A small election linkspam

[owlmoose]

I spent far too much time today posting to Facebook about the election. (I actually made a post apologizing to my friends for getting all up in everyone's notifications to yell about the Voting Rights Act.) But I also came across a few gems, which I would like to share here. Hopefully soon I will have brainspace to think about other things, but not yet.

• I'm a Coastal Elite from the Midwest: The Real Bubble is Rural America -- this flips the script from the usual media narrative, in a way that rings very true to me as someone who grew up in the small town Midwest (mostly Iowa) and then has spent the rest of their life on one of the coasts. This doesn't absolve us from reaching out to the bubble and learning more about the people inside it, but like empathy, it's gotta go both ways.



• California takes a stand against Trumpism in a strongly worded statement of action. My friend S talked to people who work for California legislators, and she was assured that this is not just a feel-good statement: they are actually moving forward with all of this. I love everyone in this bar.



• Don't Mourn, Fight Like Hell: another call to action, this one from Mother Jones. There's a bit of musing on how we got here, but the focus is on what to do next, which I appreciate.



• Thoughtful and caring advice on dealing with the Trump supporters in your life.



• Relatedly, readingtheend shares practical advice for white people calling out racism, based on her experience living in a red state and years of practice being the child of social workers.



• Stop saying 'This isn't my America.' Sorry, it is. Important reminder that this backlash to progress isn't new, and there were plenty of other manifestations of it, if you were paying attention.



• Some clear evidence that voter suppression laws played a real part in flipping swing states Trumpward.



• Never forget: like Al Gore before her, Hillary Clinton has won the popular vote. This doesn't mean anything in a practical sense (attempts to convince the electoral college otherwise aside -- and although I understand the impulse, I don't think this is a good idea; no election would ever go unchallenged again), but it does make me feel a little less despair about my fellow Americans and what they believe.

That's all for tonight. I shared a number of these on Twitter, which seems to be my main home for linkspamming these days. If people are interested, I'll try to do the occasional round-up, but for the latest-greatest, follow me over there at iamkj