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I live in a blue bubble suburb of Philadelphia. I am a 69-year-old retired lawyer with a bad hip and grandchildren. I vote, I put up a yard sign, I donate, I canceled some subscriptions. Lately, my time is spent thinking about how to protect the littlest ones, how to support the journalists struggling under their cowardly owners, and what resistance can look like at my age. One of the many reasons I read your newsletter is to remember how and why we do what we can, whenever we can, wherever we are.

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Such a great essay. I feel it 100% I'm in North Carolina, and while the Raleigh area is more liberal, and NC as a whole is more purple than anything, I'm still stressed. I teach in Fayetteville where Ft. Liberty (nee Bragg) is, and I have a lot of students who are and/or are from very conservative, Trump loving folks. I'm trying to teach things like critical thinking and reading. It's tough. I have repeatedly encouraged my students to vote, and I remind them often that if all of gen Z voted, they'd run the country. (And I'm all for that!) I'm wearing an "I voted early" sticker today. I voted yesterday with a friend of mine. We decided to vote early (originally I wanted to vote on the day), but I just felt like it was safer to vote early.

I remember, when I was little, at a conservative Christian school, the smugness of the students there about Reagan winning, and, looking back, it felt like a very small foreshadowing of today. They were so convinced not JUST that they were right politically and morally and in terms of religion, but that they were far superior to the other side. My parents were, for the place and time, radical liberals, so I felt the scorn of the kids at school echoing their "moral majority" "evangelical" parents. It is a thousand times worse now. They aren't only political disagreements, they are about people who thing I'm evil for what I do (English professor) and how I live (childless cat lady), even as I'm in a pretty traditional cis/het marriage. (Though I didn't take my husband's name, so I'm even scarier!).

But yeah, after Tuesday, we'll all still be living in the same place, doing the same things. Though I 100% believe that if Trump loses, there will be violence, at least in some places, and that's really frightening. When he won the first time, when a bunch of us came in to teach the next day, almost all of us were, uncoordinatedly and unconsciously wearing black. We'll see, but I'm thinking that this is a rift that we're not going to see the end of for a long, long time.

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I live in Greensboro and our particular magnet school is predominantly Black like the school I attended as a child in Columbia, SC. I am so much more comfortable in a school that doesn’t have a white majority. My friend who is the art teacher at our school and another school in a wealthier area of our county has talked about the differences she hears in elementary school students talking about the election. She told me our school is very much Boo Trump, Go Kamala! And when I went to the pumpkin patch last week with kindergarten class, I had a lengthy conversation about how many of us had gone to the Kamala rally in September.

my husband’s brothers are sending their kids to private schools that are 90% white, they’re progressive but still fleeing the local schools because of bad ratings. I know I’m by far the most liberal Heydary wife, and my reputation in the family is definitely social justice warrior. I have stood up for public education on numerous occasions this school year and said several times how investing in public school is so important and my SILs basically said- yeah you have a point, but I’m valuing my kid’s education and that’s more important.

My FIL is an immigrant, he came to Greensboro from Iran in 1980 and when I see my SIL’s parents amiably chat with him and his side of the family who all came to NC in the 80s, I can’t fathom how they could align with Trump’s views on immigrants. My husband is more likely to say people are dumb or don’t know better and I try to understand but it is incredibly difficult to grasp in this election cycle and especially since 2016. I didn’t understand them but I wasn’t scared of Bush/McCain/Romney supporters. And I’m genuinely terrified of how we have gotten to the point where people thought that MSG rally was fine.

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"The only real bubble is wealth — enough cash money to paper over a series of political injustices and enough access to move around the barriers to health care, child care, and education."

This is 100% true, and I can't fault people for wanting the resources to protect their loved ones from harm.

However, I'm continually shocked by how willing many conservative voters to harm their fellow Americans, as you said, for the promise of a tax cut.

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We're all better off when there's a social safety net because there is such an exponential difference between "having enough money to save myself from the system" and "having enough money to save myself and the family and friends I love from the system". I cannot imagine having untold wealth and feeling the urge to build a bunker with it.

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Thank you, Lyz and Lyz’s editor. I live in Central Illinois right smack in Trump country. I also grew up in Iowa. Me and my family navigate this everyday. This article helped me feel seen and heard.

I appreciate both of you and all your hard work.

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I’m in central Illinois too, hello neighbor!

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Beautiful. We need to be reminded of this.

Every time I see some friends from college on Facebook, or go visit my home town where my mother still lives, I remember that the people who are cheerfully chatting with me and acting like we’re old friends voted three times for a man who wants to imprison me for voting against him. They want my now-grown sons sent to camps for not being straight enough. They will destroy the planet for a tax cut. That’s not even getting into their belief that they have a right to spread deadly diseases just because. It’s so exhausting. I’m tired of these people. I’m depressed that regardless of what happens on Tuesday we’re stuck with millions of people who have made hate and ignorance their most cherished guiding principle.

The worst part about this is that if Harris loses, it will be blamed on her being a woman. America voted twice for a Black man and twice against a woman. Obviously the solution is never to let women out of doors. Racism is tacky but misogyny is still very much respectable even among people who claim to be our allies. Nothing is going to change that any time soon.

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for nine years I've had an internal struggle over distancing myself from people supporting Republicans as the GOP's standards sunk lower by the year. The comments about Latinos at the MSG rally made it clear that I don't need this, no matter what happens next Tuesday.

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Thank you, as usual, dear Lyz. I'm sending you love and light.

I have decided to keep up my Washington Post subscription, for precisely the reasons you describe, but have canceled my Amazon prime account and am boycotting Amazon and Whole Foods. Everyone can do that at zero cost to themselves.

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I'm keeping my WaPo, too. It's one of the places where I get national news, and it supports real journalists that I don't feel comfortable punishing for their owner's cowardice.

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I understand your compassionate position, but there is also the argument that if we don’t make an example of WaPo, other news organizations will follow suite. When they choose to protect Trump, the consequences need to be swift and brutal. If Trump wins, these journalists we want to protect will be in a world of trouble anyway. I was one of the 200,000+ who made the difficult decision to cancel.

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I hate to say this, but what would affect Jeff Bezos? He seems out of reach. Already rich, already powerful, obviously lacks the courage to stand up for democracy.

I rarely shop on Amazon but I do have a Kindle.

I will cancel Prime before my WaPo subscription.

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I cancelled my New York Times subscription 4 years ago and subscribed to the Washington Post. Last weekend the post was ready to endorse Harris but Bezo said no. You can’t sell to me that the journalist are in charge or that they have ethics. This year the post allowed editorials telling women “someone has to compromise and marry conservative men”. There were at least a half dozen articles guilting women to have babies (not one article telling men to be worthy of the sacrifices women make to have and care for kids”.

I’m sorry but the newspapers are playing a very clear game of trying to attract people who don’t subscribe by ignoring or dismissing the people who subscribe to papers. So maybe if people like to unsubscribe, they’ll try to reach me. I am proud to be one of the 250K defectors.

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Thank you for this today. I live in Indiana, and voted early for Kamala Harris last week. Many would say it won't matter, because our state loves Donald Trump, but it still matters to me. My neighbors fly hateful flags with hateful messages right next to the American flag, and throw (put?!) small animal traps in my yard underneath the feral cat shelters I have. I'm almost 66, and my only income is Social Security, so I couldn't afford to move even if I wanted to. And I DON'T want to. I've lived here my entire life, and this is my home <3

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Hi Roxy. I live in Indiana also and also voted early for Harris.

I am optimistic this year: Jennifer McCormick has an excellent chance to beat Mike Braun.

The Republicans are AWOL - not showing up for debates, just coasting.

I think voters are tired of that and lots of folks are working hard to end one-party rule.

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Hi, Veronica! I sure hope you're right about McCormick beating out Mike Braun! You nailed it about the GOPs in our state--absolutely AWOL--they don't show up for debates and they don't show up for us either 😠 I live in Rudy Yakym's district, and he didn't bother to debate either, or respond to any of the local news stations when they wanted to know why. Hopefully he'll be able to find time to reflect on things after the election and Lori Camp is our new representative.

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As someone who lives in a "blue bubble" I can say - we still have Trump-loving, immigrant-partnered people here who have white-flighted from downtown Madison (I cannot call it the inner city, it is MADISON, WI) who put up their "Vote on November 5th -- US Citizens Only!" signs. I wouldn't want to escape and make this a bubble. But I also find myself retreating this election. In 2020, the stress gave me, a then-35 year old, shingles. So I give money, I vote, I calmly talk about these things with my daughter, who I can only parent as I do because of an abortion. And we survive.

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I live in a blue state and I recently declined an invite to socialize with my Trump-supporting neighbors. My 15yo accused me of being intolerant because I am discriminating against them because of their political views (please be kind: he is 15 and though I monitor his social media, I can't catch every TikTok he watches or hear every conversation he has at school. He is being presented with a lot of information that I constantly have to debunk). I very tiredly explained that I will accept an invitation to socialize with them when I am not beat down and exhausted by what's happening with this election; I don't want to argue with people right now. They're not going to change my mind and I'm not going to change theirs. I have to live across the street from them for many more years and I do not want to say something I regret that could lead to issues where I feel unsafe where I live. My youngest still attends Catholic school - I know what some of his classmates hear at home. The only thing I can do is help my kids understand that we don't succeed until we lift everyone up, not just ourselves.

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Are you in Maryland? We joke that I got my neighbors to get “involved” because I put Unity over Division and Fight Like Your Daughters’ Rights Depend On It signs, as well as an Angela Alsobrooks sign. My neighbors followed suit with their MAGA signs. I am in such a reddddd area that some IQ45 signs have been up since before 2020. There’s a house for sale in the court next to my street. The guy on one side has a Cybertruck in his driveway and the people on the other side have their IQ45 flags hanging from the front porch. I call that court Conservative Court and that house certainly won’t be attracting liberal minded voters!!

I voted today, and there were quite a few people there. But most of the signs were for Republicans.

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I’m in MA. You would be surprised how many Trumpers there are here. My neighborhood has had some issues with people vandalizing BLM and other political signs so we do not advertise our politics. It’s been pretty disheartening.

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I put my signs up to defy that very thing. I will not be afraid to speak up. I’m a middle aged white woman. Go ahead and vandalize my signs and see where it gets you. I’m also a Scorpio whose 50th birthday is Friday and I have zero fucks left to give.

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I'm also in MA and somehow this time the Trump ppl seem more visible? It has destroyed any sense I had of being in a bubble, even here.

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Agree. There’s been a very defiant “I support him and fuck you if you don’t like it” that I find concerning. I’ve got neighbors announcing they’re voting for him like they’re announcing an engagement or a marriage. It’s almost like they want to pick a fight.

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Thank you. I live in Southern California, family of immigrants, with several of them supporting Trump. We come from a country where a charismatic dictator gained power and changed the country overnight. I know it can happen here. I subscribe to several papers and substacks. I am in deep in following election news. I am trying not fall into a well of hopelessness. I’m cutting back on my social media until after the election. I remember this feeling from the 2016 election. And I survived that. Reading this essay has helped me tremendously. Reading the comments has helped me tremendously. I needed this today. Feel a little less alone. A little lighter. Thank you.

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I am in a blue bubble. I am also in Calfornia where Japanese American citizens were rounded up and put in camps while their neighbors watched. If you ever find yourself on Hwy 395 stop at Manzanar. It's the only camp still standing and it's free to visit. A generation of Japanese Americans lost wealth they painstakingly built and trust that their fellow Americans respected them.

And apparently half our country seems okay with doing that again. I feel salty today. And weepy. The NYT is not encouraging.

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I've been thinking about withdrawing a little bit. I'm not in a position to complain--I already voted and I'm in a blue bubble in a purplish county in a blue state with some purplish areas. I've been reading projections of how horrible things might be if Trump wins, trying to steel myself against the possibility. But I'm also trying to let the horror go a little and think "sufficient to the day is the evil thereof."

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I too find myself "hiding away [a bit] and working on home projects." The last few weeks have been getting the boilers cleaned and ready for winter, and working on vintage clocks. Even me, an information junkie, find the current news cycle exhausting. I mean, what more is there to learn about the candidates or parties? How are there still undecided voters? That said, in the interest of seeking "refuge and comfort", I hope to see you and your kids on my doorstep tomorrow night. Weather looks good and I have a small mountain of the large candy bars. Happy Halloween Lyz and all! Oh, and Godspeed Teri Garr.

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scared and tired and angry. that describes pretty much every woman (and a lot of men) that i know right now. we just want this election to be over so that we can adjust to whatever the future holds. i've kept my WaPo subscription for the time being for all the reasons that you mentioned. after the election? we'll see.

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I live in a purple city in a red county in a purple state and every year it’s another challenge to elect decent people to public office, because whether they know it or not, our red neighbors benefit from having blue politicians working to make everyone’s life better. It’s been disheartening to watch them drift further and further into the Republican nightmare of bad schools and degraded environment and corrupt politicians, but that means we work that much harder to undue the harms. It’s starting to work.

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THANK YOU this red state blue state bs is my Roman Empire and pet peeve. It makes people lazy and strategists stupid. It creates the divide and anger over who matters and who doesnt.

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