Everyone expected it to be close. All the polls showed a dead heat. It was about the “Battleground States” and the “Blue Wall”. It wasn’t close. It was a blow out. Trump supporters are delirious over having their guy back in charge. The rest of the country is stunned that the country elected the most dangerous man in America. The list of bad things about Trump is very long. Racist, misogynist, liar, incoherent, convicted felon, power hungry, fascist and let’s not forget, Hitler admirer. The Republicans have flipped the Senate and appear to be holding the House. What could the next four years bring?
Trump will attempt to deport millions of illegal immigrants with mass raids around the country to round people up, put them in detention centers and fly them out of the country. That will take billions of dollars, require hundreds of thousands more law enforcement personnel. The chances of this succeeding is very much up for debate. He will slap on those tariffs he loves that will drive prices up for many goods Americans buy. He will extend tax cuts for corporations and the rich. He will surround himself with loyalists and extreme right wing zealots who will do whatever he wants. No guardrails.
How did get here? After Trump lost the last time, he seethed with anger and revenge acting like a ten year old who couldn’t accept he lost. He planned his comeback. Much of the blame has to go to Joe Biden, his wife Jill and his closest advisors. After the successful mid-term elections of 2022, Biden should been confronted with the practicality of running for re-election when he would be eighty-two. His aging was taking a terrible toll. It all explode in public in the debate with Trump this summer. It was shocking and sad to see him humiliated
. In a panic, the Democrats had to fall back on Harris. There would be no primary season for Democrats to go through the normal process of finding the best candidate. Harris started with two big strikes against her. She is a woman and a woman of color. Most people didn’t know much about her and she had four months to mount a presidential campaign that usually takes a year and a half or two years.
Polls showed overwhelmingly that people thought the country was moving in the wrong direction. The majority see Trump as the tough guy who is going to fix everything despite the outrageous lies, and the violent and racist rhetoric. At least for the next two years, it looks like he will have a Republican congress and, of course, a Supreme Court he packed with extreme conservatives who will dominate for years. Mid-term elections in 2026, will be the next chance to put some guardrails in place if Democrats can win back the Senate or the House. His last two years he will be a lame duck in his early eighties. Let’s not forget, all the criminal cases pending against him, his effort to overturn the 2020 election, the stolen documents case, and likely the Georgia election interference case will go away. Trump will order his new Attorney General to drop the federal cases.Trump will never be held responsible
America is still badly divided. Today there are people who are overjoyed that the man who had good things to say about Hitler is back. There are also people who are crushed that the country let this hateful, dangerous man back in the White House. But this is how democracy works. Candidates speak. Voters make a choice and we have to live with it, like it or not. Until the next time.
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