Seeing Red

Our hottie's brilliant red outerwear is a perfect compliment to his handsome good looks, and also reflects our inner feelings about the outcome of the election. As many of you are, we're seeing red.

And we're not the only ones seeing red. This graphic above displays red where the Republican candidate (we still can't really say his name) performed well beyond expectations and recent Presidential Election history.

That deep red color isn't where we're used to seeing it, all neatly within the lines of state borders and much further south. That deep red color also isn't contrasted with a deep blue anchoring both coasts. That's because no heavily populated area swung more strongly than usual for the Democratic candidate.

A perfect storm of job loss, salary reductions, income disparity and education disparity is going on in that red area and we either didn't see it or conveniently ignored it. We know that people in financial distress are very likely to make really bad financial decisions (like taking money out of a 401(k) to pay bills... don't do it!) and now we're seeing that same dynamic playing out in the Industrial Heartland. People in real distress just figuratively emptied their 401(k) by voting Republican. They feel they're at the edge of a cliff and don't see a safety net. They made a really bad decision. 

Just as many of us have done when standing on the edge of a cliff.

Well, we didn't make the Mother-of-All Bad Decisions, but you get our point.

So maybe those of us who are Gay and Lesbian can tap into our collective recent history when we were regularly discriminated against in job hiring, regularly denied promotions at work, and regularly denied equal access to healthcare for being gay. And maybe we can begin to see the commonality in those experiences with what the people in that big red area on the map are going through. And then stand up and speak up for effective and immediate solutions that are saner alternatives to what were offered in this Presidential Election.