star member but felt the same way when al gore got denied , the rug pulled out from under me. still am angry some what .

[Frustratedlady]

33. I was in shock. I had no one to scream with so I just sat here with my jaw on the floor.

No! I didn't hear right. This can't be happening.

It was SO obvious what had happened, I couldn't believe I was the only one seeing this. The numbers suddenly shifted columns and
the game was over. Even the commentators on MSNBC were shocked.

[Flaleftist]

34. I said this fucker will make Nixon look like a Boy Scout .

There were feelings of disappointment, anger and great concern for the future of our country and world.

[FightingIrish]

35. I sat down and made a list of what the election would cost us.

So far, it seems pretty accurate.

1. Affordable Health care ✔️
2. Affordable higher education ✔️
3. Sensible gun safety laws ✔️
4. Fairness to all minorities ✔️
5. Valued immigrant population ✔️
6. Women’s sovereignty over their own bodies ✔️
7. Action to deal with climate change ✔️
8. Regulations of Wall Street excesses ✔️
9. A balanced Supreme Court ✔️
10. What little civility that remains in Congress ✔️
11. Minimum wage protection ✔️
12. Investment and research toward clean alternative energy ✔️
13. Nuclear treaty with Iran ✔️
14. Any hope for national unity ✔️
15. Grace, civility and dignity in the White House ✔️
16. The admiration of the free world ✔️
17. An articulate, caring President ✔️

[Sancho]

36. I've been angry since 2000, because I'm convinced that the elections don't reflect the real votes...

we can rehash all the details and examples, but I've seen it first hand here in Florida. For me it was, "here we go again".

The GOP now has a deal with the Russians (at least some of them clearly do), and Putin simply took advantage of a system that can be manipulated.

[mountain grammy]

38. I understood after 68 years

I don’t understand my country. I don’t trust people anymore.

[ProudLib72]

58. I feel that way now as well

I thought I could trust people, but they let us down big time in 2016.

[SoCalDem]

39. not surprised at all

The one that gutted me was Gore v Bush

That was the pivot point for all the drama we currently have..

We Dems did not fight hard enough and it emboldened the vile repubs we are all saddled with..

When Poppy Bush lost to Clinton, they were mad and vindictive, but it was never as bold, in-your-face obnoxious as when they stole the 2k election....and it;s only gotten worse

[Raine]

62. Same with me

I had had a feeling for days that it would end the way it did. The absolute worst for me is still what happened to Gore, I can't ever get over that. I truly believe Sept 11 and all the other horrendous things that have happened since wouldn't have happened if Gore hadn't been screwed out of the presidency. That was a fight that should never have been given up!

[Crunchy Frog]

41. Felt like I was in a waking nightmare.

It was greatly compounded by not having DU to turn to for support.

[Drunken Irishman]

42. A weird overall feeling of disgust and fear.

I had taken the day after the election off because I sensed it would be a long night but now I'm wondering if deep down I took it off because I sensed he was going to win.

I remember following early voting online while at work and that things appeared to be going as expected. I remember getting home just as the polls were closing on the east coast and seeing that she was only a couple points behind in the Georgia exit polls. There was a moment of maybe a thirty minutes where it looked like she was doing okay. She took the lead in Florida and I sighed in relief. But it was short lived. She lost the lead fairly fast and then was down in Michigan and Pennsylvania and I started worrying. It became more and more evident she was not going to win and I was stunned. Not because she lost but because he had actually won.

[Soxfan58]

43. Depression

Even had to up my meds. My wife and I sat in the dark every night for a couple months, we could not watch the news. Then after the Woman's March I started to have faith that we would be OK.
Then Charlottesville showed me I wasn't the only non racist white man in the country when thousands stood up to hatred. But I still have some anxiety of another stolen election this November.

[3catwoman3]

44. I couldn't sleep.

I wore all black to work.

[procon]

46. All of the above! I actually became very anxious and depressed.

I'm a bit better now, or maybe just more resigned, but I don't see a future that will be able to advance the things I believe in.

[Cousin Dupree]

47. I was drunk. Hadn't been drunk in decades. Laying in bed crying and eating Tortilla chips.

Woke up the next morning with a huge hangover and thinking “I’m imagining this. This can’t be true”. Still say that to myself every damn day.

[murielm99]

48. Hey, me too.

And I have been drinking more since that day.

Don't misunderstand: I am doing more to GOTV and help win back our party than I have done in several years. But I was stunned that we could fall so low. It seems like a million years since Obama was President.

[Cousin Dupree]

57. I miss him so much. PS I didn't learn my lesson well. Got drunk again. Guess when. Inauguration

Day. Now I rarely drink. I just didn’t know what to do with my grief on those two days.

[Vinca]

49. Astonishment.

In the history of time I couldn't imagine American voters electing such an idiot.

[Different Drummer]

51. Anger that DU had been hacked and disgust over the outcome of the election.

I went to bed about 10 PM that night with a feeling of dread and impending doom. About 1 AM the next morning, I woke up and briefly turned on the news to find out how things had gone. Needless to say, it was not what I wanted to hear. It still blows my mind that people so wanted "an outsider to come in and straighten things out and drain the swamp" that they would totally disregard the fact that their savior was a political novice and that they rejected someone who arguably was the most qualified candidate we ever have had and probably ever will have.

[llmart]

52. My first thoughts were that the election was rigged, just like he said it would be.

I believed it that night and I believe it to this day. One day, maybe soon or maybe not until long after I'm dead, all the information will come out that it was rigged in many ways.

Also, to this day, I believe there were shenanigans in the primaries too. As much as I wouldn't have ever voted for any of the GOP candidates, I figured he was just there as a joke.

I lost all faith in our so-called system in the year 2000 and never regained it.

[ghostsinthemachine]

53. I knew I had cancer, I couldn't swallow

and had just ruled out the only other thing I thought it could be. I was thinking about how I was going to be treated if my insurance got cancelled. I still wonder, but so far he hasnt affected me at all. I was blown, but I went to bed when Hillary was still the winner, or so we thought. For some reason that night though, I got up and switched on the TV to watch then news and saw it had all been reversed.

[Downtown Hound]

54. Disgust, rage, fear, and extreme loathing

None of it has gone away. I've just learned how to live with it.

[MustLoveBeagles]

55. Shock and Disgust

I worried some when Comey released his letter and Hillary's comfortable lead evaporated. My prediction was that Hillary would win but but it would be very close. I figured the House would stay Republican but that we had a decent shot at retaking the Senate. I voted very early in the morning which is unusual for me. It was busy but the lines were moving at steady pace. I still felt cautiously optimistic and just wanted the whole thing over with. Watching later that night with my husband I still felt that way. He expressed some worry about some early Trump pickups but I assured him that these early states were ones that usually trend Republican. Having been through enough of these things everything seemed to be going as predicted. At least at first.

I think it was around 8:30 central time that I started getting a sinking feeling in my stomach. States Hillary was predicted to take easily and usually went to the Democrats still weren't being called. The Democratic turnout seemed depressed in these areas. After 9pm I only watched intermittently. I knew things weren't going well for us and had an awful feeling this would be another 2000 only worse. Still it was a shock when Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Wisconsin fell. I was so hoping those states in any combination would help her and screamed a little when each state fell like dominoes. It was no consolation at all that she got the plurality of votes.

After it was called for Trump I felt disbelief and rage. I remember remarking to my husband "My God what have we done? Has this country really elected the Orange Dipshit?" I couldn't believe that so many were blind to what he was because it seemed so obvious to me. I also felt regret that there was no booze in the house to help me relieve my pain. After over 24 years of not smoking weed, and not missing it, I so wanted to smoke a big fat doobie. We didn't watch his victory speech or her concession speech.* I didn't sleep at all that night and slept badly in the ensuing weeks.

* It took several months before I could watch hers. I still haven't seen his in it's entirety.

[ProudLib72]

59. I freaked out

I was laughing to keep from crying. And I still held out the hope that someone would come in and stop the madness. It was a long shot, but I thought the EC might stop him. After he was inaugurated, though, I wanted to just punch every R I saw.

[lpbk2713]

60. I was certain our voting system had been corrupted.

Same way I felt after the Florida sElection. Only more so. And after all these years I'm sure the main participants will never be held accountable. It was good having Obama as our president for eight years. But the difference we have now is like polar opposites.

[Behind the Aegis]

63. The next day...

...I sent a text to my immediate family to send an anniversary card to me and my husband. We got LEGALLY married in 2014 in Oklahoma. Our legal anniversary was 12 days after the election. I don't give a shit if my family or anyone recognizes our "legal" anniversary, but when this happened, I wasn't sure how long my husband and I would be "married". Frankly, I don't know how long it will last and I don't know that most people will really care if become "unmarried". If "gay marriage" gets challenged in a stolen SC gets overturned, I don't think straight people, most, will give two shits. I don't think they will take to the streets. I don't think they will stand with us. I don't think they will even care. I am preparing for the worst...I will be "unmarried" and no one will give a shit.

[scarytomcat]

64. deep sadness

and disbelief

[GoCubsGo]

65. I felt just as horrified when Bush stole the 2000 election.

I knew what was coming. Mister "I Want To Run the Country Like a Business" ran three businesses into the shitter before he stole the presidency. I don't know how anyone would think that he wouldn't do the same to the country. Dumbya is just a more affable version of Trump. He's just as stupid, just as racist and sexist, and he is as big a con man. He just does a better job of hiding it under his "lovable buffoon" persona. He really didn't hide it all that well, either. And, just look at his family's history. What a bunch of goddamn criminals. It was all out in the open, for all to see. Just like it was with Trump. And, with Reagan, for that matter. Same shit. Different asshole.

[VOX]

66. As sad as JFK's funeral, but with high-octane rage added.

Buried by depression. Came down with the flu two days later. Fever make everything that’s surreal seem even more so.

Today: I rotate between anxiety and depression, and there’s this really corrosive undercurrent of rage I feel toward anyone who’s Republican, or who otherwise finds this crapfest is actually wonderful in some day.

[BeckyDem]

67. Overwhelmed. I don't believe he even thought he would win. He constantly said everything

was rigged because that is what he was planning to say was the reason he lost to save face. I was prepared to see him tweet about that and stir up a lot of his base. I was not prepared to see him win.

I feel more hopeful now than 2 years ago. I believe with continued focus and solid ground games we are going to overcome this. I am fearful of the SCOTUS and if Kavanaugh or any con is seated we are in deep trouble. We must fight to delay the vote until after the election.

[kairos12]

68. Here in AZ I went to bed after they called. FL. Compete and utter disgust. My

daughter called 2 hours later and asked what had happened? I had no words. I still don't. I do know that our democracy is under mortal attack. Our last chance is in November. I expect the Russians to go all out and change votes. We have to win by margins of 10 percent in order to overcome this intervention.

[demmiblue]

70. Buh-bye.