There are insufficient words to describe my disappointment. It's not just that he did not win this election, just as George Bush did not win his election. Both lost the popular vote. Trump's margin was significantly higher than Bush II, and here'a the chart with all presidents who lost the popular vote. You can see this one is quite significant.
Trump has put forward his choices for cabinet secretaries and advisers. Most are assigned to posts in departments they have openly despised. You can read the newspaper to see who hates what. The nominees are not the ones he promised, but are big donors lacking experience in government or diplomacy. Like Mr. Trump.
He has given permission and voice to groups who hate. There is a significant increase in hate crimes across America. He has engaged his own private security force. Their presence and performances at his "thank you" rallies has been, according to eyewitness accounts, scary.
He has provoked other nations with whom we have diplomatic relations. He has declined to receive security briefings. After maintaining the elections were rigged and dishonest, he refuses to address the specter of Russian hacking into our election process....yet he continues to say it is rigged. By whom? He won. What else does he want?
I listened to President Obama's interview with Steve Inskeep on MPR today. What struck me about the conversation was his careful measured tone. If you've neither heard nor read the interview, take a moment to do it now. It's worth the few minutes it will take you to read it.
At Talmud class tonight, Rabbi Allen said that he was disappointed there was no voice of the opposition... like shadow cabinets in the UK...and that Hillary had gone silent. My initial response was what is she supposed to do? But the more I think about it, the more I agree with the rabbi. (Don't tell him I said that.) The silence from the other side has been strangely deafening. It's as though the Democrats have abrogated their responsibilities to the mob instead of presenting some sort of reasonable alternative. Who is monitoring the Trump nominees? Who is presenting an "official" counter to their points. Right now, we have no voice of reason to speak to our concerns.
Thus far, he is setting himself up for an imperial presidency and, to be real honest, that's what people who voted for him voted for. I just find it odd that all these anti-flag burning super-patriots are supporting a guy who wants to severely limit (if not repeal) the freedom of the press section of the First Amendment. So far, he has refused to hold any press conferences, choosing instead to invite journalists for "off-the-record" conversations. Hardly the transparency he yammered about.
Trump did not, as he likes to claim, win by a landslide. As the chart above shows, he lost the popular vote. He has no mandate. But I don't think that will make a hill o'beans difference.
Louis
The America People want leadership. And in the absence of genuine leadership, they will listen to anyone who steps up to the microphone. They're so thirsty for it, they'll crawl through the desert toward a mirage, and when they discover there's no water, they'll drink the sand.
President Andrew Shepherd
We've had Presidents who were beloved, who couldn't find a coherent sentence with two hands and a flashlight. People don't drink the sand, because they're thirsty. They drink it because they don't know the difference.
The American President - Aaron Sorkin
In the absence of leadership, We, the People will keep on drinking the sand. Right now, we have no real leadership in the wings; we have only autocrats posing as autodidacts, and kleptocrats poised to serve in cabinet posts. What we don't have is anyone seemingly prepared to lead the opposition center stage.
Rallies and protests are not going to stop the progress of this administration.
Meanwhile.....in other news......
The Russian ambassador to Turkey was assassinated mid-sentence while delivering a speech at an art museum this afternoon. And someone drove a truck into a Berlin Christmas market this evening, killing 12.
Frankly, I have no idea what comes next.
The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week
Windchill is no joke. Dress accordingly.
I hope you're wrong about there not being any opposition. It's my hope and expectation that that's to come. What I find disappointing are some of Hillary's recent remarks about why she lost...it's the FBI director's fault; it's Putin's Russian hackers' fault...etc. Instead of defending her limitations, she and the rest of the Dems really need to examine what went wrong, take responsibility and accountability for it, and then fix it!
ReplyDeleteNews flash, WP: Donald DID win the election... saying that he didn't win is like saying that your team won the baseball game cause they got more hits than the other guys.
ReplyDeleteNews Flash #2: I've already made my "Cory Booker 2020" sign & it's now on my front lawn.
He won the electoral college, and hence the presidency. He did not win the popular vote which, in just about every other country in the world, would mean he did not win the election itself. The electoral college is a quirk which has, on five occasions, given the presidency to the person who lost the popular vote. So while he was elected by the electoral college, he was NOT elected by the population of these there Untied States.
DeleteYour blog states "... he did not win this election..." but Trump is "POTUS-elect" because he DID win the election. No one is denying that he didn't win the popular vote -- but he did win a majority of votes in the electoral college; hence he "WON THE ELECTION" & that's all that counts. END OF STORY.
ReplyDeleteThe Electoral College was created to give plantation owners a greater voice in elections. The Electoral College has everything to with slavery. We now recognize slavery as the abomination that it is. And it's time to end the useless electoral college. END OF STORY.
DeleteThe essence of our national troubles is really quite simple. Some people are scared. The scared people, the ones who voted for Trump, are the ones not prepared for living globally. They're not properly educated, trained, and informed. They didn't understand it was going to be hard and they would have to change and learn new things. So, they are resorting to the authoritarian figure, the big daddy, to make everything okay for them. They are of course being led in this direction by misinformation, propaganda and outright lies. But the rub here is that they think they want less government, that government has failed them, yet they are voting for a person who says "I alone can fix it" and is setting up an authoritarian administration. Do some reading up on South African dictators (eery style similarities with Trump) and the history of the Russian Tsars (to better understand authoritarian rule and how it's coupled with religion to control the masses). Listen, this isn't something we're going to be done with in 4 years. It's likely going to take decades to pull out of this path we're headed down. The Trump type people have to educated and trained to survive and thrive in a global society. Unfortunately our new government isn't going to help with that, so it's up to us to do this on a grassroots and familial level. I'll admit, I'm still depressed by this whole outcome. I'm dreading the rape that's going to come from all the self-serving billionaires being appointed to important cabinets. But I won't succumb to the fear and the lies and I will stand strong. I will speak the truth even in the face of insult and teach my daughter that honesty and kindness matters.
DeleteTo the author of the above comment (Beginning "The essence of our national troubles...) - thank you. That was an excellent observation. And I agree with you. Please email me directly at thewifelyperson@gmail.com
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