Well, This Really Sucks Eggs

​There are two good things to come out of last night's election.

The first is that I now have so much to write about in politics over the next four years.

The second is I'm glad that because my dad passed away six months ago, he didn't live to see this.

A friend asked me to be philosophical about the election.  I have no interest in being philosophical about the election.  This is an awful result.  

Another friend sent an email this morning with the Subject line -- "Write something funny please!!"  I was going to write back, "So, did you hear the one about Donald Trump announcing he wants to be President of the United States?", but the punch line doesn't work out well.  But I certainly do understand the need to hear something funny about all this.

My reaction is simple:

I hope that Donald Trump does a great job on behalf of the founding values of America as President of the United States and Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Armed Forces, the most powerful man in the world.  I don't see that happening, he's never shown any such interest or capabilities or temperament.  He has absolutely no political, diplomatic or military experience to support him, and six bankruptcies.  But I hope for the best.   

Thirty years ago, I was at a book convention and passed up a chance to go to a press conference with Donald Trump because he gave me the creeps. So, my reaction to him isn't a new one.  It is ghastly to know that about half of America actually voted for Donald Trump to be president.  It is my belief that he is a compulsive liar, a con man, a racist, misogynist, egomaniac, admitted sexual predator and sociopath.  I think he has opened the door to allow white supremacists, hatred of minorities and foreigners, and threats against the media to enter the main stream, which is the foundation of fascist policy.  He's a man so unstable that his campaign staff reportedly took away his phone at the end of the campaign because he couldn't be trusted with it.  And he's now in charge of the nuclear codes, the American military, international relations, and U.S. domestic policy.  He's also has the responsibility of selecting the next Supreme Court openings, including the spot currently open that Republicans have blocked for eight months.

Philosophic?  It was difficult enough to type this.

I have no doubt that there are many on the deep far-right who are dancing around overjoyed at electing someone who they believe will make America into something they've been wishing for but can't be, all white male.  And many other Republicans are happy that they simply got a Republican in the White House.  And some thrilled that they elected a person who understands their struggling needs.  They didn't get what they expect.  Donald Trump doesn't care about blue collar workers, he never has.  He doesn't care about those hurting and want change, he never has,  He doesn't care about The Little Guy, he never has.  He stiffs them.  The only person Donald Trump has ever shown in his life he cares for is Donald Trump.

This here isn't about looking at Hillary Clinton, or pollsters, or the media or the FBI or anything to do with analysis of what this vote means or what it says about "what the people want."  This here is about one thing:  the cold, hard reality that Donald Trump will be President of the United States.

I was wrong.  I am not remotely alone. Mind you, most everything I said that I thought would happen during the campaign did happen, including showing Donald Trump to be empty, venal, racist and out of control, and that he lost all three debates by a lot.  I even got it right that more than half of Americans voting did so for Hillary Clinton.  I just didn't think that after all this that that enough Americans would still vote against all their best interests and their country's and think that Donald Trump was qualified to be hall monitor, let alone President of the United States.  And elect him.

If anything speaks to the need for education, this is it.   If anyone wants to make America great, start there.

I was recently in Germany where most of the people I spoke to about the election were horrified by the idea of Donald Trump actually having a chance to become President of the United States.  And they loved Hillary Clinton, who for 20 years in a row has been voted Most Admired Woman in the world.  I can't begin to understand the reaction of the rest of the world to what America, the beacon and hope of liberty and freedom, just did.

Although Russia apparently got who it wanted.

As I said, I most certainly do understand amid all this the need to read something funny today.  "Write something funny please!!"  I suspect that's a common request by just under half the country today.  

Fine.

Two elderly couples are heading out to dinner.  The driver asks the old man next to him where they should go eat.  The codger thinks for a moment, but his face scrunches up as he struggles to remember.  He keeps trying to come up with the answer, but it's no good, and then finally asks for help, "What's the name of that flower that has thorns on it??"  The driver takes a few seconds himself and then replies, "Rose."  With a nodding smile, the old fellow next to him turns to the back seat where his wife is sitting and says,-- "Rose.  What is the name of that Italian restaurant we love?" 

And so now the Republican Party controls the House of Representatives.  And the Senate.  And has Donald Trump in the White House.

Half the country is celebrating today.  I can only think of the phrase, "Be careful what you wish for, you might get it."  

I really do hope Donald Trump does a good job on behalf of America's founding values of all men being created equal for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  To have us given the tired and poor, and with welcoming light embrace the huddled masses and even wretched refuse who yearn only to breathe free.  Send us the homeless, tempest-tost, with liberty and justice for all.  Because I wish America better.  And the world, too.  Because all that is the foundation of the greatness of America and has always been.

Okay, I do have some philosophy.  "This too shall pass."