Social Question

Zissou's avatar

What silver linings can we find in the black cloud that is the 2016 election?

Asked by Zissou (3374points) November 10th, 2016

Such weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth! But the sun still rose on Nov. 9, and we must carry on. A Trump presidency with a GOP congress opens up some scary possibilities, to be sure, but it may not be all bad, at least not yet.

Let’s play a game. Complete the following sentence: “At least . . .”

Observing members: 0 Composing members: 0

33 Answers

Zissou's avatar

At least Hillary Clinton is not president. I voted for her, but the lesser of two evils was still pretty bad. And at least we don’t have another Bush either.

thorninmud's avatar

At least we won’t be talking about gridlock in Washington much longer <gulp>.

ucme's avatar

Trump can always be counted on to deliver pure comedy gold, the gift that keeps on giving.
Also, not having to suffer the fucking vile, fake grin plastered all over Hillary’s irritating face.

Mimishu1995's avatar

At least this will teach us to prepare for horrible things happening. We are at the rock bottom aren’t we?

cinnamonk's avatar

@Zissou can you articulate why Clinton would have been a bad president?

MrGrimm888's avatar

At least my dick was still attached when I woke up. But my dick and I are wondering if we should move. I don’t really want to raise a family in this pathetic country anymore.

The fact that my tax money will now be a tool to undo society is pretty shitty.

Pachy's avatar

My personal silver lining is that I’ve deleted from my iPhone and Internet home page all news apps; removed the “Breaking News” channels from my cable box’s “Favorites” liine-up and set the default station to TCM; and most importantly, pledging to dramatically increase my time and rapidly waning energy to pursue activities, interests and people I love rather than continue to feel depressed about a squalid political landscape over which, at this stage in my life, I have zero interest and control.

If none of that proves successful, I’m moving under my bed for the rest of my days.

LuckyGuy's avatar

At least there were no riots, shootings, bombings, ballot stuffing, or violent acts. The people, if not the candidates, behaved like adults.

Zissou's avatar

@LuckyGuy Yes, that was a relief, though I suspect that had Clinton won, some of Trump’s supporters would have committed violence.

@Mimishu1995 Rock bottom? Don’t tempt fate! Things can always get worse.

@thorninmud Some serious infrastructure investment would be nice.

@MrGrimm888 On that “moving to Canada” thread, I brought up Montreal. I visited there last year and it strikes me as a great place to be an under-35 person with an attached dick. The rents are reasonable, it has good mass transit, and the women are gorgeous.

@AnonymousAccount8 I could say what I don’t like about her if you really want me to, but it seems like a moot point now.

kritiper's avatar

No matter who is in office, or what party they associate with, SIF splatters evenly over all.

cinnamonk's avatar

@Zissou ah, of course.

Sneki95's avatar

“We’re stuck with Trump for four years, but at least we’ll see Ivanka more often.”
9Gag

josie's avatar

At least the result is from an open and free election.

I’ve been to some of those places where the new “leader” is the the guy with the most guns and an army of loyal psychopathic killers. No matter how unhappy you are about the election, or how bad you think Donald Trump is, it’s not even close to how bad it could be.

Coloma's avatar

At least when our non-thinking, impulsive, ego maniacal new president pushes the nuke button we won’t ever have to suffer through something like this ever again. lol

ragingloli's avatar

At least 8 years of comedy gold.

chyna's avatar

^NOOO, please don’t let it be 8 years!

filmfann's avatar

We’re done with political commercials, phone calls, and mail.

MooCows's avatar

The ultimate silver lining is that God’s got this and the right man
got chosen as President per God’s plan.

ucme's avatar

A fictional passage in The Omen movie, meant to be from the book of revelations:

From the eternal sea he rises
Creating armies on either shore
Turning man against his brother
‘Til man exists no more.

Eternal sea meaning the world of politics, the sea that constantly rages with turmoil & revolution.

It all makes perfect sense now (((shudders)))

Coloma's avatar

@MooCows Um, no offense but…pretty sure this is the work of the dark angel, if I believed in either God or the Devil. haha

LostInParadise's avatar

The mainstream of both parties have been out of touch with the pain felt by a large part of the population Trump and Sanders tapped into it. Trump offers false hope. He says that he is for workers while favoring tax breaks for the rich. Once he fails to improve the lives of the average person, one can only hope that the progressive wing of the Democratic party gains more influence.

Zissou's avatar

^Exactly. I’ve heard a lot of sanctimonious crapola about racism and sexism in the past couple of days. No doubt racism played a role in Trump’s victory (sexism not so much), but too many on the left can’t seem to grasp that those angry Trump voters really do have something to be angry about.

Look at the very different ways Sanders and Trump appealed to those angry people who are fed up with the status quo—‘nuff said. The good news is that among that group, the young went to Sanders. That bodes well for the future.

ragingloli's avatar

another positive, besides comedy and my hiv test results:
TTIP is being shelved.

Zissou's avatar

^My condolences on your test results. Is this a recent development? May you find the strength to bear this burden. At least it is not the death sentence it once was.

Zissou's avatar

@MooCows St. Augustine says that God never allows evil unless some greater good can result from it. I find that hard to believe in many cases, though in the case of this election, it may well turn out to be true. We’ll see.

But allowing evil is not the same as willing evil. Just because God allowed Trump to win doesn’t mean that God chose Trump to be our president. Kings used to claim that they ruled by divine right; surely none of us believe that any more.

(Of course, many would dispute my assumption that Trump’s election is a bad outcome, but the point still stands—just because a candidate wins an election doesn’t mean the candidate is God’s chosen one.)

One can believe in Providence without denying our freedom and responsibility for our own actions. If Trump turns out to be a terrible president, we must blame ourselves for putting him there, not God.

That said, I think you and I can agree with the adage, “Do your best, let God do the rest.”

cinnamonk's avatar

This election inspired me to make a donation to one of my favorite organizations, Planned Parenthood, in honor of Mike Pence. If charitable giving is something you can comfortably do right now, I encourage you all to do the same. It was quite therapeutic.

I’m sure NARAL, Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, Hispanic Scholarship fund, or Amnesty International would appreciate your contributions in these dark and terrible times.

MrGrimm888's avatar

@Zissou . With all due respect. The toll Trump’s presidency will have on the world will likely cause great suffering. If there were ever a time for divine intervention, God just dropped the ball.

Believe what you want. This should just be further proof that either god is sadistic, or non existent.

Dutchess_III's avatar

I think the decent and good people will double down on their decency.

Zissou's avatar

When they made Old Joe Kennedy (JFK’s dad) head of the SEC, people said, “Set a thief to catch a thief.” I wonder if that might apply to Trump. Trump might be uniquely positioned to do away with certain tax loopholes and other policies that favor the FIRE sector (finance, insurance, and real estate). He could eliminate or rein in the mortgage interest write-off to help finance his tax cuts, for example. “Only Nixon can go to China” might also apply here. I realize this is wildly optimistic, but who knows? The book on what is or is not possible seems to be undergoing a rewrite.

Zissou's avatar

In the news today (Jan. 12, 2017), Trump is talking about taking on Big Pharma. If the US gov’t finally starts using its buying power to get discounts on drugs, as other gov’ts do, that could be… huge.

LuckyGuy's avatar

The immigration problem is fixed! What immigrant would want to come here now? ;-)

Zissou's avatar

It turns out that Trump 2017 tax law did, in fact, trim deductions for mortgage interest and property taxes in order to finance tax cuts for corporations:

https://www.propublica.org/article/trumps-trillion-dollar-hit-to-homeowners

I hope the next administration rolls back the corporate handouts but keeps the real estate tax deduction reforms.

Answer this question

Login

or

Join

to answer.
Your answer will be saved while you login or join.

Have a question? Ask Fluther!

What do you know more about?
or
Knowledge Networking @ Fluther