Now that Trump has Won

I won’t deny that I am not only shocked by the outcome of the presidential election, but I am a bit depressed by it. But I’ve been around long enough to have learned a few things. One is that I/we survived Ronald Reagan; and so we will now survive this as well. Two, being a Minnesotan, I saw voters abandon established politics and politicians in favor of a former “pro wrestler.” It seemed like a good idea at the time; but Jesse turned out to be a bad choice.

So is it possible that while he appeared to be a bad choice from the start, that Donald Trump could be a good President? I don’t know, but we have to give him the chance now that he has won the election. It is our way and our law. He did, in fact, in his acceptance speech, ask for all of us, whether we supported him during the election or not, to join with him to reunite our country after a mean and nasty election. And whatever else I might think, I think we owe him that much. Because enough people in the country did vote for him so that he won. If you can’t salute the man, at least salute the rank.

Are there tough times ahead? Yes, that is likely. The guy who pulled a gun on me in traffic over a year ago, has posted his gun on his Facebook to commemorate the victory. I can only imagine that those whose demographic groups were attacked in the election campaign process must be bitter this morning. Yet the news media found representatives from these same groups who were overjoyed by the victory of Trump and of the GOP.

So now I will advocate that we stay calm and make the best of the next four years. And if we aren’t happy with the person who is President four years from now, use your vote to change it then. Humanity seems to need to swing from one side to the other—often missing the middle completely. Those of us in “Middle America” know that very well; because the candidates never quite seem to represent those of us in the middle. But we are here now. So we must work for the common good.

—KJC