Full disclosure: I am a white male, mid 50’s, with an education. I am just the sort of person you don’t want to listen to if you are one of the people wearing a safety-pin and protesting the election. If you don’t want to read this, please go find some kitten videos on You Tube, I don’t want to bruise your feelings.
I had no problem with the outcome of the election. I had an issue with the choices in this election. In one of my early posts on this blog I went through my reasons for disliking both candidates. I won’t rehash my thought process, you can read it if you want. My home state of Virginia went blue in a tight election.
I am not happy that we have a buffoon as our new president-elect. I am old enough and well read enough to understand how the election works. Start with Article II, Section I of the Constitution and then go read the 12th Amendment if you need a refresher. The lofty ideals of the Constitution were put down on paper in order to establish a country where a peaceful transition of power could take place, especially in times when social discourse is less than polite and the candidates have set aside the real issues of this election in favor of an unnecessarily dangerous division of the population.
I see the protests after the election and I have no issue with them until they become violent and destructive. At that point, I am deaf to your cause and I am all for correcting you on the spot. What I find particularly amusing is that these protestors, who think the end of the civilized world is nigh, are rampaging through the streets of the cities that supported their candidate. On Wednesday night, “protestors” marched on to I-95 and stopped traffic in Richmond. Congratulations for stopping people from getting home and interfering with interstate commerce. Your message was lost. In Chicago, a motorist was beaten by a bunch of thugs because he was white and they assumed he had supported Trump. That would be a hate crime. In Oregon protesters walked along the roofs of cars in a dealership and kicked in all the back windows and windshields. Lets call it like it is, this is the kind of anarchy and destruction caused by criminals who are hijacking a protest. If you support the “protestors” that do this, I will warn you that at some point, it is going to blow up in your face. There will be a reaction and it will probably not be an equal and opposite reaction by any means.
There are remedies for this election. In 4 years there will be another presidential election. If you don’t like what he has done, vote him out. In two years the entire House is up again as well as 1/3 of the Senate. Vote for the candidate that supports your position. Do what you need to do, within the law, to correct the path you fear the country is on. Just remember, people with the opposite point of view will be doing the same. A little respect goes a long way.
If you want to have the president elected by popular vote only and disband the electoral college, you need to work on a constitutional amendment that repeals the 12th Amendment and establishes the popular vote as the metric that decides future elections. There is a process for this that does not require the burning of buildings or the smashing of windows on police cars. I will point out that in the wake of the 2000 election where the winner won the electoral vote and not the popular vote there was an uproar that fizzled out pretty rapidly. No move to amend the Constitution was made, even when the Democrats had the White House and both Houses of Congress for a couple of years (2009-2011).
And just a note for those of you that have been watching the Hunger Games over and over to get ideas on how to deal with your new dystopian Trump reality, you need to understand something. Some of us “deplorables” believe in the rule of law. I see Roe Vs. Wade as a settled issue, the law of the land. I see gay marriage as settled law. Why should I deny the same right I have to be miserable in a marriage to a LGBTQ person? I don’t support the repeal of the 19th Amendment (yeah, I heard that one last week while in line to cast my ballot). And no matter what you hear, doctors will treat patients because it is their duty and solemn oath to do so. You cannot replace Obamacare unless you have something with which to replace it.
I see the far right as the same grave threat as the far left.
The new president is not a conservative, he does not have the full support of the Republican House and Senate Majorities.If you think there will be a Republican love fest in the aftermath of the inauguration you are not paying attention.
The reason for the unrest is that the Democrats rigged the process for Hillary and she was too busy being entitled to her birthright as the first woman elected president that she alienated a huge swath of the population. On the Republican side of the ledger, they chose a narcissistic toddler to be the nominee. Does the fact that she could not win the election against Mr. Trump speak volumes about Secretary Clinton?
In the meantime, let’s pull up our big boy/girl pants and stop throwing your post-election tantrum because you did not get what you wanted. Time to grow up people! The Constitution is there to get us through difficult times. We will get through this.
A note for those of you that did not bother to vote, I don’t want to hear a peep out of you. And for those of you moving to Canada, don’t let the door hit you on the way out. My deepest apologies to the people of Canada for the coming trickle of knee jerked immigrants from your southern neighbor.
Michael's Monologue 