Election Reflection

The US Presidential election of 2016 was remarkable for many reasons, most of which will be covered in the many articles, blogs, and news stories. Since this blog is all about me, I intend to put my thoughts out there and into the mix before they forever fade away.

I’ve decided to break my thoughts into several, more manageable sections; each dealing with a particular facet of my thoughts concerning the Trump ascendancy. In collecting my thoughts for the series, I found they were less and less about Trump himself and more and more about the current state of the American society.

The upcoming series on the election will cover

• Anyone can win
• Henry Ford & Tolerance
• The hypocrisy of the American progressive and SJW’s in particular
• The American progressive’s echo chamber
• The brilliance of the Electoral College
• Proud to be an American

Let’s light this candle!

Anyone Can Win

Well not “anyone.”

I can remember (way back) when my lovely wife was pregnant with our first child. We made a purposeful decision not to discover the baby’s gender, choosing rather to be surprised at the time of delivery (this is truly the best way). Everyone was guessing, and most figured, we would have a boy (after all, I am a rather masculine man!). In fact, my wife and I had convinced ourselves we were having a boy as well. Staying away from appearing to pick a side, we painted the baby’s room purple; close to blue, but not quite… just in case. We picked out a boy’s name. We were ready for the birthday!

When the baby was delivered, I kissed my wife and told her what a wonderful job she had done. About that time, the nurse said “it’s a girl!” Out of my mouth came the words, “WHAT?” I had really not considered I would have a girl. I hadn’t even bothered to look. We were both surprised.

Donald J. Trump is the president-elect of the United States of America. WOW! Running all the way up until about 2300 on election night, I really never thought it was a possibility. I’m still getting used to the idea, because I had never really considered he would win. That night, the media (somewhat reluctantly) told the word – “It’s a Trump!”

For myself, of all the facets of DJT’s election, the one that shines the brightest is a restoration of faith in “the system.” The Donald repeated the claim ‘the system is rigged’ more often than a WV Tooth Fairy visit, but he was wrong. The system isn’t rigged – the system works, and it works brilliantly!

Take a look at the candidacy of DJT and the headwinds he faced:

• His mere appearance on the stage with other GOP candidates was met with jokes
• He was derided as a buffoon, a bully and a beast
• He was mocked for his refusal to eventually support the GOP candidate (though he did pledge to)
• He was severely mocked and ridiculed by the media, Hollywood, and the late night talk shows
• Every comment he made was parsed to ensure it was cast in its most negative light
• His own party refused to embrace him
• Once the nomination was secured, those who had pledged to support the eventual nominee, didn’t (more about that in another post)
• The media refused to invest significant time or energy investigating his opponent’s obvious integrity flaws, choosing rather to spend countless hours of coverage on his past conversations
• The sitting president of the United States campaigned aggressively against him, even saying DJT was the KKK candidate and encouraged illegal aliens to vote
• The overwhelming majority of the polls showed he was going to get clobbered by his opponent
• He had never served in any political office or the military

Yet. He. Won.

This election, for me, reaffirmed my confidence in “the system.” A person, not chosen by the establishment, can look that establishment straight in the eye and say, “I’m coming for you.” This should not be overlooked. This is HUUUGE! In America, the ‘forgotten man’ can still rise up and challenge Goliath. The ruling class in America is NOT omnipotent, they cannot choose our leaders for us – they MUST listen to the people.

On election night, I was texting with several people and I sent out a text that upon reflection was highly embarrassing to me. The gist of the text was that this election was America looking steadfastly into the eyes of the establishment of both parties and saying – 

You’re Fired!