News is, by nature, new information. I can't recall who it was, but some newspaper or website had an advertising slogan: "If you haven't seen it, it's still news."
Unfortunately, there's another common saying: "Old news." And these past few days, that's what we've seen over and over again. Old news. Shocking not a few, even among his supporters, Donald Trump managed to get himself elected President. The reaction among many went something like: Disbelief...shock... sadness... anger... and then a minority took it a step further... protest. Fewer still, but not nearly few enough, went further still: Disruption... destruction... violence. Many of the things they feared Trump would bring, they now bring themselves.
I've been of voting age for nine Presidential elections. I've voted for the winner exactly twice. Seven times in my life I've gone to bed knowing that the person I opposed would be my President for at least the next four years.
After each one of those elections, I did the same exact thing the following morning: I got up, showered, shaved, got dressed, and went to work. I did this because I realized that my well being and that of my family have far more to do with me getting off my ass than what person holds any political office.
I didn't vote for Trump. I find great uncertainty looking into the future, just as I would have in a Clinton Presidency, just for different reasons. My hope for his Presidency is what it always is: That his good decisions would be supported and his bad decisions would be hindered. Yet I cannot help but notice the irony of the clamoring masses in Portland (and other places) smashing windows on new car lots and overturning police cars (while a sympathetic Governor-elect does little to rein in the senseless rabble). The same people who are screaming "WE WILL NOT ACCEPT PRESIDENT TRUMP," just a few weeks ago were mocking Trump for suggesting he might not immediately accept the results of the election. "YOU HAVE TO ACCEPT THE RESULTS, THAT'S HOW ELECTIONS WORK!" they cried. That line served them well when the outcome was a seemingly foregone conclusion. It worked well four years ago, and eight, when the cry was "Obama won, GET OVER IT!"
I find the same irony here that I find in Colin Kaepernick (and a few copycats) kneeling during the National Anthem. "So... you're protesting a country that gives you the freedom to protest?"
Even a cursory study of American history, and I've made much more than a cursory study, will reveal that we've survived some pretty awful Presidents. We'll survive this one, too.
But, if you think our just and proper response to opposing viewpoints is for us to shit in our own nest, well, let me know how that works out for you. I'll be at work.
“From whence shall we expect the approach of danger? Shall some trans-Atlantic military giant step the earth and crush us at a blow? Never. All the armies of Europe and Asia...could not by force take a drink from the Ohio River or make a track on the Blue Ridge in the trial of a thousand years. No, if destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of free men we will live forever or die by suicide.” ― Abraham Lincoln
