The election of 2016 will be remembered – and reviled, by
many – for years to come.
One party’s establishment had a coronation in mind; the
other party’s had a primary process it thought would produce a milquetoast
candidate along the lines of the Republican majorities in both houses of
Congress that failed to stand their ground. Both parties were wrong, and what
transpired during the primary process and the election shocked millions.
The Republican Party's collapse began years ago, when it
forgot that it was the keeper of the nation’s conservative foundations, and
squandered many opportunities to make positive and needed changes and to stop
an imperialist president. That collapse peaked during the primary season. Among
the 17 candidates was Donald Trump, a non-politician who attracted the
attention of the voters with his intention to “Make America Great Again” and his
promise to “drain the swamp.” His political inexperience was ridiculed and his
appeal underestimated by nearly everyone, but against the desires of the
establishment Republicans and despite their subversive efforts, he won the nomination
comfortably.
Along the way to winning the GOP nomination, Trump churned
up enormous amounts of bad will among both Republicans and Democrats. All of
that chaos rendered the GOP so badly splintered that it was barely recognizable
as a political party. But Trump won the all-but-destroyed GOP’s nomination, defied
the conventional wisdom and the millions of Hillary faithful and won a
significant Electoral College victory.
The Democrat Party's collapse began as a strong, blinding
emotion for Hillary Clinton to again declare her desire to be crowned the first
female President of the United States that had been on-hold for eight years. After
all, it is time for a female president, right, and who is more deserving than
she? With the exception of Bernie Sanders’ strong challenge to her anticipated coronation,
the signs of collapse were obscured to Democrats and liberals by their overwhelming
desire for a female president.
But on the campaign trail Clinton insulted Trump supporters,
saying, “you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call
the basket of deplorables,” and generally ran a poor campaign. Her strategy was
largely to slam Trump for nearly everything he did and said. She is not
particularly likeable, and her list of scandals and bad judgment did not help
her lagging popularity. That the jig was up became obvious early
Wednesday morning, and Clinton was reportedly so disconsolate that she did not
even concede the election until hours later. The pain lingers for Clinton and
her supporters to this day.
What has happened to the two parties since their respective
collapse is that the Republicans actually began a gradual restoration before Election
Day, with some anti-Trumpers, perhaps grudgingly, coming around to give some
degree of support to their party’s candidate. And as President-Elect Trump has
been steadily assembling his administration, other prominent Republicans have
been coming on board.
The GOP still has a long way to go, however, but is well
ahead of the Democrats, who cannot accept the fact that Clinton did not win the
election. They were so, so, so sure of their vision of a first-ever female
president; but they were so, so, so wrong. Their disillusionment and desperation
is palpable.
They didn’t notice the level of dissatisfaction of the people,
and still haven’t realized what happened. Instead, they blame FBI Director
James Comey’s crazy behavior in the email scandal investigation and Clinton’s inferior
campaigning as causes for the loss, never aware that after eight years of President
Barack Obama’s failed policies, the country wants change.
Having missed the reason for their defeat, they aren’t
working to revitalize the party, but instead are indulging in playground-style
name-calling and criticizing everything Trump says and does, labeling him and
his choices for positions racists, sexists, misogynists, bigots, homophobes,
and white nationalists. And last week rather than try someone new with
different ideas, House Democrats re-elected California’s Nancy Pelosi as
Minority Leader.
While Trump focuses on carefully selecting people for
administration positions – capable people the left would never have thought of
– those selections are automatically considered bad and are setting the country
up for major failure.
Democrats and the left media are stunned that the new
president has different ideas about what the country needs than they have, and
have lost all semblance of common sense over Trump accepting a congratulatory
phone call from the democratically elected president of Taiwan, on the grounds
that it would upset China. The idea that an American president ought to check
with any nation before talking to a national leader is preposterous.
Trump has ably demonstrated that he, like all of us, is an
imperfect being. He is not a politician; he does not think like a politician,
act like a politician, nor speak like a politician. Those who support him and
voted for him understand that he will have failures and shortcomings, and will
make mistakes, as all previous presidents have, and all future presidents will.
Nevertheless, all of this will become fuel for fires the left will kindle, and
will throw misunderstood context, misconstrued comments and exaggeration on a
flickering flame trying to start a blaze.
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