Thoughts on Trump

As a divided America fails to understand why Donald Trump is their new president, I just want to scream "Told you so" from atop of Mount Rushmore. I'm heard all sorts of theories, like "this was a 'whitelash' ... ", or "Putin did it". How it is that nobody understands that this is primarily Hillary Clinton's fault bewilders me.

The Clinton campaign seems to have expected that the presidency would  be handed to them on a silver platter. They simply could not fathom that so many Americans would not "fall in line" after stealing the nomination from their champion, Bernie Sanders. They certainty never expected that all of the polls, suspiciously skewed in their favor, would be absolutely wrong. Perhaps some of that can be attributed to the silent majority factor (aka, people that were afraid to admit they're intention to vote for Trump), and the rest to lackluster polling. Whatever happened, in my brutally honest opinion, the Democratic party got exactly what it deserved (cheers DNC, now take a sip from a tall glass of We Told You So!).

Admittedly, I never thought that Trump had a chance, as I expected that the election fraud we witnessed during the primaries would surely continue into the general, but that turned out to be conjecture. Trump did lose the popular vote, but won more electorates. These are the rules of the race, and so all things considered, Trump did win fair and square. No matter how many Trump piñatas are set ablaze in the streets, he will be president.

This has been quite the atypical election, thus it's not surprising that there are voices petitioning for the electorate to do something quite unprecedented. Change.org hosts a desperate last-grasp petition which calls upon the electorates to "go rogue", and cast their votes against their constituents wishes and elect Hillary Clinton on December 19th. If you're a Clinton supporter, don't get too excited yet, because it's never going to happen.

On election night, I felt some very mixed emotions while watching the electorate map grow steadily red. Although I really didn't want Hillary Clinton to win, I just always assumed that she would. Until around midnight, I kept thinking "any minute now she'll take the lead, there's no way ..." However, there came a point when I realized that the only way Clinton could win was if she won every remaining state. There were only a handful left at this point, and it seemed quite dubious that the pattern would suddenly break, permitting Hillary to shatter that glass ceiling in celebratory fashion. But it didn't happen. That glass ceiling was instead trashed, and with it, the Transpacific Partnership Agreement. Others claim a looming war with Russia may also have been avoided. I have no idea if that's accurate or not.

Don't get me wrong-- I am not an idiot. There are many things about Trump that not only bother, but genuinely scare me. And I'm not talking about his lack of filter, but rather his total incomprehension of how technology works:

David Sanger: You’ve seen several of those countries come under cyberattack, things that are short of war, clearly appear to be coming from Russia.

Donald Trump: Well, we’re under cyberattack.

Sanger: We’re under regular cyberattack. Would you use cyberweapons before you used military force?

Trump: Cyber is absolutely a thing of the future and the present. Look, we’re under cyberattack, forget about them. And we don’t even know where it’s coming from.

Sanger: Some days we do, and some days we don’t.

Trump: Because we’re obsolete. Right now, Russia and China in particular and other places.

Sanger: Would you support the United States’ not only developing as we are but fielding cyberweapons as an alternative?

Trump: Yes. I am a fan of the future, and cyber is the future.

Trump clearly doesn't know  what he's talking about. His responses contain literally nothing of substance. Okay, he was new at this, so I do cut him slack here. However, governments using offensive security tactics and developing cyber weapons could blow up in our faces. I truly hope that he realizes that he only won this election because of the nature of our free internet, and that protecting our constitutional rights on the internet is every bit as important as protecting them in the physical world (no pun intended).

This also could turn out to be a particularly dangerous time for the future of the internet, thanks to the changes to rule 41 of the the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, which absent some massive popular uprising, will become law on December 1st. In fact, I am quite frustrated that the country is so distracted by Trump that nobody is paying attention to this pertinent issue.

I am also more than a little concerned about his environmental positions. Science does not lie, and we are headed for quite a disaster if we don't stop tearing this planet apart in search of gas and oil. Fracking , along with tar-sand oil production are some of the most disgusting, terrifying, toxic, and counter-productive energy extraction methods in use today. We should not inject poison into our drinking water sources to make a buck. We should not, in any way, contribute to, or purchase anything that is responsible for that giant cesspool of tar-sands waste in Northern Canada; you know, the one that's so large that it can be seen from outer space.

 What Now?



Trump could do a very good job. He is in a rare position where he could make real positive change occur. As he put it on 60 minutes, this is a unique moment in time where politicians have been taking advantage of people for a long time, and that all needs to change. 60 Minutes also reported that they felt the radical things said in the campaign were not meant to be taken literally, but were "opening pitches". 

To everyone whom is fearful of or concerned about Trump's presidency, I say this-- I hear your concerns, and I also have mine. But give him a chance,and I would encourage you to take a constructive approach toward securing your futures, and share your concerns and ideas with him. At this point, it would be far more effective for us to try to work with, rather than against, our president elect. He has asked for our council, and has encouraged us to share our ideas, concerns, and viewpoints with him. You can do that right now, at this website.

Whether or not he will listen to us remains to be seen, but at this point, unless you've got a better idea, and as the saying goes; if you can't beat them, join them-- No, not the Republican party. That's not what I am saying. I am saying, work within the system. Hold Trump accountable for every decision that he makes, and every (sane) promise he made during the election. Tell him what he's wrong about, and help him see your point of view. He's expressed that he would like to unite people. Surely this is a more constructive approach than burning piñatas.