There's Got to Be a Morning After

The 1973 disaster film “The Poseidon Adventure” had a wonderful song, sung by Maureen McGovern it was called “The Morning After.”  Today, November 9, 2016, seems a good time to recall it as America wakes up to a Tsunami like surge in the political landscape.  A change in the party of the President is normal every 8 years or so, so it shouldn’t be a big surprise, but it always seems to be to the party faithful.

The arrogance of the two political parties has always been a mystery to me, yet it is real and unmistakable, but both parties are minorities within the electoral pool.  Neither can win if only the party faithful vote for their candidates, they both need the votes of the uncommitted citizen.  In this election, perhaps more so than in the recent past, the media did everything they could to vilify President (elect) Trump, and bolster the former Secretary of State Clinton.  Despite this, they could not persuade enough disgruntled citizens to support continuation of the status quo.  Why is that?

Eight years ago, in one of my earliest blog posts, I wrote about the Democratic Party’s sweep in the election, and my hope they would learn to govern, not rule.  And Then There Was One, included President Eisenhower’s farewell address to the nation, and is a bit lengthy but the key takeaway was the need for balance and the threat of a growing military-industrial complex where he says, “In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.”

 Unfortunately for the nation the next seven years proved they would not govern, choosing instead to place their political goals and the goals of their lobbyists ahead of the general good of the nation.  They would claim wonderful job growth and recovery while millions of Americans went without work, or were forced to work for significantly reduced wages.  They would  condemn the bankers and stock markets publicly, while accepting millions of dollars in funds from those they condemned, as the Federal Reserve printed money for the banks giving them extremely low interest loans and decimating the average American’s savings accounts.

They unilaterally created a health care fiasco that now, on full implementation, is driving the cost of health care through the roof for the average middle class citizen while providing supplemental support for the poorest.  There are some great things in the PPACA, but it was written by the lobbyists for the Insurance Companies, and the big medical providers so who are really the beneficiaries of this legislation?   

They implemented social changes they liked, as if this were the government’s role to show the majority the political elite know what is best for all, and the wants of the minorities must take precedent over the will of the many.  They have ignored the laws of the land, and allowed by their own estimate 11,000,000 people to remain illegally in the country.  In a country where the supply of unskilled workers exceeds the demands on workers -- who suffers from this decision?  Certainly not the political and social elite.

In each subsequent election the party lost seats, yet their arrogance continued to the extreme rather than look to the center.  The President was reelected, but in the process lost the majority position in the Senate, yet retained enough control to stonewall all opposition to his agenda.  Throughout the years, his strongest party supporters railed at any challenge to his agenda, vilifying the opposition with terms like racist, homophobic, red-neck, misogynist, xenophobe, and bigot, rather than attempting to understand the why of the opposition.  I understand this approach from children and young people, I don’t understand from mature adults responsible for making life and death decisions or the adults who support them.

Finally, in what should be considered long and hard by the Democratic elite, they chose a flawed candidate based on gender and party influence rather than seek the best possible leader.  I believe almost any other choice would have easily beaten the equally flawed Republican candidate whose biggest thing going was the chance to upset the elitist apple cart.

In looking at the posts of people I know on Facebook I see very little has changed in the last 24 hours.  The people who supported Ms. Clinton are all bemoaning the future of our nation, as if they know precisely what will happen.  They are condemning the backwardness of those who would support Mr. Trump as if they are all idiots and imbeciles, and they (the democrats) are significantly smarter, better educated, and should be in a superior position to decide what is best for the country.

Meanwhile, those who supported Mr. Trump are basking in the afterglow of a victory and confident the country will dramatically change direction, and to a fair degree gloating the social and political elites got their hats handed to them by the uprising of a disgruntled (mostly) white population that has reached a breaking point where race becomes the central focus of every presidential dialogue.

The next four years will be interesting, but sadly I don’t see a significant shift in our management of the country.  The search for a middle ground will not happen, and both sides will continue to vilify the other with ad hominem attack versus a real discussion of public policy and what is best for the nation as we move deeper into the 21^st Century.

BTW:  Here is a google link to information on Canada if you are considering a move.  https://www.google.com/search?q=canadian+immigration+and+citizenship&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8