Moving Forward from the Election

So, here we are. This campaign season was very depressing. It showed just how divided we are as a people. On the night of the election I was filled with anxiety. I dreaded the outcome, the possibility of Donald Trump winning.

Now that he’s President-Elect Trump, that painful anxiety is gone. I’m oddly optimistic. I look at this as a chance for us to actually come together as a people. The right may not have tried to understand the left during the Obama Presidency, choosing instead to obstruct as much as they could right up to the end. Hopefully, we on the left will take this opportunity to understand what we’re up against and look for ways to find opportunities to compromise and make our country better.

I’ve thought a great deal about this campaign, and I did more reading about the candidates than I ever have before. Here are some of my thoughts as we — hopefully — begin the process of healing.

Stop the Blame Game

I enrolled as a Democrat to caucus for Bernie Sanders, and I went to the Maine Democratic Convention as an alternate delegate for him. I’ve never been a member of any political party before, and I’ve voted for both Democrats and Republicans through the years. I’m not a fan of the two-party system, and I’d gladly vote for a worthy third party candidate. I think they have a lot of work to do to improve their chances.

But as long as we have this shit sandwich of a two-party system, I may as well pick a side. (That being said, I will still vote for a Republican if she’s a better candidate.)  I’ll remain a democrat until the party really pisses me off somehow.

And seriously, as a Democrat I have to say that we need to stop trying to assign blame for Hillary Clinton’s loss. We can’t blame “racists” for the rise of Trump. He did appeal to white supremacists, but many good, honorable people voted for him as well. We can’t blame third party candidates, either. Many of those votes would probably have gone to the Republican ticket had there been no other options.

We can only blame ourselves. I don’t buy into the apocryphal “Hillary’s a criminal” mindset. I think the Republicans have done a great job of smearing her over the years, especially with the gratuitous Benghazi hearings. Dopey — to borrow one of President Elect Trump’s favorite epithets and appropriately assign it — Congressman Kevin McCarthy made it clear that there was more motivation behind the hearings than just getting to the bottom of the attacks. While Secretary Clinton was cleared in all the reports, she was tarnished beyond repair. The email scandal, which I feel was blown way out of proportion, wasn’t handled well. Even though she was cleared by the FBI, many didn’t agree with that exoneration.

There’s also the Clinton Foundation, a world class nonprofit organization that has done amazing work for people around the globe, and the Republicans were able to cast it in a very negative light. And much of the blame for that can be placed squarely on Secretary Clinton, herself. No reasonable person should think that friendship won’t get you access to people in power, but when donors to that organization are given access, whether or not that access is truly related to the donations, it stinks of corruption.

Then there are people who honestly believe that Bill and Hillary Clinton have had people killed. I joke on Facebook about people needing to stop talking badly about the Clintons or they’ll be visited by a Bill and Hillary Death Squad, but seriously?  People actually believe this. Let me move on.

The Democratic Party nominated an incredibly polarizing figure, and we stinking liberals need to acknowledge that. While Mr. Trump is no stranger to polarization, many people just wanted someone who isn’t a career politician in there to shake things up (even though nothing in his platform gives much of an indication that things will actually be different during his presidency or after it).

The American people wanted change, and for better or worse, we got it.

Let Go of the Campaign Drama

During the 2016 presidential campaign, there was very little substantive discussion. It was infuriating. We needed to wait until the final debate to hear any discussion of one of the greatest threats to our prosperity, the national debt. Not surprisingly, no one had a plan that would actually address reducing it.

No, we had pure mud-slinging. All the talk was about how Hillary Clinton is corrupt and Donald Trump is a — for the sake of brevity — just a horrible person. We need to let go of that drama. Seriously. I’m not a fan of Donald Trump, but we need to give him our attention. Protesting in the street won’t help anything.

Trying to undermine his presidency by saying “he’s not my president” won’t help either. It didn’t make Barack Obama any less of the President of the United States over the last 8 years when republicans said the same thing and even questioned his citizenship.

Michael Moore’s 5 Point Plan won’t help either. We aren’t suddenly going to get rid of the Electoral College and fire all TV pundits. That’s silly. And we absolutely need to heal the divide. We can’t “. . . obstruct in the way Republicans did against President Obama. . .” That’s counterproductive. We need to grow up and find common ground, or else we can merely kiss progress on a lot of issues goodbye. It’s also going to be rather difficult for Democrat’s to obstruct when the Republicans will soon hold power in all three branches of our government.

I agree that we should let go of the Electoral College. It's getting in the way of what the people want. But there’s a process to amend the Constitution. Enough people have to make their Senators and Representatives know that they want this change before it would even be introduced as a proposed amendment. We can’t just cry about Hillary getting more votes. We have to DO something.

Why I Supported Hillary Clinton

Look, I know she wasn’t perfect, but I didn’t buy into the horrors that many people believe about her. I believe that she is able and experienced. I believe that her economic plan would have been the least damaging to the federal debt. I believe in the free market, but I also believe that it needs to be regulated to prevent innocent people from financial ruin. (Remember the mortgage crisis, anyone?)

I believe that she would have protected a woman’s right to choose. I’m pro-choice, not pro-abortion. I agree with her that the government shouldn’t be interfering in a woman’s decision to terminate a pregnancy. I know women who have had abortions. It definitely wasn’t “birth control.” It was the most gut-wrenching decision of their lives, and for one of them, that decision saved her life. Get out of the womb, government.

I also believe that she would have made the best choice for the Supreme Court. I don’t want to forsake the progress we’ve made on the rights of the LGBT population.

Now I have to hope that my belief in those rights can find enough support to be protected for a while. It’s hard to be optimistic.

Much was made of the “lesser of two evils” argument for both candidates. I didn’t think Secretary Clinton is evil. And, honestly, I don’t necessarily think Trump is “evil.”  I have serious reservations about him as a person, and I’m seriously concerned about his inability to acknowledge any flaws. I worry about him lying about so many stupid little things, like the NFL complaining to him about the debate schedule. How I think of him as a person aside, I just preferred the Democratic platform over that of the Republicans.

What I Worry About for the Future

Naturally, I worry about those same rights being undermined. I worry that education about sexual health and birth control will suffer. I worry that we will become a less inclusive country. I worry that terror groups will be more motivated to attack us because of the things President-Elect Trump has said about Islam. I worry that we could get into another war in the Middle East when if he reneges on the Iran Nuclear Treaty.

I worry that he doesn’t have a complex understanding of many issues. I’m concerned about the economy. Sure, the markets are doing well now, but does that benefit anyone other than the wealthy? How will he move to deregulate it and how will that affect working families? How is he going to get production jobs back to the US when he, himself, shipped them overseas?

I worry about freedom of speech. Will he actually change libel laws?

How about all the talk of jailing Secretary Clinton?  He graciously said that we should be thankful for her years of service during his acceptance speech. But will the alt-right groups who think she should be in jail be disappointed in him when she doesn’t go to jail? Will they respond with plans to attack? I don’t trust unstable conspiracy theorists.

What about the rise of hate?  Will white supremacists like David Duke continue to be emboldened by President-Elect Trump? I’m not trying to suggest that Mr. Trump is a white supremacist. I’m saying that he often speaks impulsively, and white supremacists have liked a lot of what he’s said. He was even endorsed by the KKK’s newspaper. He did distance himself from that, and he can’t help who likes him. But that doesn’t make who likes him any less of a concern when they feel that he’s their voice.

And what about how we communicate? Will email ever be the same?  I guarantee that it won’t be in any political campaign again. I’ve long felt that privacy is an illusion, but private conversations shouldn’t be used to undermine public figures. We should also be very concerned about foreign governments and organizations hacking our communications and publicizing them to interfere in our democratic processes. Are we just going to assume that republican emails didn’t contain anything damaging to the Trump campaign? I don’t.

The FBI interference in the campaign is also very troubling. Will there be serious inquiry into the operations at the FBI — along with the email hacks? Or will the party in power not care because these issues didn’t harm their campaigns?

How about the Affordable Care Act? It's going to be repealed, but what will replace it? Something terrific? I know the right is upset that premiums are going up for those plans, but at least those people can get insurance now.

There’s a lot that concerns me.

Moving Forward

I hope that we can come together as a country and understand our divisions. We have a long way to go, and this campaign hasn’t helped. But we desperately need to move forward. Donald J. Trump will be the next President of the United States. Period. We all need to accept that. Complaining and trying to obstruct won’t get us anywhere.

I hope — perhaps foolishly — that the government will see how close the popular vote was and realize that our country isn’t just a Republican or Democratic monolith with one set of values. Somewhere in the middle will be fine. . . Yes, that is pretty foolish of me.

I hope we can get past our fears. Donald Trump ran a campaign based on instilling a great deal of fear in the electorate, and Hillary Clinton ran a campaign based largely on fear of Donald Trump. Many fear that he’s a fascist. (I, myself, am worried about some of those tendencies.) I just hope he will be the president for all of us — whether we like that or not — and that he surrounds himself with wise men and women. I hope that’s not a foolish wish.

I hope we can bring decorum back to life and treat each other with respect.