2016 Election Post Mortem

Like many people in the country, I was up way too late last night watching the results roll in for an election that was going a very different way than I anticipated. When I was finally able to drag my way too tired ass out of bed this morning, what I saw was very alarming to me in a way that I didn't expect.

People in this country were going off the deep end in a way that I've never seen before.

The President of the United States is a very important office, but he or she is not an emperor. We have had some very bad people in office before and we made it though. (although we didn't really know all the details about these people in real-time like we do now)

It made me realize that we all need to get our [crap] together, and take a great big dose of reality and acknowledge some responsibility for our own future. The president has no effect on how I live my life, how I treat the people in my life or the new people I meet. He or she is not the boss of me!

Some observations:

• You would have thought Hitler beat Mother Theresa last night if you had social media as your only news source.
• Monday night I saw so much coming together on social media, phrases were thrown about like "no matter who is elected, we all will have to get up tomorrow", and "the identity of the president does not determine the quality of your life", "I will never unfriend someone for politics", etc. Well I guess that is only the case if Hillary won, because this morning the sky is falling. 
• The media has created such a villain out of Donald Trump (and of course, he has fanned the flames), that my kids were literally crying this morning. They really think the bogeyman has been released and will eventually come to get them.
• The look of shock being replaced by agitation on the commentators faces (I was mostly watching NBC) was remarkable. As I alluded to above, I know that Trump is the embodiment of evil in their eyes, but to abandon any pretense of impartiality was a little troubling.
• I did not hear any mention of Wikileaks on the coverage I watched. (I did not start watching until 11:00 or so however), but...
• Lester Holt was rather honest that a Trump victory was a middle finger directed at the Washington politics-as-usual, and the media as a whole.
• During most of the election cycle (the 2020 race begins in three weeks!) everyone was bemoaning the quality of the options offered by both parties, yet when push came to shove, less than 5% of the people were willing to cast a vote against the two party system. 

A Dose of Reality

I don't love Trump. I didn't vote for him. I too have a bit of a sick feeling in my stomach about his election, but for different reasons than I've seen elsewhere.

He is a deeply flawed human who needs to grow up fast or this country could be in big trouble, but he is only one man who cannot declare himself king. This is not 1930's Germany as so many democrats and others on the left would like you to believe:

• He does not have a super majority in the senate as Obama did for a time in his first term.
• His own party doesn't really like him.
• We still have some checks and balances built into our government.
• In spite of the media picture (caricature?) of him, he has demonstrated very pragmatic judgement in many past business dealings.
• If he wants to get anything done, he is going to have to learn to compromise (like Bill Clinton knew and Barack Obama never learned).
• If he chooses not to compromise, he will be a one-term president and punch-line to countless jokes for generations to come.

An Eye-opener

As I was attempting to be a responsible parent, talking my kids down from the election-induced ledge, I noticed that their behavior is disturbingly similar to the behavior that they saw in me following Obama's re-election in 2012.

Talk about hearing brakes screeching in my head!

This led me to realize that no matter how grim you think things are politically, this country is a political pendulum that swings back and forth, and even if it takes an election cycle more than you would expect, it always happens.

So now we are left in a place of scorched earth, where we can build something great, or let the destruction continue unimpeded.

I see that there are the seeds of great things being planted here, Americans are realizing that politicians do not have our best interests in mind and we have the ability to create a great life, in spite of them! I hope and pray that this pulls us out of our media-induced coma of the past two administrations, and stimulates an empowered population that takes ownership of a great future and does whatever it takes to make life in America great for everyone!