Got two hours. Woke up. Thought for a moment it had all been a bad dream but no.
Then the phone rang. A friend calling. A friend who obviously hadn't read my blog or she'd have assumed I was asleep even though I wasn't. She needed someone to talk to.
She's terrified. She couldn't get insurance before Obamacare but now she has it but for how long? She said, "Republicans are now in control and they want to get rid of it, not because it's bad, because it isn't, but because it's Obama. They don't connect that with saving the lives of people like me. Or maybe they don't care."
Her mother is panicked. Panicked that Trump's going to start a war overseas and a race one in the U.S. Her mother said, "The people who hate blacks and gays and Mexicans. They think they won control of the country last night. Republicans won't stop them."
My friend needed someone to talk to. I talked to her. Said what I could, which is that it won't be as bad as it feels like at the moment. I don't know if I believe that or not but I believe it's the best way to think right now.
She talked about a mutual friend of ours, someone who may cause me to need another one of those "Friends Mark Has Lost" graphic.
He called her. Gloating, beaming, jubilant. He's thrilled with the outcome and not, she thought, for the right reasons. He doesn't think Trump will Make America Great Again. He thinks Trump means misery for all the kinds of people he hates. She never realized this person has such a long list.
From the day Obama won, our mutual friend talked about "taking our country back." There's that phrase again. The mutual friend said he never felt like this was his country with Obama in the White House.
And of course, it isn't his country and never was. Pronoun trouble. It's our country and it's not supposed to be configured to just our specifications.
She says she knows how he felt because she doesn't feel like she even has a part of this country now. Not with so many people in it who voted for the pussy-grabbing, race-baiting liar.
I told her she'll get used to it and it's not forever. And you can't rule out the possibility that the man will rise to the job and be so concerned with being beloved (and re-elected) that he'll try to win over folks who are terrified. He says he wants to rebuild roads, bridges and general infrastructure. That doesn't sound bad to me, though I'm worried it's a way to shovel tax dollars to private companies that will in some way benefit him.
But maybe not. And hey, we survived George W. and some other horrible presidents. And some of the justices appointed by Republican presidents didn't turn out the way their constituencies had hoped. Maybe it won't be so bad.
She said I made her feel better but I don't know that I convinced her. Hell, on two hours sleep, I don't know if I even convinced me.