Sorry but I feel depressed. I’ve always been real on this blog and I don’t see why I should sugar code it here. Both the candidates that I donated to and worked for lost, and I’m having a hard time seeing the silver lining. No, I’m not calling for impeachment or moving to Canada (which makes no sense unless you want to pay even more taxes). I did JOKE that Utah should just secede.
I’m not going to go into all the reasons why I think Mitt Romney would have been a much better president than 4 more years of Barack Obama and I am definitely not going to level out a criticism of the Romney campaign or the tea party (which you’ve got me why they are thrown together. Mitt Romney is not now and never has been a tea party Republican. Paul Ryan, yes. Romney, no. Not even close). If you are going to criticize the tea party remember that you are criticizing the sainted Marco Rubio (who I love) or Chris Christie. Its easy to (I think unfairly) criticize Sarah Palin or Christine O’Donnell and say the tea party is a bunch of fanatics but we actually got some pretty impressive things done. At least it was one time in my life where I felt like my voice actually mattered to this country. I will treasure that moment. May be last time I feel it for some time…
Here’s what’s frustrating, even depressing to me. On my ballot I voted for Romney, Jason Chaffetz and Orin Hatch. All 3 of these candidates won Utah by over 70%. One vote with such margins is hardly consequential. This election I thought I could make a difference by donating time and money to campaigns but both Mia Love and Mitt Romney lost. I just feel like why bother? Nothing I do seems to make a difference whether for or against. I’m sorry if that sounds pessimistic that’s just how I feel right now. I’ll get over it (and if one more person tells me to not be bitter and to be happy for our country I think I will scream. Some people wouldn’t give me one hour of sadness).
Well, I bought food storage last week because I fear our country going into even more of a steep decline until it all bursts. Its happened in Iceland, Greece, Spain. Why do we think it can’t happen to us? Are we somehow immune from dealing with 16 trillion in debt? Obamacare is done. It won’t be repealed. I’ve already lost a doctor it took me 2 years to find. They said in their letter they just couldn’t make enough money to fund the type of care they wanted to give. That’s depressing on so many levels and its only the beginning.
Last night the President said he had listened to me, even if he didn’t get my vote. I hope so. I am not optimistic my opinion will be taken into consideration or listened to. So far he hasn’t put together a single bipartisan piece of legislation. He hasn’t reached across the aisle once in a concrete way.
At least we have a mostly Republican representation from Utah that will come close to speaking my point of view. I’m super bummed about Mia. I think she would have made a great congresswoman and all the attack ads distorted her positions. I certainly have no respect for Jim Matheson after the race he has run even criticizing Mia’s immigrant parents along the way. Real classy.
Anyway, I am sure many of you will be alarmed by this post. I will get over it but today I feel like saying why bother? Why bother? I’ll just start focusing on Dancing with the Stars voting and hope all the dreams of my liberal friends come true over the next 4 years. I hope they all prove me wrong. I really do. Today I just say why bother?
Rachel's Musings 
I feel your pain. My husband and I both went through the five stages of grief on Wednesday. It was very depressing. We’re pretty much at the acceptance stage, but acceptance does not mean complacence. I felt like just giving up hope at first, but my dad actually helped me cheer up. Thank you for posting his essay, by the way.
I, too, feel like tougher times are coming, especially because we live in California. At least you’re in Utah, girl…that’s something to be grateful for! Our county went for Obama over Romney, nearly 70% to 27%. Ouch. We just saw FOUR tax increases: Prop 30, statewide…income and sales tax increase; two county tax increases, one sales and one property; and a city property tax increase. We can already barely afford to live here. I voted against all four tax increases, but of course they all passed with BIG majorities. I just called our cable company yesterday to cancel our service. I had to explain to three different people that elections have consequences, we don’t see any hope of the economy improving and fear tougher times ahead, and we have to do what is best for our family finances…which means cutting out luxuries like cable T.V. I actually feel kind of sorry for the third person I talked to, as I was out of patience and starting to get angry by then (they had kept me on hold for long periods of time in between these three different people, lol).
Thanks for your comments. I really loved what your Dad had to say. It moved me and gave me hope for the future. It was a beautiful testimony. It’s nice to know I’m not alone with my frustrations and worries.
My parents live in California. What a nightmare on every level. If it was its own country it would be where Iceland is. Plus, the school system is a disaster. You think people would learn from Utah and Idaho who are attracting jobs (you should see the new adobe building just finished in Lehi gorgeous 4,000 jobs eventually), good schools, good disaster preparedness etc. What does California have to show for all the debt and spending? Sending jobs to Utah that’s what it has 🙂
I think what made this particularly disappointing is this was the first election I had invested time and money into both for the Romney campaign and Mia Love (local congressional race). When both lost it made me feel even more marginalized than ever before. I used to look down on people that were cynical towards politics, always thought that in the end good men and woman could chose ‘public service’. I felt like that bubble was burst last Tuesday and the fact all my liberal friends kept telling to get over it didn’t help any. I mean do they really expect me to bounce back that fast from something I’ve invested my time and efforts into. Why would I have done that if I didn’t care about it?
I just don’t understand how people could chose for another 4 years of debt and crazy spending. Obamacare is here. We have to deal with it now. I’ve already lost one doctor to it and the loss of the unborn and harm to marriage makes me sick inside. I agree with you we should all be saving money and getting our food storage. Just ask our LDS friends in Greece and Spain, and they will tell you they are glad they set stuff aside. Sometimes I think we see ourselves as invincible because of the early part of the 20th century. We defeated the Nazi’s and the Great Depression so we can’t be hurt now. As I said, I hope I am wrong. I hope the liberals are all proven right and everything becomes peaches and lollipops but I’m not optimistic.
People criticize the tea party but I’m so grateful for it because for once it felt like my voice actually mattered and that I had an impact. And yet despite producing great leaders like Marco Rubio, Nikki Haley, Kelly Ayote and others all I get from both the Republican and Democratic parties is criticism and blame. It’s very discouraging. They should be grateful to us for speaking out and demonstrating democratic protest could still work. Would there have been an occupy wall street if there hadn’t been a tea party? That’s why I felt ‘why bother’ because my efforts to help fell so flat Tuesday and then my previous one’s were criticized and blamed for it.
Sorry, long response…I love this country and I won’t lose hope but I’ve always been real on my blog and I could not authentically put a post saying that I felt great and hopeful on that day when I felt the reverse. Now days later I still feel pretty discouraged but hopefully in admitting that I start a conversation which can do some good. This gives me hope I can influence others and make a difference in some small way. God bless America! We sure need His guiding hand right now.
Oh and I’d be completely terrified of buying a house in the next few months if there wasn’t this massive adobe building and several other great job magnets moving in right by the house. I’m also installing an income property which will help me with my mortgage and if things got really bad I could live in and rent out the main house. I will actually be saving money on housing in the end compared to rent.
If it wasn’t for the all that planning I’d be crazy to build/buy right now.
The Patreaus thing didn’t help me feel better about our public servants…Sigh
How do you remain optimistic in California? Also do you feel like you are always having to defend yourself? I feel that way sometimes in Utah can’t imagine California.
I stay optimistic in California with the knowledge that I will be leaving soon, lol! I was much more attached to California as a teenage, since I was born and raised in the state. I have no romantic attachment to the state anymore, though. After moving away after high school, I honestly never intended or expected to come back. And when I finally did come back, a decade later, I was actually quite unhappy about it. We will probably be here for another two years, max, and then find a more suitable place to settle.
I grew up in a more conservative pocket of Southern California, but even so, I was still a minority as an outspoken conservative in high school. My friend and I were the only open conservatives in our AP government class. Perhaps we were actually that small of a minority, or perhaps more conservatives were simply too scared to speak up when the teacher herself had a very open liberal bias. I had a lot of fun speaking up in that class and arguing conservatism though.
When I moved back to California three years ago it was to the Bay Area, which is much more liberal than where I grew up. At first, I was actually a bit of a closet conservative, though that lasted for less than a year. 🙂 I decided that I didn’t like feeling on the defensive, so I went on the offensive. Now pretty much all of my associates know that I’m an outspoken conservative, if they know much about me at all.
But I don’t waste too much time and energy trying to turn the tide in California; I truly see it as a lost cause. I do get upset about the negative impact that the policies in this state have on my family and finances, but the only realistic way I can see to change that is to leave.
By the way, are you on Facebook? We should connect there.
My Mom feels the same way about California. If it was a country it would be bankrupt long ago. A friend of mine’s parents own a care center that is stipend by the state and they were just told basically ‘we’ll pay you when we get more money’. Who would have ever thought we’d see state governments giving out IOU’s! I still can’t believe that Prop 8 passed there. Miracle. My condolences for living in the Bay Area. My grandma and sister live there and while I love it for some things politics is not one of them.
Where would you move to if you get the chance? Does your husband work in Silicon Valley? Adobe just built a massive new structure in Lehi, right by Thanksgiving Point and we have Intel, Micron Flash, Novell all in Utah County. Pretty exciting. Just hope our culture and politics aren’t diluted by that Bay Area mentality but we’ll see! I hope we can keep companies here.
I think a lot of my liberal friends thought I’d get over it in a heartbeat (in fact, some have been quite mocking in tone) but I still feel pretty pessimistic about the next 4 years. At least I’m prepared for most anything. I’m minimizing my expenses, getting a house with income potential and trying to save where I can.
Anyway, I’m totally on facebook and twitter https://www.facebook.com/smilingldsgirl and https://twitter.com/smilingldsgirl.
I hope you are having a Merry Christmas!
My biggest fear for California is that it will be deemed “too big to fail” by Obama and bailed out. That would be truly terrible. The consequences need to play out. I’ll friend you on FB…my name is Tracy, by the way.
True. It’s already happened a little bit but it could be much worse. Just Obamacare alone is going to be so expensive in California that it practically accounts for a bailout. You think they would learn from the education system in California that just throwing money at things doesn’t fix systematic problems? Sigh…