Hillary

I was all set to write a post about this topic last week but got distracted by the many excellent articles out there that I thought needed an airing. The more I’ve thought about this particular issue, however, the more I see it as emblematic of Donald Trump’s entire campaign and now, scarily, a precursor of how he will run his Presidency. As we move forward (notice how I keep using this phrase, as my purpose is to apply the lessons of the campaign to the mess we’re in now, not, as I’ve said, to “re-fight the election.”)

Short answer: No.

Longer answer: I am going to do exactly what I would have done if Hillary Clinton had won, which is to keep writing my own material and posting articles from other solid sources. To keep trying to advance ideas of reasonableness, conservatism, and, most importantly, faith. To not give in to the thought that no one wants to hear those ideas.  To not feel, as one journalist said last week, that I’m just “screaming into the void.” I know that I have been an encouragement to some of my readers, and I want to continue to have that role. I hope that I have helped at least a few people to think rather than just react. And it’s important to me personally to write about my thoughts and feelings, even if no one else reads what I say.

I have been admonished by a commenter on my Facebook page to “Give it up already, Deb. Be gracious.” So I guess what he means is that I should just say, “Okay. You win. Congratulations!” Which would be fine, except for one problem:

The election is not the Super Bowl.

Unlike that event, after which everybody goes home and no one’s life is particularly changed except for team members and those who won or lost money, we will be living with the consequences of Tuesday’s vote for many years to come.

Well, this of course isn’t the post I thought I would be writing today. I told myself that the election was by no means a done deal. Still, since I’m kind of like Joan Didion and don’t know how I feel about things until I write them, it was pretty impossible for me not to go around writing blog posts in my head.

So I thought, well, Trump started out his whole path to the Presidency by talking trash about Mexicans, so the Latino vote will come out strong against him. And he told African-Americans they had nothing to lose by voting for him, so they’ll tell him “yes, we do.” And he has insulted and degraded women, so they’ll hand him his hat. I’ll be able to say some variation of “the chickens have come home to roost.”

I get a fair amount of pushback on my views about who to vote for in this election, much of it thoughtful and sincere. My facebook page gets a little bit of attention, and I have honestly tried to present the truth about our choices in this election from a conservative and Christian point of view.

A couple of days ago a dear friend sent me a link to a sermon titled “The Continental Divide” by a Texas pastor named Tommy Nelson.  I think he’s a committed Christian, and I paid him the compliment of listening to most of what he had to say. (I got through about 40 minutes of a 58-minute presentation.)