The Day After.

I'm disappointed.  In us.  In the electoral process.  I'm disheartened.

I don't think Hillary would have been a great choice.

But she wouldn't have been a catastrophe.  Trump is a catastrophe on a global scale waiting to happen.

I'm sure that if you voted for him, you had your reasons.  I'm sure that in many cases, they were weighed and given their due amount of thought.  I'm sure this was not a decision made lightly.

You were wrong.

If you voted for him:  You will regret the choice.

We will all regret the choice.

The best case scenario is that he only feeds the legislative logjam in Congress, is unable to work with them to push through legislation, refuses to give up the seat, and is an embarrassment, and is voted out of office in 2020.  Also, Ruth Bader Ginsburg has to stay alive.  I'm sorry, Ruth.

That's the best that can happen.

The worst is unimaginable.

At the end of the day, though, I think my issue is not so much with the government that is coming.  My issue is with the people who supported it.  Who asked for it.  With the people who said that it is OK to act like a bigoted gobshite, and an ignorant blowhard.  It is OK to demean others.  It is OK to say that certain groups of people are Bad.  You may not believe it.  But you enabled it.

You were wrong.

We have lived for many years now in a culture that believes it is better to speak loudly and say nothing than it is to speak softly, with great thought.  And this is the result.

It is wrong.

That is why I am disappointed.

We let it happen.

We're better than this.

An admission:

I didn't vote for Hillary Clinton.

I didn't vote for Donald Trump.

I voted for Gary Johnson.  He's a bad choice, too.  I had my reasons.  I will detail them, if asked, but the short answer was that my vote was one of protest against the machine that chooses candidates the way it does.  Looking back, they do not feel like good reasons.

I've tended to vote for third party candidates, and for much the same reason.  I haven't voted for a Democrat or Republican for President since 2000.

In Tennessee, it didn't matter.  It wouldn't have changed things.  Trump won in a landslide in Tennessee.  I haven't seen the totals for McMinn County, but I'd figure he probably pulled 80 % of the vote here.  (edit:  78.49 according to The Tennessean)

I will spend some time thinking about my stance.  I'm not saying it'll change, but it'll get a lot of thought over the next few years.

Last thought, and apropos of little, I guess. We have a Coinstar machine at work.  It usually gets a workout at the end of the month, but it seemed to be going nonstop yesterday.  At one point, there was a line.  At the machine was a lady in a Hillary Clinton t-shirt.  In line behind her, a young man in wearing a Make America Great Again cap.  I wish I had a picture.  It struck me funny, though, seeing the two sides at the same trough, cashing in their coins.  Somehow, it fit.