Election 2016 Aftermath

I see people posting to social media and hear them talking about how the protests we are seeing in this election's aftermath are happening because butt hurt sore losers can't deal with reality, and I disagree with that line of reasoning. It's not about accepting the results of the election, it's about sending a message to those in power;

Regardless of who won the election, human rights matter above all else.

A popular refrain is that these are the "everyone gets a trophy people" that are complaining, and it is not. It's the people that have to constantly deal with fear, with people that crap all over them and their lives. We've elected a VP who has espoused that you can "reprogram" people who aren't heterosexual, and a president who feels that he can trash people who don't meet his standard of "attractiveness", among other things, without consequence. They don't worry me as much as the people they have emboldened, though.

Amongst my own friends I still see people posting that our current president needs to go back to Africa, and that everyone that doesn't accept both Trump and God needs to leave THEIR country. Facebook posts pale in comparison to things we're seeing in the news, but they are a good indicator that the problem is deeply ingrained, even amongst the people we know and love.

Please don’t misunderstand me, I think we can move forward with this administration. Trump, after all is said and done, is a lifelong liberal elite Democrat. He saw a path to the nation’s highest office, and used his salesman’s gift to make it a reality. He only gives lip service to conservative ideals, and I think that the hue and outcry we’re hearing now from the anti-Trump voters will be nothing compared to the outcry we will hear when his backers wake up from their angry fever dream to realize it.

After less than a week of touring behind the scenes at his new gig, we’re already seeing him walk back all of the major campaign promises that got him where he is. Why is that? Because it doesn’t take very long to realize that the job of the presidency is unimaginable to anyone who hasn’t been POTUS. You just need to dip your toe in the water to know that the water is deeper and the current is stronger than anything you could have ever imagined. Trump will roll with it, he has the ability, he has the smarts. He will need to narrow his focus and concentrate on what is really important, and he will have very little time or energy to "mean tweet" going forward. But stopping the "mean tweets" isn't all that needs to happen.

What has to happen for this country to move forward is that our new President, along with all those gators in the Washington swamp, on BOTH sides, have to make it clear that they support everyone in this great country, no matter who they worship, or kiss, or vote for. And that intolerance has to end.

Both parties, from the top all the way down to the voters, have to understand that we all need to compromise to get along.

That’s the big change in our country, the big difference that has created this mess we’re in; both sides have become intolerant of the other, and they emphasize that point by voting out any politician who compromises with people they disagree with. This is what creates the gridlock and the problems, and stops our country from moving forward. We have met the enemy, and it is us.

Without compromise there can be no change. We are never guaranteed that we will have candidates for any office that we agree with, never, but things need to move forward none the less, and for that to happen, people need to vote, compromise needs to happen, and tolerance needs to rule the day.

I leave you with two of my favorite closing expressions, both are constants from friends that I value, 2 dyed in the wool New England locals who never fail to make my day, and I think they sum things up pretty well;

"Thanks for listening" and "Go easy"