15:18
So it begins: the polls are open. The latest surveys show a mere 4% difference in her favor.
You’ve got to be kidding me!
This is a man who threatened to block remittances if we don’t pay for his damn wall. That’s the money Mexicans in United States send their families back home, it’s our highest source of foreign income. If he goes through with it, millions of people will go hungry.
18:51
He won’t win, of course. He won’t. He can’t.
‘He’s a joke’, I thought when he ran in June last year. A few months later, when I heard he could actually win, I laughed. Since then I´ve watched him call for a ban on Muslims, mock the disabled, call women ‘bimbos’, voice racist comments, offensive comments about Latinos, Syrians, even his fellow citizens. I laughed every time.
Now, picturing the outcome turns me into a nervous wreck. Guess the joke’s on me.
22:19
I spoke with Rafael and Ernesto earlier. Cousins living north of the border. No, they are not drug dealers, nor rapists. In many ways, we are sending our best. They are scared, though, as we all should be.
A U.S. leader who is fascinated by the destructive power of nukes, who believes climate change is a Chinese hoax, who calls for suspected terrorists to be tortured, and their families killed, who says things like ‘I love war’. He would impact lives far beyond his own country.
00:32
The polls on the east coast are closing now, the counting is on. First glimpse: with a 1% count, he rules in Kentucky and Indiana.
Forgive me, I need to get some sleep.
04:02
Crap! He won Florida. That’s a big one, he needed it.
As I turn on the TV, first thing I hear is CNN host saying ‘maybe he was right’. My aunt jokes about learning the wall-building craft, my cousins are questioning democracy. The Mexican peso is now at 21 for a single buck, and one very smart friend says he most certainly has the presidency.
05:08
Why am I even surprised? Americans, by which I mean many of them, have been thinking their country is messed up for a while now; and they mostly blame immigrants. Suddenly, this guy comes and says it’s okay to say it out loud. Says it’s okay to hate.
Benjamin Franklin got it right: ‘Desperation never made a good bargain’.
07:46
He won Pennsylvania. It’s basically over now.
07:47
F*ck.
08:12
In one night, hate triumphed over love, ignorance over knowledge, hierarchy over equality, fear over hope.
I don’t know what the future holds. I don’t know which walls will be built, if wars will be waged. I especially don’t know where we should go from here. Is this U-turn into sexism, racism, fascism the new vision for United States? For the world? I don’t know.
I’m afraid, though. I know that much.