I know quite a few women who marched, this being the NYC area. Some are good friends whose opinions I respect and value. I know many more who didn't march, whether they sympathized or not. I was ambivalent. Marching isn't something I do, I've never been much of a joiner, even for causes I care about. I don't think marching does anything of value but make the marchers feel better. If that's what they needed, that's fine (the main response I've seen about the march is "I have more faith in humanity now"). I have always found other ways to feel better when issues of the day drag me down.
It is rather interesting to think about some comments I've seen regarding the march. One, in particular, I've seen many times. "You just don't get it, and since you don't, my explaining it won't help you understand, and so you'll never understand." This was said several times to a friend of mine, and despite his request to be enlightened, nobody was willing to do it. I filled him in on the nature of why the women were marching (although I find it a confused message). However, the reaction to him was an indicator of why the Hillary forces lost the election to begin with. In a nutshell, we're all stupid and they don't want to take the time to explain anything - we just have to trust their superior instincts. It's also clear by now the only reason to vote for Hillary was 'she's a woman'. Which wasn't enough of a reason for me, any more than voting for Obama 'because he'll transform race relations' was a reason (given the state of race relations after his transformative role, one can only imagine how awful gender relations may have been after Hillary!).
I had another person say to me, "Your privilege is showing." Privilege is a word which drives me insane. We all have crosses to bear, burdens in life which must be dealt with, and biases to fight. I've seen, and supported the cases of plaintiffs suing for, sexual discrimination. I've also experienced age discrimination. I'm aware of the discrimination which used to take place against my Irish ancestors. Suggesting I have privilege implies I am enjoying the benefits of something I didn't earn. I earn it every day I go to work and deal with the nonsensical idiocy of liberal Progressives who have lost their bearings over this election. Remaining quiet during their diatribes is difficult, but could cost me my job. There's no privilege in political discrimination, and that takes place every day. Still, I'm not marching for laws, or attention, or anything else to protect myself or my rights to believe what I want. My 'privilege' regarding gender ends the minute women start having their conversations which exclude men (see the paragraph above).
All I plan on doing is being the best person I can be. I did that for the last 8 years and it worked out pretty well. The resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. doesn't impact my life as much as I tend to believe. The president is mainly an annoyance. Obama has had the biggest impact of any previous president, thanks to the aggregation of power which has taken place over the years. His mere existence has forced many to find new ways to share thoughts with people. After all, I can't oppose him without being labeled a racist. But more importantly, his impact has shrunk my take home pay as various taxes (not necessarily Federal) have government taking a bigger and bigger chunk of my money for things I don't support. I was told, 8 years ago, "Don't worry, Obama won't be as bad as you think, you'll see how good he is" by every Obama sycophant out there. Yesterday, those sycophants marched because so many of them suffer from Trump Derangement Syndrome. I never suffered from Obama Derangement Syndrome, and not because I didn't dislike the guy. As I said, I'm not a marcher or a joiner. I let things play out, and the man pretty much lived down to my expectations.
I don't believe Trump is an improvement, but much like Obama, I'll let things play out. So when the TDS people ask me (as one did) "Give me one good reason to not fear everything this idiot is going to do" I replied "How about taking your advice to me 8 years ago and let's just see what happens?" That should suffice.
Political identity is the least interesting part of anyone's personality. But lately it's become the most important part for many people. I have many liberal Progressive friends, and I feel bad they allow themselves to suffer. But they didn't care when others suffered 8 years ago, so I have a very hard time explaining to them they created the bed upon which they lay. I haven't ended a single friendship over this election, mainly because I don't care if my friends disagree with me. A few have stopped speaking to me, because i "don't care enough." Really? I volunteer my time, I give to charity, I do what I can where I can and when I can. I do these things because I care. I don't want my government to force me to do those things because MY FRIENDS CARE, I want to because I CARE. That is where the major difference between our views. They want to force me to agree with them. I prefer to agree with what I want to agree with, not what they want me to. The Progressive agenda is, if nothing else, a thought and mind control agenda.
The main reason so many marchers yesterday might be upset with me isn't because I don't care about women's rights. I care very much. We just happen to disagree on two things. First, what are the nature of those rights? If you interviewed 200,000 of the marchers, you'd get 200,000 different responses. If I disagree, remember most of the marchers probably disagree, even if only by a matter of degrees. Let's not forget many of these people marching against Trump's sexism and use of power for predatory purposes voted for the sexual predator Bill Clinton and still support him and his wife! The hypocrisy of their position has me wondering what is really important to them? Second, I am not in line with the urgency of the situation. I have seen the workplace change dramatically in 30 years, and most of that change has nothing at all to do with government or laws. It's changed because businesses hire the best people and pay a commensurate wage to experience and background. That may not have been perfectly true 30 years ago, and it will never be perfectly true ever. Ignoring massive improvements does not mean we need to fight harder and get angrier to take the final inch. It means we should acknowledge our gains, consolidate them, and agree to continue to work harder to make things better. Government will never play a role in accomplishing that.
