My President

In my adult life I have experienced the end of the world seven times now. Every presidential election is an apocalyptic event in our own mythos; and every single time half the country is convinced that we are doomed. It is almost comical. This time around it was guaranteed to be particularly good because we had—to borrow a German idiom—a choice between cholera and the plague. The most amusing part is seeing everybody squirm in their hypocrisy. Many of the people mocking the “not my president” crowd were voicing the same sentiment eight years ago. (Albeit without the “protests.” But many were talking of open, armed revolution had Hillary won.) And, worse, most of these “not my president” people were up in arms when Trump threatened to not acknowledge a Hillary win.

Well, Come January he WILL be my president. And he may or may not be a good one. Just because he won does not necessarily change him overnight. Action will prove more powerful than rhetoric. For now he is demonstrably a racist, misogynist, thin-skinned, power seeker. And while most of that has been talk, he has begun to make appointments of people who are genuinely, disturbingly, promoting those viewpoints.

On the other hand, candidates tend to look very different from the presidents they become. Already, Trump has talked back a lot of what he ran on: the promise of the wall, abortion, reestablishing traditional marriage, as well as repealing Obamacare. How many more of his campaign pillars will crumble? Time will tell.

To be honest I am anticipating the Trump presidency. Even though I liked neither candidate, I went into Tuesday night rooting for him. With Clinton I knew we were in for a rough four years, but with Trump either we will either get some good changes OR I get to say “see I told you so.”

With Republicans in charge of the presidency, AND the House, And the Senate, AND the majority of governorships, AND potentially the Supreme Court we should have a period of Repealing. But, as already stated, we aren’t even a week into things and they’re already hedging their promises on a lot of issues.

Trump will be my president just as Obama is currently my president even though I voted for neither. I have found plenty of things to like and dislike about all of the presidents I have experienced. I’m confident there will be things I like and dislike about President Trump. I am rooting hard for my country, and that means I am hopeful that Trump will be good for the U.S. and for the world. But I am also not good with blind trust. If anything, I think we will need as much vigilance with Trump in office as we have shown with Obama.