President Elect Trump

So, the impossible happened. Not since Dewey lost to Truman have pollsters had this much egg on their collective faces. If only we'd listened to the Simpsons all those years ago we'd have known president Trump had to precede the first female president. I had expected to be disappointed by the election for many months now because of the moral depravity of the two major party candidates, so I can safely say I was surprised when I just laughed yesterday morning. It was a laugh of relief at the election finally being over. It was a laugh at the failure all the pollsters who overestimated voter turnout and were lied to by closet Trump supporters. It was a laugh of schadenfreude at Hillary and the sexist #imwithher campaign. It was a laugh of irony that while one philanderer (Bill Clinton) wouldn't be able to live in the White House again, it would soon be occuped by an even bigger one. It was a laugh of hope that President Trump might just do something crazy enough to lead a state or two to secede and finally curb the out of control power of the American Empire.

My lack of despondancy wasn't seen as an appropriate response by many people I know unfortunately. The "us" versus "them" mentality has a short half-life after elections fortunately.

Lately I've been running Wednesday mornings with Jacques. We do a 4+ mile loop in Percy Warner Park. We ran past a number of other people on the trail and when we passed a couple ladies who did not seem happy to see us, Jacques remarked that they must have seen us, a couple of white men, as Trump supporters. To which I replied that what they see in us more likely a reflection of their own preconceptions. If they are Trump supporters, then they'll see us as fellow Trump supporters because they're happy this morning and seeing the world in a positive light. If they are Clinton supporters, then they'll probably be angry and see us as Trump supporters. At which point I admitted Jacques was right. When we finished the loop, we decided to do it again in the opposite direction. And finishing that a little more on the road to get past 10 miles. Run off the stress. Run off the trauma. Run because you're happier than you've ever been in your life. Just run.

How will the culture change with Trump in the White House? I don't know. But I have some ideas. Political corruption will increase as Trump companies siphon millions or perhaps billions of dollars off from the taxpayers. The religious right will decrease in relevance and moderate, as they attempt to defend a president they overwhelming supported and who said in one of the primary debates "Caitlyn Jenner can use any bathroom in the Trump hotel she wants". We will have a national conversation about the nature of marriage beyond just the heterosexual vs. homosexual serial monogamy one, and contract law will be expanded to include polyamorous and non-perpetual but perhaps renewable marriages. Misogyny, racism and xenophobia will rear their ugly heads and will be argued down by the best among us, teaching another generation the value of ideas and the importance of opposing some of them. Decadence will only increase among those who can afford it. Just like Obama and Bush before him it will be a mixed bag that sees the size of government continue to increase correlating to the decrease of the middle class and the increases at the ends of the spectrum. Trump will accelerate some good trends as well as some bad ones. We can only hope that the former outnumber the latter.

It's only healthy to see the future as full of potential. Here are some other positive takes from people who, like yours truly, didn't support Trump: