Originally Posted by
eachpassingphase
So here's some context that might help you understand where I'm coming from, I hope you don't hear hostility in my words here because that's really not what I'm trying to go for.
My youngest child is severely disabled. She had a stroke right before she was born, a severe one that normally results in death, but she survived with profound physical and intellectual disabilities. It just happens sometimes, and there's nothing you can do about it. My pregnancy was perfectly healthy up until that point, so nobody could have predicted it. There are some very serious, personal implications for our family depending on how things pan out politically over the next few years.
My husband and I both had good jobs with health insurance when she was born, we had ZERO debt, savings, and a retirement fund. A lucky coincidence was that my career was in managing group homes for adults with developmental disabilities, so despite the shock, I was well-prepared emotionally for this. If any family should have been able to handle this situation without worrying about what the government does, it should have been ours.
However, nobody is ever really prepared for a situation like ours. Our lives changed pretty rapidly, and now we depend on certain laws, organizations, and institutions that our current administration is openly opposed to and attacks. We have no other options, and people with far more power and influence than we do get to make calls that directly affect us.
What our government does as it pertains to health care is scary for us, because our daughter can die as a result of those actions. What our government does as it pertains to education is scary for us, because our daughter can be mistreated in school (or just be denied an education) as a result of those actions. That fear isn't the result of kneejerk responses on our end: I've seen this play out. Many of my former clients grew up in a time when people with disabilities were denied basic care and dignity. I've seen what happened when some of these protections don't exist for people like my daughter. The laws that we have now have changed things for the better, and I don't want them to return to the way they were before. But when the secretary of education can't affirm her support for things like IDEA, and other politicians are talking about dismantling the ACA, that's scary. I don't think it is irrational to be afraid of those things.
What reality am I refusing? Show me the evidence that my daughter is better off with this administration in power than she would have been with Clinton and I'll believe you. Seriously, I'm not being facetious and I'm not trying to be unkind to you. I would love to know that my daughter is better off with Trump as president so that I could stop worrying. I have plenty to worry about without that. If you can show me proof that my family has nothing to be afraid of from Trump, his friends, and other Republicans, then that would be a weight off my shoulders.
I agree that Hilary Clinton was not a politician I believed had a ton of integrity, and I wasn't happy with her nomination. But my family doesn't have the luxury of taking a stand on principle.