[from an email written shortly after election day 2016]
I was shocked Wednesday morning when Trump won. I was so sure he would lose I didn’t even stay up to watch the returns come in – I thought it would be too depressing. It’s been 12 years since a Presidential election wasn’t depressing. But I woke up at midnight and learned he was ahead so I got up and watched for a while. (the wife was up the whole time.) It was astonishing.
I know this is not what some wanted, and I sympathize – trust me, however bad they feel about Trump being President, I felt that bad about Obama. It’s not easy to absorb. The funny thing is, Trump is probably the most big-government-friendly socially liberal Republican ever. Maybe it won’t be so bad for the other side.
Consider the upsides: Newspapers will remember that their job is to keep an eye on government, not cheerlead for it. Democrats will remember why we’re supposed to have separations of powers, so the President can’t just do what he wants with executive orders. Dissent will be patriotic again.
I don’t know how good a President Trump will be but I’m glad he has the chance rather than Hillary. I not only voted for him I gave $500 to his campaign (don’t tell the wife). Given the sorry state of our country and government I’m happy to have a non-politician in there throwing grenades around. The status quo gives me no hope.
For eight years I’ve lived in a country where the President despised me and people like me. And, by the way, so does nearly everyone in academia, the press, Hollywood, etc. To be a conservative is to be assumed to be evil and stupid, whose ideas are not to be considered and engaged with but to be shamed and hounded from the public square. Try to be a conservative and get a speaking gig on a university campus, for example – there’s always a threat of violence. Where are liberal speakers afraid to appear? Nowhere! This treatment wears on a person.
Those on the left are not immune – look what’s happened to teachers at several colleges and universities. One failure to give enough trigger warnings, one failure to use the right pronoun, one micro-aggression and the students may declare you a monster who has to be removed for them to feel safe. This political correctness is dangerous and it all comes from the left. Trump defied it like few could and survived – I think this is good for everyone.
So now at least people like me have been heard. We’re tired of being called racist and every other epithet for not agreeing 100% with today’s liberal dogma. My God, are we tired of that! Wanting to secure the border is not racism. Keeping people from terrorism-supporting countries out of America is not xenophobia. Keeping taxes low is not hatred of the poor. Keeping health care in the private sector is not indifference to the sick. Defending the 2nd Amendment is not advocacy for mass shootings. Believing that marriage is self-evidently a man/woman thing is not homophobia. And on and on. There are arguments to made on these issues but no one on the Left will listen. Obama sure as hell didn’t – he never credited anyone who disagreed with him with good will. His attitude was “I won.”
I didn’t think there were enough of us left to matter, but it turns out there are. I don’t know if it will last, but at least it’s not over for us yet. Donald Trump does not despise me (or Democrats!). And thanks to Obama, the Democratic Party has been decimated all over the country. Despite it all Republicans are in charge almost everywhere but the big cities.
Speaking of big cities, note the protests and violence that have broken out in several cities. Do conservatives ever behave like that?? When did a Trump or Romney supporter ever break a store window or set a car on fire? Why did people fear Trump supporters but not Hillary supporters? It’s the result of what can only be called propaganda. It’s insanity. It’s the Left that uses violence.
And I’m thrilled we’re done with the Clintons. The lies and corruption these two have inflicted on our country have been a burden for decades now. They should both be in prison. Do you really believe anything they say about anything?? Even Comey said that every story Hillary told about her email server was a lie, though his reaction as a law enforcement official was to shrug and say “whatevs”. Good luck getting that treatment if you’re not a Clinton! Imagine a new unresolved scandal every month for the next 4 years – that’s what we’ve been spared.
As for me, if Trump gets Obamacare repealed, secures the border, and puts an originalist on the Court, I’ll be happy.
If you have six minutes watch this:
. It’s a British actor portraying a news reporter who’s furious at Trump’s win (and at Brexit and the Tories) but has useful things to say about why this happened.