…And we wake to the sure knowledge that almost half the people of this country cast a clear-eyed, knowing vote for an utterly unqualified, unstable, authoritarian fascist. That he’s A-OK in their view. (Almost half, because his opponent actually won the popular vote, but thanks to an 18th-century anachronism that artificially inflates the power of low-population, rural states, that doesn’t matter.)
There’s nothing I can say here to make this any better. Look at the demographics — this was the revenge of the old, white and largely uneducated, aided and abetted by the genuinely fascist and the “screw everybody, I’ve got mine” crowd.
Almost half this country literally hates me, my family, and anyone like us. That’s a hard thing to face. Living out here in Red State Flyover-land, we face it daily, but it’s harder knowing there are more than you thought. Hard to feel like this is our country.
At this point, the best we can hope for is that Trump is in over his head, and we face 4 years of utter incompetence and an inability to actually get anything done. The main reason GWB was able to govern at all was because the GOP elites packed his administration with Substitute Teachers — old power. I can’t see The Donald accepting that kind of oversight, so I fully expect that his administration will be a clown car of sycophants and toadies. Not exactly a recipe for getting shit done. Especially given the fact that the rifts in the GOP are there for everyone to see. There will be a group of Trump loyalists in Congress, butting up against the other GOP factions, all trying to do what they want to do.
At least I hope so.
In 2004, I posted this. It still applies.
“We must do without hope. At least we may yet be avenged. Let us gird ourselves, and weep no more. We have a long road, and much to do.”
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, Book II, Chapter VI.