It hurts more when your hopes are broken then it does when you had little hope to begin with.

Harris and Walz made an active choice to abandon trans Americans to court more Republicans. It's hard to blame Biden for that.

I think most people know Biden was evil. Almost nobody liked Biden as a candidate.

There was hope that Harris could have been less evil, turned things around. Most people didn't know Harris as well.

Instead she chose to focus on appeasing the center and the right over supporting key minorities.

I'm sure there are political and religious drivers too, but I think it comes back to personality type. We see abuse from authority figures like politicians across political lines, although they do tend to lean towards right wing ideologies in general.

At one point I thought the anti-ed activists we're just trying to protect themselves from exposure for abusing their children.

My thoughts have evolved. I now think it's a certain belief set and personality type (wanting total control of their children) that is just more conducive to being abusive

I see lots of comparisons to Caesar and Rome or Hitler and Germany (as well as others) and I'm pretty sure this one will be different, but there are still parallels and patterns that repeat themselves.

And whatever happens will be at the expense of socially and economically disadvantaged groups. Like how does the US get out of its current crisis? Even if we survive Trump, more like him will follow now that they see how weak the Republic has become.

That and the fact that both parties have chosen to demonize certain minority groups, to prioritize short-term headlines over long term prosperity - I do not see a good way for the US out of this without political upheaval of some sort.

And it has become increasingly clear how weak the US checks and balances are.

Even if we make it through Trump 2.0 and he doesn't get re-elected / re-anointed, what is to stop the next President from abusing their power?

And the Supreme Court essentially removed what few checks remained.

Many of the major US Eugenics organizations still exist today. Eugenics was a big field in science and politics in the early 1900s with lots of money and support.

The US funded most of the research the Nazis used to justify their agenda, which initially had many supporters among US intellectuals.

Harris and Walz both had experiences they could leverage with the trans community and instead decided they'd rather throw the election to Trump then acknowledge and support us.

I still voted for them but they threw away a bit opportunity by ignoring minor Democratic constituencies.

It pisses me off how politicians continue to use career Feds as a political football to extract concessions during the endless funding fights. It feels like Trump / Vought are holding knives to their necks and holding them hostage while demanding Democrats agree to authoritarian rule.

I'm still doing my best to stay in touch with my old communities and supporting where I can while also protecting my family. I wish I could do more - survivor guilt is very real. I'm hoping our fears are overblown but I still believe the threat is real and keeps getting worse.

I'd prefer to post about stuff I love (science) but being a Fed scientist there are restrictions.

I'd love to post about disability and neurodivergent issues but lately I've been so preoccupied with the rapid decline of the US and the safety of my family that it's hard to focus on much else.

I consider myself masc presenting agender but not trans. I use he / they pronouns, but have mostly used he / him in person since Trump won the election. I'm scared for myself, my family, my friends, my local and national trans community, and all of us here in the USA

I'm doing my best to get a real job doing good work in a country that is somewhat safe for my family.