It's not who we are.

Lviv, Ukraine, 11/13/16, 9:40 AM

I woke up at 3 AM. feeling creepy.  That happens. Although more usually its 4 AM.

I was having second thoughts about my last Blog Post.   Well I often do.  Once you've written to the world, not that the whole world is reading, but it is out there and you can't take it back.

I'm a pretty private person and like to believe I'm not a narcissist like Donald Trump although I notice this seems to be all about me and I've started three paragraphs with the letter I.   So let's get to the point here and try to make this about us not just about me.

OK?

What made me uneasy is I hadn't heard from any of my readers.  So I was wondering, as I always do when I don't hear for a while, what did I say that I'll now regret.

Thus it was with more than a little trepidation that, when I got up this morning, I opened my email to see what I was to be told. How absurd was what I said.  Or how boring.  Or useless?

Or worse.  Nothing?  No emails?  No responses?

Whew!  Much to my relief.   I got some nice responses.  More importantly they were helpful in dealing with "Recovery".   Election Recovery that is. From the recent Presidential election in the United States.

I'm an American in a far away distant land all by myself with strangers I can't much talk to given the language difference.  So it may be I'm finding this Recovery thing more difficult to deal with than it otherwise would be.

But I'm feeling better now.  What helps?

Knowing we are not alone,  A lot of people are going through the same thing and sharing,  So here are some thoughts that may help that were shared with me.

A reader friend writes that Maureen Dowd (of the NYTimes) says that knowing Trump as she (Maureen) does,  no one was more surprised than he (Trump) that he won, And we all know he doesn't mean half of what he says, (says Maureen) and hopefully the good side of him is what we get.

Another reader friend writes she "was determined to go cold turkey and avoid all news but it draws me back like an addict or one mesmerized by a train wreck".

I'm experiencing the same thing.  And I've found it's better not to try to block it out, but let it flow as there  are some good takes on the whole thing in the press and hearing what others have to say helps.

Both David Brooks of the NYTimes, and documentary film writer Michael Moore (who predicted Trump would win back in July) say Trump won't last his full term. He'll resign or be impeached.  True?  I have no idea.

And Matt Tabbi writes in rolling stone how he and everyone else in journalism was clueless as  to the seriousness of the problems out there in the heartland being ignored by the press and the elites.

And it is serious.  There is the corruption of the government.  My personal peeve is and was that Obama's department of justice failed to prosecute the biggest fraudsters of all time.  The Wall Street CEOs who committed blatant fraud and caused the 2008 meltdown.

And he and his Attorney General, Eric Holder, did nothing about these crimes  while presiding over a system which filled the for-profit making jails with petty offenders of their own race who couldn't buy their way out of prosecution or even in many cases get a fair trial.

And there has been globalization and crony capitalism enriching the elites while decimating employmet in the heartland.

So maybe this is some kind of wake up call, albeit an extreme one. But could it have come any other way?

Bernie Sanders saw the problems.  But Obama and Clinton didn't. I'm not saying they are bad people, There's a lot I admire in both of them, That's not my point.  But I think its fair to say they were clueless or unconcerned.

A friend of mine,  a Trump supporter, told me, months ago, Trump is like taking Chemo.  It may kill you but in this case it's necessary. He felt things were that bad being ignored by the government and the elites.

I don't know about that but it's worth thinking about.   I personally think Trump could make things a lot worse with the K street lobbyists and the special interests, especially his own personal special interests gorging as never before so I don't think this "Trump Chemo" is a good idea.

During the campaign The Huffington Post ended all their articles about Trump, with the following statement:

Editor’s note (from the Huffington Post): Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S.


Is there really anything good you can or should say about all this?

And just consider this --
For a guy famous for his lack of self control isn't it astounding he will not only be President, the most powerful man in the world, but perhaps the most powerful President in history. 

Trump will  appoint the deciding vote in the Supreme Court.  

He will have both houses of Congress under his party's control and it is his party now.  He owes them nothing. Most of them didn't want him.  They wouldn't stand up to him as a candidate and certainly won't as President.  So it will be his government. 

Can this really be true?  He will be the most powerful man in the history of the world? Donald Trump?

One of my reader friends writes she is terrified.  Another writes she is devastated. 

So how does this make you feel. Better?  Not me.

But maybe there is a purpose in all this.  There are serious problems and they weren't being addressed and wouldn't have been if things just continued with "business as usual".   

Maybe this is a wake up call.  If so it certainly isn't being ignored.  The kind of soul searching that is going on might not have occurred any other way.

Two long (or so it seems now) weeks ago I talked with a young Ukrainian acquaintance in Uzhhorod. He told me he thought, unlike Ukraine , the U.S. has a strong Democracy with checks and balances to prevent a President from doing too much harm. 

I hope he is right about this. But there are no checks and balances on the President's authority to launch a nuclear attack. 

And yet while Trump may be the most powerful man in the world -- ever.  He does lack one thing. Maybe a critical thing --- a mandate. Hopefully that's still important in our Democracy.  

He managed to edge out his opponent, but only edge her out with the electoral vote.  And his opponent was deeply unpopular and I believe he would have lost big time to either Senator Sanders or Vice President Biden. And he did lose the popular vote.


So Trump is not what the U.S. and it's people want. He is just the chosen of two choices that most voters really, really didn't want to have to make. And I hope we all remember this and especially our friends in other countries who are as shocked or even more so as we: 

The majority of Americans did not and do not want Trump as their President.

It's not who we are.

Years ago I came to the conclusion that there always seems to be benefit to be found in things that go bad. You just have to search for it and focus on it. 

So here's one way to look at all this.  The U.S. has serious problems that aren't being addressed and wouldn't be by the elites running things.   After all they were all doing just fine.  


Now everyone knows we have serious problems.  I don't think the "Trump Chemo" we got is the answer. But maybe Brooks and Moore are right and we'll get off this dangerous drug and on to dealing with the underlying disease in a healthier way now that we can no longer ignore it.

Anyway that's how I decided to think about all of this today,  As my personal way to deal with "Recovery". I'm not perfectly happy with this solution.  It's just the best I've been able to come up with.   For me.  So far. 

And yet thinking further, a concern is that what's happening in the U.S. is part of wider world trend towards authoritarianism.  Russia, Turkey, France, Poland, Hungary and India as described by Pakaj Misha in an article in today's NYTimes.  So as much as I'd like to believe Brooks and Moore are right that Trump's reign will be brief I'm not convinced.  

Most importantly if, as I believe, most Americans don't want Trump as our President what do we do about it,  I have some ideas but that's a Blog post for another day,

What I would really appreciate is your taking just a couple of minutes telling how you/re dealing with this matter.  Wherever you live in the world.  And, if an American, no matter who you voted for or didn't. 
  
This is a time for all of us to hear eachother.  Even more so if we disagree.

Please leave a comment in the spot below or email me.  It only takes a minute and I'm sure you have thoughts about it if you've read this far.

Do Share.  Please. Thanks!