I myself took a break from news, politics and this board after the election (though I don't post often so I wasn't missed)... it was much better for my overall well-being. Now I'm back in the cycle of reading and vacillating between outrage and despair, to no good end. I'm going to have to put some limits around it all.
One thing that shows up from time to time on this board is this idea that politics is not that different than a sports game and that it doesn't affect your everyday life. This just isn't true. The policies that are made on a local, state and federal level affect everything about our lives. That includes access to healthcare, clean air and water, education for our children, protection of civil liberties etc. Policies affect our transportation, our taxation, our access to emergency services, the cost of food and goods... I could go on and on. Let me just give you a few examples about my life. The local Raleigh city council passed new zoning laws in the past few years that have made it possible for a 12 unit, 3-story condo building to be built across the street from my house. This will vastly increase the traffic on my street (making it less safe) and my overall home value will decrease. State-wide elections determine how much my husband gets paid, and should the general assembly decide to do so, they could effectively eliminate his university job. Nationally, should Trump decide to take a sledgehammer to the VA system, my job could also be eliminated in the next year or two. I am in my 50s and I have little confidence that I will get SS benefits when I get to retirement age if republican lawmakers have their way. None of this is in my control and all of it is decided by our elected officials. While you might not see how policies directly impact *you* today, at some point they will, for good or for ill. This is not a game folks.
Also, I just wanted to share an extreme example -- I had a conversation yesterday with a black female veteran who has scheduled a hysterectomy for next month. She told me, "I've been in countries where they lost everything quickly. I've seen what happens. I can't get pregnant again." Mind you, this woman is not in a relationship. She has seen how societies devolve when under duress, and how women get raped in war. It's happening now in different countries across the globe (see Congo, for example). She feels particularly vulnerable as a minority in today's climate. She does have some mental health issues that ramp up her feelings of paranoia, and other gynecological issues that play into her decision, but the point stands... no one has a significant elective surgery based on the outcome of a sports game.