Some Thoughts

I, like so many others, are stumped by the election of Trump. I’ve had a steady diet of talk shows utterly repulsed by his actions, speech, and overall lack of class. You would think this country would have avoided him like the plague and in some respects they did. If you look at the overall voting numbers, you easily see the bottom-line reason and it’s one of that so many people chose to stay home and not participate. Trump had four million less votes than 2020, but the crush was Harris getting twelve million less than Biden in 2020. It is reminiscent of 2016 when so many thought Clinton had the election locked up, but what happened is that many people didn’t vote. It says a lot for both candidates and we can certainly make our own assumptions about the cause. The GOP certainly had a game plan that ultimately had some effect. I know we were so tired of listening to the rhetoric that you knew wasn’t true, but it sowed enough doubt into listeners heads, that it had a fear injected into many in this country. For those of us that are disgusted by bias towards others, it is exactly what these commercials displayed and brought those suppressed biases to the surface for many. Many of us worry about another four years of middle-of-the-night bathroom tweeting, lack of knowledge about anything other than his own motivation to seek retribution for those that actually made him guilty of his improprieties. He is a disgusting individual, and so many just thought it funny to get behind him, so that they could watch their so-called enemy squirm. That is a major problem in this country when you look at your neighbor as either an enemy or a comrade. And then there is just the plain and simple thought that too many in this country have s serious issue with a woman leading this country, and on top of that a person of color. It shows just how little this country has advanced in removing biases. In fact, what I think this country has gotten the best at is suppressing biases and comments for fear of losing a job or being singled out by the squeaky wheels of this country. Whether you agree or not, you have to take a step back and understand that your bubble is just your bubble and not felt throughout this country.

Most all of the women in my immediate family, Lord knows I’m not referring to my dutiful cousins who I say many prayers for. No, I’m referring to my daughters and at least one daughter-in-law. One daughter-in-law I’m not sure where her alignment is. They woke to a Wednesday morning stunned and depressed at the results. They had so many hopes for the issues they championed as going to be corrected with the election of Harris. I, on the other hand, was not surprised, just disappointed. I had predicted to my dad that Trump would win. More of a gut feeling derived from the commercials and lambasting that the GOP candidates were handing out. This also founded in the fact that so many Democrats have this sense of fair play that handcuffs them into some shell of, “I can’t believe they just said that” kind of response. They don’t like to debate, they just like to state their point and then shut down to any kind of retort. The kumbaya candidacy of joy wasn’t going to cut it against people that find it perfectly normal to call others names and then laugh about the most inappropriate of comments that could be said. What’s the old saying, fight fire with fire? Maybe if Harris would have kept referring to Trump with name calling and pointing out personal character flaws, then she might have done better. Listen, so many people laugh because they are hearing someone say what they are suppressing in their feelings. Their fears are dissolved when the Orange Man is out front pointing out their fears and making them feel its ok to be weak minded and less than appreciated. We all know that Trump could really give a shit about them and certainly will not create any policy that helps them out, but after four years of deficit increase, raised taxes on the lower income people to support the wealthy getting richer, program reductions that were designed to make their lives better will ultimately be removed, social security will either be eliminated or the age of eligibility will raise to force people to work longer and then health insurance will really hit them hard when they can’t get it and Medicare is gone. But what will they do, redirect blame at the democrats somehow for forcing Trump to take these measures. In other words, they will never hold him accountable in the end. We will isolate ourselves from the stupidity, focus on how we can make more money, though that will be hard to believe the stock market will continue the twenty-five percent gains we have been enjoying over the last two years. Minimum wage will be stifled into getting by on pay that is less than a living wage. Programs like Head-Start that are used primarily in the south, in fact, twelve of the first fifteen most funded states in social welfare programs are all red states and are some of the poorest in the nation. But losing these programs will be welcomed by these idiots because they want to align themselves with people that tell them a handout or hand up are the evil design of the democrats to keep them suppressed. They always seem to forget how worse off they were under GOP control.  And yet, they will go right back out and vote for the GOP in the next election because they were told to do so and are sold on the idea their problems derive from illegal Mexicans, democrats are thumbing their noses at you due to your lack of education, and that the GOP will make it all better because GOD is on their side. It’s all bullshit, of course, but simple-minded is simple-minded and you can’t fix stupid.

The democrats are full on trying to analyze what went wrong. Why couldn’t they get people to put their shoes on and go vote? They’ll try to throw more money into the problem as they always do, but it will go to the wrong places and the wrong people. So many thought abortion and women’s health would create a win but as exit poles showed, it was only about fourteen percent of the most popular reasons for voting by the people that did vote. At the top was economy, and even with this country having turned everything around and being the envy of the world for our economy, Trump told people our economy was in shambles. Of course, what he never admitted too was that he took one of the strongest economies being handed to him by Obama and set it on a course of inflation through his trade tariffs and an eight trillion dollar add to the nations deficit. More than all the previous forty-four presidents combined. We have our favorite Trumper on our way into the neighborhood that has now hung a sign saying, “thank you Jesus!”. I’m pretty sure this person is one of those that bought a Chinese made Trump bible. I’ve never seen it, but I wonder if Trump added another book at the end speaking to how Trump would deliver us from Revelations. What would it be called, The Book of Trump? The shear fact he attached his name to a bible should be blasphemy to those that believe their lives are driven by religion and that Trump is the great white hope. Or better said, maybe the great orange hope. I don’t know, but he does give them hope as they believe he a Christian through and through.

Would a year and half campaign have helped Harris? It certainly had enough energy, but the elephant in the room for the democrats was the demographics just weren’t on their side. Both black and Hispanic men overwhelmingly chose to vote for Trump or not vote. Why? Not hard to figure that one out and is due to a woman running for president. I’ve heard it from white men around here too. I shake my head to it as two of the best managers I had were women. I stood behind them and was proud to do whatever I could to advance their agenda. But many men feel threatened. White suburban women came out in droves, but the demographic was just too small to make a difference and as exit polls have shown, many women still voted for the convicted sexual harasser and misogynistic pig. Why I don’t know, but I have to believe either they were told to do so or just have so low self esteem that they felt threatened if someone were to ask them how they voted. They forget it is private, but maybe some of them believed the rumors that family members would be able to see how they voted. I couldn’t believe that one was being floated around down here. And they seem okay that this country has now been set back to the sixties when it comes to women’s rights to control of their own body and instead believe Trump when he said he would take care of them and he didn’t care whether they liked it or not, he knows better than them. Frankly, I don’t blame the GOP solely for the position women are in when it comes to women’s health and the choice of abortion. I put fifty percent of the blame on the Democrats that had fifty years of numerous total control to codify ROE VS WADE. Instead, they chose to rely on a Supreme court ruling as if it were law instead of an opinion. Sooner or later, they should have realized the Supreme Court would again turn GOP heavy and things would be challenged on legitimacy. All they had to do in Congress was to make it law, but they didn’t do it, so they are guilty by their inaction.

After four more years of Trump, I’ll hear some of family tell me how much better their 401k did under Trump, but they can’t understand that investing on political parties in control is a fools investment method. Frankly, I like making money and I don’t care who’s in the office of president or in control as long as I can make money. Why, because the president has so little to do with the rise and fall of the market. They certainly can have some influence but having been an investor for forty years, what I have come to know is that the markets are cyclic, and you can depend on certain months always having the same recurring gain or loss months. Presidents take the blame or credit for market gains and losses, but it is a political tool and certainly not reality. So, when you put your money in the bond market during Democrats presidencies and then diversify your account when a republican is in office, I will move ahead of you. Kind of like the last two years of Biden, we have been riding around 25% gains, but I’m sure some are only making about  4% because somehow, they believe Biden was responsible for the economy inflationary response to Trump.

I’ll stop watching political shows in the morning and start watching cartoons. They’ll make much more sense as I know I will just be livid with the constant stupidity of a Trump administration. I suspect in two years that the House or Senate will flip again. And then we’ll have to endure nothing more than Executive Orders that can be overturned. In his first term, there were guardrails and sensible republicans that didn’t allow bills to get passed. That won’t be true in the next two years, but the focus will be on things that won’t get accomplished in the end like some stupid wall being built and thinking that they don’t have ladders in Mexico. I hope to have about three political discussions over the next four years. I do expect to laugh a lot at the craziness, and I hope so badly that after four years, the common man realizes their lives weren’t better, their expenses are even higher, inflation will be back with a strangle hold on this nation, and me with a I told you so for those republicans complaining that things are worse in their lives. Maybe the democrats will finally understand, let the republicans ruin the middle class and lower-class people, and then step in later and do nothing to improve their lives because it seems they appreciate when they are getting dumped on. Maybe just somehow tax the wealthy and make them pay their fair share. After four years of women’s lives getting worse, maybe they’ll organize a movement to finally fix the issue of abortion and stop letting men tell them that the way it is, is perfectly acceptable. When blacks and Hispanics lose more and more rights and fifty years progress in human rights are trashed, that they might get off their ass and vote next time and stop thinking their manhood is dependent on whether the president is a man or woman. I hope I don’t hear that from any more men, I might start exploding about how stupid they sound and tell them to shut the hell up and grow a pair.

If nothing else, the next four years will test our resilience. Hopefully those that worry Trump will get the term limits for president removed, will be happy if Obama returns for a third term. Talk about your landslides, what a laugh that would cause.