There are some things in life a bottle of whiskey just can’t fix. I realized that about 1:30 this morning while sitting on my porch, disgusted and distraught. Less than half of Americans (Hillary won the popular vote, plus third party voters) decided reality TV star and real estate mogul Donald Trump should be our next President, but that was enough. This bizarre election season finished the way we should have predicted; with an even more capricious ending. More votes were cast (roughly 200,000 more) by Clinton supporters who are surely as shocked and dismayed as I am. Many of these voters are from cities, where issues such as crime, poverty, and inequality are pronounced, which makes it is easier to see the need for Americans to have a more liberal viewpoint. To those voters (of which I am), I am sorry for this difficult defeat. But, there are voters who live in rural areas across the country who blocked out the noise, looked at the big picture and not just their small towns, did their research, and understood a Clinton presidency was the right direction for our country, given the choices. A majority of their friends and neighbors across their towns and in their industry were supporting Trump, and they would have to be polite or private in regards to their politics. They knew their vote may not matter, but they also understood the importance of being counted, and maybe for simply knowing they did the right thing. I feel significantly more pain for these voters. The Trump team ran a campaign which focused mostly on claiming Clinton was a criminal (emails) and a murderer (Benghazi). The Clinton campaign wasn’t much better as they were consistently given a “scandal” a week by Trump to focus on. In hindsight, this may have been tactically wrong. Early on, Trump predicted his supporters would stay with him no matter what, claiming if he shot someone in broad daylight, they would stand by him. He was right. The smear campaign didn’t cause him to lose any of these core voters. All the tax stuff, groping stuff, bankruptcies, lawsuits, and on and on, were just a smokescreen from the biggest issue: his complete lack of qualifications to be President. Start with understanding this; if Mark Burnett doesn’t create The Apprentice or Trump doesn’t agree to do it, he is NOT President-elect today. Sure, he may have played a part in the election, but with The Apprentice, he has star power. We know now that to become POTUS, you don’t have to have held elected office or served on government committees or boards at any level. You simply have to “get ratings” (which is all Trump cares about) and act important and omniscient. Remember when Republicans were furious about Senator Obama’s lack of experience to be in the White House? What they really must have meant was his lack of Nielsen ratings. This absolutely opens up the possibility that someone who supplies content on Facebook could become so popular they run for President in 2020. It used to be everyone inherently understood the steps to becoming President. Become a local government official, then to state senate, on to US Congress, pass a few bills, gain some respect and popularity, become a go-to for the 24 hour news stations, then run for President. But, geez, that’s a lot of work. Skip all that learning stuff and go right to the ratings part. What could go wrong? Trump never had a clear plan in regards to the US economy, immigration, or stopping ISIS, among many other issues facing this country. He often oversimplified extremely complex issues such as the trade deficit, explaining them to voters as if it was something a third grader could understand. Maybe, just maybe, had the Clinton campaign focused on his lack of experience and plans and her experience and her plans, some independents or Republicans would have come to their senses. But we were constantly focusing on whether or not he wants to make out with his daughter, or Melania’s plagiarized speech, or why Trump Mortgage was a bad idea. For most Presidential elections, both candidates have the experience. They are equals. So, to knock someone down, you have to sling a little mud. Maybe in this case, Clinton should have just pointed out more clearly they just weren’t equals. In the end, I believe Trump now has a job he never wanted. He enjoyed the prestige and attention of the ride, but never really wanted the work and pressure that comes with being President. He didn’t want to lose, but didn’t want to become President, which put him in a pretty awkward spot. Most people who spend a lifetime serving our country in government and then running for President, truly love Americans. Trump truly only loves one American. But, this is where we are, and he is our President. Everything is going to be just fine, right? Or maybe I just need to open another bottle of whiskey.]]>