The 2nd Trump Presidency

Well, it happened. Trump is getting a 2nd term. There are many Americans who find this unfathomable. There are people who are deeply saddened and concerned for our country, because they care deeply about America and they find Donald Trump antithetical to the country they thought they were living in. I sympathize with this because I felt the same way the first time he won office. It shocked me to the core, but that's because I was also ignorant about America back in 2016. I thought that character mattered. I thought that we all felt a President should represent the best of our country, the highest standard, and I knew Donald Trump is none of those things. But I was wrong. I needed to reset my understanding of America, and Americans, and I've done my best to do that. Don't get me wrong, I'm still sad this 2nd time around, and I do not believe Trump will be a good president for us. I'm just not shocked at all. It was kinda predictable. So if you find yourself in a state of despair, sadness, or shock from his re-election, may I humbly offer some analysis of WTF just happened from the perspective of someone who's been in your shoes. 

1) There are millions of Americans who do not care that Donald Trump is a terrible human and were willing to vote for him anyway. You may have thought that was a fringe, a minority, that surely people had learned over the years "who he really is" and they "know better now," but you were wrong. That's because they've known who he is all along. He is a liar, a cheater, a crook and now a convicted felon, and that doesn't matter. Rounding to the nearest million, the popular vote is 73-68 in Trump's favor. If you voted for Kamala because Trump is disgusting, you're literally in the minority. He did not win the popular vote last time, but he did this time. Note for 2028: they know JD Vance is and asshole and a hypocrite, they won't care about that either. 

2) America does not care about tolerance and respect. You thought your fellow citizens do, you thought that was a core value of our country, but it is not. Trump ran on a blatant campaign of xenophobia and racism, twice now, and won both times. The thing is, tolerance has never been a strong point for us as a country. Ask Irish-Americans. Ask the Japanese. Ask African-Americans. You wanted to believe that we'd come a long way and that things are better now. They are not, and Trump's victory proves it. 

3) You do your homework, you like facts, you did some analysis of both candidates and decided there was no way you could support Trump's based on data (his policies, his character, or both). You assumed that other people would conduct a similar analysis, but that assumption proved false. Trump's followers do not like facts. They don't research the issues. They didn't look at his proposed policies and the negative impacts they might have for America or even themselves. Trump's supporters did not arrive at their decision to vote for him in the same way you arrived at your decision to vote against him.

4) You are potentially overlooking the responsibility and ownership that the Democratic party leadership needs to take for this. A key responsibility of any organization is developing its next generation of leaders, and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) has failed miserably at that. Credentials and qualifications have never mattered for the Presidency. Harry Truman was a tailor FFS before becoming president. Yeah, Hillary and Kamala were both well qualified. Hillary had a polarizing personality and all of Bill's baggage. Kamala was asked to pinch hit at the last minute and had all of Biden's baggage. The most popular political search on Google on election day was "did Biden drop out?" Seriously, look it up. You really wanted this country to be ready to elect a woman, twice, but we're so not ready that Trump has beaten female opponents, twice, even after bragging about overturning Roe. The DNC owes America an apology, AND a better candidate pool next time around.

5) Trump convinced a majority of Americans that he's going to make life better for them, because mass deportations and cheaper groceries sound great to 73,000,000 of your fellow citizens. This includes Hispanics and Black Americans and union labor, because the DNC took them for granted and had no compelling message for them. Many of us heard his messages of hate and division and found them appalling. You had friends and neighbors who just heard the cheap groceries part. Accept that. 

So what's the good news? For me, part of the good news is that Trump failed to deliver on every major policy promise from his first term, so his track record is crap, and I think that means he's unlikely to be able to deliver on any of the terrible policy ideas he's laid out for his 2nd term. He ran again for himself: they're already dropping the federal court case against him and he's already printing new t-shirts and bibles to sell his sheep followers. He did stack the courts last time, but that means there are few vacancies he can fill this time. Also, he can't run again, and he remains a convicted felon.