If We Lose then Everybody Loses

 

The demonstrations (riots) occurring across the United States largely in the major cities, especially Democrat Party strongholds claiming that Trump is not, can not and never will be their President refuse to abate. Apart from this being a definite example of delusional denial, it is also much ado about nothing as the rules on how the office of President is chosen has been known for well over two-hundred years and all contenders understood the rules going in. It is not like Hillary Clinton has even shown the slightest designs or desires to challenge the results. There has been a number of disgusting results turn from these examples of bad behavior with one of the most egregious was the beating of a fifteen year old Rockville, Maryland High School student by numerous classmates for wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat. This was far from the only casualty from the protests where stores have been breached with their windows smashed and merchandise stolen. In one case a Starbucks Coffee store was broken into and coffee mugs were stolen and used as projectiles thrown at the police. Numerous other reports have surfaced of Trump supporters or just some refusing to join the protests being pummeled and beaten simply for not agreeing with the mob. For those who agree with these activities I have a simple question, what would your reaction have been if Hillary Clinton had won the Electoral College vote but lost narrowly in the popular vote and Trump supporters took to the streets rioting and beating Hillary supporters? If that would have struck you as indefensible, as I would hope it would, why are the current malcontents then tolerated. If Hillary supporters and all who voted for any of the candidates other than Trump, especially respected members of those groups, would come out and denounce these rioters then perhaps the United States could start working towards healing.

 

Civility is the basis for civilization and what allows disparate groups to coexist despite differing opinions. Elections are presumably the peaceful means for choosing leaders which has presumably been accepted as a replacement for generals or others leading their band of armed insurrectionists and taking the seat of power by force. That is the alternative which these demonstrators, especially those causing damage and beating anyone thought to be from the opposition, and the reason elections were initiated. Changing government by revolution every time a sizeable and well-armed group decided they should lead coming in and murdering the current leaders and destroying much of the capital city and sometimes leading to a major civil war destroying much of the kingdom all just to make a transition in power might be considered paying too high a price when compared to simply voting. Is this the system which is now being proposed by those rioting in the streets? Do any of them really believe they are going to get their way and Hillary Clinton will suddenly become the next President because they are rioting and destroying property? Lastly, what gives with the governors and mayors who are permitting such lawlessness? And lastly, enough with the ridiculous Trump supports the KKK or the Nazis or white supremacists of any stripe. That is no more true than Hillary Clinton being called a Communist or an Anarchist simply because some well-know Communist sympathizers or Anarchists came out supporting her, as I am sure there were at least a few. Just because some malcontent from any extreme on the political spectrum comes out in support does not make the candidate a supporter of the extremists represented by the particular claim of support. We do not control which crazies support a candidate and often cannot fathom even why there might be any reason for such support. Donald Trump has little to no actions in his past which infer in the slightest that he has a bigoted bone in his body. He is not a racist, anti-Semite, homophobe, sexist or even misogynist, though some might try to argue the last due to his action in decades past when male-female relations were quite different than today.

 

Anti-Trump Demonstration

 

Then there is the claim that the Electoral College is unfair as it grants a resident of Wyoming as carrying greater weight than a resident of California or Texas or New York or even Alaska. Oddly enough, that was the whole idea of the Electoral College. When the Constitution was drawn up the founding Fathers realized quite quickly that any candidate for President if they could win New York and Virginia by wide margins could lose nine of the remaining eleven states and still win the election. This, in their thoughtful minds, seemed to give Virginia and New York far too much power and they needed all the states to sign onto the new Constitution. Remember the Federated States of America was the dysfunctional governance where the Federal government was too weak to run the nation and the country was disintegrating. The Constitution was the grand compromise which gave the smaller states significant additional representation in choosing a President simply by adding two Electoral Votes, one for each Senator, to the number of Representatives and thus making it so all the states would be represented in the White House. As the United States grew and Wyoming became the least settled state per square mile, Wyoming receives the greatest benefit of the Electoral College system and California is likely harmed the most followed by Texas, but it all works in the end as Wyoming still has but three Electoral Votes and is seldom the deciding state. We need remember that without the Electoral College system the United States would never have come into being and the Federated States of America would have dissolved into individual states and more resembled Europe economically, militarily and in all too many other ways, Alaska would still be a part of Russia, Hawaii would still be a Spanish colony or an independent nation, Texas would either be its own nation or still part of Mexico after Santa Anna beat the Texas militias. And Wyoming would still be Wyoming all alone and pretty much ignored as nobody would want to take the time or energy to conquer her. Wyoming would be pretty much unchanged as any invading army would need to defeat a number of states before reaching Wyoming and then would stand little chance against the mountain men who know their woodlands and highlands very well and live as they please even now. Lastly, Wyoming has some of the most breathtaking views that can be found anywhere within the United States, and that comes from having lived there.

 

In closing, can we do something which has gotten the United States through tougher and more distressing times than anything a President Trump can cause. The country is nowhere near as divided as many seem to wish to have it appear. You might have heard of this other time when brother took up arms against brother and the nation was divided into the blue and the grey and we fought a Civil War, a real Civil War and not just civil unrest. We realize you believe you are fighting a civil war, but trust that you are not and should you actually become that violent, well, let us just warn that you would not like how that would end. The United States survived President Grant, it survived President James K. Polk who did not even campaign but was elected due to two things, the party he represented had the election in the bag and his opponent ran on the slogan of, “Who the h3ll is James K. Polk?” Perhaps if his opponent, who is just as nameless today as then, had campaigned with his name in a slogan instead of his opposition, perhaps he might have won but instead all anyone knew was both sides were preoccupied with James K. Polk. He ran against Henry Clay who was one of the founding members of the Whig Party. We even survived a President who pretended to have a middle name, well, middle initial because all the great Presidents had a middle name. Thus we had President Harry S (for nothing) Truman sometimes stated by his contemporaries as Harry ask for nothing Truman because persuading Harry Truman was wasted effort as he drew his own course and never deviated from a decision and was the reason for a sign on his desk which faced the door reading, “The Buck Stops Here.” We survived a President who was an avid big game hunter, went hunting with the Czar of Russia and spent as little time in Washington as possible, a man who despite great wealth gathered a group of roughnecks and went to war because it would be jolly fun, yep, President Theodore Roosevelt. The United States has survived virtually every kind of President imaginable, Harvard educated, Yale educated and self-taught, raised in luxury and poverty, military men and pacifists and somehow the United States has developed a life of its own which manages to always return to a central pillar based on equal freedoms being granted to ever wider portions of the nation’s peoples. One example was due to President elect Donald Trump who opened his Palm Beach resort called Mar-a-Lago; he insisted that it be opened to everybody including specifically Jews and Blacks, something never permitted in “exclusive” resorts, clubs and other venues breaking this barrier which held into the 1990s. The outrageous fact here is not that it was Donald Trump who broke the barrier and fought a running battle with the city officials for over a decade because of his inclusive policies but that Palm Beach had such rules in place into the 1990s and was still regarded as an all American resort town, now that is unbelievable and a truth that needs more emphasis. Still, if we all calm down we will survive the coming four years and then we can review whether Donald Trump was more President or clown and if clown, replace him and get on with life. Thank you.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Vitriol Explodes Across America

 

The reaction to the “total surprise” win by Donald Trump in the United States Presidential election came hard and swift across many of the major cities as well as many college and university campuses. None of this should come as a surprise as whenever there is an expressing of views counter to the leftist progressive agenda turning their perceived perfect world upside-down, the leftist scream foul and some even demanding a redo as if they just know those who voted against their issue, referendum or choice for elected office, especially for President, will realize the error of their ways and vote correctly just given the opportunity. What would happen if there were a do-over and they lost again? Demands for more do-overs until they get their desired result is what one would see. We will not attempt to claim that there are people just as misguided and ignorant on the right, there just appear to be more sour grapes protesters on the left. When major universities cancel classes after the left losses an election so the students can mourn simply proves where their sympathies lie. We honestly cannot recall any universities cancelling classes so students could mourn the losses by John McCain or Mitt Romney but would love for evidence proving such did occur. What is truly frightening is hearing from some leftists demonstrating against the election of Donald Trump calling for violence and claiming there will need to be deaths on both sides to set thing right and produce change (see video below). Produce change? Wasn’t that exactly what the election did was produce change? We understand, the only need for change is when the leftists lose and as long as they are in power and making all the decisions then all is correct in the world but as soon as they lose an election the demands for change start. Of course many of those demanding violence to remove Trump and place their chosen candidate where they belong in place of the elected President, that would be proper and is the only fair thing that can be done. With such views being violently backed or at least calling for violence to impose their views and placing solely leftist candidates in office begs why we even bother with elections. We are fairly sure they would gladly agree to simply appointing left leaning candidates in office and ignoring the electorate choosing otherwise because obviously the electorate is too dumb and ignorant to be trusted to elect the better candidate, just look at the results. So the electorate which elected President Obama twice are erudite and wise but became unhinged and ignorant all of a sudden and had some kind of mental breakdown electing Trump; brilliant, simply brilliant analysis.

 

 

The vote is what it was and the results will be acted upon and Donald Trump will be the next President. These people walking around with “Kill Trump” placards and screaming similar hopes into bullhorns need remember that threatening the life of elected officials, especially Presidents, is a felony with a very steep penalty. Thus far the authorities have been overly understanding. We are fairly sure that such might have been tolerated after the last two elections for a measurable amount of time but measured strictly in milliseconds. Actually, had as many people been advocating assassination of President Obama after he won in 2008, and especially in 2012 as he was then the sitting President, they would have been scooped up for questioning at the very minimum. Perhaps that is why we saw almost none if not exactly none of such actions as we are witnessing after this election. We are unable to recall firearms being discharged at any protests after President Obama was elected. Do we remember tears after the two Republican challengers lost? Well, yes, but we do not remember ten and fifteen minutes of each newscast picturing people wallowing in their broken hopes and dashed dreams; we remember the time spent on the joyous celebrations and declarations of the great milestone of electing and then reelecting the first black President. Why are we not celebrating the first non-politician other than a military officer elected to the Presidency and instead centering upon the trail of tears at the loss of the first woman on the ballot. Perhaps because the media was so sure Hillary Clinton was going to prevail that all their reporters and camera units were at her headquarters and at the Donald Trump headquarters all his troglodytic luddites do not even own cellphones so there is no video record of the celebrations. OK; maybe that was going too far but there are probably leftists who would give such credence.

 

The number of demonstrations and the volume of the threats against the President elect and those who voted for Donald Trump are sickening and disgusting. That is actually rather un-American and distressing. When the left wins, the mantra is heal and accept you losers lost but now when the left lost the mantra is this has to be wrong and must be corrected as we cannot lose and those losers must not be permitted to win. Really, then why bother with elections after the primaries and simply declare the leftist the winner and the conservative or more moderate the loser. Of course by such logic the Green Party should automatically win. Oh, wait, we understand, not the most left, just the right left, the Democrat. So the United States must always choose the right leftist and never be left with the rightist. Almost has symmetry except it disowns half of the American people.

 

Actually this election fit the same mold of a previous election, the 1948 election. In that election the Republican was winning handily when the Chicago Tribune set their front page assured that voting on Tuesday, November 2, 1948, has selected Thomas E. Dewey as the next President but in the early morning the farm and rural votes came in solidly for the eventual winner, Harry S. Truman. Thus was the famous picture of Harry S. Truman holding up the Chicago Tribune with the headline of “DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN” (see below). We kind of wish there would have been a similar picture for this election. Perhaps we can fix that.

 

Dewey Defeats Truman and
Clinton Defeats Trump
Headlines Then and Now

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

I Have Seen This Campaign Before

 

I have seen this exact style and lack of truth in an election built entirely on one overriding misdirection repeated ad-nauseum. I reserve the right to keep you guessing and in the dark, just as the media coverage of the American Presidential Election has and will continue as they have chosen and scripted their coverage for one side, Hillary Clinton’s coronation. One might ask why there has been so little a cry from the Republican elite and leadership. The reason has much to do with their complete lack of pushback against Donald Trump’s initial success while their golden candidate, Jeb Bush, completely crashed and burned without any Republican emergency response team to douse the flames. They were assisting and even secretly arranging in quiet ways Donald Trump’s victory as this was necessitated for a Hillary Clinton victory in the general election. Any honest and readily supportable Republican candidate with the possible exception of Ted Cruz, unsurprisingly the sole Republican who had any hope of toppling the Trump nomination, would have beaten Hillary like a drum. That was the requirement the Republican Party power brokers delivered upon just as directed in the Hillary coronation directive handbook which everybody appears to be playing by except The Donald. Thankfully The Donald is extremely well adapted for the role of the unscripted wildcard.

 

There was an excerpt from the comedy show “Third Rock from the Sun” where John Lithgow’s character boils over (normal for his character) about the election and the anguish mixed with insanity he suffers over how to decide through all the lies and confusion (see video below) and Jane Curtain’s character quotes, rather loosely, Winston Churchill about the horror that is Democracy as a form of government. If you are a Lithgow fan, as am I, then you will love this. This is also unfortunately how all too many voters in America are likely feeling and this confusion does not stop at the shores, it extends to wherever people are involving this election into their lives. Unlike Lithgow, many will not be burdened with having to make that fateful choice; only Americans can be so cursed. Some have defined this election as between a crook and a megalomaniac. Well, it could always be worse; they could both be megalomaniacal crooks which some claim is also the case. Our solace is that even if we still resided in the United States, our state is the second most extreme such that there is no chance of countering the overwhelming majority which makes all predetermined. What makes this election so beyond most not overly familiar with American political theater and how most of the states are all but preordained to vote one party or the other with near 100% accuracy. What this produces is the election will rest on as few as five swing states to a maximum of a dozen potential swing states. As Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Florida alone could elect Hillary Clinton if she wins all three, the election may be all but decided early. If not then after Ohio, Illinois, and a remote Michigan swing will end all expectations as after that Colorado and New Mexico are unlikely to make the difference, but one can never be too sure. Imagine if it has been announced that Hillary will win and then, against all the odds, California goes for Trump. There would be a lot of news anchors with egg on their faces at that.

 

 

The nicest thing about the American election is that the tense and shrill back-and-forth screaming and accusations being exchanged blow for blow will all be decided within two and a half weeks. The less than nice thing is whoever wins will be the President of the United States for, at a minimum, four years. Whichever candidate prevails, the media will be filled with either criticisms or adulation every day from inauguration through their run for reelection. The one thing of which we can all be assured is that the next President of the United States will take office facing more than the usual set of challenges facing them immediately as they take office. The world has seen perilous times with ominous omens and exceedingly high threat indexes but rarely at the levels as all indicators press are rapidly approaching. The state of the world begs the question of why anybody would actually seek the Presidency at this time. The obvious answer would be either an inflated, larger than life ego or an overbearing feeling of being preordained and whose time has finally come though overdue. Looking at the two candidates we find that we have one of each, imagine that. Who could have imagined such an interesting election where only two personality types would seek the Presidency and then get both personalities? Usually one candidate appears so much more fitting the times and they rise to the office but here we have two. With both fitting one of two differing profiles, the voters will need to decide which candidate as well as which profile and then which is more necessary to face the coming difficulties and possible scenarios which will likely present themselves in the upcoming months and years.

 

This is not an election to envy the American voting public as if they were to choose poorly, the world will pay a horrific price, perhaps things which completely change the world as we know it today with massive change of the progressing of civilization and the laws by which we are governed. There are few points throughout history where the right person is in the right position when their world needs their type, style or quality of leadership. Even more unlikely has been the right person elected where they ward off a coming threat. Probably the most obvious example was British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain as having the worst possible qualities for leadership facing the rise of Nazi Germany. Fortunately the British made a better choice once they realized that a war for survival was upon them choosing Winston Churchill. We can only hope that the world does not face a repeat of such as what led to World War II. The world would be far better off avoiding any war which would sink any sizeable parts of the world if at all possible.

 

Centers of World Conflicts

 

There can be little doubt that the world is once again approaching another central pivoting point where a future for the foreseeable future will be determined. If one were to plot out a logical future, it would point to a failing of technology to prove decisive in a coming conflagration. The main and possibly only hope the advanced Western technological edge would have to preserve the underlying social structures of passivity, full equality, gender blending, sexual independence, complete tolerance and the abhorrence of the use of force is if their technology can circumvent the fierce religious observance and intractability following the strictest interpretations of their religious dogmas as possible, demanding the conquest and submission of all who are in any way different. Their strictness in observances leads to intrareligious inflexibility forcing rejection of those following even the slightest difference of interpretation or of historic views of the passing of leadership such as the detestations which existed in Christianity during the reformation. The world is shrinking in unprecedented ways and rapidity which is forcing the disparate religions, societies, governances, philosophies and every other predispositions that separate the varying formations of humanity closer and into competitions which forces clashes in every manner of difference possible. The resolutions of these conflicts will determine the future, or even if there is a future, of humanity. This makes every election worldwide and especially in the West, especially the United States as the flagship, and the manner of succession in undemocratic lands and the resolution of wars before their effects spread endangering other lands, as with Syria, and in such a manner as to advance peace and not more conflict. Bringing conflicts to an end and preventing future conflict while advancing intersocietal tolerance are the most important of the coming challenges we are going to face as a planet. Whoever can advance strong, flexible, determined, intelligent, intuitive leadership with an understanding of the needs and respects demanded by others and being capable of incorporating such in their negotiations and even more urgent and feverish emerging engagements and confrontations would prove to be the most intelligent of leaders. Such a leader would also be required to choose wise and capable advisors with diverse backgrounds so they can present the widest of potential venues and paths forward. As the ancient Chinese curse read, “May you live in interesting times,” and we most certainly are doing exactly that.

 

Oh, and where have I seen this campaign before? In a comic book come television show then movie series, Batman. There was an election in Gotham City between Batman and Penguin. Penguin ran a campaign based on how you always saw him in the company of police while Batman was always in the company of arch villains asking, who would you prefer as Mayor, one who keeps company of the police or someone who is always in the company of arch villains and criminals? (see below) Plot killer, Penguin won the election, of course. The result, well, that is the question after every election, isn’t it.

 

 

Beyond the Cusp