Whew. Decided to check this thread after a winter farmers' market and am too worn out to probably say or phrase properly all the things that come to mind. But rapidly:
First of all: Jethan, I've got at least one friend who favored Trump, and I strongly suspect a couple of family members. She's still my friend. They're still my family. They didn't favor Trump because they're horrible people -- they're not -- or because they're white supremacists -- they're not. They only wanted, as you say, "to give Washington D.C. a great big kick in the pants".
Having said that: I am very afraid that that kick in the pants is going to land not on Washington DC, but on the country as a whole; and very hard and unfairly on some people in it.
No, it is not in most areas dangerous to step outside one's door, whoever one voted for, and even if one happens to be female, black, immigrant, and Muslim. Want to feel a little better about the country? Go look over here:
http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2016/11/10/501468031/somali-refugee-makes-history-in-u-s-electionThat is also the USA.
And not only did Clinton win the popular vote: but while some Trump supporters are certainly white supremacists, a lot of the people who voted for Trump did so because they genuinely don't think he's dangerous: because they think this is the USA of House District 60B in southeast Minneapolis, and so they think of course it's safe to vote for Trump, because comparisons to Weimar can't possibly be accurate, because Things Like That Can't Happen Here.
But, again, having said that: a part of the reason that Things Like That happened in Germany was precisely because so many people thought they couldn't happen there. The lesson of WWII Germany isn't that there's something essentially terrible about Germany, or that there was something extraordinary and unreplicable about Hitler. The lesson is that if what happened there could happen there, it could happen anywhere. One reason there were so many Jews in Germany in the first place is that for many years prior to the 1930's Germany had been one of the best and safest places in the world to be Jewish.
I don't think Trump is a Nazi. I think Trump is an opportunist. And the opportunity he saw was to ramp up fear and hatred in order to get himself votes. But the results may -- or may not -- be similar.
The USA has survived a whole lot of things; and is likely, if not certain, to also survive Trump. But I am very worried nevertheless. Even if the Democrats manage to take back the legislative branch in two years, a whole lot of damage can be done in two years, and some of it may be irreparable. There have indeed been acts of violence. There are people afraid to go out of their doors. There are people afraid to use a public bathroom. There may well be people who lose their health insurance, and have their health ruined or even lose their lives as a result (yes, the hospital will treat you in an emergency even if you can't pay -- and try to bill you later -- but letting things go to the emergency point does not always lead to good outcomes.) And there may be massive environmental damage done over the course of even two years, some of which we have no idea how to repair, and some of which there may be no repairing.
There is a very thin chance that this isn't over; though it's an extremely thin chance, and even if it came through the repurcussions might also be hugely damaging. The vote of the Electoral College has for most of USA history been pure formality. But there is in fact nothing in law that says the electors can't hand the election to Clinton instead, whether on the grounds that she won the popular vote (and by a significant number of votes), or on the grounds that Trump is just plain too dangerous to let him take over: the Constitution says that the electors vote, but it does not say that they have to vote as instructed by their states; originally, they were supposed to make up their own minds. What there is, however, is a whole lot of precedent: the popular vote and the Electoral College vote as instructed by the individual states have differed before, and every time the College voted as instructed, or close enough as to make no difference; there's been an occasional "faithless elector", for one reason or another, but never enough to swing an election. And what would be needed in this case is quite a few faithless electors -- almost certainly more than the difference in electoral votes, because if Clinton supporters from states that voted for Trump start violating their instructions, there's nothing to stop Trump supporters from states that voted for Clinton doing the same thing.
If the Electoral College did vote for Clinton instead, there'd be a huge uproar, and a crisis in belief in the functioning of the government as a whole, as well as very likely a crisis in the streets. There are some who think it might be worth it; but whether there are any significant number of electoral college members among them, I have no idea.
