Please give this post a chance and don't bail out before reading through. I'd like to open a discussion with an eye on appeasement and assuaging any fears some of you might have about the recent U.S. presidential election. I realize that many readers don't like to discuss or think about politics, but having seen the anger and ugly behavior resulting from the election outcome I think some points are worth examining. This will be a process that might not be easy for some while others might rather entirely dismiss what I have to say about this. I hope you will stay with me.
Donald J Trump speaking at CPAC
in Washington D.C. on February 10, 2011.
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Not much need to tell anyone who won the U.S election of 2016. In my most recent post--found here if you missed it and might be curious--I made an election prediction (based on this Battle of the Bands post) that Donald Trump would win the election. Apparently my polling process was more accurate than that of most of the professionals. My BOTB post called the election outcome pretty accurately.
It likely comes as no surprise to most of my regular readers that I supported Donald Trump--or at least had an affinity for what he was saying. Prior to his June 2015 announcement to run for President, I wouldn't have considered myself a Trump fan. For three decades I had an awareness of the man. Not once did I ever watch The Apprentice, but I was well aware that it was a popular show on television. In previous elections I had heard his name floated for a possible presidential run, but I never cared much one way or another. Then when he made that official 2015 announcement I had an epiphany that Donald J Trump would be our next President.
Now, I understand that many of you are disappointed and even angry that Donald J Trump won this election. Anytime we invest our emotions in something such as a presidential election it hurts when our pick doesn't win. For my part, I would have been deeply dismayed and even angry if Hillary Clinton had won. I certainly wouldn't have taken to the streets and likely would have just clammed up and ridden through her years as the President just like I did with President Obama, with whom I have little agreement.
What I found most upsetting was the vitriolic outpouring that began appearing on Facebook in the days after the election results had been announced. The rampaging on the streets and the usual yammering by the media pundits were bad enough, but the ugly words that I was seeing on Facebook were from a few family members and friends. Being disappointed that ones chosen candidate did not win is one thing, but when people start repeatedly calling me and other Trump supporters ignorant, racist, stupid, and SOB's then that is getting a bit harsh. There are some old friends as well as some family members whom I am not sure that I would want to associate with in the future if that's how they think of me. To be upset about the outcome of an election is one thing, but to harshly attack others about this outcome is unreasonable and uncivil. Maybe we all need to talk this out before we turn this into war and cold-shoulders.
I've avoided discussing the election in the year and a half that preceeded it, but now I'm feeling a sadness interwoven with deep disgust about the reactions from the anti-Trump crowd about the outcome. In the days before last Tuesday's election day I strongly considered mostly stepping away from blogging except for my Battle of the Bands posts. The Facebook attacks caused me to reconsider this decision. After one FB interchange I was encouraged by Damyanti at Daily Write and Hart at Confessions of a Watery Tart to go ahead and express my thoughts on my blog. Always a risky thing to do I suppose, but in this case I believe it to be worth the risk.
Both of these long time blogger friends as well as a few other people wanted to hear my explanation as to why I supported Donald Trump for President. To me this is not something that can be easily or adequately done in a single post or even two or three posts. And in addition to my reasons for supporting President-elect Trump, I think we have to examine and correct all of the scurrilous attacks and vituperation that was so thoughtlessly thrown about over the past months by media, candidates, and voters.
Take this now infamous statement by Hillary Clinton:
"To just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump's supporters into what I call the 'basket of deplorables.' Racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic, you name it. And unfortunately there are people like that. And he has lifted them up. He has given voice to their websites that used to only have 11,000 people, now have 11 million. He tweets and retweets their offensive, hateful, mean-spirited rhetoric. Now some of those folks, they are irredeemable, but thankfully, they are not America."
This absurd statement epitomizes many of the false accusations against President-elect Trump and his supporters. I want to correct this outlook that few have attempted to correct during the campaign. In addition, I would like to explain why I believe Donald Trump won this election as well as addressing any questions or concerns readers might have about all of this.
My goal is to present a series aimed at reconciliation, clarification, and understanding from the point of view of a political observer and not an expert. Judging from the ineptitude of many of the political pros throughout this election season, I think my words have as much authority as those of many of the pundits. After all, like I pointed out earlier, I did correctly predict the election outcome (of course it was easy odds, but I went against the grain of the majority of the world of the politicos).
Let me emphasize that my focus on this blog until Inauguration Day on January 20th, 2017, will be Battle of the Bands (with a couple of #IWSG posts thrown it). I will be interspersing my President Trump Acclimation Series throughout and interweaving this theme into my BOTB posts. My next Battle of the Bands post will be tomorrow (Tuesday November 15th). Today's post will be quickly covered up by that post.
If you think what I intend to do is a good idea then I hope you will share this current post so that others can be a part of the conversation. Perhaps you'd even like to participate on your own blogs--if you do, let me know so we can do some linking.
If you have some specific issues that you'd like me to address in my series then let me know in the comments. Tell me why you don't think Donald Trump should have won or what is the worst thing that he represents. What are the worst attributes of his supporters? Why do you think Trump will be a failure (or a success) as a President? I need your feedback in the comment section.
And if everyone hates this idea and stops reading Tossing It Out then I'll likely stop posting on this topic after a while and just put up Battle of the Bands posts. However, before you settle back into the protective stance that we should never discuss religion or politics, let me suggest that this kind of avoidance is not only a likely reason that the United States got a President Trump, but also a reason that we have a great many of the conflicts in the world now. If we don't understand each other, then we distrust and fear each other. That's the way I see it at least.
In any case, please give me some feedback and we'll take it from here. President Trump will be in office soon and I'd like to be a voice contributing to a peaceful transition so maybe, just maybe, we do have a President who makes America great again.
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