Election Day

Election Day should be a showplace for America democracy, the end of long political campaigns during which each candidate makes their best pitch to the voters then retires to campaign headquarters to await the results of the vote count.   Winners thank their constituents and promise to represent all citizens.   Losers hold out as long as they can then thank their supporters and grudgingly concede.  Some promises are kept, some forgotten … and we find out if our choices were good ones, always knowing that in two years, we get to choose again.  Democracy goes on.   That’s how it should be.  How it used to be when being a democracy was more important than partisan politics.

Alternate Realities

Alternate Reality 1:  February 13, 2014.   At Cibolo Creek Ranch in Shafter, Texas John B. Poindexter, owner of the ranch, discovers Antonin Scalia unconscious in his room. He calls paramedics and they arrive quickly to transport him to Tripler Army Medical Center where it is determined that he has had a heart attack.  He undergoes a triple bypass and recovers completely, returning to the Supreme Court bench in April.   Meanwhile, in November, the election turnout  is unusually high for an off year election, allowing the Democrats to retain control of the Senate by defeating incumbent Republicans in close races in Alaska, Virginia, Louisiana and Georgia.

Hello President Trump …

… Goodbye Social Media.

I did not sleep well on election night.  A man I would not allow in my home is now the president-elect of the United States. My feelings about Donald Trump were clearly stated in my election eve post, Enough.  But now the election is over and he has won, fair and square, in spite of his carping about rigged elections.  If you look at the voting demographics it looks like certain parts of the Democratic base didn’t turn out for Hillary and it is likely that the third party candidates hurt her as well.   Let me say this … if you didn’t vote or voted for a no-show in protest, you don’t get to complain.

This is the point at which, in most years, I would try to accept the will of the people and hope for the best from the winner.  But I find Trump so reprehensible that hope is difficult to come by.  Last night, before I went to bed, I said a prayer for our country, which is the best I can do for now. Perhaps the man will turn out to have a conscience after all, or as several people have told me, his theatrics reflect the salesman he is … once the presidency weighs upon him, he will be a better leader. Perhaps the Republican leadership or VP Pence will help him find a steadier course, in spite of their failure to do so during the campaign.  I can look back to voting for Romney four years ago and hope for rightward movement in some of the areas in which I am conservative.  And I will keep on praying.

Enough

(I do not usually post about politics here, which is why I haven’t posted for so long.  It’s been hard to take my eyes and mind off this train-wreck of an election.  Hopefully, this post will be cathartic and I can get back to being the realistic optimist that I used to be.)

In the 2002 film, Enough, Jennifer Lopez plays Slim, a working class waitress married to wealthy contractor, Mitch, played menacingly by Bill Campbell .   Though the marriage starts out well, by the time their daughter, Gracie, is five years old, Mitch has become physically and emotionally abusive.  Slim and Gracie go on the run, changing their names and starting a new life in Seattle.  But Mitch is not only wealthy, he is well-connected with underworld types and unscrupulous lawyers.  He continues to stalk his wife and daughter, until, when Slim realizes he will never stop until he get sole custody of Gracie, she learns Krav Maga, a self-defense system developed by Israeli Defense Forces.   She develops an elaborate plan to confront Mitch in his own house and kill him in self-defense.  In the finale, she … if you’ll pardon the expression … kicks the living shit out of him but is unable to bring herself to kill him.  This gives him the opportunity to strike her and as she is lying on the floor, he tries to kick her, an eventuality her martial art trainer predicted.  Using a technique he taught her, Slim counters and Mitch falls from the second floor to his death.  Critics mostly hated the movie, saying it was unrealistic and trivialized the real problem of abuse but I have to admit, I have a weakness for movies in which a woman gets real revenge on an abusive husband, so I always enjoy the closing scene.

(independent)

If you were consult the California voting rolls, you would find that I am a registered Republican.  Please don’t tell anyone.    As a conservative on defense and fiscal issues but a moderate on social issues, the party to which I am registered usually reflects my priorities at the time of registering.  I am used to being unhappy with certain avowed policies of my party of the moment, but I have never been embarrassed to be registered to a party until now.  I don’t blame the Republican party for nominating Donald Trump.  The party leadership did everything it could to convince a certain segment of our citizenry that he was unfit to be president.   Inexplicably, those citizens ignored the party leaders and nominated The Reality Show Candidate anyway. What I’m embarrassed about is that once the deed was done, so many of those who said he was unfit turned around and supported him.  GOP leaders John Ryan and Mitch McConnell were particularly outspoken in their criticism of Trump and therefore looked especially hypocritical when they decided to back him.   During the last election, I was a lukewarm supporter of Mitt Romney.   He’s looking pretty good to my eyes now.   Integrity counts.  So-called conservative talk show hosts like Limbaugh and Hannity, too, have shown their true colors and supported The Reality Show Candidate.   So, please, in spite of my current party affiliation, call me independent.

No Debate

So, the Presidential Debates are over.  And it’s time for me to make a confession of sorts … I didn’t watch.  Not the Vice-Presidential Debate either.  Oh, yeah, I took a few peeks and watched a few clips online but that was about as much as I could stand.   I’m not going to defend my choice … I’ve got too much water under the bridge to feel that need … but I am going to explain it.  I will say up front that I know who I am going to vote for but that was not the deciding factor.   Primarily, I didn’t watch because I find the whole process contrived and a scary indictment of how we choose our president.   When I watch, I end up disliking both candidates and even more cynical than usual.