Post-Election Musings

Now that a month has passed by since the election, maybe it's safe to put down in writing a few of my thoughts about it...

• From a policy point of view, would I be feeling better if the president-elect was Ted Cruz? Ben Carson? Carly Fiorina? Bobby Jindal? Scott Walker? Or even Marco Rubio? Are you kidding? I don't think so. There's a good chance I would feel even more pessimistic. The prospects for the Supreme Court, or the Affordable Care Act, or immigration policy, or civil rights, or a host of other issues would look at least as bleak. None of those on the list offer any better hope for LGBT rights or marriage equality. Social Security would be in even greater danger. Hopes for dealing with income inequality would be worse under almost all of the GOP alternative candidates. In many ways, progressives have more to fear from a newly empowered Paul Ryan than from Donald Trump. And many of the most horrible things Trump said were just standard GOP talking points without the dog whistle filter.
• The Religious Right--as exemplified by Billy Graham's offspring, James Dobson, and Tony Perkins--continue to expose themselves as the vipers they are. Christians on the right ought to be utterly embarrassed to allow them to speak for them.
• As of this writing, the Clinton's popular vote margin (according to the Cook Political Report) is about 2.6 million, and a full two percentage points (48.2 - 46.2). I'm not calling for a rebellion by the College of Electors--such talk is silly. Donald Trump legitimately won the election. But it should be clear to progressives that the Republicans are the minority party in the US and we should be bold enough to behave accordingly.
• On a personal level, we intend to put our money where our beliefs are, even more than in the past, and support groups like the ACLU, Planned Parenthood, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and many others. They will need support more than ever.
• In many ways, America in 2016 has never been wealthier. Unfortunately, the distribution of that wealth is becoming more and more unequal. And the American people just elected a man who is a beneficiary of--and a contributor to--that very inequality. I feel bad that people thought that a man who helped create the current "rigged" system is actually going to be the fixer of it.