Well, Donald Trump is our new president-elect. A phrase I never expected to write, until Bernie Sanders was defeated by Wasserman Schultz and our Democratic party, that is. How did Hillary and all of her ivy-league helpers not see, AT ALL, what was happening in this country? Change AT ANY COST came like a tsunami for the Washington establishment and nobody saw it coming? REALLY? Occupy Wall Street, Bernie Sanders, DONALD FUCKING TRUMP?? I’m so disappointed in Hillary, I could just spit- but there’s plenty of blame to go around, so I’ll try not to dwell.
Firstly, the GOP’s methodical raping of our educational systems and the rest of our social services for the last three decades helped to grow a vast population primed to vote for ANYBODY who promised to change their decades-long suffering. No country can be strong whose people are uneducated, sick or poor. Period. The GOP paved this road years ago, and yesterday was proof of that.
Secondly, “Don’t Vote For Him, Or Else” will never sound better than, “Make America Great Again.” Ever. Never ever. If you didn’t know any better, why would you NOT vote for him? “He wants to make America Great Again! Why is Hillary telling me NOT to vote for a Great America?” I’m no political scientist or analyst, I don’t run a polling firm and I don’t have an economics degree from Harvard or Penn, but with a cursory knowledge of the American people and a modicum of common sense, it seems pretty obvious. Why in the holy hell did that not register with the hundreds of people working for Hillary? $500,000,000 didn’t make her relatable to the average Joe, and nobody- I mean NOBODY, should be surprised. Donald Trump needed to win, and Hillary needed to be right- But ‘Murica loves winners more than anything, and ‘Murica should most definitely be great “again.”
The only conciliatory booby-prize I can conjure up is the fantastical idea that this has been an elaborate con-job by the most savvy political animal of all time. That he will go back to his Democratic roots and upend a system that continuously fails its constituents. Maybe he’ll use his demagoguery to forcefully convince us that we need a single-payer healthcare system and universal free education. Maybe a minimum income for everyone will be made sexy with enough bluster, bloviation and fist-pounding. Maybe he’ll do a 360 on climate change, immigration, trade and all the rest. Maybe he’ll overturn Citizens United and The Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Maybe he’ll get all the hard, cold facts that only the President of the United States is privy to, and make decisions with the care and prudence that befits the office of the President. Maybe he’ll be a better president than we all think. Maybe. But probably not.
Whatever you think, come January, The Donald will be the most powerful man on the face of the earth. We’ve lost all executive branches of the government to the GOP, and the supreme court will quite possibly be tipped to the far Right for decades. It’s not Bernie’s fault. Don’t blame Stein or Johnson, either. Blame the GOP for growing the monster, Donald Trump for shamelessly embodying it and the whole of our Democracy for not doing enough to stop it.
“We get the president we deserve” has never felt more sickeningly true. Shame on us.