26 Thoughts I Had While Canceling Our Hotel Reservations For The Presidential Inauguration

by Annie Shannon

1. America. How could you?

2. Moving to Canada or Ireland won’t save us from the far-reaching global impact of a Trump presidency. His positions on the environment alone could literally destroy the world. To describe his understanding of international politics and the responsibility that it comes with as ignorant and childlike would be kind.

3. In my heart I love America. I am an extremely patriotic person. I love the idea of a country where people can live and worship as they please with free speech and a free press. I wish that were a real place. I thought we were on the way to becoming the place we always claimed we were. I dual majored American & Women’s Studies in college. When it came time for me to choose what I wanted to explore with my education, I literally picked America. It hurts me in a way I can’t describe to see that half the country that I deeply love would stand behind this man and say, “Hell yeah! He says what I’m thinking!”

4. How long will it take before he partners up with Putin and puts American troops in Syria? Pulls us out of the United Nations or breaks deals and promises the United States have made with our allies?

5. I feel less safe today than I did after 9/11.

6. Is this what it will take to finally get poor white Americans to see that Republicans don’t care about them?

7. I’m actually really genuinely surprised America’s rural voters turned out in such large numbers to vote for Trump. I would have guessed their greed and need for cheap exploitable farm and slaughterhouse labor would have kept them from electing a man who promises to take that all away. I guess Hate Trumps Greed. Who knew?

8. How long will it take before my LBGQT friends have to begin to fight for their marriages and families all over again?

9. How much will my taxes spike to pay for a fucking wall?

10. America. How could you?

11. My little girl is going to grow up with a generation of boys who will see Donald Trump as a role model. She will go to college with boys who will see that you can molest and sexually assault women and still be elected to the highest office in the country. She will work with men who were told when they young and impressionable that if you have enough power you can do whatever you want to women. Just like I did.

12. What do I do about her favorite Hillary Clinton action figure? The desk toy she sleeps with and plays with every day. Before, that toy was a symbol of all women can achieve. An embodiment of a role model. Now I can’t stop seeing it as a reminder of America’s double standard towards women and how the most qualified candidate to ever run for office was beaten by a honest-to-God openly bigoted buffoon.

13. I can’t stop seeing all the little girls who went to vote with their moms yesterday or stayed up late to watch Hillary Clinton give her acceptance speech. This was supposed to be a lasting important memory for them, as they became women. I guess it still will be, but in a completely different way.

14. I wonder if all those rich 1% asshats who voted for Trump because they don’t want to pay taxes are shitting themselves this morning as they watch the stock market crash and burst into flames.

15. I wonder who Trump will make his Attorney General if Chris Christie goes to jail? I guess Trump won’t be going to jail for racketeering or rape and if he does… DEAR GOD Mike Pence would be our president.

16. I hope every camera in the world is watching when Trump’s Deportation Task Force starts their assault on America. Although I’m terrified of what they will think of us after that and stop wanting to be our allies.

17. I hope every journalist in America who wrote or spoke about Hillary Clinton’s “health problems” and made up “email scandal” lost as much sleep as I did last night. Your game of false equivalence was always irresponsible and gross. You guys know that now — right? You can see that not calling out lies and treating politics as entertainment has gotten us here — right? Fuck you Chris Matthews and Chuck Todd for calling KellyAnne Conway “a lovely person” and gushing all over her whenever you had her on your shows!

18. God damn it! I’m going to have to hear KellyAnne Conway spin and dodge legitimate questions again and again.

19. America. How could you?

20. The Republicans have basically just stolen a Supreme Court seat by refusing to do their jobs and even meeting with Obama’s nominee. And they’re just going to get away with it. I really hope Ruth Bader Ginsburg is taking her vitamins.

21. Can America’s complete lack of gun control get worse? When and how will Trump’s national Stop & Frisk proposal go into effect? It was ruled unconstitutional, right? (At this point I cry for about five minutes)

22. I can’t believe our best hope as a nation and honestly, the world is that Donald Trump turns out to the huge liar with no follow through he appears to be.

23. America. How could you?

24. I’m ashamed to admit this but the past two years, watching what Hillary Clinton has gone through during her campaign, I’ve had to face some truths about my own career. How every time I disagreed or spoke up when a male colleague took credit for my work, I was labeled “a problem” or “unprofessional” — “not a team player” — and how I unknowingly internalized that. Without even knowing it I must have told myself that it had to true because the whole world couldn’t be messed up. No, it was more likely I was the problem and needed to change. How I struggled with and have failed to figure out how to do that without losing my voice. Watching the witch hunts and double treatment Hillary Clinton has had to weather makes me finally accept – No, it wasn’t me. Now I have to figure out how to fix it for my little girl. (This is when I cry for another five minutes)

25. In two years the DNC has to take back the Senate and Congress to stop Trump from destroying the world. I should start another list of all the damage he can do between now and then and a ToDo list of things I can do to makes sure this never happens again.

26. America. How could you?

Top photo: Annie Shannon’s daughter with her Hillary Clinton action figure

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