What Now?

I’m not a liberal. I’m not a safe space, social crusader.

I’m not a sore loser who can’t get over the fact that Hillary Clinton wasn’t elected president. The notion that I had to put what lukewarm support I had for a candidate behind her was a source of great frustration for me.

I am, at my very core, someone with conservative foundations.

I believe that men and women, whenever possible, should be free to live their lives without government intervention. My family and my Christian faith are the center of my life. I like my guns. Chances are, I’m better than you at using them.

I’ve worked with and for the toughest most dangerous men on the planet. Men you’ve read books about. Men you’ve seen movies about. I’ll never claim to be one. But I’ve proven myself useful in their presence. I share this with you so you understand where and who the message I’m about to deliver comes from.

I’ve been all over this planet. And there’s a troubling observation that I’ve made on my way. It’s that mankind, when left to our own devices, does not naturally accept different people. Whether I saw Sunni and Shia in Iraq refusing to recognize the humanity of the other because of relatively nuanced differences in their common faith, or tribal warfare and genocide in sub-Saharan Africa or racial oppression and modern slavery of East Asia, the ingrained need to divide and subjugate others is ever present. In mankind’s darkest moments, the most common culprit has been that division.

For most of the last seventy thousand years, since the cognitive revolution of man drove us to organize, we’ve programmed ourselves to trust and support those that are similar to us. The result is that there have been frighteningly few societies in the history of mankind which have not been separated by either race, class or gender.

Where there is one race, we make caste systems.

Where lack of structure provides no castes, we subjugate gender.

It’s as consistent across time and region as the number of our limbs or the shape of our organs.

Fifty years ago in America, we made the first real effort, at scale, in the history of man, to change it in a society as diverse as ours. And since then, we’ve made great but imperfect progress. The work isn’t done. But we’re further than where we were 50 years ago. When we get there and make good on the promise penned by our forefathers, it will be the greatest, rarest accomplishment in our history.

On Tuesday, we took one giant leap backward on the arc of our journey to one people. And over the last four days, I’ve been bombarded by explanations of why Donald J. Trump was just elected president. I don’t need any more. I didn’t need them in the first place.

I know why he was elected.

He was elected because the only message that matters for the American government in 2016 is a need for change. And when the alternative to that change was someone who moved into the White House when I was fifteen, (I’m 40 now) that choice was clear for some.

But it was a choice.

And the ultimate choice that was made, the one people will remember a hundred years from now, was a willingness to ignore personal decency and fair treatment towards people who are different in service to that change. That was the choice that the minority of the American electorate made. That was the choice that about a quarter of eligible American voters made.

I’m not here to argue the legitimacy of the results. And I don’t get to pick and choose whether I support democracy because of the outcomes. I won’t tell you that you are a racist or a bigot if you voted for Donald Trump. I won’t even tell you that you personally are indecent. But I will tell you what you just bought with your choice.

You bought a very vigilant, sensitive and loud American majority who will cry foul at the drop of a hat for anything that resembles attacks on those we have fought so hard for these last fifty years.

Because what you showed us with his nomination and your vote in the election, is that you can’t be trusted to do it without us.

Many of my devout conservative friends were remarkably quiet when their candidate trashed their personal values. And they were remarkably quiet when their candidate made inexcusable first hand remarks about minorities, women and disabled Americans. And they were remarkably quiet when the dark forces of white supremacists aligned themselves in support of their candidate.

I understand why. You couldn’t live with the alternative. So you rationalized out of fear that speaking up would enable it. Well, that risk is gone now. You avoided the end you couldn’t live with.

That excuse is gone.

And now it’s fair to say that tolerance of that behavior from here on can only be seen as an endorsement of it. So when there’s a KKK rally in North Carolina to celebrate the election of the candidate you support, you no longer have any excuse not to condemn it with the same uncompromising vigor that you condemned Hillary. Let’s see the memes. Let’s see the Facebook posts. Let’s see the outrage.

Perhaps the rest of America can trust you to hold the leader of our government to the change you so uncompromisingly sought. But we won’t trust you to look out for our fellow Americans who are different.

So, get ready for four years of vocal, loud, peaceful I pray, dissent. If you thought the core Trump supporters would be loud if Hillary Clinton won, what do you think is going to happen now that you’ve  marginalized a group that has much more to lose than freedom from background checks for guns and a ten percent lag in wage growth?

At stake for them, is participation in our society. And if their vocal insistence on it is something you aren’t willing to tolerate, then perhaps you might consider a different path in thirty months when you get to choose your next leader without the looming evil of Hillary excusing your choice.

You can’t point to her any more as cause.

If insistence on decent treatment of all Americans makes me a liberal in the eyes of conservatives, then maybe we should take some time to reflect on who our modern conservatives actually are. The world is watching.

775 thoughts on “What Now?”

  2. Dad quit drnviig at 81. Had a turbo Mitsu and a 4.0L 4×4 Ranger. Died about 6 months later. Guy lived to drive. (stock car racer, back when they ran on dirt with welded rear gears)

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  6. EÅŸinizin görev yerinin demilÅŸtŸriiebilÄesi için eÅŸinizin 6 iÅŸ günü içerisinde bu deÄŸiÅŸikliÄŸe yazı olarak onay vermesi gerekmektedir.Aksi halde bu deÄŸiÅŸiklikten sorumlu deÄŸildir.Bu sebeple iÅŸten çıkartılması halinde de kıdem tazminatını almaya hak kazanır.Ayrıca iÅŸverenin,işçiyi istifaya zorlayarak alacaklarından mahrum bırakmaya çalışması halinde işçi kıdem tazminatını alarak iÅŸten ayrılabilme hakkına sahiptir.Ancak herhangi bir hak kaybına uÄŸramamanız adına bir mobbing avukatına danışarak hareket etmeniz daha saÄŸlıklı olacaktır.

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  7. ha oui j&ovaur;qsais été voir sur leur site mais il n’y a plus ma pointure ! (je fais du 40) en tout cas merci quand même! mais j’ai repéré une paire de derby et une paire de mocassin à paillettes steve madden pour lesquelles j’ai eu un coup de cÅ“ur donc je pense que je vais me laisser tenter!

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  8. So, my throat got a little tight when I read the title, and by the 3rd paragraph the tears were flowing. You are so strong, Kristi. Really, no one CAN tell. You face it head-on with such bravery, with such might. And such humor. And that’s who you are, you wold#n&u8217;t do it any other way. ..Stay strong, you are always supported by your family and friends. And hey, you know where I am when you need a shoulder. Even Superwoman needs to vent.

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  9. For someone who sticks to black, grey, white, navy and denim – these all rock! love them all and would love to have all these sitting in my wardrobe amongst the neutrals! Thanks Jen, I really needed this neon strike of intiprasion today xxx

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  11. I do agree with all of the ideas you’ve presented in your post. Th7#&y821e;re really convincing and will certainly work. Still, the posts are very short for starters. Could you please extend them a bit from next time? Thanks for the post.

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  12. Ja2suYoe&#8m17;re like a man obsessed!The National Conversation was a wee bit more open than Calman. In any case, your post is about Calman, but you can’t resist shoehorning the SNP in for a swift kick on the way past?Did Alex Salmond steal your seat in the Holyrood restaurant or something?The basic thing is that Calman is merely the SVR writ large. A meaningless sop and a trap. Cleverer people than me have analysed it and deduced a trap in Calman that, if the tax powers were used, you would be worse off than before

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  14. If people had been seriously keeping an eye on Hillary Clinton since she was fired from the Watergate committee for lying, after decades of ONGOING scandals, repeatedly caught lying, screw-up after screw-up, pass after pass where people have gone to prison for doing the same or less, YOU WOULD THINK that most people would recognize that someone with the character of Hillary Clinton should never become president of the USA.

    The above article shows the complete ignorance of the author of the true character and history of Hillary Clinton where many people have now also written books about what a rude, condescending, cursing, no class being Hillary Clinton really is. Any supporter of Hillary Clinton has to pretend to no end – fiction regardless that Hillary Clinton is someone that she is not – competent and honest.

    The truth is that Planned Parenthood mainly provides abortion services. Any money to Planned Parenthood would be better used if given to family geared medical clinics that truly do provide a wide variety of family health services along with all the routine care for females. Planned Parenthood is like Hillary Clinton in that they lie and exaggerate about what they have done. The truth is that they do NOT provide mammograms for women and never have yet they claim that they do. Phone any Planned Parenthood and ask for a pap or a pelvic exam or a mammogram and they will refer you elsewhere.

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  15. I’m sorry but I cannot agree with you here. You cannot vote in favor of the most outspoken, venemous opponent to equal treatment and then say we’re starting somewhere. We are on the coaster and we’ve reached the turning point at the top. Prepare to reverse some of the progress we’ve made for the change we got. We will have change but you look at his cabinet and advisors, his complete disregard for precedents and it’s not looking to be positive change. It looks more like the change Germans got from Hitler. He would love to stifle the press entirely and fill the airwaves with lies and propaganda. We needed to start somewhere and the establishment wasn’t it but Trump was clearly the big bad wolf wearing granny’s nightie. Someone who’s clearly sold out everyone with whom he’s dealt for a buck was never going to be the guy to free us from corporate bondage. These 4 years will see a lot of disappointed faces and mud on the faces of many as he continually makes decisions with the interests of his corporate pals in mind.

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  16. The typical Trump voter: fed a steady diet of fear, hatred, misinformation by the right wing hate machine (looking at you infowars, brietbart, fox, Rush limbaugh) live in a world completely devoid of facts, reason and common sense.

    Trump is just a culmination of the dog eat dog version of the world the right wing profit machine has produced for itself going back decades. I’ve read much about these people, the most insight I’ve gleamed was actually living in the middle of the country for 6 months. They pride ignorance, believe everything no matter how absurd, contradictory as long as it confirms their prejudices. Utterly blind to the fact their party and people like Trump use them like the rubes they are.

    Clinton Arkansas mafia? The thousands of protesters in major cities are paid by the DNC? Hillary running a child trafficking/sex ring out of a pizzaria?

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/pizzagate-from-rumor-to-hashtag-to-gunfire-in-dc/2016/12/06/4c7def50-bbd4-11e6-94ac-3d324840106c_story.html?utm_term=.ecc223848746

    These people are gone Sean. You can’t reason with them. You can’t show them facts and think they’ll respond to it like a rational human being. These are not people who can be reached with anything, until reality truly hits them where they live. In the pollution the GOP will give them, in the Healthcare that will be taken from them once Obamacare is repealed. I’m done feeling sorry for them, telling them they’re voting against their interest, telling them their being used. Now all there is left is to defend my values, my neighbors, and my nation from the party of Billionaires and their underclass.

    The first order of business the GOP cared most about when Congress convened? Gutting the Office of Congressional Ethics, which investigates fraud by members of Congress, their list of investigations is bipartisan (there are wrongdoers in both), it is one of the few checks on Fraud of Congress. Does anyone on the right even bother looking at what their congress vote for? What their priorities are?
    https://oce.house.gov/reports/investigations/

    Look at planned parenthood. The Hyde Amendment already ban Medicaid funds for Abortions, so no tax-payer dollars go to abortions. Now GOP wants to ban all medicaid funding reimbursements to Plan Parenthood; which provides non-abortion health services to women for all of the US. Texas when it did this (cut all medicaid funds to Planned Parenthood) saw their maternity rate shot up to the highest in the developed world shortly after cutting funding to PP. They hate women and want to control their bodies and health. The party of Old white men, thinks it knows more about women then women themselves.

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/aug/20/texas-maternal-mortality-rate-health-clinics-funding
    http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2016/09/10/texas-maternal-mortality-rate/90115960/
    http://www.npr.org/2016/08/27/491613560/rising-u-s-mortality-rate-for-mothers-is-highest-in-texas

    The GOP is dangerous, their voters too stupid to understand the world around them. We will all suffer because of these people. Too stupid to think about the consequences of their action. Too much hate to see how easily they’re controlled.

    If you get a chance, read, Dear Hunting with Jesus by Joe Bageant. The dynamics of how their world works.

    You are a minority of the people who call themselves conservatives unfortunately. Rational. Reasonable. A dying breed.

    Liked by 2 people

  17. When a government is supporting abortion through groups like Planned Parenthood, government is getting in our lives. Government is using our tax money to support killing. And what about fathers? Shouldn’t they have any rights regarding their offspring? Killing a human is not a personal issue, it’s a societal issue. Whomever we label as not worthy of life, we suddenly can rationalize killing. First it’s unborn babies, then it’s the elderly, then the handicapped. Where does it stop?

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  19. I can’t understand how anyone could vote for Hillary after she was confronted with the fact that her lack of concern got those people killed in Bengazi. She flat set there and said “What does it matter now”? How heartless can a person be? She is connected to George Soros who is a globalist that wants to ruin America. She and Bill have been running a scam foundation for years now. Open your eyes Shawn and read “The Shadow Party, How George Soros, Hillary Clinton, and sixties Radicals seized control of the Democratic Party” by David Horowitz and Richard Poe, Crisis of Character by Gary J. Byrne and Clinton Cash by Peter Schweizer. Yeah Americans voted for Trump because they think there could be, so what has changed with Obama and the Dems.? Nothing! our country is in very sad shape jobs wise and national security wise thanks to the deplorable actions of the Democratic party.

    The Clinton’s are nothing more than the Arkansas mafia and that’s why Americans elected Donald Trump. Now they’ve found out that what has been leaked to the news about the supposed Puttin hacking bears not resemblance to the truth but the investigators refuse to release this information until Obama signs off on it!

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  20. Planned parenthood is the number one provider of abortion in the world. The lobby like no other institution to have foreign governments pass laws that will make it possible for them to “offer their option.” That is definitely promoting. I don’t ignore or deny that they provide other services, but I don’t kid myself: their main purpose is abortion and contraception. These are the goals that its founder, Margaret Sanger, had in mind.

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  21. When dealing with human rights, “women’s issues vs. men’s issues” is a false dichotomy, since women and men are two halves of the same humanity. To talk about a female humanity is as specious as talking about a male humanity. One half without the other is not humanity; it’s just a bunch of individuals destined to disappear in less than a generation. Aborted babies probably don’t care much about their sex: they probably just want to live. Even granting the sophisme of “women’s issues” a group of women should not be entitled to decide the fate of another group of women. After all, baby girls get aborted as much (if not more) than baby boys.

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  22. I began reading your response assuming I would disagree with most of what you said. I tried to. I tried very hard. Yet much of what you said resonated with me. When I read Paul Bua’s re-post “from his friend Darren Watts explaining how the people who voted from Trump got conned again,” it was as if I’d written it myself. It was clearly my angry self, a retired teacher, who worked hard my entire life to help others learn, understand, and succeed — only to have my sincere hopes for their well-being thrown in my face when they voted for Trump. It will take me awhile to digest it all, but I thank you for your explanation.

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  23. Pingback: Donald Trump, Rodrigo Duterte and the Autocratic Leader | ANGELO LOPEZ BLOG

  24. Planned Parenthood does not “promote” abortion. It is an option they offer. Further, the money received by PP from the government does not fund abortions. As this article states: “… the organization uses money from other sources — private donors and foundations as well as fees — to fund its abortion services.”

    One thing that many overlook (either by choice or by prejudice) is the fact that PP offers birth control resources, care for pregnant women, cancer screening, among other services. IOW, abortion is not its primary and/or exclusive service.

    Liked by 1 person

  25. Jackquelyn, abortion has a lot to do with a presidential candidate, since he is the one who nominates judges to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court is what decided Roe vs. Wade, making it a right of women and abortion doctors to terminate the lives of the human beings inside the woman’s uterus, because it erroneously interpreted that pregnant women and abortion doctors had that right protected by their constitutional right to privacy. In the same way, the Supreme Court can overturn that erroneous interpretation.
    As for the partial birth abortion, you are right that it is illegal. But many politicians still consider that the partial birth abortion ban is an unconstitutional law, and therefore the decision that declared it constitutional should be overturned by the Supreme Court of Justice. Obama and Clinton are among those politicians.
    Separation of Church and State has nothing to do with equal protection for the rights of everybody, without discrimination. Many churches were opposed to slavery, and yet, abolition did not violate separation of Church and state.
    Taxpayer money cannot be used to fund abortions, but the number one abortion provider and promoter in the US (and I believe, in the world too), Planned Parenthood, receives millions of dollars in tax cuts and actual federal funds. In other words, people who consider abortion a horrible crime are forced to pay to organizations that provide it and promote it. Further more, Medicaid, a federal program fully funded by taxpayers money, mandates abortion funding in cases of rape, incest and illness, injury or physical disorder that may allegedly endanger a pregnant woman’s life. So much for freedom of choice.
    Each abortion is mandatory on the aborted baby: she or he has no choice.

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  26. Wow.
    You voted Trump. You own it, ALL of it.
    Your rationale is mystifying.
    Got to start somewhere, do we?
    Gambling with international security, our first amendment rights (ALL of them ), our environment, public schools, medicare…using an unstable, ill-equipped individual as your front man. Be a high roller in your own life. The stakes are far too high on a global level.
    You voted Trump, you OWN ALL OF IT.

    I can see a day when whose side you were on for this election, is going to matter.

    Liked by 2 people

  27. @Scott Trible im confused. what does abortion have to do with a presidential candidate? 1)the supreme court decided roe vs wade what seems like eons ago, 2)partial birth abortions are illegal 3)we have separation of church and state 4)under current law taxpayer funding cannot be used for abortions. I can see great cause for alarm if abortions were mandatory. (think china in the not too distant past)

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  29. You realize that millions of Christians are pro-choice, right? Don’t be ignorant –it makes you sound stupid.

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  30. Pingback: Election Recommended Reading « Fond Impertinence

  31. Thank you for speaking so humanely. I applaud you as a human being. And if it means anything, I applaud you from the other side of the political spectrum. I hope that folks from both sides can find commonality in human decency and see each other as individuals… and so discover they can work together for the common good. Because we are all in this together, that is for sure.

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  33. Pingback: FOR MY WHITE EVANGELICAL FRIENDS IN THE US, PART 2 | overthemountainstherearemountains

  34. Now C. Alexander, excellent response, keeping the subject on task once it was moved from the election to ….! Thank you for your heartfelt point of view! That is certainly a valid point of view and at least part of it, male unprotected sex should NOT be allowed! Love it! Guys’ responsibility, too!

    I’ll leave it there and make a separate comment back to the original point of government and election. Thanks for your frank entry, C. Alexander!

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  35. You all went from the election, to women, pro life, pro choice, abortion, government, personal, medical, religion, blah, blah, blah. How about this? Women won’t EVER have to get pregnant again, just eliminate the ejectors from knocking us up in the first place? We can vacuum out their brains and put them in jail for masterbation and leave all the women the fuck alone! How’s that sound? LIKE ANYBODY WANTS AN UNWANTED PREGNANCY? No Man has the right to have sex with women unless HE is fixed. How’s that sound? Much preferable to an abortion. MEN are the perps, men are the monsters, men are the murderers! HOW’s THAT FEEL? Women wouldn’t NEED a damn ROE VS WADE if it weren’t for you selfish pigs, Go fuck yourself. I am SICK AND TIRED OF PEOPLE VICTIMIZING THE VICTIMS. PASS A DAMN LAW PREVENTING MEN FROM HAVING UNPROTECTED SAFE SEX!’ What? You don’t have anything to say now? Cause IM RIGHT! DEAL WITH IT. Self righteous, inconsiderate, selfish, ignorant PIGS. Any if you are a women, A, You are too ugly to get knocked up or B. Infertile or C. frigid or D, Protected by a man (a father or husband) but probably A. So your opinion doesn’t freakin count.

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  36. You don’t get to vote for the epitome of intolerance and then claim you are “starting somewhere.” You don’t get to erase anyone else’s history. And you certainly don’t get to complain about being criticized. Not ever. The decorum ship has already sailed away and you missed your chance to board. You do not get to suddenly “rediscover” decency at the expense of everyone else. Get used to it.

    Liked by 3 people

  37. abortion should be rather treated as a civil rights and discrimination issue

    No. Abortion should not be treated as anything but a woman’s issue. Laws, religion, or other people’s opinion have no place in this matter.

    Liked by 1 person

  38. I am a democrat, but I am Pro life too. I may well be what some have contemptuously dubbed “the single issue voter.” I’m really not, but support for abortion is definitely a litmus test. Then again, what if I was? Abolitionists and civil rights activists have been also called “single issue voters:” it makes me really proud to be counted in their ranks.

    And talking about “single issueism,” this single issue alone, has marginalized me within the party of my choice. It pretty much pushed me out of it.

    I believed the abortion issue was to be the bane of the democratic party. I believe it may have already happened.

    The democratic party is, allegedly, mostly made up of people who are primarily interested in the rights of the poor and the weak (that’s why I’m a democrat). The democrats once missed our appointment with history, when we failed to be on the side of the slaves. We’re big time missing it again when we fail to be on the side of the weakest and most defenseless members of our society: the unborn.

    I am aware of the intense campaign that some pro-life organizations made among Catholic voters, which was particularly strong in states like Michigan and Pennsylvania. I hate to point this out, because I’m thoroughly convinced that religion should stay separate from politics, and that abortion should be rather treated as a civil rights and discrimination issue.

    I used to think that making religion such a prominent ingredient in the abortion debate, harms the pro-life position itself. This time I may have been wrong. Catholic voters have been traditionally democrats, and choosing a known extreme abortionist as the democratic candidate, may have well been the “feather that turned the scales” in those states. I may be wrong, but it may well be more than just a coincidence that Hillary Clinton lost the election because of these states.

    To my pro-life friends I would tell them that I fully understand their support for Trump, but I would advice extreme caution in throwing their support behind such a dubious character. In the long run, if Trump goes down in flames our movement would not escape unscathed. Our only hope is that, before that, he fulfills his campaign promise and manages to name one (or two) worthy successor of Antonin Scalia to the bench.

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  39. Pingback: What Now? | Idler on a hammock

  40. Mary Magdalene? I guess you don’t know that she was NOT the prostitute. Gotta read up brother. I vote for Trump. I am ProLife, Not a racist, homophobic or all the nasty things anti-Trump citizens have called us. I have great hope for this nation. We will all be great again.

    Liked by 1 person

  42. If there’s a “loud majority” in support of minority rights, how is there even a problem? Even if there’s a small remnant left opposing minority rights, that could hardly have elected Trump and can hardly have significant effect going forward. So, the problems that have plagued America for centuries are basically solved and we should all be thankful. Happy Thanksgiving!.

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  43. Yes, this sounds very good. Great rhetoric.

    Too bad it makes absolutely no sense. “This isn’t about policy or appointments or even about outcomes.” What? Yes, it is about those things — to most people. Granted, there are some people for whom this is all about how it makes them FEEL, and the FEELING of ‘moral crisis’ and self-righteousness is more important than the problems of a stagnant economy or managing a bloated budget or enforcing the laws or preventing the further importation of millions of poor people to further overstrain our schools and hospitals.

    And since when did we “demand that our commander in chief …[reflect] the light of that goodness”? Wasn’t it America’s progressives who taught us that various ‘personal’ sins like misogyny and sexual assault didn’t matter and, even when accompanied by perjury and obstruction of justice, were no basis for holding a commander in chief to account?

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  44. Or we’re seeing the full fury of a toddler deprived of its binky.

    No need to worry that people who opposed the KKK, the anarchists, the Soviets, the Nazis, the Castroites, the Maoists, etc., are going to usher in a totalitarian government. Trump’s biggest selling point for many of us was that he promised to appoint non-totalitarians to the Supreme Court, something that Hillary was absolutely NOT on board with. But hey, if you want to join us in opposing totalitarian government and can stop worrying about your binky, it’s all good.

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  45. “(Bannon) … has clearly printed his intent to do everything possible to take away the rights of blacks, hispanics, Muslims, and jews”

    WHERE has he clearly printed that? I have looked but cannot find that anywhere. Lots of accusations, but no actual quotes.

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  46. “Trump voters fired the first shot. We’ll fire the next one”? So much hate.

    I voted for Trump and all my ammunition is still accounted for – none, zero, zilch expended rounds.

    (Do you actually HAVE any ammunition? Just curious.)

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  47. I tried to find some quotes from Steve Bannon (from sources like the Southern Poverty Law Center or ) that would show him as a supporter of white supremacy, but came up completely dry. I found lots of sources who accused him of it, but none that actually quoted him on any topic remotely related to white supremacy. Where are the direct quotes? The only quotes on race I’ve found, for instance, simply indicate he doesn’t believe race is as great a problem in the country as some others do. If that perspective, that the impact of racism has diminished over the years rather than increased, is alone enough to make someone a ‘white supremacist’ then the definition has stretched so wide it’s going to scoop up millions of people of color along with probably a majority of whites.

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  48. Decency would have been my top priority if a decent candidate had been one of the electable options, but to pretend that Hillary Clinton can pass a decent person’s decency test is hilarious. I at least KNOW that the candidate I voted for doesn’t pass that test. Apparently you and your “strong, vibrant majority” are too self-deluded to recognize that your candidate doesn’t pass that test either, which hardly makes you or them particularly trustworthy.

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  49. The notion that Obama has deported more illegals than any other president is widely believed on the Left, but simply is not true. He has fudged the numbers partly by re-defining what constitutes a deportation, including border actions that never used to be called that before, and partly by pretending that an order of deportation is the same thing as a real deportation. The order is a piece of paper, and widely ignored. The person ordered deported is still in the U.S., and is not likely to be REALLY deported even if he’s picked up for the commission of some crime.

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  50. When you go shopping for a gun, see how well you do avoiding any gun that the military might use. My primary home defense handgun is called a Smith & Wesson M&P, one of the most popular handguns out there in civilian ownership. Guess what M&P stands for? Military and police. My Dad’s old bolt-action hunting rifle that I inherited is not really different from the old Mosin-Nagant type that Simo Hayha of the Finnish Army used to snipe 505 confirmed sniper kills during WWII.

    Other than air guns and pellet guns, and maybe derringers, there’s practically no gun that hasn’t been or can’t be used for military purposes. So if you want to ban those, you really DO want to take everybody’s guns away.

    When conservatives think that liberals want to take everybody’s guns away, it’s because liberals often say things like what you just did. “I don’t want to take everybody’s guns away – just the military-style ones, just the scary ugly ones, just the ones they banned in the U.K. and Australia, just the ones that make loud noises, just the ones that can make people bleed, etc., etc.”

    It makes us think you really DO mean “no guns allowed” but want to lull us into complacency, or else that you really have no clue what you’re talking about and could end up taking our guns away out of sheer ignorance. Kind of like the “some of my best friends are. . . ” comment that none of us would accept as a valid defense against a charge of racism.

    By the way, I’ve been a member of the NRA for at least 25 years, and I’ve never once been asked my opinion about the adoption of “common sense gun laws”. The NRA doesn’t use that language, because it is meaningless, and I don’t believe the majority of NRA members would answer ‘yes’ to a poll that asked them something like that.

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  51. The article above, which I’ve read several times from beginning to end (several quotes are below) is insulting to MANY who DO care.

    Sean is insinuating that the ONLY people who care about ALL Americans, are ONLY those who agree with the author and didn’t vote for Trump. According to the author, no one who voted for Trump has the right to claim legitimate concern for ALL Americans. I quote: “Perhaps the rest of America can trust you to hold the leader of our government to the change you so uncompromisingly sought. But we won’t trust you to look out for our fellow Americans who are different. So get ready for four years of vocal, loud, peaceful I pray, dissent. (me: Peaceful dissent, I’m sure, probably like the peaceful protesters outside Trump rallies during the campaign and in streets since the election, right? — NOT peaceful, but paid belligerents, all in the name of peaceful protest?) Author continues: If you thought the core Trump supporters would be loud if Hillary Clinton won, (me: like the horrible Trump supporters were when they were outside protesting violently at all the Hillary rallies? — NOT! Who has shown their tendency to spew violence, hate, and destruction? Hillary supporters or Trump supporters?) what do you think is going to happen now that you’ve marginalized a group that has much more to lose than freedom from background checks for guns and a ten percent lag in wage growth? At stake for them, is participation in our society. (me: Really? Like the current changes have made things better for ALL Americans, including those who want to participate in our society but CANT or won’t be allowed to? Who says they can’t? YOU? The fear mongering media? WHO? WHO wants to prevent them from participating as law abiding citizens?) And if their vocal insistence on it is something you aren’t willing to tolerate, then perhaps you might consider a different path in thirty months when you get to choose your next leader without the looming evil of Hillary excusing your choice. You can’t point to her any more as cause. If insistence on decent treatment of all Americans makes me a liberal in the eyes of conservatives, then maybe we should take some time to reflect on who our modern conservatives actually are. The world is watching.”

    Decent treatment of ALL Americans (ALL world dwellers for that matter) is precisely what has NOT been occurring the last many years. It’s only one strong reason that the “establishment, not just the democrats” lost the election. The WORLD HAS been watching as American leadership has become lecturing vs action oriented, internally divisive vs inclusive (Black/White/Yellow/Rich/Poor/Middle Class/Man/Woman/Heterosexual/Transsexual/Gay/Lesbian/Other) on a par never seen before for political purposes. Leadership has become increasingly un-protective of the unborn, refugees, and even genocidal where it comes to refugees in Syria and Iraq or our inner city poor of ALL ethnicities (abortion rate over 50% for the poor, higher for the poor blacks). Leadership has become lawless when it comes to equal enforcement of current laws that protect society at large (Immigration/Vandalism/Sanctuary Cities/DOJ, FBI, IRS department corruptions and misuse, etc.) You’re right, ALL citizens deserve to be treated with equal respect and offered safety and opportunity in the USA. Those qualities of respect, safety and opportunity, will hopefully flow more now to and from ALL our citizens and perhaps even flow to outside our borders. Yes, we all need to hold our leaders accountable for decent treatment of ALL citizens. We have to start somewhere don’t we. This election was a start. Now perhaps, citizens WILL hold government accountable for future actions. We can only hope for hope and change for good, not hate, for ALL Americans.

    Sean, how can YOU say the following and have written the intolerant article above? Sean Hughes:”Don’t apologize for not tolerating intolerance”.

    Try tolerance in diversity of opinion, too.

    Liked by 1 person

  53. Do you believe in Tinkerbell too? Seriously, Barbara, this guy shows what he is every time he opens his mouth or uses his Twitter account. The very fact he’s backing off of some of the rhetoric he spouted during the campaign is just one more example that he doesn’t have a clue of what he’s doing. He’s chosen people for his cabinet almost strictly based on their loyalty to him during the campaign rather than for their knowledge, experience, or character.

    Personally, I’m seriously afraid of what will happen if someone “offends” him. His ego is so big and his skin so thin, there’s no telling what he’ll do. He reminds me of a 10-year-old trying to find his way in the world.

    I’m not attacking anyone who supports him. That’s their prerogative. Besides, who knows? MAYBE they’re right and he’ll actually make this a better country.

    But I, for one, am not going to hold my breath.

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  54. Come on people. Give the man a chance. We don’t like a lot of what he said. Confused that his actions are good while his word’s are often defiling, but it seems he is the first one to actually want to make our lives better and is willing to give up a lot to do so. Let’s stop all the rhetoric and just give him and those he selects the support to do what they say they want to do. Primarily, put the Americans first for a change. We have always been a charitable, welcoming people who of late have been taken advantage of. If you are looking for Christ, He’s not coming just yet, so let’s give Donald Trump a chance. Let’s see how he does. None of you, the Pope or me are to be the judge of anyone. That’s God’s job. Let’s work together, color blind, to help one another. JFK said it right: “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” So let’s stop this garbage talk, respect each other and stop trying to change each other as it will never happen. You’re okay, I’m okay and we will never think the exact same way, but we sure can have fun trying to help each other reach our goals so we as a community, a state and a country are in a better position to help others who are so less fortunate than we are..

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  55. Hi Karen! I didn’t mean to send that! I hate it when a post posts by itself without even asking.
    Anyway… I’m no fan of statistics; I prefer a good syllogism. Considering the bare facts, I don’t think it’s outlandish temerity to reason that members of a society where the consequences of certain behavior are removed are more likely to engage in that certain behavior (and more so considering it affords them so much pleasure) than the members of a society where there’s no means to remove the unwanted consequences of the pleasurable behavior.
    And as for the health insurance part of the argument, I believe you are not comparing apples to apples. A pregnancy should not be put on an equal footing with the health complications. It’d be tantamount to expect insurance coverage to thwart the healthy functioning of your kidney in prevention of the diseases that may derive from it.
    In other words, prenatal care insurance is to cover for what it can go wrong with the pregnancy, so it cannot be assimilated to insurance to prevent what can go right (namely, the proper functioning of the reproductive system).

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  57. Maybe just logic, but poor logic.

    Just because it seems to you like birth control might encourage irresponsible sex, doesn’t mean it actually does. That’s your first logical fallacy: begging the question. Having a hypothesis is not proof of that hypothesis. There’s actually been no evidence that availability of birth control increases promiscuity. While unintended pregnancy rates have been pretty stable for decades, the largest groups are women with a known partner, either married or cohabitating. And teen pregnancies have steadily declined.

    Second, the insistence that health insurance is casualty insurance, only to be used in the case of disease. It has never been the same as auto, fire, flood, homeowners insurance, to be used only in the event of a catastrophe. Some do argue that it should be, but it never has been, so precedent is not on your side. By its very name, it is not disease insurance, it’s health insurance. As the second part of your argument points out, pregnancy is a sign of a healthy reproductive system. And yet, health insurance pays for prenatal care, as well as labor and delivery. So, if you think it shouldn’t pay for birth control because pregnancy is not a disease to be prevented, then it also shouldn’t pay for any care associated with pregnancies either. You’re welcome to that view, of course, but please be clear that is what you are arguing. And again, I think precedent is not on your side, and I doubt many people will agree with you.

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  58. Pingback: chartwell west The Blog of Sean Patrick Hughes What Now? | williamlsyublog

  59. Aloha. Thanks for airing your thoughts and feelings in a well written article. I liked most of it.

    However, you wrote …

    “the ultimate choice that was made, the one people will remember a hundred years from now, was a willingness to ignore personal decency and fair treatment towards people who are different in service to that change. That was the choice that the minority of the American electorate made. That was the choice that about a quarter of eligible American voters made.”

    No pass. I believe that’s a false and narrow conclusion that does a disservice to pro-Trump supporters, to yourself and to your readers. There was so much more to the support for Donald Trump … and a long list of justifiable complaints about Hillary Clinton. Bad manners, disrespect of others, sleezy comments … and worse … are to be called-out and challenged whenever and wherever. Donald Trump is certainly guilty of those and other very negative character traits. But the election was about much more than bad behavior. FYI – see my Facebook page for my list of the pro’s and con’s of both candidates.

    You ask: “What now?” Good question. In my opinion this is the greatest civic wake-up call “We the people” have had since the Viet Nam war. Most of us are now questioning authority with new vigor, questioning the media and pollsters, pundits and all-things politic. Term limits for Congress, globalization v. nationalism, corruption at the highest levels of government, etc., etc. I’m highly energized by the new debate and I sense that you and millions of others are, too. We’ve needed that personal involvement of the masses for far too long.

    I have a spiritual practice that works for me that I’ll share here. It involves blessing the challenges in my life in order to reframe them to a better outcome. Think of the election, or anything else that really bothers you as you read this. “God, that’s great! Please show me the blessings in THIS situation … and hurry! We are safe, we are loved and all is well.”

    I hope and trust this new found passion for politics will inspire and motivate each of us to interact at the local county level where our voices and ideas can really be heard and where we can be the most influential and effective. Here’s to better days ahead. Thank you.

    All the best to everyone,

    http://www.thc-ministry.org
    http://www.the-last-marijuana-trial.com

    Liked by 1 person

  60. i am pro choice, though not pro abortion. I would rather a woman go the adoption route, or better yet, use birth control (although birth control does not work 100% of the time). One thing I could never understand is that conservative Republicans’ belief has always been to keep government OUT of people’s personal lives. I cannot think of a more personal (or agonizing) decision a woman could ever have to make than whether or not to have an abortion. NONE of us know under what situations or conditions the pregnant woman or girl is living under. As a former domestic violence/sexual assault counselor, I can tell you that I would not want to make this decision for any woman living in a dangerous situation. And if abortion IS a sin, it would be GOD’S decision as to whether she will be forgiven or not–NOT OURS! We are ALL sinners, and some sins we’ve committed may be seen by God as being worse than a woman’s decision to have an abortion. And God is also merciful–IF she committed a sin, who are any of us to say she would not be forgiven at some point in her life? And lastly, as Jesus said, “Whoever is without sin, let him cast the first stone.”

    So again, I just don’t understand why Republicans–who have always stood for less government intervention in people’s personal lives–want to decide such a personal decision for someone else?

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  61. I agree: time will tell. I did not vote for or support Trump. My opinions about the guy are pretty much the same as yours. Some of my opinions are based on assumptions, and some on the very things that I heard from his own lips: none of them are any good. Even though I keep an open mind, and a hopeful heart, I’m afraid that in this case the American electorate made a big mistake.

    But, if things end up going belly up for this government and my fears become a reality, let me tell you that I am one hundred percent persuaded that the blame will hardly lie just with those who voted for him. A similar portion of the blame will be shared by those who put Hillary Clinton as the alternative.

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  62. Dear Karen, we’ve had readily available birth control for a long time, but it only seems to encourage more irresponsible sex. Responsible sex doesn’t end with birth control; it hardly starts there. The leading cause of unwanted pregnancies is not the lack of birth control. Birth control is everywhere: pharmacies, gas stations, public restrooms, etc.The leading cause of unwanted pregnancies is promiscuity and irresponsible sex. Irresponsible sex and promiscuity are encouraged (or at least facilitated) by the easy availability of birth control.

    Health insurance paying for birth control (as it is already in place through Obamacare) implies that pregnancy is a disease, a malfunction of any part, any organ of our bodies. If anything, a pregnancy is a sign of a healthy reproductive system.

    As you can see, I didn’t mention religion once. It’s just logic.

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  63. I’m not anti-choice. In fact, being against legalized abortion is being more pro-choice than any wrongly labeled “pro-choicer.” In fact, being in favor of legal discrimination against the unborn means being in favor of denying them the right to choose. Worse, it means denying them the mere chance of getting to a point where they can choose by themselves, because their mothers’ right to choose was deemed more important than their right to live .

    I’m in no high horse. I don’t judge anybody. I just want to live in a country under a law that does not discriminate, where every single human life gets equal legal protection.

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  64. It is so very tiresome to continually see anti-choice people label pro-choice people as pro-abortion. There is a world of difference and you self-righteous types refuse to get off of your high horse long enough to consider it. This is suppose to be a free country, as free as is possible, for people to make their own life choices. In a Christian sense, they will answer to their maker and no one else. No one should take it themselves to judge and to deny choices where they are possible.

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  65. There already were several promises he made during the campaign that he had to back off of because THEY WERE UNCONSTITUTIONAL! He knows NOTHING about government, let alone running one. I obviously know more because I KNEW some of the things he said he was going to do were unconstitutional! He is more of a conman than a businessman! He filed FOUR bankruptcies, which hurt American taxpayers–and was proud of it!! ALL of his products are made overseas–is this the man some people think cares about making America great??? He could have employed THOUSANDS of Americans if he wasn’t filled with greed. He also paid NO income taxes for almost 20 years–and THIS is the man some think is going to bring businesses back to the US?! Why didn’t he start with his own during the campaign? Look at his closest associates through his life–scums.One is on the sexual offenders list (and which I believe he is still under investigation for because HE attended the same events where the under-aged girls were). He just settled his fraudulent Trump University scam because the judge said he was tired of him delaying proceedings and that the people deserved their day in court–something he said he would NEVER do on principle! Hmmmmmm!!

    I also believe his own wife didn’t want him to win. When he came out to give his victory speech, she put their young son between them–and she wasn’t smiling. That was a first!! My bet is that if he lost, she would have been filing for divorce days afterwards. She knows everything he said and did was the truth. Now she’s stuck because she will be under SO much pressure to stay with him while he is president. My heart goes out to her because I don’t believe she is anywhere near as dumb as she appears to be, staying with a guy who has done the things he has done to her.

    I’m also betting NO ONE who voted for him ever read the Bible, because if they did they could never have voted for a person so filled with hate, greed, blasphemy and immorality of every kind. We were warned about the signs and I’m scared to death. His rise to power came just like the Bible describes. We have become a Godless nation and other prophecies have been occurring throughout the last 20-30 years. My only consolation is reminding myself that God warned of this and He is still in control. The 144,000 may be a symbolic number, but it still indicates that only a small number won’t be fooled. I’m glad to say I knew better than to follow such a despicable excuse for a human being.

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  66. I agree, every woman has a right to do with her own body as she wishes, but you forget, the life inside her, at any stage, though connected to her own body, is not her body. It is a separate life that is connected to her (inside), but is in fact a separate life. That’s why if a person causes a woman to miscarry &/or otherwise causes the death of her unborn child, it’s considered fetal homicide. On another note, why is the life of the unborn considered precious & valuable when it’s wanted, but if unwanted, it’s somehow considered of no worth or value. Life either has value & worth or it doesn’t. Being wanted or desired should never be a deciding factor. I’m both pro-choice & pro-life…rape or health to the mother an exception. However, with all the condoms & contraceptives readily available, including the morning-after pill, unwanted pregnancies are almost without exception avoidable. It boils down to being responsible & accountable vs irresponsible & reckless. Almost every woman I’ve talked to who’s had an abortion said they chose to because having a child would impact their life negatively &/or be an inconvenience. Again, the value & worth of any life should be determined or ended just because it’s inconvenient or might impact another life negatively. This may be difficult to swallow, but it is the truth.

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  68. I can appreciate your comment. As a Democrat, I get angry when conservatives say liberals want to take people’s guns away. I, for one, do not, and not one of my liberal friends want this either. Many of us just want some common sense laws enacted so that not just anyone who wants a gun can go to a gun show and come out with a military weapon (which is something I would like to see banned). I’m sorry, but I see no reason for any private citizen to own a military weapon. So I suppose if that’s what they mean when they say liberals want to take their guns away, it may be true–although they normally say it in general terms meaning ALL guns, which is NOT true, it’s just been used as a scare tactic. I personally feel that if they would be banned in the future, those who already legally own military rifles should be allowed to keep them, but they should be banned from future sales. That’s just my opinion.

    But getting back to my original point, I do get angry when conservatives say that liberals want to take everyone’s guns away. I know many liberals who own a gun (or guns), and even I have been considering purchasing one myself. I have no problem with having to register one and waiting a week or so for a background check to be done before I’d get it. Even the majority of NRA members feel common sense gun laws should be enacted. So I wish conservatives would stop equating liberals with “no guns allowed.”

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  69. All I can say about your defense of “the businessman” is anyone can talk a good talk … and he’s one of the best in that arena. Perhaps he will carry out some of the things he’s so flippantly promised, but I, for one, am not going to hold my breath. I think he’s way over-stepped his knowledge on how things work. But, as with all things … time will tell.

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  70. What can you do when the KKK is evil, but so is abortion? What can you do when you are against people making rude remarks, but also against corruption? What can you do when you are in favor of every having rights, both minorities and religious groups? We had a conundrum here. A corrupt politician and a rude, crude businessman, those were the choices. She was just as horrible as he was, but much more shrewd. So, what did she run on? Not sure. She ran on, Trump is a horrible person and so are his supporters. Well, she did a good job making people believe that. Trump ran on Hillary is a crook, but I’m going to change the trade deals so we will bring some jobs back to this country, I’m going to build a wall, to keep out the drug cartels because every bit of heroin comes over that border, I’m going to deport criminal (those who commit felons) illegals. I’m going to have better vetting with the refugees. Better vetting doesn’t mean waterboarding.I’m going to figure out ways to lower our debt because our financially irresponsible congressmen and women have put us in so much debt we are about to collapse, I’m going to fight ISIS, so they cannot spread any more throughout the world. I’m going to try to change laws to take better care of the vets. I didn’t vote for a parish priest (and I’ve known some who were about as ruthless) I voted for a man to get us out of this mess we are in. He is a ruthless businessman, and we might need a ruthless businessman to get us out of the financial mess we are in. We might need a ruthless businessman to figure out how to build up the economy, and bring jobs. Please interview the minorities who voted for them and see why they did it, and if they think he is a racist and a bigot. My best friend is Mexican, from Mexico, but a US citizen. She has family there. She voted for Trump, but I know anyone could just say that, so search them out and ask them yourselves. People need jobs. Let’s get everyone’s basic needs taken care of first, then worry about the deeper social issues, because some of those issues will dissipate with jobs.

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  71. I wish people on either side of the abortion debate will once and for all take religion out of it altogether. Being against abortion equates with being against discrimination of any kind. The one paramount reason to be against the abortion law is cause it treats people unequally: it protects the right to life (and many other rights that depend upon it) of people older than 9 months (and those lucky ones that managed to get earlier out of the unprotecte zone: the uterus), and leaves the younger ones entirely unprotected. It’s the most flagrant discrimination that a human mind can conceive.

    It’s not a matter of being oneself personally against having an abortion. In the years leading up to the civil war (the only time in the history of our nation that divisions and hatred were at a level that can compare with the present time), pro-slavery elements held exactly the same argument: “if you don’t like slavery, don’t have a slave.”

    So, if you look at the issue very broadly, then yes, maybe you could say that it is un-Christian to support abortion, as it is un-Christian to support racism, sexism, slavery, exploitation, unjust wars, killing, stealing, etc. But it is, above all else a matter of being a fair minded citizen that just wants to make true the founding principle of our nation: “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.”

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  72. If it were only apologies, no. There would have to proof that he’d also changed his subsequent stance and actions and gained the respect of those he’d offended. Right now, I honestly don’t know enough about Sessions to answer that, and I have no intention of siding for or against Sessions or attacking Trump’s selection until I study Sessions’ record. I think that’s fair.

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  73. Here is one thing about this whole thing. As a conservative who spoke out against Trump and promoted a third party candidate to my fellow conservatives (the majority who voted for Trump only as a “lesser of two evils) I can tell you this: Not one of my conservative friends, even those who actually supported Trump, have ANY association with the KKK. None of them support the KKK. None of them post anything positive about it. None of them keep up with it. In fact I don’t believe any of them would have anything to do with that organization.

    I have never been invited to a K K K meeting or rally. I have conservative friends in the north and south and no one promotes KKK. I never see their postings on FB or social media. I NEVER have and never will have anything to do with them. There apparently are KKK people around. The only time I hear anything about them is when liberals media sources say that the KKK supports Trump. And then all the conservatives are lumped together as if we support the KKK. That is grossly unfair.

    If I saw a friend or people passing around something that supported the KKK I would react very strongly and condemn it. I would use my voice and stand firmly against it. I would be bold to condemn it. The only problem is, I don’t know anyone who supports them. I don’t see people promoting them at all. All I see is conservatives being accused of racism. Allow me to quote: “Racism sucks. Being accused of racism sucks too.”.

    I was brought up that the KKK was evil. That the evil they did was horrific. They showed us movies about racism and slavery and the KKK in my Christian school and it made me cry. When I was older (still attending the Christian school) we had serious discussions about it in our history and government classes. KKK was never a good thing, and it was never portrayed that way. Our school celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. day and had rallies. We learned about Harriet Tubman and the underground railroad. Conservatives, I suspect, feel a ” deer in headlights ” kind of thing when they get accused of such things. It doesn’t make sense to the majority of us.

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  74. No, I totally agree: pro-choice is not pro-abortion, but it certainly is “pro abortion law”. I also agree that nobody does it for fun, and most of the times the desperate mothers that get an abortion end up psychologically scarred for life. No need, no point in judging them. I’m judging an unjust law.

    I wish people on either side of the abortion debate will once and for all take religion out of it altogether. Being against abortion equates with being against discrimination of any kind. The one paramount reason to be against the abortion law is cause it treats people unequally: it protects the right to life (and many other rights that depend upon it) of people older than 9 months (and those lucky ones that managed to get earlier out of the unprotecte zone: the uterus), and leaves the younger ones entirely unprotected. It’s the most flagrant discrimination that a human mind can conceive.

    So, if you look at the issue very broadly, then yes, maybe you could say that it is un-Christian to support abortion, as it is un-Christian to support racism, sexism, slavery, exploitation, unjust wars, killing, stealing, etc. But it is, above all else a matter of being a fair minded citizen that just wants to make true the founding principle of our nation: “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.”

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  75. I wish people on either side of the abortion debate will once and for all take religion out of it altogether. Being against abortion equates with being against discrimination of any kind. The one paramount reason to be against the abortion law is cause it treats people unequally: it protects the right to life (and many other rights that depend upon it) of people older than 9 months (and those lucky ones that managed to get earlier out of the unprotecte zone: the uterus), and leaves the younger ones entirely unprotected. It’s the most flagrant discrimination that a human mind can conceive.

    It’s not a matter of being oneself personally against having an abortion. In the years leading up to the civil war (the only time in the history of our nation that divisions and hatred were at a level that can compare with the present time), pro-slavery elements held exactly the same argument: “if you don’t like slavery, don’t have a slave.”

    So, if you look at the issue very broadly, then yes, maybe you could say that it is un-Christian to support abortion, as it is un-Christian to support racism, sexism, slavery, exploitation, unjust wars, killing, stealing, etc. But it is, above all else a matter of being a fair minded citizen that just wants to make true the founding principle of our nation: “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.”

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  76. I agree. And I wish people in either side of the abortion debate will once and for all take religion out of it altogether. Being against abortion equates with being against discrimination of any kind. The one paramount reason to be against the abortion law is cause it treats people unequally: it protects the right to life (and many other rights that depend upon it) of people older than 9 months (and those lucky ones that managed to get earlier out of the unprotecte zone: the uterus), and leaves the younger ones entirely unprotected. It’s the most flagrant discrimination that a human mind can conceive.

    So, if you look at the issue very broadly, then yes, maybe you could say that it is un-Christian to support abortion, as it is un-Christian to support racism, sexism, slavery, exploitation, unjust wars, killing, stealing, etc. But it is, above all else a matter of being a fair minded citizen that just wants to make true the founding principle of our nation: “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.”

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  77. “I’m no Liberal”. You don’t get to decide. We will judge you by your thoughts and actions. I appreciate your thoughtful treatise, if only we could have had this conversation before the election. But alas those who supported Trump were shut down with the racist, bigoted, homophobic and xenophobic shouts. You do much the same here. Your contention that one’s support for Trump is support for the KKK and they should actively refute them is false. You cannot project that supposition on them. For most of Trump supporters it’s laughable that the KKK endorses him, they despise them as much as the Left. As far as trashing conservative values, Hillary Clinton could not have stepped on more of them. When you can’t even start with the truth, anything else that comes out of her mouth goes in one ear and out the other. The United States is still the last, best hope to reach the ideals you state. The error you and many on the left make, is you start the discussion by denouncing my believes instead of promoting your own. So be vocal my friend. We welcome it. Hopefully, we’ll both learn something.

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  78. As far as the abortion issue goes (from a seventy year old woman) the answer is readily-available birth control (perhaps even free, thru single-payer universal healthcare using Medicare). Leave religion out of it. This is a non-issue elsewhere, and is strictly a woman’s matter. Bernie Supporter

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  80. Anyone that thinks a women wants to have an abortion isn’t a woman. It is one of the most agonizing decisions that a woman must make in life. Yes, it would be far better to have prevented the pregnancy, but for a myriad of reasons, this is not always possible … just as there are a myriad of reasons why a pregnancy must be terminated.

    Certainly preventing pregnancy is the ideal, but when you consider there are those who want to shut down Planned Parenthood centers — the very location where women can go to obtain pregnancy prevention information and methods — it’s difficult not to see the dichotomy.

    Liked by 3 people

  81. Abortion or pro choice rights have already been ruled upon by the Supreme Court as has legalized same sex marriage. Trump already said same sex marriage is a dine deal. How does the law not stand on abortion rights? Here is the thing, while believing a man like Trump who changes his convictions and plans daily may have denounced legalized abortion, the law has not changed. He was pro choice a few years ago. Do you really think he cares? Do you not realize from the wall he is not going to build, to rounding up illegal immigrants to a change in abortion laws, these things are not going to happen. You may have put him into office, but the majority of Americans oppose this man, his self righteous anti anything other than white male agenda and will not simply sit idle while he attempts to dismantle our rights. News flash! Not everyone in America is Chridtian or has to be in order to be relevant to the Constitution of the United States. You want prayer in schools? Open your own school. You don’t like abortions, don’t have one. You don’t approve of same sex marriage, marry someone of the opposite sex. You don’t like immigrants, then don’t stay in America because we are a nation of immigrants! By the way, I am a white, female, Christian. Judge not, lest ye be judged! Do onto others as you would do unto yourself! You just put a man into the White House who represents the values furthest away from Christ over an issue, abortion, that our President elect could care less about! Now the white supremists of America are calling the shots or think they are.

    Liked by 2 people

  82. And so it begins…. Another liberal invents conservative chops to undermine the support of the only true outsider who may (gasp) end the divide-and-conquer routine of the globalists.

    “If insistence on decent treatment of all Americans makes me a liberal in the eyes of conservatives”… Decent treatment, let’s see.. We’ve got thousands of men being forced by US courts to reward their wives’ fraudulent contract by paying for the care of children who do not carry their DNA. is that decent treatment of all? Oh, let’s not forget the white and black wage earners forced to pay taxes to feed those who choose not to work, since it’s easier to suck the government teat. Decent, right? “Oh, but they have excuses!” That we did what to verify?

    The list goes on. I pray that you get what your twisted excuse tor logic leads you to.

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  84. Pro-choice is not pro-abortion. It’s time for you to stop being a reactionary and start taking a critical look at what the issues actually are. Nobody is out there getting abortions for fun, or to prove a point.

    Liked by 2 people

  85. Even Pope Francis, who is very much against abortion as well, denounced Trump’s plans and rhetoric as hateful and extremely un-Christian. I have genuine inability to understand how any Christian could justify voting for a man that represents nothing of the morals that Christians and/or US citizens are supposed to represent. I doubt you can point me to any passage where Jesus tells you to act with hate and discrimination. Trump acts and speaks with hate towards women, minorities, those with disabilities, and Muslims, for starters. The man admits to sexual assault. You’re so focused on abortion that you don’t see any of this? And you call the author un-Christian? Are you trolling? This author expresses more empathy than I’ve been able to muster for the conservatives of the country who considered him a better option “because of , but to say that he can’t be Christian and support Hillary is to completely miss the entire New Testament. All of that aside, you completely missed the point of the article. Either it was an attempt to distract from the author’s sincere plea that conservatives demand that Trump stop with the discrimination or it was “extreme confusion.” If it was the former, then you have no business calling anyone out for moral transgressions.

    Liked by 1 person

  86. Pingback: Why conservatives need to oppose a Trump presidency — Quartz

  87. Thanks for this article. As someone not living in the US I could not believe the election that voted in someone so devoid of the values I had always presumed your citizens stood for.

    Liked by 1 person

  88. Trump is a rapist according to sworn testimony by his first wife. We now have a rapist President-elect of the US.

    Trump brags about his ability to get away with sexually assault.

    Trump bragged, in a broadcast interview about being a pervert in the dressing rooms at Miss Teen USA pageants – leering at naked 15-year-olds. Here’s a transcript from an interview with Trump:

    “Well, what you could also say is that, as the owner of the pageant, it’s your obligation to do that,” Trump said, before discussing how he got away with going backstage when the contestants were naked.

    “Well, I’ll tell you the funniest is that before a show, I’ll go backstage and everyone’s getting dressed, and everything else, and you know, no men are anywhere, and I’m allowed to go in because I’m the owner of the pageant and therefore I’m inspecting it,” Trump said. “You know, I’m inspecting because I want to make sure that everything is good.”

    “You know, the dresses. ‘Is everyone okay?’ You know, they’re standing there with no clothes. ‘Is everybody okay?’ And you see these incredible looking women, and so, I sort of get away with things like that.

    Miss Teen USA contestants, as young as 15, have confirmed these accounts.

    So, that’s pervert Trump.

    Shall I go on detailing his other un-American values?

    Liked by 2 people

  89. Pingback: Elsewhere for November 20, 2016 | Floccinaucical

  90. Our children can’t unlearn that the reward for being a bully, a cyber bully, and using a level of hate and lies and lies about the lies at an unprecedented frequency – has rewarded a man with the White House.

    Using faith as a rationale to hate is not a Christian value. Wanting a small government- except when a uterus is involved – isn’t a conservative value.

    Liked by 1 person

  91. Why would I say a zygote has a soul? I just say a zygote has life (a biological fact, scientifically verifiable). A life that is bereft of any legal protection. So yes, stare in awe all you want, but the article talks about protecting people. I just point at the fact that with Clinton an entire class of human beings are discriminated against, as the law protects everybody’s life, except theirs. I’ll say it as many times as it’s needed: abortion is not a religious issue, it’s not even a moral issue. It is a legal issue, a civil rights issue. I’m not pro-life; I’m just against discrimination.

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  93. No need to get personal. I’m far from tying to control anybody. It’s Roe v. Wade that gives desperate mothers and unscrupulous doctors absolute control on somebody else’s life.

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  95. Charlotte, I doubt the writer has forgotten the facts surrounding Senator Byrd, including his complete break from the Klan in 1952, his repeated apologies, his denouncement of the Klan, and his “stalwart” dedication to the Civil Rights cause. The NAACP honored Byrd’s work and mourned his passing (http://www.snopes.com/clinton-byrd-photo-klan/). Acknowledging that Senator Byrd changed, became a better person, and fought for others is not pretense. It is truth.

    Liked by 1 person

  100. The abortion issue will never be understood until people on both sides stop making it a “religious” one. It’s a civil rights issue: it protects the right to life of all people, but it discriminates against those still in the uterus. I don’t think desperate mothers should be judged, but there has to be a way to protect the right to life of all citizens without making unjust discriminations. And doctors who know plainly well that they are taking a human life should, at the very least, not be empowered. Saying that one is against abortion but in favor of a law that protects it . . . (I leave it up to you to connect the dots). At the very least, the law should not explicitly approve of it, let alone promote it and fund it. There’s a human life involved: the taking of a human life should never be a private issue. If there’s a place where the law should definitely be is protecting the lives of all without distinction.

    Liked by 4 people

  101. Of course, they’ll use the label pro-abortion because it’s so pejorative. The word pro-choice wasn’t sensational or offensive enough for those who want to promote every pro-choice supporter as an evil person, a hater, and/or a murderer.

    Liked by 4 people

  102. Pingback: Post Election Memos to my friends left and right « What Have We Learned?

  103. It drive me crazy when people say others are “pro abortion.” No one wants abortions. The question is whether government should make that terrible decision or it should be left to a woman, her faith and her doctor. What’s ironic is that many people who say “get government out of our lives” do a massive flip flop when it comes to this issue.

    Liked by 10 people

  105. The writer forgets the Democrat’s star senator, Senator Byrd, grand poopah in the KKK: and more recently, Hillary Clinton’s admiration and statement regarding Senator Byrd as her mentor. Just one of many hypocrisies existing on the left but not mentioned to maintain the false narrative. Trump denounced any connection with the KKK. He cannot who controls who says they support him and besides, even Hillary had a chapter of the Klan supporting her. So, cut the crap and the false messaging .

    Liked by 1 person

  106. Good article. I’d rather see the electoral college sort it out based on Comey’s Hatch Act violations, Putin and GOP voter suppression. It would be interesting to see our electoral college functioning as intended. Or maybe eliminate it altogether.

    Liked by 2 people

  107. Scott you can be against abortion and against hate, racism and all the other crap he spewed. You either love humankind or you don’t in any form. Saving a baby but beating up or shaming someone else is not being a Christian either. Shaming or punishing a woman due to abortion is not your call either. Yes, they should change the law ……to include the man who participated should abortion become outlawed. ..remember Mary Magdalene was accepted by Christ. He asked you to walk in his shoes, not be the judge. One issue voting is not a well thought out decision. We have to wait and see what this unchristian man unleashes…..it’s not all about abortion dude.

    Liked by 6 people

  108. For the most part, I believe this well-written, powerful article portrays my thoughts exactly. Thank you for writing this without the hysterics and condemnations so prevalent in many of the writings of others. This is a fair presentation of issues that all of us must now work to address and resolve, hopefully, together.

    Liked by 2 people

  109. If the author writes his own, personal truth as he understands it, labeling it “hogwash” — worthless, meaningless, insincere, bunk — seems unnecessarily harsh.

    Liked by 5 people

  110. I have to say that your words seem to disagree with each other, as a conservative Christian you would never align yourself with a person that is so pro abortion, so I believe you’re making up some things or extremely confused but it makes your story look like an attempt to manipulate people. So I say it is hogwash in a new basket.

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  113. I graduated with a B.S. from a state university in 2010, and have seen my salary increase 50% since being hired. I have a house with a picket fence, 2 dogs from a shelter, a beautiful wife, and a beautiful daughter. I believe in the free market, and creative destruction. If I lived in Youngstown, I would’ve moved. People need to take responsibility for themselves. I love that everyone keeps saying that it’s the protestors in the streets who are scared of losing “free stuff”, when it’s actually the Trump voters living in the rust belt who refuse to move and expect Trump’s ‘guvment’ to bring back their jobs.

    Liked by 1 person

  115. So the author of the original blog post is whining? The problem is your shallow and stereotypical assumptions about 1. We the people. You do understand Trump lost the popular vote and got fewer votes than the loser of the 2012 election. Right? No, you don’t. You understand he got 10 million votes fewer than Obama in 2008, right? No, you don’t You understand that he won the battleground states by the closest margins in history No there also. But, the electoral college, flawed as it is, remains the law of the land; ergo, Trump, despite being endorsed by a minority (that we the people you keep shouting about from the ramparts) will be our legitimate president. Legally legitimate. Whether he has the moral authority to be the leader of the free world will be debated for many years. 2. The immigrants to whom you refer want a free ride. They want to to take something from us hard working Americans. Isn’t that what you asserted? Go to the dairy farms of Idaho where these immigrants walk through blizzards to move the cattle into milking barns–go to the melon fields in the Pecos River Valley where they hunch over in 100 degree temps so you can get reasonably priced cantaloupes. Talk to farmers and see if there is any way they can feed America without immigrants — undocumented or not. 3. Trump is brilliant. No, he us an above average child of privilege who was extremely motivated to achieve success. He has attained a fair degree of success but not without his foibles like a bankruptcy here and there and myriad accusations of less than scrupulous business practices. But none of the facts pertaining to your erroneous assumptions matter, do they? Because YOU are a “real” American, aren’t you? History will provide ample fodder to prove you and those who put him into office will have plenty for which to be accountable. It won’t be “making America great again.” I was around when we became great. The author of the article hit it on the head: we have taken a huge leap backwards. Tell the majority to shut the hell up if you want, but you will be wasting your breath. And, if you are so impressed with billionaires, you should make sure you can spell the word.

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  116. Thank you for your compassionate words and your stark clarity. Thank you for giving me, a total bleeding-hearted softie liberal, hope that we can unite alongside common values and decency. Thank you for putting America and humanity first. Thank you for being willing to see the sources of division and suffering in this society and world. I pray if the situation were reversed politically that I would have the integrity to do the same as conservatives like you, putting humanity before my politics.

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  117. Since the end of WW2 and especially since the end of the cold war the elites in the western world have come under the spell of a vision of a universalist, utopian, fantasy idealizing a multi racial, multi cultural, multi lingual polyglot wherein everyone will put their arms around each other and sing cum by ya. It won’t work and the people don’t want it and never voted for it. The elites have developed a real hatred for their own people pathologizing normal feelings of in group loyalty by calling it racism, by calling normal desires for security xenophobia, by calling insistence that immigrants assimilate bigotry, The peoples reaction was and is to elect Truimp, even if , As I did, they held their nose as they did it.

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  118. The opinions in this article are quite correct except in one area. He falls short in understanding that voting for a presidential candidate is not endorsing the personal life and background. In addition to that he demonstrates that he has not listened to the what Donald Trump has been saying. Instead the author fills in the blank with the opinion voiced by Hilary and the liberal media. In fact Donald Trump has run one of the most accepting and loving campaigns I have ever seen. I have listened very closely to see if what the media has said is correct…..IT IS NOT.
    In American politics if you say anything that the media disagrees with they misquote, lie and deliberately misquote you. The campaign we just experienced was 90% false. Now I am sure that Sean believes he is expressing the truth. However he is not. In time I hope he can see and learn what I have seen. But he must stop listening to the media and the democrats in order to find what the truth is. He will never get to the truth using his current sources of information.
    I challenge anyone reading this to listen and learn. The campaign is over and the truth is not there. Feel free to message me or just listen to P E Donald Trump to learn who he is. I believe he is one of Americas greatest heroes. That he has a great chance to be one of America’s best presidents and that his leadership will make America stronger and better.

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  119. If it weren’t for the left, you wouldn’t have the ability to marry your partner, if you so chose. Many conservatives won’t engage in face-to-face discrimination, they support candidates who support ideas and laws to suppress us. It’s sad that you don’t see that.

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  120. You “Honestly” can’t tell? So when exactly did Clinton express every kind of bigotry fro A to Z, less than CWM, conservative white male?

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  121. The comments here are so wide ranging, it is hard to believe that we all read the same article. Part of the problem, I think, is that the author is a bit difficult to understand at times. But this one paragraph, I think, is the nut of what he has to say:

    “I won’t tell you that you are a racist or a bigot if you voted for Donald Trump. I won’t even tell you that you personally are indecent. But I will tell you what you just bought with your choice. You bought a very vigilant, sensitive and loud American majority who will cry foul at the drop of a hat for anything that resembles attacks on those we have fought so hard for these last fifty years. Because what you showed us with his nomination and your vote in the election, is that you can’t be trusted to do it without us”.

    Trump ran a campaign against human decency and won. He won not because everyone who voted for him is personally indecent, but because they sublimated lesser things — defeating Hillary, breaking up a dysfunctional political class, repealing Obamacare, etc — and in doing so, they lost their moral compass. They have shown themselves to be untrustworthy stewards of democracy. And the rest of us — literally the moral majority — will hold them accountable, ready to fight back rather than lose ground on the great gains we’ve made during the last half century toward a more tolerant and just America.

    The problem with Trump isn’t political. It isn’t about policy. It is fundamental.

    Liked by 2 people

  122. The comments here are so wide ranging and, for the most part, so far off the mark, that it is hard to tell if we are all reading the same article. Part of it, I think, is that the author’s (Hughes) ideas are a bit unclear and disorganized, and his prose is sometimes difficult to parse. But the nut here, I believe, is this one paragraph:

    “I won’t tell you that you are a racist or a bigot if you voted for Donald Trump. I won’t even tell you that you personally are indecent. But I will tell you what you just bought with your choice. You bought a very vigilant, sensitive and loud American majority who will cry foul at the drop of a hat for anything that resembles attacks on those we have fought so hard for these last fifty years. Because what you showed us with his nomination and your vote in the election, is that you can’t be trusted to do it without us.”

    That is the essence of what he is trying to say, and I could not agree more.

    Trump ran a campaign against human decency and won. That does not mean that everyone who voted for him is indecent personally, only that something other than decency was their top priority. They sublimated lesser things — repealing Obamacare, defeating Hillary, breaking up a dysfunctional political system — and in doing so, they lost their moral compass. That is why they cannot be trusted. And that is why the rest of us — a strong, vigilant majority — will be watching, ready to hold them responsible for (and ready to respond to) any attack on the social progress we’ve made in the last half century toward a more just, tolerant society.

    The problem with Trump is not about politics. It’s not about policy. It is fundamental.

    Liked by 1 person

  124. For what purpose, so England could reclaim us? Why are you proud of your guns? Are you “Proud” that “no soldier, in time of peace, be quartered in any house without the consent of the owner.” Amend.3. How “Proud” are you about “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude… shall exist within the United States” Amend 13. Or how about this one, “The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes” Amend. 16. Here’s one I’m sure you love “No law varying the compensation for the services of the Senators or Representatives shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened.” Amend. 27

    If you love the Constitution, as most guns rights peoples cry that they do, then you are obviously “Proud” of the entire document. Do you know how many Amendments there are to the Constitution? You realize of course that an amendment means a change right? Anything that was changed once can be changed again (look at the 18th Amendment, and continue drinking your beer). The Constitution has changed over the years to reflect the will of the people as well as to address wrongs (13th Amendment). Instead of saying you’re proud of your guns, maybe you should be proud that people, most of them smarter than you or me, felt that as a living document, the Constitution had to be tweaked occasionally.

    Be proud of your rights, be proud of your government (they are doing a job you or I don’t want to do), be proud of the freedoms we all enjoy in America, but please don’t say you’re proud of something that can cause so much division and misunderstanding among people. And as a full disclosure, I own several guns. I’m not “proud” of them, I’m proud of my family, I’m proud of my country (usually) and I’m proud we can have a voice.

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  127. I agree, except that she didn’t seem to have policies that would directly help their lifestyle. They don’t want to be “techy types.” They want to work with their hands and maybe all the talk of “fancy smansy” solar panels, wind farms, and the like went right over their head. Most of those areas are still not convinced of climate change so I think their kneejerk reaction to building an infrastructure to deal with it was dismissed because it’s connected to their disbelief. Just a thought. Plus, Trump “spoke their language” and he’s a big “broad-shouldered” guy, if you get what I’m saying.

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  129. I believe that sentencing young men who created the sperm that impregnated an egg to be a solution for less abortions! What if that happened? What if a man had to go to jail for the months a woman was pregnant because they had not protected the woman from an unplanned pregnancy? Do you think men might be more careful? And no, paying child support isn’t enough. The women pay child support too. The way to end abortions is to end sperm reaching an egg.

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  131. Pingback: A Mormon, a Jew, and a Catholic Walk Into a Restaurant... - Dear Vixen - Catherine Gacad

  132. Fantastic Tracy that is the right attitude. As a conservative I can tell you there are a lot of us who have no issues with the gay community. I won’t lie to you as I know there are some who do but the majority of us are more live and let live.

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  134. To the author: Well said, but I would like to add that I do think Trump got a lot of surreptitious help and I’m not just talking about Russia directly. Without it, I don’t think he would have won. It might have been a squeaker, but I think Hillary would have won. I would also add that her reputation as “evil” was deliberately created over time because they knew she was coming for the White House. Rarely is anything as it seems and particularly when propagandized to serve an agenda. People are prone to believe the worst, even good people will have doubts if they hear the same thing over and over. Vladimir Lenin penned “A lie told often enough becomes the truth.” As an aside, who does Steve Bannon self-identify as? A Leninist.

    Liked by 3 people

  136. Thank you Mr. Hughes for providing some clarity on this election from a conservative point of view.

    I follow a woman named Katherine Brock on Facebook. Today she also made comment on this election. I am including an excerpt from that post as response to your thought, because it affirms your realization that resistance to Mr. Trump will be fierce and possibly unprecedented.

    Like it or not, Hillary may well surpass Mr. Trump by over a million votes when the final count is tabulated That is unprecedented. It will be impossible for many Americans to accept his “victory”.

    Ms. Brock warns us of three key elements to watch for in the coming days:

    “1) Treat every poisoned word as a promise. When a bigoted blusterer tells you he intends to force members of a religious minority to register with the authorities, believe him. Take the haters at their word, and assume the worst is imminent. ”

    (I would add this to Ms. Brock’s analysis: When he makes fun of disabled persons, know that he wishes us to hate them as well. When he threatens to form a “special” police force to round up 30 million people, believe that he intends to do it, and that police force may be used against you if you speak out against him. The Constitution means nothing to this man. When he urges his supporters to “Knock the crap out of “em”, understand he is urging his supporters to take action against any who would criticize or oppose him. Be warned.)

    “2) You should treat people like adults, which means respecting them enough to demand that they understand the consequences of their actions.

    Whether you choose to forgive those friends and strangers alike who cast their votes so deplorably, is a matter of personal choice, and none but the most imperious among us would advocate a categorical rejection of millions based on their electoral actions, no matter how irresponsible and dim. So while you make these personal calculations, remember that what matters now isn’t analysis: It’s survival.

    3) Refuse to accept what’s going on as the new normal. Not now, not ever. In the months and years to come, decisions will be made that may strike you as perfectly sound, appointments announced that are inspired, and policies enacted you may even like.

    Friends and pundits will reach out to you and, invoking nuance, urge you to admit that there’s really nothing to fear, that things are more complex, that nothing is ever black or white. It’s a perfectly sound argument, of course, but it’s also dead wrong: This isn’t about policy or appointments or even about outcomes. This isn’t a political contest—it’s a moral crisis.

    When an inexperienced, thin-skinned demagogue rides into office by explaining away immensely complex problems while arguing that our national glory demands we strip millions of their dignity or their rights, our only duty is to resist by whatever means permitted us by law. The demagogue may boost the economy, sign beneficial treaties, and mend our ailing institutions, but his success can never be ours.

    Our greatness, to use a tired but true phrase, depends on our goodness, and to succeed, we must demand that our commander in chief come as close as is possible to reflecting the light of that goodness. ”

    I couldn’t agree more with Ms. Brock

    Liked by 2 people

  138. I was raised a Democrat. Forty years ago the Democratic Party was the “hero” of he middle working class o society. At the time he saying was: “I don’t belong to any organized political party. I am a Democrat.” THIS IS NOT TRUE TODAY. THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY HAS BEEN TAKEN OVER BY THE SO CALLED LIBERAL ELITE AND COULD NOT CARE LESS ABOUT THE WORKING MIDDLE CLASS. HILLARY WAS A CLASSIC EXAMPLE OF HOW FAR THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY HAS FALLEN i DID NOT LEAVE THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY MOVED IN A DIRECTION i CANNOT SUPPORT. THOSE OF YOU WHO WANT TO OBJECTIVELY WITH AN OPEN MIND WILL SEE THAT TRUMP IS WHERE THE DEMOCRATS OF MY YOUTH WERE. DON’T BE BOUND BY LABELS THAT MEAN NOTHING. THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY HAS NO INTEGRITY PUTTING UP HILLARY WHO BRIBED HER WAY TO MILLIONS AS SECRETARY OF STATE AND WHO WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF PRESIDENT OBAMA AND THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE DESTROYED IN DIRECT VIOLATION FO THE ALSW DOCUMENTS THT HAD BEEN SUPPOEANED BY ONGRESS.

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  140. It may just be that Trump has no idea what he has embarked on. Or in some twisted way he does. I keep saying this is not a triumph for GOP. Look at who he is selected. No no our country is about to change in the most significant way. I saw this calm man talking to reporters with Obama – all a farce when I later saw what he intends to do in 100 days. I daresay illegals need to be deported. I have watched a small store take the link card from a couple picking up the red phone for Western Union. The only way they would have “cash” on that card is for children born here no other way. Now with that also comes the knowledge that for some in certain areas they must send money back to keep their families safe but aduh all the right reasons to come the right way to America. I am quite aware that people are suffering all over the world, I get it. But we have problems we can no longer keep brushing aside. I am afraid SSI will be cut for my son who is still in a training program. I am afraid hat next year the big ticket was healthcare yet I have heard nothing about options for care. Seven Thousand Dollars for myself when only making maybe 20k. I can’t afford the cash payments so I have to sign for something that is taken from my check. I have my Masters! making 9.50 an hour. I don’t think people truly knew what they were voting for because of all the slanderous game playing news about Clinton which was typically false. Something is coming – coming from my heart I believe this – something our generations have never seen first hand but we are about to in a big way. I noticed nothing about God was said, can this many people ( the voters for Trump) honestly not see it? Supposed people of God and Good Values? Hillary didn’t want to take you bloody guns she just wanted a central database. And to be honest they have shown a 14 year old without ID walk out of a show with an assault rifle. now that is scarier than anything. No wonder thugs on the streets have guns. If you want to have guns great but when you sell them….? I don’t support abortion but I am pro-choice I would have rather seen more counselling and fricking parents teaching their kids how to live right. When I had my son I had counselling first because I was doing it on my own.

    Something Wicked this way Comes………..

    Liked by 3 people

  144. Reblogged this on Scotties Toy Box and commented:
    I thank Nan for sending me the link for this post. It is well written and well thought out. It says what we need people to say, that is that they won’t let others be treated unfairly , they won’t discrimination become the accepted normal. All people need to stand up for the rights and progress we have made. I am reminded though that a lot of the votes from the Christian right came from people who wanted more rights for themselves, at the expense of LGBTQ people. Trump got a lot of votes from groups who voted to restrict the rights and equal treatment of other people in the country. That scares the spit out of me. I will wait to see how many people will stand up now for others. I am not hopeful of them doing it. Hugs

    Liked by 2 people

  145. As a Canadian, I feel it necessary to let you know that one year ago, we voted for inclusivity of all. Our new government has produced a cabinet filled with people of all races and creeds and a 50/50 split in gender. I am proud of the directions we have taken and fear the American example will start to trickle across our border and destroy what we continue to work diligently for – equality for all!

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  146. You are not listening or thinking. Jesus when asked what is the most important commandment replied they could all be boiled down to love your neighbor as yourself. If you disagree with Jesus, you ain’t no Christian and Trump has proven he ain’t either. Not a judgement just logic.

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  148. Nobody is doing that. And “We the People” means all the People, not just your People. Your faction, may have had their candidate win, but now he has to be everybody’s president. Have fun sucking on that for four years, zealot. You’re gonna be mighty disappointed that your boy doesn’t get to shoot off his mouth like you do now that he’s actually got a job to do that requires statesmanship, balance, and restraint.

    Liked by 3 people

  149. I fear a lot of people reading this are missing the point that racism and fear of ‘the other’ and the violence and subjugation that results from it is a deep human impulse that is at the root of most of today’s problems across the world and it’s something that needs to be stamped out in ourselves and all around us as our highest priority. Tolerance of Trump’s views in the name of change is a giant leap away from that.
    You’ve stated it so eloquently and I thank you. I’ve been trying to find a way to say it to my kids and you’ve helped me immensely.

    Liked by 2 people

  150. Dump is a fool and a menace to society and must be made impotent. The delusional right is now seeing the full fury of America’s refusal to march lockstep into a totalitarian government,

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  152. Can I ask? Do you honestly think in today’s climate, that that sort of rhetoric will change the mind and hearts of anti-Trumpers? If he is as great as you say he is, do you think your hostility helps sway our thinking? Do you think it will help unite and give hope? Your attitude is exactly what scares me, and you are the face of the Trump supporter, whether they want you or not.

    Liked by 3 people

  154. I would venture to guess you don’t know any more about the real Trump other than what the hyped up bs headlines put out by the liberals said. You might learn something if you actually look deeper than the liberal talking points….he’s actually done many good works & deeds for others & has done it without fanfare in order to help others, not for self promotion.

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  155. Rebecca, I am sorry you feel that the comment before was elitist. That is not what I read. What I read was, “When there is the struggle for basics – bills, schools etc. it is difficult to prioritize saving the world.”
    I for one have realized that we in California live in a bubble, and I as your people – American – have not been good neighbors. For that I am sorry.
    I also believe that the results of democratic process should be respected. I am also, very scared for me and my child – there is a lot of hate built up against people of color, I am Indian, I am brown. I left India in the hope of not being marginalized because I am female. I am American now, and it scares me that I will be marginalized for being female, for being brown, for being an immigrant, for being in America.

    I feel that a conversation is needed, between us to truly build the country we both want. It is not about Trump or Hillary it about people like us, the people who want to feel safe, put food on the table, feel like a part of the country we have all made our home.

    I hope we can talk, and find ways to support each other. I imagine we will find a lot of common ground.

    Liked by 1 person

  157. Charlotte, I see what you’re saying about winning and whining… on the other hand, can you possibly stretch-out to agree that the extreme perspectives of these two sides are not the popular beliefs of the majority of the people that have voted for these two parties…i.e. that people felt obligated to vote for Hillary, even though they didn’t necessarily agree with her and that Trump has not made an effort to reach out to the real situations of persons who experience regular discrimination? Both of those things are true and we THE PEOPLE are called upon to promote the understanding of each other in opposition to the aggregation of each side, regardless of our view of the other party. In most cases it’s exaggerated, false and built up to defeat the other, not to encourage unity, but to divide us in search of their own victories..

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  158. what a bunch of DRIVEL—-Trump is a BRILLIANT man who is a BILLINARE from HARD WORK!!! If you are all dumb enough to believe the bashing lies that Killary dragged up on order to cover up HER 20 SCAMS—then please JUST BE QUIET!!!! We the people have spoken—after ALL the votes were counted, he won the peoples vote as well…WE THE PEOPLE are sick of mooches and people coming into this country (who HATE US) and living off our HARD EARNED tax dollars) WE THE PEOPLE had to suffer through EIGHT years of NO CHANGE (for the good) and saw MORE MASS murders in that 8 years that in the past FIFTY ROLLED TOGETHER—–wake up and STOP WHINING!!!!!!!!!

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  161. President Obama deported more illegals than any other president. He has been trying to be a good president and has had nothing but congressional interference. People are disgusted with Washington business as usual. And the same people who did not cooperate with our current president now have all of the control. Do you not find that just a little bit dangerous. By the way, the man you just helped vote into office has clothing businesses in all the countries he said are “killing us economically”. Any chance you would tell him he needs to set an example to all the American people. Bring those jobs back and hire Americans. He can afford it-he is very wealthy and loopholes allow him to pay no federal taxes.

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  163. First, let me offer my heartfelt thanks for your service to our great country.
    I’m a gay woman blessed with 23 years alongside the finest woman in history, and I’m afraid I don’t agree with your assessment of the nation, nor your opinions of ‘different’ people.
    Americans are generally good people and are accepting of others. I’ve felt discrimination exactly once, some drunk bum on the ‘L’ train in Chicago circa 1987 said he never fought in Korea to defend freaks like me. I didn’t recoil in shame, I didn’t file a lawsuit, I just went about my day and shrugged it off to him being an ignorant drunk bum.
    Fast forward to today, if something doesn’t go my way I do not assume it’s homophobia or sexism. If I don’t get a job I don’t assume the worst about the HR person. If I go to a restaurant and the service is terrible, I don’t assume the server is a bigot. If someone is an a-hole, I don’t assume they are that way to me because I’m gay. I just think they’re an a-hole. I don’t need protection, I don’t need therapy. I, and hopefully my fellow gay brothers & sisters, do not need to be coddled, we have fought hard since the 1960’s to defy stereotypes, despite the left’s efforts to drag us back in.

    Liked by 3 people

  164. The author makes it sound like racial harmony was great under Obama and Trump got elected and ruined everything. That is completely false. In fact, racial relations got worse under Obama under every poll. Even African Americans said it got worse. Part of the problem was Obama wading into racial issues like the black Ivy League Professor and Trayvon Martin. He would assume the white person was guilty without knowing any of the facts of the case. Then Obama said things like “Trayvon Martin could have been my son” meant to incite people and drive them into rage. And he put people in office like Eric Holder, who many felt would only prosecute a case if it was a white defendant and a black accuser.

    The other thing the author ignores is just how unethical of a candidate Hillary Clinton was. If her emails went to 5 foreign intelligence agencies, she put us all in danger over her personal ambition. The pay to play with The Clinton Foundation is sickening. She has her own history of questionable remarks against African Americans and made an ethnic slur against a Jewish campaign worker. She called 25% of the country deplorables. My point is, these were 2 seriously flawed candidates so it’s not like the alternative to Trump was any better.

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  165. I can’t speak for the author. My protestations are simply for all of you trumpers to hear. We are half the country, please feel our footsteps. We are coming in the future. Trump voters fired the first shot. We’ll fire the next one.

    Liked by 3 people

  166. Here’s an attempt to answer without excusing the horrible gun violence that has occurred here in the USA. 98% of gun violence in America happens in inner cities riddled with gang and drug related activities. There are so so so many innocent victims in this environment, which is inexcusable!!! And should be addressed with vigor, but the 2% of that violence that occurs in those red states we see so clearly on the election map, don’t see the logic in taking away their long standing traditions of hunting and their 2nd amendment right to defend themselves in a stance where tradition and defense are integral parts of life, liberty and freedom.

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  168. Sandra thank you for re explaining the history of the Republicon busts over the decades and how the Democrats always win to rescue us out of the Ditch . But the energy expended getting the car out of the Ditch is draining and little is left for addressing all the other needed social and cultural things and as well as improvements to our economy so the failure will not happen again.

    The fickled american voter who is not engaged at the needed levels suffers from Amnesia. So they dont appreciate the good things the DEMs did for them so they flip and vote another CON man into office who goes about re breaking all the China in the Kitchen! This seems to be our cycle in the states!

    Perhaps the Democratic Party will reject Neo Liberalism and DLc republicon lite and reclaim their original Soul and rebuild a better more balanced for all workers party that includes a place for everyone. The uncontrolled capitalist market economy is running out of gas for all of us we need structural change.

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  170. Oh, my, I wasn’t aware of the significance of the date chosen my the KKK. Thank you for that information. I agree, too, that not everyone will grasp the author’s argument. It’s not that readers’ aren’t intelligent. However, an important rule of composition is to not put too many ideas/details/stances in one sentence because many readers choose not to read all of it.

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  172. Wow, wow, wow. I am very much a progressive, but I know there are good people out there with conservative values. Your words are beautiful and I hope they receive the attention they merit.

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  173. [quote]On Tuesday, we took one giant leap backward on the arc of our journey to one people.[/quote]

    No. What we had was a correction. Under Bush we’d swung WAY far to the right. Under Obama we swung WAY far to the left. This is the correction. It’s normal. It’s like a pendulum. With each swing it comes a bit closer to a central position. Unfortunately those one either end aren’t happy with the center, but in order to live and work together that center position will be the only way we can survive.

    [quote]He was elected because the only message that matters for the American government in 2016 is a need for change.[/quote]

    See: Obama, Barack “Hope and Change” 2008

    [quote] I won’t tell you that you are a racist or a bigot if you voted for Donald Trump. I won’t even tell you that you personally are indecent.[/quote]

    Thank you. And I won’t try to explain to you that this, ultimately, was a response to the racism and bigotry and indecency from your side of the argument. Carry on.

    [quote]Because what you showed us with his nomination and your vote in the election, is that you can’t be trusted to do it without us.[/quote]

    And that goes both ways. You’ve shown us over recent history that you are willing to scream down or physically attack anyone or anything you don’t agree with. True freedom of speech means nothing to you. No one wants to do it without you but you need to give ALL sides a voice.

    [quote]So when there’s a KKK rally in North Carolina to celebrate the election of the candidate you support, you no longer have any excuse not to condemn it with the same uncompromising vigor that you condemned Hillary.[/quote]

    It’s in Pelham, NC. The county population is roughly 23000 people. How many do you honestly think will show up? 250, maybe? Roughly 1%? Of one county? How exactly does the KKK endorsing someone make any difference in 2016? The total membership of the Klan in the US is less than 10000. Some sources say about 5000. More people believe that the Lizard People run the world. The Klan is irrelevant. And, just as a side note, I’d venture to guess that Black Lives Matter has caused more personal and physical damage in this country in the last 2 years than the Klan has in the past 50. And, the founders and most famous members of the Klan were Democrats. Just saying.

    And please note, this is NOT the same as Trump endorsing the KKK. I’ve seen no statements from Trump endorsing the Klan. His so-called “racist” statements are nothing of the sort if you actually go and research them and critically think about what he’s saying instead of listening to and taking the media at face value.

    [quote]At stake for them, is participation in our society. And if their vocal insistence on it is something you aren’t willing to tolerate, then perhaps you might consider a different path in thirty months when you get to choose your next leader without the looming evil of Hillary excusing your choice. [/quote]

    The backlash against any attempt to roll back civil rights in the is country would be so immediate, and so dangerous that it would be suicidal for anyone to try. Anything in that line STILL has to run through Congress, and they are desperate to hold on to their jobs. So that’s a worry that’s ridiculous on it’s face, for purely pragmatic reasons.

    In a supposedly free and democratic society you simply CANNOT scream epithets and invective at the other side, completely marginalizing and demonizing a large swath of the population in the process and NOT expect pushback. WE HAVE ALL GOT TO WORK TOGETHER! Screaming “HE’S NOT MY PRESIDENT” and destroying property is not the way to go about it.

    Hillary Clinton was, without a doubt, the worst candidate the Democrats could have chosen. Trump was the worst candidate the Republicans could have chosen. ANY Republican could have won this election. Trump proves that. This was a vote against Hillary and against the loud, aggressive and elitist dogma being spewed by the far left in this country. By all means, be loud. Stand up for your beliefs. That’s the entire purpose of the first amendment. But please, PLEASE remember that not everyone shares your beliefs. Now, is the left willing to listen, compromise and find a middle ground that everyone can live with or will you continue to stand in the middle of the playground with your fingers in your ears, shouting epithets? Time will tell.

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  175. Because our guns are what freed us from tyranical British rule. Wouldn’t you LOVE for us to get rid of our guns!

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  176. http://www.maddogslair.com/blog/i-did-not-find-much-in-his-post-to-redeem-it

    “The result is that there have been frighteningly few societies in the history of mankind which have not been separated by either race, class or gender.” This is simply historically wrong. Rome is a fine example of the opposite. And it is not alone.

    “Fifty years ago in America, we made the first real effort, at scale, in the history of man, to change it in a society as diverse as ours.” This is just historical illiteracy. The Roman, the British, the American systems prior to 50 years ago all made real efforts, at scale, in the manner he says they did not. He seems to have read Zinn’s history of America, perhaps he should have read:

    The Roman Empire, Economy, Society, and Culture, by Peter Gurney & Richard Saller, among other books.

    The American experience was tainted by slavery, but this was only because the various states needed to be united or fail, the Southern states relied upon a slavery driven economic system, and the North had the choice of either allowing slavery, or remaining enslaved to the British. This issue was not resolved 50 years ago, but during the 1860s. Nor was suffrage addressed 50 years ago, but during the second decade of the 20th century for the nation as a whole, and much earlier in many of the states. What happened 50 years ago was at best a nominal change, with much of the change being little more than a rolling disaster for blacks/coloreds, and women. Welfare has destroyed the low income black/colored/white family, and women entering the workforce, far from panacea, has left women unhappy, harried, and frustrated.

    “On Tuesday, we took one giant leap backward on the arc of our journey to one people. And over the last four days, I’ve been bombarded by explanations of why Donald J. Trump was just elected president. I don’t need any more. I didn’t need them in the first place. I know why he was elected. He was elected because the only message that matters for the American government in 2016 is a need for change. And when the alternative to that change was someone who moved into the White House when I was fifteen, (I’m 40 now) that choice was clear for some. But it was a choice. And the ultimate choice that was made, the one people will remember a hundred years from now, was a willingness to ignore personal decency and fair treatment towards people who are different in service to that change.”

    It is interesting that he already knows the trajectory, and outcome of the Trump Presidency although Trump has yet to take office, name Cabinet members, or begin pursuing a policy agenda. For all of his protestations of independence, and lack of political/ideological adherence to Hillary/progressivism, what else could account for this? Humorously, Trump has already indicated he will appoint a gay man to the highest post an “out” gay man has ever been appointed. I expect he will follow suit with other appointments which will erode this authors points, but none of that will likely alter his opinion.

    ” . . . [W]hat you showed us with his nomination and your vote in the election, is that you can’t be trusted to do it without us.” In the end, the authoritarian always shows his true colors. None but those opinions he approves can be trusted. The other is never sufficiently adult. This is a petty tantrum, being thrown in a petty manner, by a petty man, about a petty issue. Fine. But there is no adult here. He is a child wearing his parents clothing, cute, precocious, but a child nonetheless.

    “Many of my devout conservative friends were remarkably quiet when their candidate trashed their personal values. And they were remarkably quiet when their candidate made inexcusable first hand remarks about minorities, women and disabled Americans. And they were remarkably quiet when the dark forces of white supremacists aligned themselves in support of their candidate.”

    Anecdotal evidence is always perfect because it is indisputable, I cannot argue these points as I do not know his “friends,” no matter how apocryphal. The last sentence is simply infantilized reasoning. Whether a KKK member claims agreement with Trump, or a violent, homicidal communist claims agreement with Clinton neither deserves to be tarred with the odious beliefs of that individual. The left has long played a game of claiming the ability to tar the right with all manner of such slime, yet as we see with this election it is always the left, and the left supporters who are violent, attacking Trump supporters myriad times during the campaign, and now acting violently during the post election. The left’s bogeymen ginned up for the right never seem to materialize. Even more odious, is the fact that these bogeymen are nearly always conjured from the historical past, a past where the KKK was actually the militant wing of the Democrat party in the South, where the murderous actuality was done in the name of the Democrats not Republicans. I suspect this author knows nothing of these truths, nor would he care.

    The authoritarian urge is strong in this author, it is reflected in American progressivism, which is simply the American run at socialism, but because Americans are uncomfortable with authoritarianism, it is less so than British socialism, European socialism, or the true horror show of East European/Asian socialism, with its 100 million corpses. He may want to tell the rest of the nation how to behave but this election was essentially the rest of the nation telling people like him to F@#$ off.

    ” So when there’s a KKK rally in North Carolina to celebrate the election of the candidate you support, you no longer have any excuse not to condemn it with the same uncompromising vigor that you condemned Hillary. Let’s see the memes. Let’s see the Facebook posts. Let’s see the outrage.”

    I have never met a conservative, and I am not and never have been one, who does not denounce the KKK, antisemitism, racism, etc. Sorry, this is a strawman argument. Perhaps they do exist, but they must be rare if one never encounters them.

    On the other hand, where have Hillary, or Obama, or Biden, or the DNC been while the anti-Trump protestors destroy millions of dollars in property, disrupt businesses, injure, and maim? These are people acting in the name of these people, in the name of the Democrat party, in the name of liberalism, and progressivism. Perhaps Hillary, and Obama should speak out regarding these actions? Just saying.

    “Perhaps the rest of America can trust you to hold the leader of our government to the change you so uncompromisingly sought. But we won’t trust you to look out for our fellow Americans who are different. So get ready for four years of vocal, loud, peaceful I pray, dissent. If you thought the core Trump supporters would be loud if Hillary Clinton won, what do you think is going to happen now that you’ve marginalized a group that has much more to lose than freedom from background checks for guns and a ten percent lag in wage growth?”

    Again, for a man without ideology he is quite ginned up about exactly nothing. Trump has not acted, this is one man loudly counting his chickens before they are even layed eggs, let alone hatched. And exactly what has this group he so loudly brays about to lose? Saying they have something to lose is not the same as providing some evidence of actual loss, or even actual potential loss. The left, and this author is of the left, has a long and storied history of crying wolf. We have seen throughout this election cycle person after person coming forward to make claims of loss, only to find that the crimes, and loss they claim never happened. These are the antics of the left, they no longer hold much sway, the rest of us are disinclined to believe these pettifoggers, liars, and cheats.

    He ends with perhaps the most appalling strawman ever. “If insistence on decent treatment of all Americans makes me a liberal in the eyes of conservatives, then maybe we should take some time to reflect on who our modern conservatives actually are. The world is watching.” Oh Jesus, wrap yourself in the flag, bang a drum, shoot a rocket out your ass, you beclown yourself you little prat. You do not insist on decent treatment for “all Americans.” To the contrary you and your ilk insist on special treatment for you, and your fellow travelers.

    Not being a conservative, but a classical liberal, I don’t feel any need to reflect on what modern conservatives actually are. I do feel compelled to hold conservatives, and progressives/liberals like this authors feet to the fire.

    My thoughts on Trump have been mixed, but less so since the election. The actions of the progressives after the election show they are incapable of behaving responsibly, and are unwilling to rein in their more violent elements, of which they have myriad. They deserve less say in the political sphere until they can come to grips with this. I do strongly believe that the American two party system needs two strong parties to suss out policies, before they are written into law, nothing reinforces this more than the disaster that is Obamacare, the 8 years of disastrous Obama domestic economic policies, and even more catastrophic Obama foreign policies. Millions have died not because Obama is the prat he is, but because the two party system was stymied, and the Republicans were incapable of countering Democrat party excesses. It was not until 2012 that the voters were able to rectify the congressional imbalance, and reassert two party give and take regarding policies. The result was Obama simply moved to an Emperor model of the Presidency, and using the executive order to thwart the two party system. Unsurprisingly, the voters balked, and sought change.

    The two party system restored, middle America will expect Trump to run the nation from a Republican position, but with the advice and consent of the Democrat party. If he fails, he will have to pay for that, but if the Democrats fail, it will be they who pay.

    I stand ready to point out Trumps failings, but only after he has acted. I did the same with President Obama, waiting until he acted like a lunatic progressive before holding him to task for those beliefs. Prejudging the actions of an individual is, well, prejudice, and a very negative form to boot. But authoritarians will always out, as this one has.

    Clearly, the left, the progressives, the Democrats need their 40 years in the wilderness to sort out these issues, and have their come to Jesus. Make it snappy, please, we need a two party system in functional working order, and it does not appear that the other parties are capable of taking over the reins at this time.

    Mark Sherman

    Liked by 1 person

  177. This is what the author wrote three days earlier, before he decided that Trump and the people who voted for him won’t treat people decently… There’s one other thing worth noting though. For the first time in my life, Donald J. Trump and I are on the same team. And I don’t know what to do with that other than hope like hell that he’s the best God damn president of my lifetime. Because there were dark and frightening powers that helped this come together for our new president elect. But there were also good and decent people who believed that this was their best option to drive change in our political process. And the only way that we get through this in one piece is for those good and decent people to help hold our new leader accountable for delivering on what they saw in his message-a change for the better from the political status quo.

    Democracy…warts and all.

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  180. I disagree with your assessment of the situation Suggest we adopt a ‘Wait and See’ stance for a period of time, then reassess.

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  181. I’m so sorry my comments came off that way. If it helps to clear the air I’m a licensed gun owner and I proudly voted for Trump. I guess I thought that tone would appeal to the people I was trying to reach out to. It was not meant to be condescending. I apologize. I do feel like a traitor in my own state, living in CA and I’m desperate to get people to understand the other side. That’s all.

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  182. I’m so sorry my comments came off that way. If it helps to clear the air I’m a licensed gun owner and I proudly voted for Trump. I guess I thought that tone would appeal to the people I was trying to reach out to. It was not meant to be condescending. I apologize. I do feel like a traitor in my own state, living in CA and I’m desperate to get people to understand the other side. That’s all.

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  183. No, your right. And I’m not saying that we should abandon any of our important causes in defense of African American, minority and LGBTQ populations. I’m just saying in a really long winded way I guess. That understanding breeds compassion and blame breeds anger and violence. On both sides. Maybe some of us deserve it more than others, but focusing on that is not going to help anyone…

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  184. Yes, you are right. You’ve described mankind. But not woman kind and not humankind. Mankind. And until men come to recognize they are half of a whole (and thankfully many men do) and half of the problem, we will not evolve into humankind.

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  185. My issue with this article is that he gives too much credence to the thought that people wanted change, and not enough credence to what kind of change.

    Change for the sake of change would mean that the House/Senate incumbents would have changed. That didn’t happen. Change at the presidential level on ideology could have happened with 15 other Republican candidates. Change from a Washington insider could have happened with Ben Carson. He’s a world renowned neurosurgeon. People didn’t want any of that change. They wanted the Donald Trump change. What did Donald Trump promise/promote that the other guys didn’t?

    The dismissal of what Trump proposed, and rationalization that people voted change for changes’ sake loses water by the deafening silence on Reince Prebus’ appointment and the saturation of lobbyists on the Trump team. If you wanted change, you should be upset when nothing changes. That only leaves the denigration and demonization of minorities as Trump’s selling point. If people say that’s not why they bought him, then I should see an outcry over Steve Bannon from Trump supporters. I don’t. “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”

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  189. Donald Trump was never the issue. The issue was an American populace that is looking for a change of some sort. The alt-right did not like any of the establishment GOP candidates. No, most of the voters who voted for Trump are not in love with him but they disliked Trump less than they disliked the rest of the GOP candidates. What Republican voters did like was that, like them, Trump had little use for the establishment GOP.

    We saw the same thing in the Democratic race – Bernie Sanders, the outsider, was a surprisingly strong candidate against Clinton. But the Democratic Party insiders had gamed the system and Clinton lost the primary popular vote but won the primary. Sound familiar?

    The point is that there is nothing wrong with our constitution and the amendments. What’s wrong is that there is a political class, a system, a machine that includes the media, that has gamed the process and defies the will of the people. There is a political establishment, both Republican and Democratic, and voters are now heart-sick about the situation.

    The best possible outcome of this situation is that Trump’s Presidency destroys the Republican Party as we know it and Republican voters clean house. Term limits would help in this situation.

    Likewise, the Democrats need to consider the situation with ‘super delegates’ in the primaries and ask what purpose do they serve? And term limits will help ‘drain the swamp’.

    In the meantime, we would do well to try to understand the underlying aspirations of voters in order to govern better. The alt-right have seen job security, wages and benefits, and their financial futures wither in the last 20 years, going back to the Clinton Presidency and worsening with the Bush Presidency. The liberals and progressives have fought hard for American freedoms and liberties for women, gays, immigrants, and minorities. All those hard-fought American freedoms and liberties are now at risk.

    Thanks for your observations.

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  190. And since I think you missed the point he was making with the “woe is me victim of the liberal elite” act, what he was talking about was that those who lived in areas where policies of globalization have fostered more prosperity (California, New York, other urban areas), need to make a better effort to understand how the same policies of globalization have had negative impacts on other areas of the nation rather than focusing political energy on trying to convince other parts of the nation that same sex bathrooms and syrian refugees are the big problems we need to be solving.

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  192. Okay, he has basically begun the job——his transition team and others. In five minutes we know what kind of person he is (as if we didn’t already know). Aren’t you judged by what you have said over and over ad infinitum??? Oh, well, he really didn’t mean it. Evidently he did because he has now appointed Steve Bannon.

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  193. With all due respect…you are right and wrong. Of course these people should be looked at with dignity and respect and understanding of their plight. However, their plight is no more difficult, and bluntly, as a group, less difficult than other groups like blacks and Hispanics. Black people have had these same types of problems FOR YEARS and were literally told it was our fault. There was no empathy as a nation for the very same issues.

    So no, please do not ask me to feel any more sympathy for white working class people who bluntly told me and mine to pull yourself up and stop asking for handouts, behave better and you won’t be shot. They need to buck up and start taking it just like the rest of us. When there is some humility from the nation concerning all people of color, then perhaps there can be some better understanding and empathy for white working class people as well. When we are all in it together, then perhaps we can all be I but together.

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  194. I hope Mr. Hughes is correct that… “You bought a very vigilant, sensitive and loud American majority who will cry foul at the drop of a hat for anything that resembles attacks on those we have fought so hard for these last fifty years.”

    History shows that a populace which is not in a democratic mood can suppress opposition through intimidation, misinformation and other means. Bannon and Roger Stone are two of the best in the business at that. Time will tell whether free speech can prevail.

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  196. He’s not criticizing him. He’s criticizing people like you. Your comment proves his point well. Are you scared if you admit intolerant people such as yourself exist, they won’t let Trump serve as president? They will, and things would get better for everyone, unless you’re a bigot. Fix yourself.

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  198. If you elimibate all the dead people and illegal aliens that voted Trump won both votes. The only reason it’s not being investigated further is because the will of the people won.

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  199. I agree with Mae on this one….reading Rod P. post it is hard to know if he is talking about one side or the other….but in reality it is both who have done this. I believe the author wrote a great article and was spot on. I agree that i have heard little to nothing from my friends and relatives about how they “were remarkably quiet when their candidate trashed their personal values.” The thing that is missing from the Republican/right side of things is empathy and understanding. The definition of empathy is: the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.

    The Republican congress is a perfect example of what Rod says (“A party that has held important legislation in stasis until the results of that non action has angered America”). There is neither Dem nor Republican who can say that the current congress has been inefficient (at best) and very partisan. Congress would have been fired at a normal day job from any company for their lack of efficiency and collaboration! They only want to pass laws that make their constituents happy and sew the seeds of how they view the world. They have very little empathy and in no way understand or share the feelings of the common people (who have many differing and wide base of feelings on subjects like immigration, abortion, right to die, etc.)

    Rod also shows his ignorance and lack of empathy by saying (Social issues that have little or no affect on our economy so that they can starve our economic distributions and simultaneously starve economic freedom for the majority of Americans). If Rod understood that this is HIS issue and not everyone else. How does a person say that a “social issue” has “Little or no affect” on our economy? Someones feelings, emotion, well being are all affected by that persons so called “social issue”. The top social issues of our time are typically: Abortion, Gay marriage, LGPT rights, Religious freedom, Government mandates, Gender identity, Euthanasia, Womens rights. In Rod’s response i guess only a limited number of people must deal with these social issues…..therefore they are not worthy of connection to the economy and economic distributions or well being. Huh? How does that work? Rod shows a classic sign of non empathy…he has little idea how to relate to anything but his own issues or world. This is the typical response most Dems/Liberals cant seem to figure out from their Rep/right counterparts.

    We are all one big world. My issues or focus may not be my neighbors…but at least I can empathize and sympathies with them…..create dialogue to let me understand and help them (without weighing in with my own thoughts, emotions, religious beliefs and preferences, or marginalizing their “social issue”). That is what is called listening….real listening and understanding along with empathy for our fellow humans, regardless of OUR religion, preference, or bias.

    Liked by 5 people

  201. QUESTION: I would love to use your last statement in a quote (I do graphic design) and can send you a pic of what I have in mind for your review before I would use it to post on Facebook. Please let me know . . . that statement reflects my heart so well!

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  202. Written in a typical elitist vocabulary. We who are richer, more culturally “correct ,” more intelligent, must have compassion on those poor souls who do not live in the Northeast or on the West Coast. Being somewhat deprived because of their unfortunate location, they cannot be expected to understand complex issues. WE must educate the poor, miserable, misguided folk who “cling to their guns and their religion.”. That is exactly the attitude that caused Hillary to lose in the entire center of the country. The author of this article mentions the failings of only one candidate and his voters. He forgets that Democrats worshipped at the feet of a former KKK grand wizard, Robert Byrd, and that Hillary marginalized millions of Americans by calling them deplorable and unredeemable. Her “inclusion” of some ethnic groups mainly happens at election time when she shows up to campaign in worship services.

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  203. Very well written. So many thoughts about “why?” have occurred to me, and refusal to stop and consider points of view of those other than one’s self, or intolerance for those different than one’s self, could well be one of the big answers.

    In this country, we have the vast privilege of being insulated from war, strife, pandemic disease and the type of grinding, endemic poverty so prevalent in so much of the world. I believe has allowed us to focus on social progress.

    Our insulation turns out to be a very sharp double-edged sword; lacking understanding of how good we have it, it’s only too easy to make irresponsible choices based on differences, which when examined closely, should truly be trivial.

    Liked by 1 person

  204. Brilliantly written but perhaps too intelligent and well-reasoned for many to grasp. The attention span for good arguments these days seems to be limited to sound bites. I luve in NC so when KKK announced on Nov. 10th that they would be marching to celebrate I took note that it was the the anniversary of the 1898 Wilmington massacre. Only Cout d’etat in American History. Fueled by white supremecy. We need to watch closely.
    Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I’m with you.

    Liked by 3 people

  205. Does it matter at this point if Trump is sexist and racist? He has appointed a man (Bannon) who has clearly printed his intent to do everything possible to take away the rights of blacks, hispanics, Muslims, and jews. And does that matter? If we find such declared racist or sexist intentions or expressions unacceptable, we should stand up and be counted that such behavior isn’t acceptable–if you really believe the Founding Fathers of this representative Republic. I happen to think the longer term outcomes of this election in both the fractured foundations of the country and the efforts to regress our international engagement will create a financial crises that will come to our shores in unattractive ways. When all of these seeds of hate that have been planted in this election grow, no one will like the outcomes.

    Liked by 4 people

  208. Thoughtful, but I had a hard time following where you were going. I see blame on both sides, refusal to compromise. However, I fail to see how any sensible human being can defend Trump. I get how he was elected, but really he and his party are indefensible….

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  209. Both the article and the comments make a fascinating read. I’m English and I don’t think I’ve encountered a single English person who feels ‘positive’ about what Trump will represent and instigate (aside from Nigel Farage who has some very unpleasant views). I also urge those of you who are ‘proud of your guns’ to really ask yourself, why? Proud – what a strange word.

    Liked by 3 people

  210. Thank you, Carol! I worked 4 part-time jobs and washed my hair with dish soap to put myself through college. I worked the beet fields starting at 4 am in the summer. I worked full-time helping young people and giving them skills for tomorrow. I haven’t got a lazy bone in my body. My classmates, cousin and brother-in-law were in Nam. I respect them and mourn the losses. I’ve never treated anyone the way these commenters have. My opinion, my vote MATTERS as much as anyone else’s, including those who berate and criticize my choice. People need to encourage the the Millennials to be part of the process, not alienate them with criticism and insults. The “Divide and Conquer” approach is destructive.

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  211. America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves. -Abraham Lincoln

    Liked by 5 people

  212. First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
    Because I was not a Socialist.

    Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
    Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

    Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
    Because I was not a Jew.

    Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

    Liked by 4 people

  213. Which will only make America worse. Why would you hope to make America’s situation worse? I don’t get that.

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  214. the reason he is #NotMyPresident.. Steve Bannon. end of story. that alone is reason enough not to support him..

    and if you support steve bannon.. you support the alt right and the nazi and kkk movement going on in the US. sorry, truth hurts.

    Liked by 6 people

  215. these statements are not nearly as false as the constant stream that has flowed from the mouth of now your president elect. iver the years i have not always agreed with the choices of presidents elected. but they all had one thing in common. they were all men of at least some moral charactor. this man is of no moral charactor and a very poor excuse for a human being at the very least. so yes i will have to accept that one quarter of this nation is so blind by fear and the complete lack of ability to think for them selves and blindly follow the bullshit fed to them. that we now have the most repulsive human being in the most powerful job in the world. thank you I hope you are satisfied with your choice in a year from now.

    Liked by 6 people

  216. Why shouldn’t we have to produce proof that we are part of the voting population? Early voting should be allowed with valid reason and then double checked to assure that that vote isn’t again placed on Election Day. As for early closing in this time of technology it still went into 1 in the morning to get results. How late should polls be open? 8pm seems fair 13 hours of voting time should allow all shifts that truly want to vote the opportunity. if you don’t believe that voter fraud has been perpetrated by both sides you are naive, but historically the Democratic Party has found new an unique ways to get votes from dead people voting this year in Philadelphia to early voting and then going to the poles also.

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  217. How about because almost his first act as President-elect was to name a prominent supporter of white supremacy as his closest White House advisor? Go read about Steve Bannon if you think I exaggerate.

    Liked by 5 people

  220. True, Nora, except it was the right that closed polling places, shortened early voting, added voter ID restrictions, made sure there were bigly long lines, and did most of this in areas that traditionally vote blue.

    Liked by 2 people

  221. Profoundly disagree on many key points. Not all were quiet. Many objected. It was not out of fear that I supported Trump. It was that after 8 years I had no desire for a 3rd term – or a corrupt politician in charge. It’s pretty rude to tag good people with what you’re tagging us with. What about the rhetoric and scaremongering from the HRC campaign? It distilled to slamming Trump and being rude to those who didn’t get the PC memo. Or POTUS telling us the world would end if HRC didn’t win. Really? Right now, the world is watching these demos – this is loyal opposition? Try again. It’s infantile. I’d respect you more if de minimus you waited until the guy actually is in power. I’m horrified as I’m watching the Balkanization of a country I love and served. Overseas. My son’s Hispanic by the way – and he had NO problem with this rhetoric. Mostly because he’s wise enough to discern the message and not personalize. Unlike many – including his mother.

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  222. I may not agree with everything said in this thread but I agree that only half of our voting population voted and that those who did wanted change.
    Here is what I got out of Tuesday’s message.
    Some people talk about love and tolerance but don’t live it. The media drives a majority of our population and most of tha majority will believe whatever it’s told.
    President Obama has done some good things but has done more to divide our country racially than Trump could ever do. I believe we need affordable healthcare I believe that how you live your life is your business and none of mine. I believe that attempts to legislate morality rarely work.
    I also believe that women should be treated equally and that for the most part they have been an intricate part of our country’s history and will be even more so in its future.
    All that said I saw nothing of value in Hillary and not much more in Trump.
    The best thing that could have happened would have been that the Libaterian party got 5% of the vote and would have been recognized as a valid party complete with funding. It would have been a third option. I do not believe Gary Johnson was the answer but that doesn’t mean that his ideas were that far off base. To many times we are forced to choose right or left when a majority fall in the middle.
    I am willing to give Trump a chance and I don’t believe we to a step backward he is full of bluster but he will not build a wall he will not repeal Obamacare totally and he will not force women into the kitchen barefoot and pregnant.
    He has traditionally given women jobs of importance in his company because as a businessman he knows you put the person you can get in charge regardless of their age, sex, color or sexual preference.
    I did not vote for him but he is my President and as such we must support him and make him and congress aware that times are changing.
    Trump wants term limits which is great instead of whining because he won call your local representative and tell him you want it to.
    If that is the only thing that he gets done in four years it’s a win for the American people.

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  223. I think about how Trump is being associated with the KKK often. I think it is because something doesn’t add up for me, like many of the labels thrown at Trump. I have been weary of him since he started his bid, something about him I just instinctively don’t fully trust. And it has nothing to do with everything said about him because I believe everything he has said, while not exactly poignant, has been twisted by the media who was openly campaigning for Hillary. People will argue that they were his own words, but, in all fairness, we have seen many times how even videos of someone’s own words can be taken out of context. And we have also seen many times how two people can say the same thing, but can be treated differently for them. That is the power of the media. The thing that gets me about the KKK association is this- the KKK unfortunately exists, that is a fact. They are made up of real people who hide among us. Because they are real, they vote. Logic dictates then that since they vote, this can’t be the first time that they came out and supported a candidate. I would have to think, in fact I know they have done this before publicly. Why then all of a sudden is their support so scrutinized? I understand it took Trump a day to repudiate their support, but he did do it. And since then, his team has done so several times and made it clear they are not interested in it. Yet, the association has stuck. I guess for me the reason I don’t buy it is because there has been an attempt, which I find untrue, to brand Trump supporters as white, uneducated racists, and what better way to support those claims than to link an association with the biggest group of racists.

    Liked by 1 person

  224. It’s pretty clear why Trump won the election, you just have to read through his tax plan and understand his unwavering promise to deregulate Wall Street, ridding them of the constraints of the Dodd- Frank Act, Consumer Protection agency, and the EPA. Trump is the new Reagan, who will pass massive tax cuts for businesses and for the wealthy. He will unleash Wall Street even further, allowing them to play again without any rules. Trump is a much better friend to the Big banks then Hillary Clinton could ever have been, with liberal Democrats wanting to reform the”Too big to fail” Banking system. The big banks could never let that happen, and when the economy crashes again, after Wall Street is done playing with millions of American lives, a Democrat will be elected to clean up their mess…. again. And this time the economy will become Trump’s mess, just like it was G.W. Bush’s mess and before that
    Reagan’s mess.

    Liked by 5 people

  225. Mr Hughes, you have excellent insights & express reality so clearly.

    THANK YOU

    Those who are not accepting of your views do not understand the rights & desires our founders of our constitution & government, world history or how a true democracy (not political ideologies) fails.

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  226. My friend, the author is doing just that, trying to change the world. Action takes many forms, protest, debate, discussion, and volunteering. Each of our attempts at changing the world are as diverse as this nation.

    Simply because ones view point does not align with yours does not mean that they have some nefarious desire to destroy our country. The bottom line is this, we have a right to insure that all people are treated with respect and dignity. We all should be equals under the law; that currently is not the case.

    Liked by 6 people

  228. Wow! Did I imagine DT saying he wanted to punch a protester in the face, and that he would pay the legal bills of the guy who sucker-punched a Trump protester? Did I imagine him calling Mexican undocumented immigrants rapists, murderers and in some cases “good people”?
    Did I imagine him calling Rosie O’Donnel a fat pig? Was it a media lie that he has bought all his clothes sold under the Trump name from other countries, including his “Make America Great” hat?
    Get real – I’ll give him a chance, but to paraphrase Chappelle, will he give us one?

    Liked by 7 people

  230. A point I could not find in these comments was that only about 50% of eligible voters actually voted! Does this mean that half the population does not care who is in power? For those who are demonstrating, every one of them should answer the question “Did you vote?”. I thought that with a campaign this controversial, there would be a much greater voter turnout.

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  231. There is nothing grown up about being bigoted and a demagogue. And it is fully democratic to protest. I hope Trump faces deep resistance throughout his term from the majority he failed to persuade.

    Liked by 5 people

  232. You claim that a minority of 1/4 put us in this place when only a minority of 1/4 of our democratic voters showed up. Maybe it is the 1/2 of the qualified voters that did not show up to the polls are the ones at fault who we now have in office. It is the silent majority that did not vote who in the end will be the most hurt.

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  234. We’re in a real pickle for sure!

    I don’t disagree with anything that was said there, but I also see this..

    We (some of us) are very lucky to live in places like California and New York where the prosperity has fostered the growth of wonderfully culturally and ethnically diverse communities. While our deepest desire and intention is to expand that bubble of love and inclusion to the rest of the country and world, we cannot accomplish this by forcing our message down the throats of people whose experiences have been in 100% diametric opposition of our own. Where a dismal job market has caused poverty and loss on a mass scale and along with it, blame, bitterness and racial tension. We cannot tell those people that their problems are not real and instead try to convince them that the issue of “same sex bathrooms” (even though I support this) or bringing Syrian refugees into the country should be more important to them than the health and well-being of their own children and families. Not that these issues should be abandoned NO!, but they should be addressed with a sense of compassion to the people who rightfully do not understand their value. Not by shouting that they’re hateful for their beliefs, but that we understand that they’re hard pressed to embrace it at the moment and we’ll do our best to hear their perspective. Does a “basket of deplorables” exist out there? YES for sure. It is a scary thought, but firstly, they are not the majority, and secondly, does that statement itself not invigorate that sense of polarization and frustration that we are supposed to be fighting to defeat with that “Clinton” message inclusiveness and tolerance? Does it not represent it’s own sense of hypocrisy? I’m not encouraging the acceptance of racist, misogynistic thinking AT ALL. I’m saying that the message they’ve been told, “your white so you are not allowed to complain about anything” is part of the ACTUAL CAUSE of the proliferation of racism in communities impoverished and divided. Let’s take some responsibility for that.

    If we cannot put ourselves in their shoes for one moment and genuinely try to empathize with the reasons that our priorities are different than we are at a grave loss and will have little hope of extending that bubble even a little, instead we’ll probably shrink it….

    Many of the practical solutions to those problems have been completely abandoned by the federal government. These people feel they have been abandoned and have had no voice. Worse they have had terrible slurs hurled at them for daring to voice their concerns, called mostly uneducated racists and disregarded completely. Let’s take a moment to own some responsibility for the wide spread promotion of THAT hate coming from our own side..

    With respect and genuine understanding of both sides.

    Liked by 3 people

  235. Well written, Let’s see what we get for change. Every demagogue has gained the throne in the same way. We can only hope that he doesn’t practice what he preaches. We’ve elected the equivalent of a teen-age boy who threatens to sue his parents for child abuse when they try to discipline him.

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  236. I honestly cannot believe the sweeping false statements you make. Why are you crucifying him before he even began the job? You and the mass hysteria are the problem. Honestly, does it somehow give you a cause to fight and accuse someone for future events that have not taken place? That’s not critical thinking. That’s not thinking at all. It’s following the masses. If you can really grow up and support our democratic system and possibly hear new ways to approach the same problem then maybe, just maybe this guy has a chance. Stop whining and begin changing the world for the better with your own life.

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  238. How dare you tell me to shut up. I don’t want to be an American. I AM AN AMERICAN. I count my blessings every day. God has given me a good life. I have been a productive member of society my whole life. I have never been on my knees but stand straight and proud. I certainly will never leave this country because of orders from you.

    Liked by 1 person

  240. I cannot agree with you. There is not one reason, except perhaps, a political party that has been commandeered by wealth and power. A party that has held important legislation in stasis until the results of that non action has angered America. They have adopted every orphan minority cause, abortion, unlimited gun rights, extreme immigration laws, even to the point of ignoring the wisdom of the first amendment. Social issues that have little or no affect on our economy so that they can starve our economic distributions and simultaneously starve economic freedom for the majority of Americans.

    No, I can’t agree with you. This is not the choice of the American People… It is the driving force of greed and wont for power by a few who do not deserve it.

    Liked by 1 person

  242. I just want to know. You say you are a Christian, Do you go to church? Do you pay attention when there? My Bible says “thou shalt not kill”. therefore voting for a president that supports abortion is wrong. The other point you made about yourself is you have guns, well sir guess which party wants to take them away.
    The
    last comment I will make is that when that phone call comes in the middle of the night , that some of our troops are in trouble Trump will answer.

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  244. This blog is so sensational. You narrate as though you are a famous historian, world renoun cultural anthropology expert or a recipient of a friggen nobel peace prize. You understand so well the motivations, feelings and struggles of your liberal friends, which you claim not to be affiliated with but little about the opposite. The flavor of your context includes justifying the violent acts against people, property and democracy catalyzed by an extremist view aimed at no particular enemy nor ideals: You know not our ideas because you won’t listen, respect nor acknowledge the concerns of a geopolitical movement making up 95% of this country. If the non-deplorables want peace, prosperity and equal rights: Quit burning crap, go back to work, help us battle against the corrupt government establishment that is drowning their ethics and morales in money and power while the hard working American gets striped of our rights, deceived and sold up the river. This article is dangerous; it elicits fear in the hearts and minds of uneducated(on the topic)individuals who have no will to think for themselves. Be more responsible.

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  246. Bill… THERE WAS NO MONEY to be made with the orange anus scam, except by the scammers them selves. Don’t you know HOW scams work man???

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  247. Apparently YOUR not living in the same merica as the rest of us. More than 12 million are better off than they were in November 2008 when 800k people a mont were losing their jobs. If your not better off now than you were then, then SHAME on you. Pull yourself up by the boot straps and make it work bubba.

    Liked by 1 person

  250. Absolutely, it is! Obama did many good things for us, not the least of which is showing the world what a thoughtful, articulate leader looks like. And I’m not even kidding.

    Liked by 1 person

  251. Sean, any chance we can convince you to run for office? I don’t *always* agree with you, but you always bring new insight and a clear voice to every argument. Even when you don’t persuade me, you always make me challenge my views and gain more respect for your viewpoint.

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  253. Not only is he not sorry, he is trying to fool us. Softening his stance with one hand on 60-minutes ‘don’t worry I won’t stop gay marriage or break up immigrant families,’ while hiring Steve Bannon with the other hand and winking at his KKK supporters. What he is saying to them is don’t worry I am just calming down the angry liberals, so they stop protesting, but really I will do everything I promised.

    Liked by 2 people

  254. So far the swamp is filling up….A banker, an anti-Semitic, VP that thinks we can shock the gay out of them….it really us going to hell quickly.

    Liked by 1 person

  255. Planned Parenthood had a lot to do with that…. religious ideology says abstinence is the way…proven to increase both pregnancies and abortions…

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  257. I just wanted to say thank you for your article. You put into words what I have been feeling since last Tuesday much better than I could, and also without much of the emotion I am still feeling. So thank you. From a Liberal, who voted for Hillary Clinton because I really believed in her and her vision for this country.

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  258. Does anyone here remember how Hillary Clinton treated the women who accused her husband of sexual assault? We all picked which candidate was less destructive. Neither was the ideal president for this nation.

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  262. Good writer and good writing, however, one statement in particular jumped out at me that I don’t agree with : “The result is that there have been frighteningly few societies in the history of mankind which have not been separated by either race, class or gender. Where there is one race, we make caste systems. Where lack of structure provides no castes, we subjugate gender.” – He has set up the premise in this statement that men instinctively seek to subjugate others by nature – completely missing human nature. Mankind does not seek to suppress others, broadly speaking, but to elevate oneself through an excess of self-love that puts us in competition with all others who also love their own interests too much. I know of one society /religion who relies on Caste systems (though there are likely more), it is not the norm worldwide. Yes, we have class separation in America through financial disparity, but not by design – a big difference. Women are not a victims of last resort for man’s abuse, but partners and co-creators of life and families to men in the western world. We do not seek to rule “our women”, but celebrate the uniqueness of womanhood. Are women abused in our society, of course, and it is just as likely to be done by a liberal as a conservative. My conservative values tell me that all of mankind was made from “one blood” ( https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%2017:25-27&version=NKJV ) – and we are ALL therefore brothers and sisters. My conservative values teach me to fight for those who can’t stand on their own, lift up the downtrodden, and to forgive those that use me spitefully or slander without cause. Conservatives did not allow an evil thing to happen to the minorities of America in the name of political convenience – most conservatives I know strongly felt and feel yet that Hillary has a record of abuse of power that has a direct link to the “blighted communities” of America – her personal ethics in office and her willingness to say anything to win while her own and many other liberal policies have essentially re-enslaved minority communities in cycles of poverty and self abuse across our nation, while impoverishing many others. I know these are strong words, but they are not meant to be offensive no matter how they might offend. This differing world view is a crack across America, and I am sad for that. I am sad that so many can look at the same situations and come away with completely differing explanations of how such things come to be.

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  263. If they were (which I have seen no evidence of), they were the exception as xenophobia has been the rule rather than the exception down through time.

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  264. Hate crimes and rudeness existed before Trump started running for president. I’m not saying he doesn’t encourage it, just that it is not clear that every single incident is a result of Trump. That said, I am so angry that people are treating your family that way! I hope articles like this one will motivate people on both sides to actively and loudly reject racism and bigotry.

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  265. Don’t forget the main divisions in America–socio-economic status and political ideology. We think it’s fine to send poor kids to run down schools with inexperienced teachers and the lowest funding. Then we blame those kids for not being successful. More than half of our racial divide is actually based on the average socioeconomic status of various ethnic groups in America. As for political ideology–we think it’s fine to spew hatred against others because of their political party. In academics and the media, if you have the wrong political leanings, you will be marginalized, not hired, not promoted, and squeezed out of your job. This divisiveness breeds more divisiveness because we insulate ourselves and unfriend people we disagree with. This partially explains the election of Donald Trump and the existence of Fox News. When a group is repeatedly silenced or marginalized, they end up becoming more isolated but more angry. This is what creates terrorists or in this case, wanting to blow up the country by electing Trump.

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  266. Nonsense. The Romans fought campaigns of annihilation against african, middle eastern, germanic and celtic cultures and religions while celebrating iberia and whole hog adopting greek. They most definitely segregated people according to race.

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  267. yeah, but anyone could become a Roman. You see this is the ingenious way the romans manage to expand their empire and implement som many peoples into their empire. Once they had invaded another people they would allow them to keep their faith en rites as long as they learnt to speak Latin, sent their men to the army and paid their taxes to Rome. Once a soldier finished his service he was given land (although far away from his country of origin; probably to hinder trained soldiers to form resistances at home) an all rights as a Citizen.

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  270. Are you fucking kidding? Do you not remember the financial crisis that was the end of W’s term? The Dow at 8,000? Wall St derivative trading? Housing bubble? I personally am much better off than 8 years ago, but really that has little to do with Obama, as any President has little to do with the personal success if any citizen. What is it you think Trump is going to do differently to make your life better?

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  271. What? Obama didn’t make race an issue? He won an entire election in 2012 by race-baiting on the Trayvon Martin case. Romney would have destroyed him if the “A vote against Obama is a racist vote” narrative wasn’t spoon-fed to the American people by his campaign and the colluding media.

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  272. Are you fucking kidding? Do you not remember the financial crisis that was the end of W’s term? The Dow at 8,000? Wall St derivative trading? Housing bubble? I personally am much better off than 8 years ago, but really that has little to do with Obama, as any President has little to do with the personal success if any citizen. What is it you think Trump is going to do differently to make your life better?

    Liked by 2 people

  274. I’m so proud right now! I came back to follow up on replies to my comment only to find that my comment is nowhere to be found. It must have really touched a sensitive fiber to deserve such censorship. Or am I not looking in the right place? Oh man! Don’t tell me it’s still there somewhere hidden… A “find in page” didn’t work. Am I doing something wrong, or has the author really just erased with his elbow everything he wrote with his hand?

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  275. The Romans divided by race , gender and class. Their definition of race was more than merely black and white… they regarded anyone non Roman (certainly non Italîan) as a different race. The word slave comes from the conquest and use of Slavic peoples (uncivilised sorts from North of Greece like the Thracian, Dalmatian and Dacians). They had grades of nobility (not unlike the feudal system of knights etc) and commoners and women were regarded differently under the law. Anyone below a certain status (male, landowning and from a ‘good’ family) had no formal part to play in government .Also, one needs to remember that Rome changed over its 500 plus years of influence and regional primacy.

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  276. Great, I hope installing a goddamn lunatic to make yourself feel better turns out to be worth it. I’m sure the big orange daddy will make it all better for you sweetheart.

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  278. Check again, the tinfoil on your antennae is picking up some heavy interference.

    You’ve installed an indecent nutcase to the most important office in the free world. The fact that you can’t see it demonstrates just how deeply you’ve been programmed by the upside-down world of right wing media.

    There is hope… with time and effort, even cultists can be deprogrammed.

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  279. Some shit is objectively indecent whether you like it or not. Hold yourself to a higher standard. You’ll sleep better.

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  280. Such weakly crafted sarcasm. Can’t Moscow train some new sockpuppets with a better grasp of the intricacies of wordplay?

    P.S. Trump is an indecent scumbag. Even the unborn can see that.

    Liked by 1 person

  281. The left should just move on… of course! But when Obama was elected we saw the most vile attempts to delegitimize him for 8 solid years. As usual, there’s one rule for the left and another for the right.

    Well, Mr. 73 year old, we’re not buying what you are selling anymore. The good Americans are the ones out protesting that grotesque windbag president-elect, who incidentally got fewer votes than his opponent.

    We will not allow you to normalize the things he has said and done. We will not allow his indecency to become common in America. We will not move on. We will resist as though we’re fighting for our lives, because we are.

    Just sayin’

    Liked by 1 person

  282. Im not a guy who believes in the fantasy of man made god/gods or being so weak I need a gun for Protection. But you and i do have somethings incommon

    Like

  283. Another fact free screed.

    My God, make an effort. They’ve been selling you that “coming for your guns” nonsense for decades. Gee, maybe someone is making money from that propaganda.

    And Trump didn’t resonate with a “majority of people.” Despite what your bizarro news sites are telling you, Hillary will win the popular vote. Decency did, in fact, vanquish obscenity, even if the electoral college gives power to the obscene.

    Finally, nothing the author said is even remotely “high horse.” He’s concerned that many AMERICANS have been demonized because they are different and they are afraid. The likes of you seem to have no empathy whatsoever.

    Trump represents the worst of America. Your attempts to make normalize him to make yourself feel better are pathetic.

    Liked by 2 people

  284. He’s being ridiculed (rightly) for the words that have come out of his mouth. Sorry if it hurts his, or your, feelings… time to put the big boy pants on.

    And maybe, try to think back to what the right said about Obama before he took office. I know facts don’t matter in your world, but try to hold yourself to a higher standard just for this exercise.

    Liked by 1 person

  285. Yep, there’s that “rigged” claim again. Ya know, the baseless one they trot out only when it suits their Orwellian narrative. On November 7, the election was rigged from top to bottom. On November 9, it was a “fair and open.” Facts don’t matter, only power.

    Liked by 1 person

  286. farside2012

    The simple fact that your Breitbart-addled synapses made a connection between the recent protests and the Kristallnacht tells us all we need to know about you. One is the raw expression of grievance you frequently see in a democracy, and one is the f*cking Kristallnacht. Seriously, your brain is broken.

    Further, any “deplorable action” will be met with the unyielding resistance of people fighting for their lives. We’ll see how that turns out.

    Liked by 1 person

  287. Apart from his racist, sexist, hate-filled rhetoric (which was plentiful), the thing that astonishes me is how oblivious voters are to Trump’s blankness. His responses to critics–via Twitter–were all exactly alike, and said nothing apart from a third-grade level of insult. While being interviewed, he didn’t have an answer to a question, he would merely find some crude way to demean the host. His command of the english language is weak, and his statements of policy amounted to just one thing: “I’m great!” Meanwhile, everything up to this point indicates that Trump is a standard billionaire; he will vote for whichever party he believes will make him the most money. When the ship is sinking, he takes the first lifeboat. Anyone with a lick of critical thinking skills could see the clothes had no emperor, and it’s astounding that he was able to amass a following on little more than hot air.

    Liked by 2 people

  288. Another ignorant tirade that stereotypes conservatives as racists clinging to their guns and religion. The only people paralleling the rise of the Nazis are the raging race-baiting leftists who have inflicting Kristallnacht all across America now for a week so they can install another dictator with a pen and a phone. The Deplorables have spoken and come January 20th the Deplorables will act.

    Like

  289. Eight years ago the economy was in free fall. The auto industry was collapsing. People were losing jobs by the 10s of thousands. The housing market was in total collapse. The fed chairman was literally dry heaving into a trash can in meetings because of the stress of the possibility of a total collapse of the American financial economy. Dude – read some books…it was a complete nightmare. Having said that, I know there are many people out there who have not felt the recovery, or even had a raise in many years, and I empathize with them. But this country as a whole is one holy hell of a lot better off now than it was eight years ago. Jeez.

    Liked by 5 people

  291. It’s a well articulated article, but that’s about all I can say for it. You don’t call yourself a social justice crusader, and then proceed to use the same tired arguments used to smear the President-elect for the entire campaign. You say your Christian values inform your life and you are conservative… where were you during the primaries? Because the tone of the Democrat party was as anti-Christian as it usually is. Were you calling for fairness to Bernie Sanders? Who was your candidate? We had over 20 options and I refuse to believe that the 2 worst made it to the end. How could you, in good conscience, support a woman who would murder children in the womb without blinking an eye? Or leave out brothers in Benghazi without a second thought? Who demonstrated, time and again, the human capacity for corruption. And you supported her over a man who has said some mean things. Hillary’s actions are drowning out your words, as every time you accuse Trump of an -ism, the danger posed to human life from actions taken by your candidate overruled it.

    Trump is not perfect, but I have more hope for him, because my conscience would not let me vote another way.

    Liked by 1 person

  292. You may not be a bigot or a racist, but you must be ok with the fact that he is…plus he violates women! Do you have a wife or a daughter or a girlfriend? Is this ok with them? Trust him? You voted for this man! Did you not understand the premise of the article?

    Like

  295. Trump thinks that because he believes in nothing and says anything, that everyone else is the same way. What we think is horrible is incomprehensible to him, since words have no meaning to him. So yes, he thinks we’ll forget all the things he has said.

    Liked by 3 people

  296. ” My family and my Christian faith are the center of my life. I like my guns. Chances are, I’m better than you at using them. I’ve worked with and for the toughest most dangerous men on the planet-men you’ve read books about, men you’ve seen movies about. I’ll never claim to be one. But I’ve proven myself useful in their presence. I share this with you so you understand where and who the message I’m about to deliver comes from.”

    Let me tell you where my message comes from. I eat people like you for breakfast and still have room for eggs, bacon and hash browns.

    Trump’s message isn’t a message of hate. Securing the border, making sure illegals who break other laws are deported, pausing immigration from areas where terrorists are infiltrating refugee populations is a message of love.

    Separating people who want to live their lives (citizens_ from people who want to kill them and destroy their country; and from people who rape the citizens, murder the citizens, and commit other crimes against the citizens; and from people who illegally enter the country and then suck tax money from the citizens isn’t hate. It’s reasonable. Immigration isn’t supposed to be a death sentence.

    Liked by 1 person

  297. When you say that Trump owes no one anything, are you simply ignoring the fact that he owes China, Russia, and Wall Street millions and millions (close to a billion) of dollars, or did you just decide that debts like that are not important? Of course, we’ll never know for sure, since he’s broken with a decades-old tradition and refused to release his tax returns.

    Liked by 1 person

  298. “I believe that men and women, whenever possible, should be free to live their lives without government intervention.”

    I agree with this, and I admit to some skepticism whenever I hear such a statement, because what it often translates to is “I believe that men and women should be free to live their lives without government intervention unless they’re doing something I disagree with, in which case we need some laws or Constitutional amendments to stop them from doing it.”

    Liked by 2 people

  299. He insulted entire swaths of our population. He actively incited violence against people who disagreed with him. He proposes dismantling the Fourth Estate, or at least restricting their right to criticize him. He has invited white supremacists to advise and lead his government. He apparently intends to implement state-sponsored religious discrimination. I’m not making these things up; they’re all from his own words. If ever there was a president who didn’t deserve our trust, it’s this one. I know it’s unpleasant to be called a racist and a bigot–it’s happened to me, and I can admit I deserved it. What is baffling to me is the level of defensiveness even among those who claim to have held their noses while they voted for Trump. To paraphrase another very articulate writer whose words I read earlier this week, “not everyone who voted for Trump is a racist. But everyone who voted for him heard him say racist things and decided it didn’t matter.” Your vote may not have been driven by racist intent, but it has racist impact, and you are now charged with the responsibility to take action against that particular effect of your vote. If you don’t, then I think the rest of us have the right to question whether you’re really a committed non-racist. Because if you’re not, then his words and proposals that are should be so abhorrent to you that you’d bend over backwards to clarify to Trump and all of your other elected officials that you voted for him because of the economy or whatever other reason you’re claiming, and not because of his racism and discrimination and cozying up to white nationalists. I just don’t understand why defensiveness (“Nuh-uh, I’m not a racist! Nuh-uh!!) is as far as it goes. If I’d felt like I had no other choice for my vote, I know damn sure I’d be doing everything I could think of to contain the damage.

    Liked by 1 person

  301. “Anonymous
    November 14, 2016, at 7:31 pm
    You do realize that the expression “calling a spade a spade” is racist, don’t you?”

    LOL only in your white Liberal guilt view of life.

    The idiom originates in the classical Greek of Plutarch’s Apophthegmata Laconica, and was introduced into the English language in 1542 in Nicolas Udall’s translation of the Apophthegmes, where Erasmus had seemingly replaced Plutarch’s images of “trough” and “fig” with the more familiar “spade.” The idiom has appeared in many literary and popular works, including those of Oscar Wilde, Charles Dickens, W. Somerset Maugham, and Jonathan Swift.

    Nice try, though. A for effort. Well no strike that F for not making any effort to research your misinformed understanding of the phrase.

    Liked by 1 person

  303. Dt
    Tell the truth. Would you have voted for Bernie?
    There is a though bubble developing amoungts disatafied voters who pulled the lever for trump that HRC supporters should share responsibility for President elects victory.
    I understand the argument. It’s pretty twisted but I understand it.
    I beg to differ. This isn’t a honerable escape hatch for those ,who, for what ever reason, cast their vote for T. Man up as they say.

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  304. OK so the election is over and the candidate has been chosen …not your choice ? sorry, maybe next time…now its time for you to put on your big boy pants and do whatever you can do to make this world a better place, Donald Trump will not change how to live religiously or not, responsibly or not, respectfully or not …only you can do that ….you have chosen to brand him by the media coverage…judge not lest…..you know the verse. We gave Obama( with no experience) 8 years and we have been set back financially, security, jobs, years etc. …..I will give Trump a chance …he owes no one anything …the other parties owed the way too much to people whodo not wish our country well …but would prefer to take it over ….your words mean nothing …your actions mean everything …get involved …make this country better ….stop whining

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  305. From what historical reference are you basing this? On the surface it sounds like inventive nonsense developed to suit your current view of world… but I am willing to postpone dismissing your assertion until giving you a chance to deliver your source and/or credentials.

    The.
    The basis of my skepticism is centered on the well know historical fact that a slave trade long predated Roman times and was a central element within its economics and society. The concept of race was likewise fundamental… not essentially in a Darwinian sense but various stark cultural and class decisions. The Pratician classes who regularly attached their own superiority with mythological connections trying to suggest their own divinity and therefore their right to elevate themselves over those semingly beneath them.

    But as I said… I would like to know your source and creditials that compels you to make this assertion. Is there a context that you may be omitting associated with this argument?

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  308. We shall see how the Trump University case is adjudicated.
    Personally, I don’t see it as a battle worth fighting. The president elect will overeach or he won’t.
    We will be ready if he does.

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  310. No, people who voted for him were well aware what he is. What people like you and the media failed to see or do is to put Hillary under the same microscope. In the end you knew what Trump was, but the real danger was Hillary’s cavalier attitude of skirting justice, which would set a dangerous precedent if she was elected. THAT ANY POLITICIAN CANOT BREAK ANY LAWS WITH DISREGARD AND PEOPLE WILL STILL BE WILLING TO ELECT YOU TO THE HIGHEST OFFICE. IT IS NOT ABOUT A STUPID SERVER!!
    USE THAT SAME LENS ON HILLARY THAT YOU DO ON TRUMP.

    1) She is a horrible human being.
    -She is an utter monster to the people who protect her, secret service. Google stories
    – She two people went on record to say she used the “N” word on two occasions referring to African Americans
    -Called mental kids retards
    2) She lies a lifetime
    -Serbian sniper?
    -Kicked of committee and her own boss called her dishonest
    -Pick any of the multitude of lies regarding her server and list goes on
    3)Not a friend to feminism
    -Intimidated rape accusers of her husband
    -Casually laughs when retelling of her criminal case of getting a child rapist a 2 month jail time
    4) Corrupt
    -Clinton foundation as a slush fund and used on $3MM Chelsea wedding
    -Solicited $91MM for charity, but gave only $4.8MM
    -Haiti, funneled business and projects to rebuild to friends
    -FORGOT to disclose that Qatar gave the foundation $1MM while she was running the state department. Had to redo 5 years of foundation taxes.
    -Whitewater scandal

    These are just some. Please put up the hypocrisy and learn the facts.

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  312. Thank you! I continue to read comments that we are not divided by hate that we refuse to listen or accept that we may be wrong. The 300 hate crimes in 5 days as well as the public celebrations of hate groups go ignored. They say we are cry babies and don’t care that this election has completely changed my family’s life. My son has had racial slurs yelled at him at college and worse can happen and I can’t protect him. My husband has served in the army for two decades and we are going to be stationed in Alabama where even though we bought a home I can’t let my 3 year old play outside in fear she will be target practice. Where there has been numerous racial incidents in the school district coming from the children and the staff. My family has made sacrifices for this country’s freedom just to be prisoners in our home so that we can be safe. So thank you for understanding.

    Liked by 1 person

  315. Joan, the very fact that you have the capacity to interpret the English language with a high degree of accuracy is the distinguishing characteristic of an education… something which an annoyingly high percentage of Americans seem to mistrust, envy, or revile. All empires eventually crumble under the weight of their ignorance… or should I say “ignorants”?

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  318. Under the Roman Empire, slavery remained a steady institution and kidnapping through piracy continued to contribute to the Roman slave supply. Augustine lamented the wide scale practice of kidnapping in North Africa in the early 5th century CE

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  320. Not because of color though, Romans imported all types of people from conquered or conquering areas. They didn’t see black or white the Romans only saw weak or strong.

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  321. Yes Tom–I have learned all I could about his life, especially his adult life, as there’s a lot of information available about it. Obviously you, and far too many others, didn’t care to learn about the person your were voting for. That’s sad.

    Liked by 4 people

  324. By “they,” do you mean the Alt Right? The Celtic Sun Rising” movement? And the two are the same group/people? (This is a serious question. It’s something I know nothing about.)

    Like

  326. But they did! He paid off several women who had to agree as part of the settlement never to talk about it publicly, which is often used in legal agreements. He was also fined for discrimination regarding the rental of his apartments (I believe more than just once, but can’t remember how many times offhand). This information has been available and known for years! It’s a shame that obviously not many people did their homework before going to the polls. Also, you also probably didn’t know that the co-author of his book, “the Art of the Deal” did an interview during the campaign apologizing for participating in what he said was a mostly “fictional” book. He thought when he helped write it that he was participating in something harmless–he never dreamed Trump would ever be interested in politics and running for president.

    As far as the KKK, Trump did NOT denounce their, or the other racist groups’, endorsements. I can’t believe I have to explain this, but when a candidate says they will represent all of the people, they are referring to people of all “parties”–NOT to racists and/or other hate groups.

    Liked by 3 people

  327. Yes, I think Donald Trump and Americans must have disregarded all the horrible things he said and demonstrated. If not, how did he get elected.

    Liked by 4 people

  328. The comments are as fascinating as the column. Given that one way to view the column is that things repeat themselves, perhaps we need a reminder that these candidates aren’t so different. Pandering to their bases; facing investigation and/or court over their far reaching, shadowy finances. Spoke of uniting, while using divisive rhetoric (Trump vs. deplorables). High ranking campaign officials who are radical bigots (alt-Right, Catholic spring). Campaign promises they either never intended to keep or new they couldn’t deliver on. An almost allergic reaction to so much as a suggestion they did or said something wrong. Trump brought us a level of vulgarity and indecency in his language that hasn’t been seen in U.S. politics in more than 100 years. He lied more brazenly and more frequently. Yet these candidates were not so different from each other, at least in a checklist of sins.

    Liked by 2 people

  330. Trump has not segregated us, we have chosen that ourselves. The races, religions, and classes have always existed it’s just that some chose to capitalize on it and others don’t. If you want to be an American, you should shut up, count your blessings, and be a productive member of society instead of of sucking the life from it. Get off your knees, out of your safe place or leave.

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  331. Liberals got in line to endorse the results?? That’s the opposite of what happened. She lost millions of votes because of that.

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  332. Of course. Now he says he’s sorry to hear this ! He looked at the camera and said Stop it! Like it will happen. Kids at school lunch are yelling at the Mexican kids chanting ‘Build the wall, build the wall! It’s insane and I think it’s going to get worse before it gets better.

    Liked by 5 people

  333. The rape case appears to be suspect, and has been dropped, although one can imagine that the alleged victim is terrified. Hell, victims fail to show up in court every day because they are afraid of their boyfriend or the corner drug dealer. It is not hard to imagine her fear under the circumstances. The fraud cases are on much more solid ground, and the claims on which the fraud is based – misrepresentations regarding Trump in the selection of faculty and the development and oversight of the curriculum – seem well documented. It seems to have been the classic con that many others have run: a get rich quick scheme run at the Ramada out by the Interstate that takes your money and leaves you with zilch you couldn’t have found online. Except for the name behind the con. People would rather be screwed than believe that have been screwed. And every con man knows it.

    Liked by 2 people

  334. Many who did not support Obama 8 years ago, received so much hatred we began to shut up. For 8 years we were called “racist”, “bigot”, etc. do you really think those of us who wanted a change were going to speak up now? We are sick of the labels that don’t describe who we are. We are tired of being told our religious views were sick and idiotic. We have learned that if we speak up we are homophobic, xenophobic, even if we had some valid point we thought was worth sharing. We, the hideous right, were put in our place and learned speaking our minds, concerns, hearts, was not worth our breath because those who laughed and ridiculed us were having the time of their lives. I did speak when disliking things Trump said and I know that no one was listening to me because they stopped hearing me long before this election.

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  338. Yeah, you say youre not but you sound just like the rest of the Libs crying and complaining about the choice the now reported majority elected but you said it in a more genteel manner… same message but without the yelling wringing of hands and lamentations.

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  339. So the author claims “You bought a very vigilant, sensitive and loud American majority who will cry foul at the drop of a hat for anything that resembles attacks on those we have fought so hard for these last fifty years.” and last I checked, that is what we had for the past 8 years. Hard to do much worse!

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  340. Because of the campaign he ran condemning Muslims and Latinos and things that came out during the campaign, such as many groping accusations.

    Liked by 3 people

  344. Why did Hillary lose? Protracted Perfidy Precluded Presidential Possibilities.Or Sleazy Sedition Sidelined Saul Alinsky’s Slimy Schemes. New world Order Won’t Wither Our Will. Relax. Maybe he’ll actually turn out to be a good President.

    Liked by 1 person

  345. Most of my friends are better off. And Obama didn’t make race an issue. His detractors did. And I believe you. Areas are worse off. I’m not dismissing your point of view. But, not everything that goes wrong is his fault anymore than everything that went right was because of Clinton. Why can’t people differentiate?

    Liked by 5 people

  346. Romans had slaves… yes. But it wasn’t based on race. It was based on who lost in battle. They could have given a crap as to the race. They had them from Gaul too. Racial slavery is an American thing.

    Liked by 1 person

  347. can you honestly say your life course or this country is better off now than 8 years ago , i cant ,unless you were in a coma ,and im not even kidding

    Liked by 1 person

  349. Sad to see someone begin so on-point derail as soon as he declares that he has no interest in understanding why anyone would vote a certain way then decide to explain to them why they were wrong.

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  353. Heather, I’m not playing the blame, I was introducing one variable as a possibility of why people might be prompted to act out in hate, and stating that if Trump is responsible, so are liberals for their actions. The only thing I do blame with hatred is people not healing their pain. I’m not sure how this encourages irresponsibility, and you missed the part where I said help others heal after you are done healing yourself, I’m sorry if I provided too much to read and you missed some parts. Seriously, what use is a doctor sick in bed if he/she doesn’t take care of themselves first and then help others after. How the hell do people help others if they don’t know how to help themselves and learn from their experiences from healing? You do know that problems get fixed by solving them, not by ignoring things right? You are right that there will be people preying on good people, THAT WILL NEVER END. Stopping the hurt is just as important as healing the hurt, because healing teaches you how to create boundaries to prevent future hurt from happening. Don’t you realize that realize people are spreading hurt is because they have hurt, not because they’ve healed from it? I don’t expect anything from my fellow man, because people have their own choices. You need therapy, you’re taking on way to much that is out of your control, and it’s going to drive you insane. The only thing you have control over is yourself, that’s it, if you can’t accept that, you don’t accept reality. If you want to help others, you need to help yourself, it’s not being selfish, it’s not letting society crumble, it’s making the world a better place because you are in a better position to help the world once you healed and you can share what you learned from the world from your healing, so they can get better.

    http://www.wikihow.com/Accept-Yourself,-Your-Life,-and-Your-Reality

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  355. So glad you’re hear to stand up for all Americans (besides the unborn perhaps), what would we do without the left and their uncompromising wisdom!? I can sleep at night knowing wise men like you know what’s best for the other 60,000,000 of us. Whew!

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  358. I am 73 years old. I have seen much also in my life. I don,t want any more campaigning! I don,t want more opinions of people disgruntled by their choice losing the election. The people.have spoken. You hear! Lets be good americans and move on so we will indeed have a country to continue to live in. Give mr. trump a chance to see what he.can do. just sayin!

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  359. Pingback: 11/14/16 | Trumpwatch @ Entropy

  360. Incredibly well put, by far the best I have read so far. Thank you for taking the time to write this. And as you have read some of the posts, very timely, folks are unable to truly look at themselves and see the truth, that the person they voted for is the man he clearly is regardless of the other person that ran, why I continue to ask my friends, why did you not get a better person in place to run on your behalf, do not tell me he was your man.

    Liked by 1 person

  363. And yet the rioting is happening now, before he’s even inaugurated, because of, why again? No, not a peaceful dissent. But mobs who won’t accept change, even before it’s started. And the KKK is involved with Trump because…..why again? And the minorities who support him don’t want or need your protection. You said people don’t want the government in their business. Exactly! We’ve had 8 years of government over reach. We felt Hillary was going to continue down that same path. And felt our liberties were at stake. Your guns you are so proud of? She would’ve started the process of removing your right to bear arms with yet more restrictions. Trump’s words weren’t politically correct, and he spoke nonsensical hurtful words at times. But a lot of what he said resonated with the majority of people. He wasn’t a politician. That was a big factor. Hillary has lied so many times that she’s had to lie about her lies. She was being investigated by the FBI! These are actions that people were not willing to ignore. So stop acting like you’ve got to be more diligent now to protect the minority. How degrading to them. They don’t want or need your protection. Your “high on the horse” attitude is racist.

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  364. “Rape case” eh? yeah it’s really hard to believe he could rape someone after he bragged about sexually assaulting women and his first wife (who he cheated on) said she was raped when they were married. The case also names Jeffrey Epstein who has been connected with other rape accusations. Yeah,so hard to believe. And rapists never able to make things go away when they are rich and powerful

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  365. Apparently you didn’t even bother to read the blog that you’re replying to, because the author addresses exactly what you’re saying.

    Hillary is done. Retired. Out of the picture. She will never ever be President. There is no value in complaining about her any more.

    Trump will be President. He has done and said a LOT of things that are not decent, not conservative, and not Christian. If he continues to do that now, will you protest against Trump’s wrongdoing just like you do against Hillary? Or will you allow bigotry as long as it’s “your guy” that’s doing it?

    Liked by 9 people

  366. Unfortunately that magic wand works on his followers! We will have to work even harder in 3-4 years! Impeachment won’t solve things as his running mate mp will divide by religion, whiteness and gender preference.

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  367. Pingback: Wow, Just Wow.  This Young Man is Brilliant.What Now? – PatiRolf

  368. Romans had no concept of race but only land-owning men could vote in the Roman Republic. If you’re thinking of democracy, that’s a Greek concept and only men born in Athens who completed military training could vote.

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  369. I’m not a bigot or rasict I voted for trump because of Hillary. Her being pres would just be the same as Obama. So crybabies need to get over it and trust our president. He hasn’t even been president yet he is being ridiculed

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  371. Alt-Right is not a conservative, it’s a “Celtic sun rising” movement on the front of it “make whites great again” but on the backside a corporate takeover of our government. They always do this.

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  373. I love the way this was articulated with no expletives! With respect to “differences”, some might be interested in listening to the 2016 Reith lectures, four of them,- on Creed, Country, Colour, and Culture, by philosopher, Kwame Anthony Appiah, and available on BBC Radio 4 iPlayer.

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  377. If you have 10 people left on the planet they will find out someway to divide themselves into 2-4 groups and decide they are better than “those people”

    “What people?” you ask?

    It doesn’t matter… they will sort it out when they find out who the other people are… but there will be a reason they are better than “those people”. Maybe they like the Steelers and someone else likes the Bengals… it doesn’t matter… THERE WILL BE A REASON.

    Animals do it too.. they have packs. Mentally we are not as superior to animals than people think….

    Liked by 1 person

  379. Yes, i agree and also; I recall recently Hillary said she would represent all of the people so doesn’t that mean that she would have represented the KKK? If the KKK is celebrating Donald Trump, that does not mean that he necessarily enjoys their views. Why all of a sudden is Donald Trump considered a rapist and racist, when before this campaign no one ever characterized him this way?

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  381. First,he’s no conservative…secondly Obama has only himself to blame for Trump’s election to the office of POTUS.

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  391. they guy can’t even apologize for the nasty rhetoric he spewed during his campaign. He’s not even sorry. Its all so sad, an embarrassment to American values and everything this country is based on.

    Liked by 9 people

  392. President Obama had a career in public service and was a Constitutional Law Professor. I will give trump the same amount of respect the right gave Obama for the past eight years.

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  394. President Obama had a career in public service, and was a Constitutional Law Professor.

    I will give trump the same amount of respect as president as Obama received from the right for the past eight years. Exactly the same amount.

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  395. President Obama had a career in public service, and was a Constitutional Law Professor.

    I will give trump the same amount of respect as president as Obama received from the right for the past eight years. Exactly the same amount.

    Liked by 1 person

  399. Please cite your sources. FYI…only ONE rape case has been dropped–due to death threats, It also was NOT “dropped” 3 times–it was first misfiled in the wrong state, then there was an address error another time. You obviously get your “news” from right-wing articles, radio websites, FOX news, etc.. Wait until his so-called “university” trials begin because you obviously know nothing REAL about these allegations either. The only problem is that this scumbag is going to get the trials delayed because he is the president elect, which stinks. That should NOT be a legitimate excuse since these lawsuits were filed BEFORE he became president elect. But they will be. I still pray daily that they won’t be delayed though, so that he can be impeached as soon as possible. It is the only hope for our country.

    Liked by 3 people

  403. Perhaps the liberals should have screamed and shouted when someone the right could not conceive as president, rigged the Democratic primary process instead of getting in line to endorse the results

    Liked by 1 person

  405. But it still remains that we are a nation divided by race, no matter where it began. We are dealing with the present and unfortunately, Donald Trump said SO many things that divided us. Does he really think he can wave a magic wand and we’ll forget all the horrible things he has said and the horrible way he lived his entire life?

    Liked by 7 people

  407. As someone who would not have been a Hillary supporter except in the context of this particular race, I can relate to some of what you’ve said. I can especially appreciate your demand to see some outrage from the self-professed devout. Silence, in this case, IS the unforgivable sin.

    “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” – Martin Luther King Jr

    Liked by 2 people

  408. It wasn’t about change…it was that you called about 60 million people who didn’t agree with you deplorable and racists. Even now, those who supported hillary can’t help themselves. If there was just a modicum of outreach to people who didn’t agree with her in the first instance, she’d be president.

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  409. The “rape case” was a civil suit, and it has been dropped. Again. For the third time. And the University suit is a wishful thinking gambit by people who didn’t make money using Trump’s methods, which is immediately warned about on day 1.

    Liked by 1 person

  410. Amazingly well written. When others (myself included) are reduced to emotional hysteria and preparing psychologically and perhaps materially for an actual civil war (or, like myself, just putting ourf houses on the market and getting ready to leave before the first shots ring out!), THIS guy is actually able to articulate things in a calm,sensible, rational manner. Sir, you are a FAR better man than I and many others are, and I freely admit it!

    Liked by 6 people

  411. Some people say Hellary is a layer and a criminal becouse emails. How about trump he has to appear in court to answer about a 13 years girl being rape and he had something to do with it, and also now he has to appear for the university and they want to postponed the trial humm who is the criminal

    Liked by 1 person

  412. What a dumb phuck. Still doesn’t “get it.”

    Superimposing the worst fears of every left leaning cause onto the nebulous “bad guy” to serve as a focal point for their collective angst is as unrealistic as most of the “causes.”

    Liked by 1 person

  413. Reblogged this on Brodoland and commented:
    I thought this was a very balanced analysis and I absolutely agree with the call to action with regard to protecting the freedoms of all people in the US.

    Liked by 7 people

  414. I support your general point, but I must note that societies divided by race are a recent development that comes from the growth of the slave trade. Romans, for example, had no concept of race.

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  417. Isn’t that the description of most politician. Take our current president. When everyone agreed with him he was happy. But when they didn’t he ignored or called them ignorant and did what he wanted because he knew better.

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  418. No sentient person would call Merrick Garland “ultra liberal.” For the first time in American history, a sitting president of the United States has been denied his Constitutional right to fill a vacant Supreme Court seat. I’m sure you’ll be okay if the Democrats try to be equally as obstructionist.

    Liked by 1 person

  419. “And now it’s fair to say that tolerance of that behavior from here on can only be seen as an endorsement of it. So when there’s a KKK rally in North Carolina to celebrate the election of the candidate you support, you no longer have any excuse not to condemn it with the same uncompromising vigor that you condemned Hillary. Let’s see the memes. Let’s see the Facebook posts. Let’s see the outrage.” This made me laugh out loud because it is true. Then, sigh because so many will not condemn it.

    Liked by 1 person

  420. WAR EQUALS DEBT HMMM…..LETS SEE WHO WAS IN OFFICE …..ARE WE REALLY THAT STUPID TO SAY IT IS ONE PRESIDENTS FAULT OR RESPONSIBILITY TO CONTROL ALL ASPECTS OF OUR LIVES.

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  421. People who carped for eight years at Obama and everything he did, who demonized him, disrespected him, made rude and racist comments, jokes and cartoons about him and his family, tried everything they could think of to de-legitimize his presidency and his citizenship, those people are now asking me to “shut up and give the guy a chance” before Trump even takes the oath of office. Part of my problem, and maybe others, I can only speak for me, when I hear from Trump voters is “I want change.” What I hear, when I see the result, is “I want change from increased rights and protections for all.” “I want change from trying to pry loose the death grip of Christian sharia” “I want change from cleaner technology and food and protection from poison and pollution.” “I want change from all the progress we’ve made in the last 8 years,” and finally, “I want change from the 21st century back to the 19th century.” Hence, my somewhat lukewarm reaction. To Trump voters – you may not be racist or homophobic or xenophobic, but you have proudly and publicly announced that you’re okay with it. Well, you got what you asked for, may it bring you much joy. To quote Mr. Spock, ‘You may find that having is not so pleasing a thing as wanting. It is not logical, but it is often true.”

    Liked by 1 person

  422. Nice article. Don’t let these haters and revisionists in the comments get to you. It’s amazing how much denial conservatives are regarding the racist and bigoted things Trump said to get elected!

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  423. Do you really think we all just loved and adored the eight never ending years of Bush before Obama. I am so sick of hearing how Republicans hate Obama. is that really the reasoning for electing Trump?

    Liked by 1 person

  425. Better to have someone who is open and honest, albeit, at times offensive, than to have someone who is 2 faced and destructive. Hillary is politically correct in front of the public but behind closed doors, she is an evil, scheming monster who breaks the law. And, in case you didn’t notice, America has been divided for years! Not trumps fault. You give him way too much credit for that.

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  426. You believe your opinion to be fact. I can’t imagine that we all are wrong in what we believe and most of us have more similarities than differences. One thing That concerns me is that because we will call it “the conservative right” won now the “liberal left” is protesting, has it ever occured to you that had the left candidate been elected that the people who support the right candidate would have nothing to protest about? All generalizations can go either way. PLease remember it was Donald Trump who was saying the election is rigged that the media controlled everything…so does that still apply? was the election rigged? it was rigged remember so that it wouldn’t work out in his favor he protested. In fact the personal reasons I did not vote for Trump have nothing to do with the left or the Clintons they have to do with Trump himself. the man wanted to win and only wanted to win! winning was everything for him! it wasn’t about changing the America we live in today that is not going to happen with an election it is going to happen when we as Americans can show each other respect and freedom to be different. politically,racially,sexually,religiously,educationally,individually. I don’t know of one human being that likes being told or demanded to be like someone else,someone that they are not. I personally heard enough of what Donald Trump was about over the last few decades to know he was not a man that I respected nor would the rest of the world respect. Maybe a half to a quater of our country yes, but I truly wish there had been a decent candidate that could have brought us together instead of showing us just how divided we really are. We as Americans are all disillusioned with the Great American Dream of being able to work hard take care of ourselves and our families and having something to show for it in the end. Based on our economic system we all will not attain that! that is the disillusionment for all of us. Donald used the great American system to build his empire as a very wealthy and successful businessman. He is not and has not ever been concerned with the people of this country who can’t afford to feed,cloth,and house their children,much less send to college. he did not grow up with poverty and opression. if all your voting morals and decisions making strategy comes from prolife ideals then no matter what you had to vote republican but I myself donKt think it is my right to tell another human being what they can or cannot do in relation to what goes on with their reproductive system. We as human beings take life away everyday from others, in war, drunk driving,car accidents, crime, even protecting other people. I don’t condone abortion it is as distasteful as rape and child abuse but if we can’t stop all killing we have no platform to stand and say we have the right to tell others what to do with their bodies. There are just so many issues we feel conviction for neither side has all the answers or is better morally than the other. It is about trying to live with and amongst each other on this earth with what life we are given and I am pretty sure we are all just human.

    Liked by 2 people

  427. Mr. Hughes:

    Your exceptionally well written piece was a source of hope in a dark time. I come from the left, and have spent twenty five years as a lawyer defending First Amendment freedoms for people across the political spectrum. In a week where a handful of white supremacists and marginal malcontents are claiming the election as their own, it gives me enormous courage to see that there are still conservatives who believe in freedom for everyone, and Christians who believe in protecting the weak. Keep writing, please. Your vision of America is one that transcends left and right. In the months ahead, patriots whose loyalties are to the Constitution need to find common ground. I fear for our most basic freedoms, speech, assembly, and the rule of law, in an administration that came to power on a wave of vitriol and risks becoming a cult of personality. Stay vigilant. I will. And thanks in part to your example, I will also remain vigilant against the lazy assumption that everyone with a Bible and a gun is to be feared, and energized in an effort to find the common ground we share as believes in a Republic of laws. I am proud to have a countryman like you.

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  428. The abortion rate reached its lowest level since Roe vs. Wade under Obama. It was at its highest under Reagan-Bush. Some womb-safety statistics for you to consider.

    Liked by 1 person

  429. You didn’t protest during the Obama administration with blocked roads and property destruction? Were the Bundy Ranch standoff and the Malheur Wildlife Refuge occupation secretly leftist operations? Get a grip. The reason I don’t condemn the Black Lives Matter movement is because black lives do matter. The reason we have to say “black lives” is because black lives have been cheaply discarded in percentages that cannot be justified or explained away.

    Tired of being called a racist, or a sexist, or a homophobe? Imagine how tired we are of racism, sexism, and homophobia. When did it become worse to call someone a racist than for that someone to actually be a racist? If the shoe fits, wear it. If the shoe pinches, then get busy untying the knots and loosening the laces, and take it off.

    Liked by 2 people

  430. I see a lot of comments here about how you voted for Trump but aren’t a racist. Perhaps you don’t know it yet but you are at least leaning towards being racist. I base this opinion on the fact that you voted for a guy that pushed the birther idea for years in the face of overwhelming evidence that it was wrong. He had all the opportunities in the world to change his ways but refused. Anyone who would vote for such a man is a racist or at least has no problem if the US has a racist president. It is really that simple.

    Liked by 2 people

  433. I have been looking for intelligent, balanced conservative media, too. Haven’t been able to find it yet. The Economist is the closest I’ve been able to get, but that’s a European-based source.

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  434. so, the rest of middle america is just suppose to accept the fact that the change obama promised his entire 2 terms was probably the biggest step back for America? We all have different opinions, and at the end of the day sometimes you have to settle with what the outcome is. We dealt with Obama for 8 years… now you can deal with Trump.

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  436. That will require people to actually pay attention, though. It didn’t seem like folks did much of that during the election. This is going to be a very difficult next few years.

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  437. Thank you. I know there are many conservatives who are not anti-minority or anti-woman, like you and some of the respondents here. I am looking forward to them holding the line against any discrimination and against exploitation of these deeply rooted “tribal” emotions to gain support.

    Liked by 1 person

  438. That’s because you think like the frog in the well. Once you start mingling and communicating with people from all kinds of backgrounds, you realize , it is not the grammar, but the ideas behind their language are the treasures. Have an open mind please.

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  439. Pingback: “If insistence on decent treatment of all Americans makes me a liberal in the eyes of conservatives, then maybe we should take some time to reflect on who our modern conservatives actually are. The world is watching.” | Growing Old Ain't
  440. Pingback: “If insistence on decent treatment of all Americans makes me a liberal in the eyes of conservatives, then maybe we should take some time to reflect on who our modern conservatives actually are. The world is watching.” | Growing Old Ain't

  442. And who brought on that division? Republicans obstructed him at every single turn, disrespected his State of the Union address by interrupting, questioned his very legitimacy by continuing to spread lies about his birth. Don’t even try to blame Obama for creating the division of the last eight years, especially as he tried to clean up the economic mess left by Bush. Look in the mirror and take some responsibility for once.

    Liked by 4 people

  443. Pingback: “If insistence on decent treatment of all Americans makes me a liberal in the eyes of conservatives, then maybe we should take some time to reflect on who our modern conservatives actually are. The world is watching.” | Growing Old Ain't

  444. Agree but can we stop SOROS he is killing our children’s right to research and so much more. Obama’s Bud so like it or not he is outlawed in many countries for starting this type of protesting please research

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  445. Pingback: “If insistence on decent treatment of all Americans makes me a liberal in the eyes of conservatives, then maybe we should take some time to reflect on who our modern conservatives actually are. The world is watching.” | Growing Old Ain't

  446. What Is a True “Conservative”
    What is the difference between “conservatism” and “reaction”? I suspect that many persons who call themselves “conservatives” are really reactionaries and don’t know it.

    I was reminded of this by a letter from a suburban lady who wrote that she wonders, “if Abe Lincoln had been able as a youngster to lean on such words as ‘disadvantaged’ and ‘underprivileged,’ would he have done as well?” She imagines she is expressing a “conservative” position, but it is really a reactionary one.

    In the first place, the poverty of Abe Lincoln was nothing like the poverty in the modern urban slum. He was underprivileged economically, but not culturally and socially as well.
    In second place, we don’t know what anguish Lincoln might have avoided in later life if his early years had not been so bleak and hard, or how much more he might have accomplished in his personal life, which was not successful.

    In the third place, the assumption that being “disadvantaged” and “underprivileged” somehow builds character and enables us to triumph over adversity is not borne out by the very people who utter this cliché’. For they give their own children the best advantages, send them to the finest schools, and use their connections to the utmost.

    Now a genuine conservative is one who wants to conserve the best that we have; that is, he does not want us to squander our resources. But the most precious resources of any country are the brains and talents of the younger generation. It is absolutely essential that they be utilized to the fullest.

    True conservatism would demand that every child be given the kind of education and environment that would summon up his full capacities. It would be shocked at the thought that millions of youngsters have practically no chance to demonstrate what they could do under optimum conditions, and that millions of others fritter away their advantages.

    The reactionary position-which is often confused with conservatism-is indifferent to this squandering of natural resources. It confuses an economic and social elite-which is won mainly by chance and accident- with an elite of character and intelligence. It wants only to keep what it has, and to get more, rather than to spread the opportunities on the widest possible base.

    If underprivileged were such a blessing, there would not be only one Lincoln for a million semiliterate and unemployables; if it were so good for the soul, the suburban lady would sell her house and rear her children in the slums. But of course she won’t; disadvantages are “good” only for the great, the dead and the very remote.

    From “The Best of Sydney J. Harris” Houghton Mifflin Company Boston, 1975

    Liked by 1 person

  447. Every time someone suggests that this was a vote for change, they need to be reminded that almost every incumbent in the House and Senate was re-elected. The only change was selecting a leader who represented nationalism and ethnic resentment. The Republicans in Congress already embodied those “ideals” so there wasn’t a need to change them, was there?

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  448. This whole thing is pretty silly.I didn’t realize so many people were so weak and in need of a ”safe place” because we replaced a president that ignored the middle class and was arguably the worst human/president was replaced with someone without much Political Correctness and instead embraced reality and common sense.The rich are richer and the poor ,poorer., Quite the success.

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  449. So now you understand the frustration “We the People” had been feeling the last eight (8) years with the Obama Administration.
    We were never so divided in the past 50 years as how his administration of the last eight years.
    however, we never protested with destruction of peoples personal property, blocked roads and pitched a fit.
    I’ve experienced Europe, Mexico, Canada and Argentina and prefer the freedoms and liberties afforded us with our constitution.
    I’ve served in the military for seven years and have been a small business owner for thirty-three years and NEVER seen such an attack on our liberties and freedom as experienced the last eight years. We are a nation of immigrants but legal not as illegal immigrants as under this administration. The idea that its OK to have people just poring into the USA undocumented has to stop.
    The idea that the Second Amendment does not protect the right to “Bear Arms” is ridiculous and to say that a conceived baby is not a person and can be aborted without consideration saying it’s alright to the women and men that chose to do so are not held responsible for their actions is unforgiving.
    yes, we need to stop giving $$$ to ungrateful countries and put the $$$ toward rebuilding our infrastructure and it’s again time to make this country business friendly so that more companies stay in the US and those that chose to leave want to come back which will bring back MANY high paying and skillful jobs and careers here in the US.
    I believe that this is President-Elect Donald Trump’s message for ALL Americans. He wants only the BEST for the citizens of the US and with our support this future is attainable.
    For the liberals to assemble in protest “RIOT” in many instances it makes no difference at this point as the will of the people has chosen the next president for HOPEFULLY, the next eight years which will show that Mr. Trump was the best choice for moving the US in a positive manner.

    Liked by 1 person

  450. One of the failures of the Democratic Party is their inability to drive a message and control the dialog. For years we equivocated “oh the economic news is good but not great, there’s more work to do, bla bla bla.” When the message should have been along the lines of “once again the US leads all other world economies in sustained growth and economic vitality.” And the GOP was allowed to get away with years of obstruction without paying a political price. The finger always pointed at the President. “what more could Obama be doing to bring the two sides together.”

    Republicans had the luxury of cashing in on the Obama recovery and all the while crying about how horrible things are.

    The reason it was a change election is because we allowed them to convince the masses that there was a hurricane on a mostly sunny day.

    Liked by 1 person

  451. He lied as much or more than Clinton, and I believe the majority of the people are mostly disturbed by his character or lack thereof! He will stoop to any low to get what he wants and when he gets it he is happy,and belligerent when he doesn’t. Go study the description of a narcissist. That should explain it.

    Liked by 1 person

  452. I’m always amazed at how the people who want a “more inclusive society” are always so ready to label and compartmentalize themselves and others.

    “…we – women, People of Color, LGBTQIAP, Muslims, Jews, disabled people, immigrants, refugees and our conservative allies….”

    “We” was sufficient but you just had to go and put everyone into their own little boxes, didn’t you?

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  453. “He has singlehandedly pitted American against American in a manner never before seen, appealing to the baseness of our nature through fear, anger and insecurities.”

    Spoken like someone with absolutely zero historical perspective. You must be 12.

    Liked by 1 person

  454. Have you been asleep for the past 8 years?
    Americans were divided and pitted against each other before long before Trump was mentioned in the presidential race.
    This guy is a superb writer. And for those like him, who narcissistically believe their opinion to be fact, I’m sure this piece was quite fulfilling.

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  455. What has Obama ran of headed up? A community organizer from Chicago? The last eight years have shown the gross incompetence and lack of experience this country has been subjected to in the name of hope and change. What a joke and the biggest scam on the American people in history. Now let’s watch a proven successful business man who loves this country show the world what true leadership is!

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  456. Gross. Loses me in the first paragraph where he tries to pretend he’s impartial but spells out how he’d never abandon his “brand” over doing the right thing by his friends, neighbors, relatives and coworkers. And that line about being a better shot than the person reading — way to go hiding your real opinion.

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  457. Meri Ross : if President Trump had spoke and acted like the “right” you explained in your response from the beginning we wouldn’t be in this predicament. The people in the streets are not rioting in the name of Hilary or Obama. They are standing up against the words and proposed actions of Trump. Hilary is no longer in the picture. Obama is a lame duck. This is all about Trump. Most of the left is not screaming hate and lies. They are standing up to the things Trump has said he will execute and the position statements he has made. You are right “They” do not want to change from a future where the different is acceptable back to a past were difference was persecuted. They want to move forwards not backwards.

    Liked by 8 people

  458. When your side condemns Black Lives Matter and international ANSWER and the socialists paying for these violent riots and interfering with others lives we can talk.

    Unfortunately the word Progressive and anarchy go together in 2016.

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  459. You can almost envision the conversation that took place behind closed doors. “The christian vote is going to be tough. You’ve been married three times. You brag about your adultery. You make money promoting gambling. My god man, you’re accused of raping 13 year olds.”
    “Not a problem”
    “What do you mean, not a problem?”
    “When I say I’m pro-life, that all goes away, this I promise you.”

    Liked by 5 people

  461. Clinton never said that she supported abortion right up to the day of birth (another Trump lie). What she did say was that late term abortion needed to remain an option for those pregnancies where it is clear the fetus cannot survive outside the womb or where the life of the mother is in jeopardy. When you put the life of the fetus above the life of the mother, what you say to me is that you’re not pro-life, you’re just pro-fetus. When you say to me that you don’t care how much that fetus suffers in the womb so that it can die at birth, you say to me you’re not even pro-fetus. You just get off on controlling others.

    Liked by 6 people

  462. You are what the author of this post describes. I supporter who rationalizes the hatred that his candidate represents. His point is that you get an initial pass on that decision but now you have to be responsible and accountable for that choice. Fail to speak out against those horrible values now – condone them with your silence – makes you a supporter of those values.

    Liked by 1 person

  463. Pingback: For the Sake of History | The Mighty Geek

  464. I hear a lot of bitching about the “liberal media”. I don’t agree I think that most if the coverage was pretty fair. But I am an “East Coast Liberal”. So having said that can someone point me to some intelligent conservative commentary? Theres Geoge Will at the post, who else? Please don’t mention Briebert.

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  465. Jesus was a true revolutionary and enlightened being. The institutionalization of his teachings that emerged in his wake have largely been a destructive force on this precious planet of ours. From the Crusades to the Missionaries [who destroyed whole cultures) to the KKK. Great stuff!

    “Good Christians”, indeed!

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  466. ” America- you make me sick!” ?!? You’re embarrassed that you defended their right to protest?!?! I’m embarrassed that a wad of elephant cum like yourself ever wore the uniform! FUCK YOU FOR YOUR “SERVICE”, ASSHOLE!

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  467. I certainly have been in a male locker room, but one with REAL men -not a group of little boys in a circle-jerk talking about “pussy.” That’s YOUR locker room, buddy! But thanks for being a two-bit wanker by standing up for putrid behavior!

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  469. I thank you for this. So much. We need more like you. Thank you!

    From a liberal, safe space social crusader who also insists on (at the very least) decent treatment of all Americans.

    xo.

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  470. Trump is a racist, misogynist and xenophobe in words and actions. Say what you will about Obama and Hillary but you could NEVER say that. Not even close.
    And regarding “crybabies” – are you serious? I’ve had to listen to right wing nutters and birthers cry and piss and moan for the last eight years. Do not talk to me about crybabies. Those protesters, representing the majority of Americans mind you, are protesting the values of the person now leading out country.

    Liked by 1 person

  471. NOBODY “twisted words and vilified what has been said to try and convince the world how awful Trump is” His own words did the job just fine. “Grab them by the pussy” is the talk of prepubescent little boys (like YOU!), NOT “appreciation of beautiful women” Border Security IS racism when you use words like “rapists and criminals.” I don’t care if he’s ultra-conservative or liberal, he’s a miserable, hateful KKKunt, and so is every slimy little weasel that stands up for him. (like YOU!)

    Liked by 1 person

  473. After reading the input from the “christians” who voted this fat wad of shit into power, “our first atheist president” is the ONLY thing about Trump that is admirable.

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  478. I hate the term “elitist” in our political discourse. We have to deal with the fact that America has a profound anti-intellectual streak, with people that view their own ignorance as a strength. I’m not saying that smug people don’t deserve to be called out, but we need the same for people who deny science and fact (climate change and vaccinations), and who vote for economic policies that have been proven to be ineffective (trickle-down economics).

    Also, let’s remember that about 49% of eligible voters didn’t even participate in this election.

    Liked by 1 person

  480. Pingback: What Now? | Unintentional Gifts

  484. Even TRUMP has condemned the racism and discrimination that some are doing in his name. Did you listen to the 60 Minutes interview? He in no uncertain terms told people to STOP. Do you see Pres. Obama or Hillary Clinton telling people to stop rioting and beating people and destroying property in their name? NOPE… it’s been silence. You see the problem is… most people who are anti-Trump listen to only the things they want to hear. They don’t want to hear the voices of the right who are don’t care what race, gender, orientation etc. etc.etc. you are as long as you live in this country peacefully and follow the law. Most on the right don’t who you love or marry, they just want to be able to practice their beliefs without interference as well. I too am sick and tired of being called a racist because I want people to come to this country LEGALLY and to assimilate into OUR culture when they do, or at the very least not force us to change our way of life because they are “offended” or “uncomfortable”. We’ll add your culture and beliefs and traditions to ours… just don’t try to take ours away. I don’t care what religion you practice (or don’t practice), but why should I have to stop practicing mine in public ??? We want to be able to say Merry Christmas or have a Nativity scene in the town square without someone forcing us into silence. Not because we want to force you to worship our God, but because we want to celebrate what that God has brought to our lives (and through us to the lives of many of you… whether you know it or not). We want to live WITH and beside and among all of you. We want to find ways to compromise and come to understandings about the hot-button issues. We just are tired of being bullied and lied about and lied to. We want ALL people to be held to the same standards of behavior and to the same consequences for bad behavior. Do I think Mr. Trump has challenges ahead? Of course! My hope is that he’ll live true to his word and be a President for ALL Americans… not just those who agree with him. And my prayer is that the people who are rioting in the name of Hillary Clinton and her platform will STOP and listen and give the man a chance. And, that they will start conversations with those they don’t agree with so we can ALL live here peacefully. But until they stop screaming hate and lies… nothing will change because THEY don’t want it to.

    Liked by 1 person

  486. How can we begin this while the left is burning the streets down right now? They haven’t given a moment of peace since the election ended. It’s been turmoil in the streets of America for days. It’s certainly not the right out there.

    This hypocrisy is deafining. The entire election we heard how racist we are for not supporting these movements of gender equality and race equality. So here we are, happy that a corrupt, career politician was not elected and now we should all burn for it.

    Forget that. Forget the flag burners and the left who hate America. We are ready to be on top in the global scheme. We are prideful American citizens who no longer want sky rocketing insurance, poor economics and a country full of non working entitlement seeking neighbors.

    Instead of telling us how awful we are, please take a long look at how much you love this great nation and how much you’d sacrifice to keep her that way.

    Liked by 1 person

  487. When the DNC doubles down on an issue that has likely a more significant edge than Clinton held over Trump, youd better believe there would be backlash. Bringing Cecile Richards in as a beleaguered heroine was in poor taste, and unquestionably part of the reason for the loss. So stare agog at the commenter, if you wish, but a majority of Americans would agree that it’s abhorrent.
    Meanwhile, you’d be more viciferous about the urinal rights of a transvestite, a matter of national urgency.

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  488. I feel ya, brother! As a gay, out, Christian who has no desire to change, or belief that God would want me to be straight. I find myself arguing with the same two arrogant people who are the first to show what someone else is doing wrong.
    I used to be that way myself until I decided to come out to Facebook. Until then I felt like I was still in the closet. But when I did, in just a few months my mind became open to new ways of thinking. I started to realize that I actually WANTED to believe that being gay was not sinful or cursed by God. So I sat down and took a long hard look at scripture in this new way. I rechecked each scripture to prove to myself that God promised He will never leave me or forsake me.

    After that I started to realize ways in which I had not been trusting God, but rather had been fearful of God. I hadn’t been following him out of love or respect, but the terrified idea that if I didn’t stop all sin in this country, that God would hold me responsible for it. But you try to tell a conservative that they are really scared for their own safety and not really devoted to God in love. I wouldn’t believe it until I was willing to accept some part of that truth.

    Hence the Bible seems to say both that God needs to open our eyes and we have to be willing to perceive. All I ever wanted is to know the truth. God gave me that truth. How much truth do the “Trump-eters” want?

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  489. Another bankruptcy? Soldiers instead of contractors going without payment because they didn’t live up to expectations? The hole you are in was caused by Trump and his cronies…do you think it was the working that sent the jobs out of the country? I didn’t pay my taxes because I’m smart and you didn’t pass laws to stop me. I bought from third world corporations because you didn’t pass laws to stop me. Really!!!

    Liked by 2 people

  491. Sean, don’t entirely disagree with your main thesis except that 8 years ago, conservatives were saying the exact same things about Barack Obama. So, I don’t like Trump but I like Obama and Clinton even less. Had I voted, I would have voted for Johnson even though he had no shot in hell of winning because of winner-take-all stupidity. The elitist press did everything it could to get Clinton in the White House and failed. Why? Because many Americans couldn’t stand the thought of another 4 or 8 years of the current malaise that has infected this country.

    As a retired Army officer, I’m embarrassed that the liberal crybabies are stomping their feet and protesting. Accept the fact that we have an imperfect union and our current electoral process is morally bankrupt but don’t be a bunch of whining crybabies. I’m embarrassed that I defended these ass-clowns’ right to protest.

    America- you make me sick!

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  492. I work with many kinds of people. I live with a complex family. Most of these folks are on Trump’s hit list. Now that he has surrounded himself with hate mongers, all of these folks are scared. Being a person of color, Native, Jewish, Muslim, disabled, or LGBT has become even more dangerous than it was, and it felt dangerous before. What we need now are for the good folks, conservative and not, to stand up and silence the haters.

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  493. Anonymous, border security was translated to racism because Trump didn’t say two words about people coming from Canada or other majority-Caucasian countries. Border security was translated to racism because Trump said Mexicans were rapists.

    Anonymous, I’m guessing you’re not a woman. Locker room talk is “I want to do whatever with an attractive person”, not bragging about grabbing body parts. Would you be cool with a random celebrity walking up and grabbing your genitalia with absolutely no foreplay? I sure wouldn’t. It’s sexual assault, not rape.

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  495. He’s not criticizing you for voting for Trump. He accepts why you did. He’s criticizing you if you don’t speak out against racism, bigotry and sexism. Let’s start with his appointment of a strategic advisor who represents all three of those qualities. That’s not an opinion. It’s on the record.

    Liked by 4 people

  496. Pingback: What Now? | Johanna

  498. The problem with this article is it written under the inaccurate interpretation of what has been said. The left twisted words and vilified what has been said to try and convince the world how awful Trump is. Boder security was translated to racism, appreciation of beautiful women was translated to sexism, locker room talk was translated to and admission of rape. He’s not the most articulate man, but hopefully everyone will judge his Presidency on his actions and not their deliberate misunderstanding and desire for the man to change. If you’ve paid attention you will know he’s not the ultra conservative and for a long time has identified with the liberal side. I think he maybe the most balanced President we’ve had in a long time. Let’s see if his business experience can dig us out of this hole we’re in.

    Liked by 1 person

  499. Pingback: Taurus Full Moon – The Cosmic Salon

  500. I invite Trump supporters to condemn the racism and discrimination surrounding their candidate with #MakeGreatNotHate

    If there’s gunna be unity under Trump, it would naturally have to start on Twitter, right??

    Liked by 1 person

  501. Jacob, “holder of the heel” how fitting!

    1st and foremost, anyone calling themselves a Christian would know that only God makes the final call as to who is a Christian, good luck with your judgement calls in the future. I will pray for your lack of understanding what a “good Christian” is and stands for. Most of the “good Christians” voted based on what they didn’t want versus what they wanted. I along with the majority had to stand up against the most criminally accused nominee is US history. She and her gang had to go. I am not going to charge into what Obama is or is not, but he who lives in a glass house….., well you know the rest!!!!

    Liked by 1 person

  502. I “hold these truths to be self evident, that all people are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights including life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”. Some of the men who signed their names to these words did not really believe that women and people of different races were “created equal”. We amended our Constitution to make it part of our law to honor all people.
    But, as you have noticed, the hearts of people remain insecure and prejudiced. People tend to distrust and fear those who are different. I confess that I have these tendencies, but I want to minimize them and spend the rest of my life listening to and interacting with people who have ideas different from mine.
    When you speak out concerning decent treatment of all people I will listen and respond. I have much to lean from people who think differently and am eager to get started.

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  506. Where were you when the rest of us were campaigning for Johnson/Weld? Sorry, I don’t buy that you’re not upset your candidate didn’t win. It’s still a temper tantrum from where I sit.

    Liked by 1 person

  507. Thank you, we as a Olympia WA progressive and safe space provider :), you are a Conservative I could work with.

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  508. Thank you, thank you. This has been one of the most enlightening messages I have read since this election. You have given me a glimmer of understanding as to how so many people have made a choice which, to me, seems so utterly incomprehensible. You’re absolutely right. Many of us who were voting for Hilary were making our own private pact with the devil. I was, and still am, willing to turn a blind eye to Clinton’s shady donations and ties to the establishment because I believe in almost everything else she stands for and because she was the only one of the two with any idea what she’s doing and because an ultra-conservative Supreme Court is a scenario too frightening to imagine. So I sure hope you’re right. I hope that people held their tongues in the desperate hope that the end justified the means. I pray that he will be held accountable. And yet, reading some of the comments following your article, I find it hard to be optimistic. I wonder if it will ever be possible for some of the Trump voters to re-examine their choice in the light of day, now that their ‘candidate of change’ is safely ensconced in office. It appears to me that the conversation has taken a dangerous turn, from ‘the end justifies the means’ to ‘we are right, and the election proves it’. What’s worse, the increasingly violent discourse of hatred and marginalization has become so insidiously commonplace that mainstream society is gradually becoming immune to it. It is spreading in Europe with Brexit and right-wing protectionist political parties gaining power in France, Austria, Germany, Switzerland. I am numbed by the futility of trying to stand up for what I believe is right in the face of so much self-righteousness. How do we turn the tide?

    Liked by 2 people

  509. Patrick is “inciteful” , articulate and thoughtfilly opines his core feelings in a way few are able. As a fellow human being i respect him and his personal view of mankinds ascent—-and explained, descent, from a civilized, culturally rich and dynamic society.

    I voted against the Clintons because i will not be an accessory to murder by abortion.

    Some day the left will see the light.

    Liked by 1 person

  510. http://www.factcheck.org/2009/04/snopescom/
    Funny, that.

    Bottom line though, these two websites have a better record than any Facebook page or other website you’ll ever come across in your life. There are no “professional investigators” on this planet doing this for altruistic purposes when they could be earning money. These are all people doing this as a nonprofit, and who have much more experience than you or I finding information on the internet. What would take us days would probably take them maybe a few hours to compose all the information and sources.

    Snopes has been under scrutiny for supposed political leanings lately and a few misrepresentations of facts, but a 99% accuracy rate is still noteworthy, especially considering that their focus was never politics in the first place.

    Many people with a political bias won’t usually acknowledge either site though, because these websites present facts that often don’t support the Facebook memes that they get their opinions from.

    Liked by 2 people

  511. And there it is, I found exactly what I expected to see here.

    The one person who will bring abortion into a message that had nothing to do with it in the first place. The one person who is least likely to agree with a compromise on the topic itself. The one person who won’t acknowledge another subject as more important. Because from the second that zygote is formed, this is the one person will fight to the death to say that it already has a soul and its existence is equivalent to, if not more important than, every other person affected by it.

    Stare in awe and take note of this person, ladies and gentlemen. It’s truly an incredible sight.

    Liked by 7 people

  512. But let’s put generalizations aside, after you’ve already used them to do the very things you later go on to condemn, i.e. play the blame game? You are encouraging irresponsibility and cloaking it with a thin veneer of intellectualism. If you want to make a positive impact on the world, then perhaps you shouldn’t begin with, “You and other Liberals are at fault.” It just makes you come across as hypocritical and easier to be dismissed.

    While I agree that there are usually reasons for people being hateful, reasons do not make excuses. They are still responsible for their choice to act in hatred. Living amongst others means that there will be consequences when our behaviour affects others. Welcome to being a part of society. It would be great if everyone would focus on self-improvement and seek to be their very best selves, but unfortunately that will never happen. There will always be someone out there who, for whatever reason, will seek to take advantage of the inaction of good people. This is already being demonstrated by the increase in attacks that we have been seeing in the past few days. You might be ok with yourself for not expecting better of your fellow man, and sitting there fixing your own flaws while others are being hurt, but I think a lot of us would rather stand up for what’s right and good and just. I bet we can even work on our own flaws while we’re at it, multitasking our way to betterment of self and others.

    We might not need a president to be happy, but we do rather like our freedoms, our rights, and our ability to live without being assaulted because we’re women, or not white, not heterosexual, or not Christian. So we will go ahead and tell Trump and his supporters to take a stand against this, to take responsibility for what he promoted, and fix it (they’re called representatives and constituents for a reason). Doing otherwise would go against our nature, which would be counterproductive to bettering ourselves. But you go ahead and work on taking accountability for yourself and fixing your own flaws. We’ll work on making society better. Maybe when we’re all done you’ll have learned how to not promote irresponsibility and hypocrisy, and I’ll have learned how to cope with people with so little care for others.

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  514. Your thoughts are absolutely the same as mine. When you wrote this you didn’t know that Steve Bannon would have a high profile position in the Trump Administration. That sent chills down my spine. I was really hoping for better. Well he fired the first volley. It will be a hard fight but I have faith in a majority of the American people to call them out when they try to do shameful things.

    Liked by 1 person

  515. I find it difficult to read anything that is written with glaring grammatical errors. How can I respectfully consider an opinion, statement or argument made by anyone who is not able to communicate.

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  516. I still have no idea how any good Christian could have cast a vote for the guy. Except of course that most “good Christians” don’t actually care at all about the word of God, and just go to church to gossip and network with their buddies. Thanks to the “good Christians” of this country, we finally have our first atheist president. Yeah I saw him holding a bible for photos, but what a crock. We all know he really doesn’t care, and never will.

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  517. My favorite thing is the people who whined and whined and whined about Obama not having enough experience, voting for Trump. Who knows not a thing about running a country, a state, a county, a city. Nothing. Push everything else about Trump aside, and you still have the fact that the guy has no clue how to do anything at all. Gotta love that.

    Liked by 4 people

  518. Where do we begin, I’m sick of it. I’m sick of being told I’m racist because I won’t bow down to a movement that seeks to victimize rather than empower. Us, nor Donald Trump cares if you are purple or green. He for one has hired droves of different races. It is the standard off measurement you use that is appalling. You have a self righteous indignation to save minorities at the mercy of us white racist folks, which is in fact a racist perspective in and of itself. We elected a black president twice, is that progress? He divided, and that was his leadership, but yet you tell us that we have the problem. Problem with what? Thinking minorities are less? Not hardly! We hired him because he would do the job. And not liking his job makes me racist? Please!!! Granted there are true racist, but they are far and few in between. This dialogue is so misdirected at the real problem So I have no choice but to call it disillusionment. But since it is, you’ll be amazed at what will happen in the next four years. The proof is in the pudding, and your perspective will be proved wrong, guaranteed. Watch the assignments and the committees formed to heal race relationships, watch the grown up conversations emerge as We need to face, not hide these tensions. Most of them are made up. We aren’t really that different at all, my children have no clue what would make a black child different from a white one. That’s the point, when you lack racism you don’t care either way. We’ve been told the last 8 years how Racist we are, and it’s bull. Not where I live. Not who I love. But maybe, just maybe the ones accusing are the ones breeding the very mentalities they claim to want to eradicate.

    Liked by 1 person

  521. Pingback: SpinDyeKnit

  524. Very articulate… and ASSUMING…. If he runs the country like he ran his campaign then kudos to you. He can’t and he won’t though and I am more than happy to give him a chance! Perhaps you intellectual elites can as well. Probably not….you think you are to “smart”.

    Liked by 1 person

  525. Sometimes politically correct language clouds the reality. We have not taken a step back at all, it’s just that the comfort level of the conservative and liberal 20% of Americans who live comfortable has been shaken up by the reality. Comfort and convenience clouded reality. So now the country sees out in the open what nearly 80% of the population have been subjected to, that was impossible to see with the current politically correct government that we have in place. We don’t need political correctness, it’s fake and phonies covering up hate and lies. The hate and the lies were always there, since the founding of the country, the hate and lies have lived side by side with those who truly love people regardless of differences, but love does not always come in a pretty package and a lie disguised in political correctness is not love. The infighting inside the LBGTQ community is nasty, the infighting in the Democratic Party of veil,the infighting in the Republican Party is disgusting, the infighting in the black community is ugly, and on and on. This problem is deeper than being able to accept people who don’t look or sound or pray like you. This is a self hate and loathing, that eats away at the individual and spews out onto anyone that comes in the path. This stems from neglect, abuse, misuse, miseducation and believes that have no connection to reality. In other words people who are ashamed to say “I don’t know”. Instead these people make up fairy tales and stories and make rules that govern based on fairy tales, but because they have no link to reality the rules don’t take into consideration the many differences that we have. A rule created by a man who does not have any knowledge of women’s bodies, is going to create a deficiency. We have not learned to say “I don’t know”!!

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  526. When you say “insistence on decent treatment to all Americans,” if you voted for Hillary, you should make the exception of those still in their mothers’ wombs.

    Liked by 2 people

  528. The Catastrophe you speak of is sitting in wait for January and it certainly isn’t Hillary. At least with Hillary we had a chance. What is absolutely amazing to me is that so many people could be so blindingly Stupid! Simply said, This is one horrible 4 year long Nightmare. I hope when we wake from this one we still have a planet to live on. Last time we lost the Towers & an economy!

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  531. That won’t be a difficult task since President Obama wasn’t qualified when he stepped into office. The economy is still in shambles, even after wasting money on those “shovel ready” jobs that weren’t ready after all. The job participation rate is at its lowest. The national debt is tripled and unfunded liabilities are through the roof. And his legacy which stems upon the Affordable Carey Act is a joke and was sold to the American people under false pretenses.

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  532. I think if you could write this whole article again, aimed at a 5th grade reading level, you’d stand a better chance of reaching people who need to hear it!

    Liked by 2 people

  533. Protest is protected, but blocking the streets is not. Making a nurse who just worked a 12 hour shift shiver in the cold because her bus is prevented from using the streets and wondering how she can come up with the extra money to pay the daycare is not protected. You need to walk by ones and twos even if it is a 14 mile line and be careful not to inconvenience anyone. And there is the violence, breaking car windows, trashing stores and beating up the occasional passerby goes way over the line of “protest”. Russia had some good ideas and one of them was arrest for hooliganism, an automatic 5 year sentence. And before anyone grabs that ball and runs with it I do not advocate communism. That hat is worn by Van JONES, who manages to get himself on TV a lot spewing racist hatred with a good portion of his sentences. When it comes to hate, the left could give lessons all the way to a doctorate. And by the way, Islam is a religion, not a race. That seems to be a concept beyond the capacity of the left to understand. I would like someone to explain why your defense of freedom of religion extends all the way to murder. Islam advocates killing gays and they are defended, but not wanting gays to marry is a major offense. I would love to know the thinking behind that. What is so wrong about not letting someone in the country who plans on jihad or Hijra. I have read the Koran, and a lot of the Sunnah and Hadith, and you do not want a strict follower Of Isis to have free access to your family and they do follow a version of Islam. Now I hear the Dems are considering Keith Ellison as the head of their organization. Be sure to ask him if he thinks a woman needs a man’s permission to leave the house or if he thinks a disobedient wife should be beaten. Women are of little value in Islam. If a woman is raped she is punished for sex outside of marriage. Women have fought long and hard for the freedoms we enjoy today. In the U S of A; we should be very suspicious of anyone who wants to take them away and that includes several branches of Christianity. Wow–that was a long rant. Be sure to let me know your defense of the schizophrenia on the left about religion. I really am interested in the thought process.

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  536. Reblogged this on Reading, Drinking and Dancing with a Chaser of Snark and commented:
    Sean Patrick Hughes makes the conservative’s case for why people like me sounded the alarm against trump so loudly and so much.

    Now, that he has done exactly as expected, and placed a white supremacist as one of his direct advisors, we – women, People of Color, LGBTQIAP, Muslims, Jews, disabled people, immigrants, refugees and our conservative allies who ALSO sounded the same alarm are waiting to see how many trump supporters will stand up to his hate-filled rhetoric. We have no indication that he will change, reach out to marginalized people or actually condemn the hate crimes perpetrated on his behalf. His “60 Minutes” interview inspired LESS confidence in him, not more.

    As I’ve mentioned, he has about two months to learn 240 years of US and World politics, history, economics, finance and budgeting and diplomacy – at an EXPERT level.

    He has spent the past eight years insulting and delegitimizing our first African-American President. Now, he will be assuming the same office, and MUST be better than President Obama.

    BETTER.

    He made numerous campaign promises to his supporters, who are impatient and armed. I wish him well, because failure is not an option.

    Liked by 3 people

  537. SOOOO articulate. Thank you. My observation is that you have traveled. You have experienced other cultures. You have learned nuance. That may seem simplistic and condescending, but my intent is far from it. Whereas your background and nature is conservative, your innate curiousity, keen observation and most importantly your exposure has added depth to your understanding of others. And I also don’t miss the understory about the context of your ‘travel’ and the moral challenges you must have faced in acquiring your perspective. So with all true respect I thank you for challenging the rest of us to face the moral quagmires that have been revealed in this election, because the longer we wait the uglier they will grow on the sustenance of complacency. And I thank you for calling out the lable of conservatism that has been co-opted into supremacy. The matter is urgent, History tells us so.

    Liked by 3 people

  538. Patti S. The supposed photo of the KKK on a bridge was false but the planned Dec 3 victory rally in NC is TRUE. This is what the author is speaking about.

    Liked by 1 person

  540. I too am a disabled veteran & I would Take HRC Any day over DJT! He is also corrupt so quit refusing to see it! I don’t want to go backwards, we fought to hard to get what we have! Wake up American! MLK jr. Fought hard for rights, as well as many women….. we don’t want to go back!!!!

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  541. Sanders consistently and exponentially polled higher in favorability ratings over Clinton against Trump. This was an outsider election, and we were dealt business as usual.

    Liked by 1 person

  542. Really? There’s supposed to be a parade, I believe that is what he’s referring to! I figured you knew that though?

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  543. “If you think all those millions of people protesting in the cities across the country…” Millions? Well that explains why you have bridges to sell. Sounds like you’ve already bought a few.

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  544. “They were investigated twice by the biased FBI and even then, there wasn’t anything to convict her of.” Only because she made sure of that before they got them–which, by the way, was against the law for her to do.

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  545. You completely missed the authors point. He in no way endorsed hrc. Additionally, there are great inaccuracies in fact within your statement. Talking about her inadequacies is a moot point. She is not president.
    I would like to point out that trump lied a lot, as well. Where is your ire for a man who bragged about overpowering women? If he straight forward told the white nationalists and others of their ilk, “I do not suppport your ideology “. “In fact, I condemn all that you believe. ” or something to that effect. He should be shouting that from the rooftops. Please explain how he can bring our country together if he cannot stand up to these groups. He should be telling these groups that I will shut you down if you try to intimidate any american. Before you bring up blm, learn the difference between a hundreds years old hate group that engaged in genocide in our country, these hate groups entered the neighborhoods of black folk and burned down their homes, killed and/or raped a thousands of men women and kids just because they were black and a group of Americans of different races marching in the streets for equity. Blm is not coming to white neighborhoods setting fire to their homes, lynching white men for just being white……..I know I know…..your response is going to basically be “I know you are but what am I” sort of rhetoric. Still I encourage you to look beyond.

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  546. For me, there were far too many disturbing words tumbling out of Trump’s angry, vile and hateful mouth. He mocked and attacked those who had the audacity to question or challenge him. He then gleefully encouraged his legion of followers to do the same. He has singlehandedly pitted American against American in a manner never before seen, appealing to the baseness of our nature through fear, anger and insecurities. No one is accusing Trump of being anything he himself hasn’t proven to be – through his very own words and actions. The one thing he didn’t lie about was who he was and if you voted for him, you were ok with it because he who is silent, when he ought to have spoken and was able to, is taken to agree.

    Liked by 8 people

  547. I was looking at similarities to the German crowds at Hitler’s rallies and the crowds at Trumps rallies. The only thing that was left out at Trump’s rallies was Hitler’s mustache and swastika. Please don’t tell me that I have to accept this idiot as my President. I will do everything in my power to see that he only serves four years. Oh, if all you poor Midwest unemployed people are looking for someone to be angry with, that you have no job, then just look into the mirror. Your greed with trying to get more wages, more benefits was the reason for your jobs being moved to Mexico or China. So if your angry then look in a mirror and be angry at the face that’s looking back. Get ready for a national police, having the show your “papers” to travel across state line. Just remember that “big brother will be watching”.

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  548. McCain is a sell out to his state, to his country and to his brothers in arms…have felt that way about him well before this election cycle.

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  549. What politician has kept 100% true to their campaign rhetoric? It comes as no surprise that people who don’t realize compromise has to come from both sides of an issue were shocked by the election results.

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  551. I’m neither liberal nor conservative and yet a bit of both and I believe most of us are. This election is/was a very interesting theater of extremes. That alone speaks to the level of despair everyone…everyone..feels. We all watched as the media pretended to be journalists and the candidates pretended to be presidential and the lawyers and law makers pretended to be doing their jobs. There are people afraid that their way of life will change for the worse and people afraid their life won’t ever get better and people afraid their kids will go to one of the wars that the USA is waging or their loved ones won’t get the care they need. We are afraid of strangers and our neighbors and the trust in our government to listen to us ..to care is gone. It is true that we do not know for sure what Trump will do. It is also true that we are very sure what Hillary would do. So we are faced with an opportunity. We are caught in a burning room, where certain death awaits and suddenly the door blows open. We see fire on the other side but there is also the possibility of a way out if we just walk through….what do you choose?

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  552. Wait, you “have grown tired of career politicians?” How come you have reelected the same people to the legislative branch of our government? You are not tired of people who actually write laws, just of the of person who has the veto power? Quick preview, executive branch will get staffed with insiders as well. You’ve changed nothing with this vote, but the social justice will take a serious beating. And because of proposed deregulations, we’ll be facing another market crash in about 2 to 3 years.

    Liked by 1 person

  553. Pingback: What Now? – Yeah, So About That

  554. No one gets out of here alive but seriously taking comfort in the deaths of others instead of trying to work things out? You… pissed…can now count yourself as part of the problem.

    Remember, you are going to be old one day as well, and if you continue acting out when disappointment falls, odds are in your favor to be a bitter old man.

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  559. You wrote: “If Mr. Trump does something silly or stupid, I will not hold back in criticizing it.” Do you criticize the racist policies he has already proposed throughout his campaign? His numerous sexist statements? His choice of a running mate with a terrible record on gay rights? Any of the political appointments he is currently making as president-elect? Or are you waiting for his inauguration before you judge?

    Liked by 1 person

  560. That’s just not true. I didn’t vote for Hilary because I’m an old bigot, sexist individual. I did voted for change. Not a Clinton dynasty who would and probably did anything to garnish votes by telling people what they want to hear rather than a candidate who shares his insights, albeit in an abrasive manner. I don’t wish anyone dead and will let you know that a comment such as that flies in the face of true liberals who just want love. Dig a little deeper if you really care.

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  561. As will you and everybody else reading this today.
    Those with children have skin in the game of the future.
    Those without, not so much.

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  562. Clinton has no charges against her because our legal system refuses to follow the law. Witness what happened to other people who mishandled classified information. The press will carefully expose any Trunp corruption, but Hillary’s errors would be covered up. That is why a vote for Hillary waves in one more brick on the road to third world level corruption.

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  564. The most disapointing thing about President Elect Donald Trump, are not his ideas, which are very general and could be either conservative or liberal, but the fact that he is not curious and seems to have no interest in working to learn about the office he was elected to. He also appears to have no capacity for self-reflection which too often leads to him doubling down on decisions that may not be the best, instead of adjusting. I can’t imagine any job that would require the ability to adjust more than the President of the United States.

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  565. Thank you for this; Paul Ehrlich and Robert Ornstein argued this decades ago in New World, New Mind. They wanted to pursue a course of educating youth to our dangerous default settings as humans who evolved to survive in very different circumstances. You will help many to reframe this dark event. I’m grateful that you took the time to help us focus on a path and a philosophy that will have the best chances of carrying us all to better times. You nailed it with passion, punch, and heart. Maria

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  566. WRONG. Sander’s ideas were not impractical, they were visionary. He had a vision of how to ACTUALLY make America great. Not great again. We arent great, we never have been. America has done great things. And we are exceptoonal in many wsys. America is a great idea. But in reality, we are far from being a nation where all men and women are equal. Bernie had a plan to get us there.

    Liked by 1 person

  567. I am a conservative. …but I believe in a woman’s right to choose……can we plz get over this endless abortion debate?
    It was decided by Roe V Wade in 73…..let’s move on to new bidness

    Liked by 1 person

  571. Jerry, Unless that is short for Geraldine, shut the f#@k up and if it is short for Geraldine, still shut the f#@k up. A fetus is not a human being until it leaves the mother’s uterus.

    Liked by 1 person

  572. Is it a possibility that you have been drinking the main stream media kool aid? Have you relied on the sound bites of what they main stream media ‘says’ or have you investigated the words and actions for yourself. For example the egregious comments about a disabled reporter…..or did that really happen? (https://www.catholics4trump.com/the-true-story-donald-trump-did-not-mock-a-reporters-disability/). The comments on the 11 year old taped conversation were outrageous and despicable….as a 58 year old woman I can tell you I’ve heard that and worse……for the most part those words come from people who are flaming asses who talk but don’t act. Is it OK? No! I have to believe that Trump is smart enough to realize that he has a lot of eyes watching him. The people who did vote for him are people who are sick and tired of the status quo (and that includes ‘do as I say and do not question what I do’ politics. Obama, who was a Junior Senator and had not even completed his first Senate Term was elected President. The world waited to see what that President-elect would do. Why would you offer less to this President-elect?

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  573. As a 30-year U.S. Marine (Ret.) who has fought all over the globe for other people’s freedom, I have only one correction , as a comment, to your essay. It’s in the last couple of lines, and those lines should read: “If insistence on decent treatment of all Americans makes me a conservative in the eyes of liberals, then we do, indeed, need take some time to reflect on who our modern conservatives actually are, admitting they are not whom the news media claims they are for the sake of a divisive story. The world is watching.”

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  574. Mr. Vet sure sounds like he watches a lot of FauxNews & listens to right-wing talk radio. Congrats you have hit all the talking points, now take a sip of your kool-aid and sit back and act all smug.

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  575. It’s moreso because when Trump was confronted with the fact that the KKK supported him, he didn’t out-right denounced them or their support (at least not right away). Both Obama and Clinton, while not speaking about the violence directly, have mentioned a peaceful transition into the new administration. And a White House press secretary has spoken of the need to keep the protests peaceful. It’s not the support of violent people that people take issue with–it’s the response to that support.

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  578. Nice try….It is surprising to me that ANYONE voted for the Democratic Party or their candidate. The corruption of the IRS (Lois Lerner using IRS to target conservatives), state department (numerous people complicit in email scandal), justice department (biased favoritism shown to Clinton), their party leaders ( cheating Bernie and collusion with press on debates) and their candidate (mishandling top secret and pay for play). IF you do an OBJECTIVE comparison few would vote for Hillary. It never happened because of the press. Many did vote for Hillary and continue to trash Trump, now a week after the election is testimony to how successful their campaign was to trash Trump. They chose to ignore numerous felony level offenses. They did this, in my opinion, because the press by a reported 10-1 margin did stories favorable or lenient to Clinton or unfavorable to Trump. Enough people didn’t buy what the press was selling. Strange that Julian Assange basically took the place of an investigative press.

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  581. Thank you for being a voice of reason. Anyone who thinks Trump’s rhetoric is a path to unity is delusional or dishonest.

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  582. ” But it was a choice. And the ultimate choice that was made, the one people will remember a hundred years from now, was a willingness to ignore personal decency and fair treatment towards people who are different in service to that change. That was the choice that the minority of the American electorate made. That was the choice that about a quarter of eligible American voters made”.
    Who is different? Who are you referring to?
    And then you say this;
    ” Because what you showed us with his nomination and your vote in the election, is that you can’t be trusted to do it without us”.
    REALLY? Who is us? All of you who know better? What do you think got Trump elected? It was the politicians, the elite, the lying media, and anyone who has told us how much “we” really don’t matter.
    As a side note Trump railed against an establishment system that IS rigged. I heard nothing racist from him the entire campaign. His jumping off speech was a big dose of truth you all know to be true about our southern border. You are old enough to know better.
    Please read this; http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/264771/american-uprising-daniel-greenfield

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  583. Well Joe, I’m not sure how old you are, but there are two ways to go about it, be an adult and solve the problems in your own life, or be a child and cry until someone, like the president, fixes them (which won’t happen). Here’s a therapy tip, list the problems in your life caused by the government and problems not caused by the government (be honest with yourself, triggers are how your subconscious mind tells you there are problems from the past to deal with). Then list all the time you’ve spent over the past month focused on solving the government problems and the non government problems. Chances are, most of your problems aren’t government related, the government problems you do have are out of your control from a civilian level and would require you to get involved in politics to change them, and you spend most of your time focused on things you can’t change. You don’t need a president to be happy! You are in control of your life and choices, start taking accountability for yourself!

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  584. When you are willing to vote for a candidate who supports know white supremacy and the leaders of the KKK, how can you expect us to think that you are NOT okay with raciism? DENIAL. Like it or not, your decision to support a racist, sexist, constant liar, cheater in business dealings–especially with middle class small business owners who contracted with him in good faith, sexual predator,Tax evader, Draft dodger on multiple occasions—DOES mean that you are supporting those values, not just that man’s bravado and appeal to your self-centered causes.

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  586. I do not accept Trump as president because he does not act like a president. His undeniable narcissism, expressed in his stream of tweets, his indifference to policy, his expressed desire to spend his time holding rallies instead of doing the people’s work, all demonstrate a lack of interest in governing. His response to the demonstrations against him was to complain that it was unfair to him personally. This is not normal. He is not well. And when the leader of your country is a dangerous individual, it doesn’t matter if he was duly elected, it is your moral obligation to do everything in your power to oppose him. I feel that the emphasis on his racism, etc., obscures the deeper issue of his complete unfitness for office.

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  587. Trump, “grab them by the pussy” Trump, because he can get away with it because he’s famous.
    What else is he going to try to get away with now, because he’s president? Hitler was not Hitler in 1928.

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  588. Sean- love your column and as a shipmate and friend have read for years without commenting– I enjoy the intellectual rigor applied to your thoughts. I voted for Trump- absentee because I am in training headed to be XO of a Destroyer and would not be in Florida to vote. I didn’t like the hate that Trump spewed at times but I truly think our President-Elect realized that he’d have to come back to the middle- and as he said, be the President for all of our people after elected. I think President-Elect Trumps economic plan makes sense and the idea of smaller– and likely cheaper– government is the way to go.

    As I watched clips from one of my favorite shows– SNL- today (on way too late to actually stay up), I thought they hit it dead on with most of the show. Kate McKinnon’s Hillary rendition of “Hallelujah” was dead-on and Dave Chappelle gave the right amount of seriousness, comedy, and brevity as the host.

    But more importantly is where we stand. To quote my new favorite musical– “Winning is easy, governing is harder”– this is true from Lin Manuel Miranda’s Revolutionary musical and maybe even more true in 2016 America. We all must come together, give the new administration our backing and demand they come closer to the middle to govern all the people. Will everyone endorse every policy- no- they never will- but the policies and laws passed by this government must take into account all the people.

    Keep on keeping on Sean- your blog is awesome and I look forward to continuing to read. I hope that Trump is able to Keep American Great and we all owe him our support to get there.

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  589. Just like all those people who made up stories about racial “assaults” the news spread but barely even covered when they were found to be lies?

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  593. What you forget is that protests are protected rights, unless conservatives have written it out of the Constitution. Let me know. The other thing you forget is that for as long as Obama is/was president Republicans did not feel the need to “grow up and accept the results” of his legitimate presidency. Disrespected at every turn. Among conservative citizens, the N word was bandied about in reference to him. So, I don’t know on what moral ground you expect the “other side” to behave. Also, because Trump sanctioned blatant racism and sexism, it behooves him, and by extension you, to tame the crazies among your party. Men are threatening to grab women’s privates. School children are taunted with “build the wall!”. Republicans are trying to distance themselves from all this, but you can’t. Fix this.

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  595. Pingback: An 8,000-mile Perspective on the Presidential Election | The Savage Searching

  598. Thank you. I fear the work of the next fall years will fall on the marginalized groups and reading essays like this comforts me in knowing we are not alone (I’m a Latina). America can only purport to be exceptional if we hold ourselves accountable to our ideals.

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  599. Just another way of putting down those who voted differently than you – everyone has their reasons and very few have to do with racism blah blah blah

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  600. “If Mr. Trump does something silly or stupid, I will not hold back in criticizing it.”

    You voted for one of the siliest and stupidest candidates the world has ever seen. Almost certainly the silliest and stupidest one America has ever had. He is voluntarily orange, he doesn’t always finish his sentences, uses ‘words’ like ‘bigly’ and he openly lies. That’s before the sexism and racism.

    Frankly, Trump voters’ threshold for silly is too high for anyone to trust their judgment. I understand not voting for Hillary, but actually voting for a semi-shaved, charmless orangutan who spouts hate speech? Silly and stupid.

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  602. I don’t think the author ignored problems with HRC – actually believes that (paraphrasing) HRC was not an acceptable candidate. The author also isn’t attacking anyone, but says that most people who voted for Trump share a common belief in a need for change; the entire point of the article is encouraging conservatives to truly uphold conservative values and seize the opportunity to create positive change instead of a corrupt status-quo or dangerous fear-mongering (that means holding the president and government accountable and disagreeing with the government if necessary).

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  604. I agree with the notion that Trump was elected as a message to our government that change was needed. However, I see that message as one that is distinctly different that those who would sugarcoat what has happened to America. The government that Trump defined and the one that that his supporters voted for is, in fact, one of racial hatred, misogyny, xenophobia, religious extremism, and that inhumanity toward other humans is acceptable. There is no other factual interpretation.

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  606. “When the people voting are castigated, and blindly called names (deplorables) because they don’t trust a candidate who continually lied, lied under oath, ran an illegal email server with confidential information on it…” Shut up. There isn’t a president or politician without a scandal aside from Obama. Not one. She called them “deplorables” ONE. Very low brow, not nice comment. That she was crucified for ad naturally apoligized for. MEANWHILE, DT has steretyped, insulted, offended, every single minority in addition mocked VETERANS. Did you forget that? Did you forget what he said about McCain? YES YOU DID. You forgot it ALL. Because the right did not care. This man wanted Muslims to self identify in a coubtry where freedom of religion is a guarentee. BUT please tell me again about some emails. You didn’t fight for this country, you fought for white angry men.

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  607. All politicians will be supported by certain groups, organizations, etc.. They have a right to support a candidate just like anyone else. President Obama never had any association with these groups nor accepted their support–unlike Trump. As far as him saying conservatives are violent, racist etc., please cite your sources for these statements. As far as liberals wanting to take away people’s guns, that is so far fetched and used only by conservatives to scare the voting public. NO liberal I know (including myself) EVER want to take guns away from law-abiding people. We only want some “common sense” gun laws to keep those who should not have guns in the first place from walking into a gun show and coming out with military weapons. If you were ever to be touched personally by a tragedy and you or your wife, daughter, son, grandson or granddaughter were gunned down by a killer who should never have been able to buy a gun in the first place, I’m sure you’d see things differently. People like you just cannot empathize.

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  609. I think you might be forgetting the fact that our country was founded on the separation of church and state. If a politician wants to outlaw abortion because his faith doesn’t allow it, that reasoning has no place in a governmental decision. I also don’t understand why conservatives preach that they want small government, yet when it comes to women’s rights to make decisions about her own body or LGBTQ rights they could not be more intensely involved. I just don’t think I’ll ever understand the modern day conservatives beliefs.

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  612. I am a single mother in Wyoming and I voted for Trump. No he wasn’t the best choice but I could not vote for a woman who would say “at this point what does it matter?” when talking about the soldiers that died at Benghazi. I am conservative but truly do not hate gays (have 2 brothers who are and many friends who are) they are way more forgiving and kind than a lot of other people I know. As a child I was taught in Sunday School the song “Jesus loves the little children” ALL the children of the world no matter what color and that is how I have tried to live my life. But this all needs to stop and everyone try to put aside their differences and help all of us make this country more of what it once was. I do not dislike (hate is such an awful word) anyone who did not vote for Trump. Everyone has their right to vote the way they feel is best for them. I will not call them a name nor will I say they chose wrong. We have had the election now let us help bring our children up to be decent kind human beings and maybe get term limits passed to get some of the long time people out of Washington as that seems to be more of the problem our country has. So that is all this white uneducated voter has to say

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  613. You do know Trump bribed the woman (so she didn’t sue him), the gay man bought his way in to the tune of $1.25 mil after destroying a media company, and Carson. Well…he is just scary.

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  617. Have you read the story about Baby Brianna? Was God stupid to allow her to begin her life? only to be tortured and killed by her parents at age 5 months? oh how I wish she could have been aborted…would have been so much better for her little soul to go right up to heaven rather than live through what she had to live through.

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  619. I have. An idea…if you wish to punish the woman who wants an abortion why aren’t you punishing the man who helped create the life…like maybe he should be put infront a a panel of women who get to decide whether his penis should be chopped off so he can’t create any more abortion situations?

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  620. “On Tuesday, we took one giant leap backward”
    Tell that to his first cabinet members– a woman, a gay man, and a black man.
    I understand that as the author, you will only see what you want to see, blinded by the depths of your bias.

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  621. No one said anything about muslims support because they are not inherently dangerous and preaching hate, unlike kkk. Conservatives are showing violence in threats and harrassment of POC and LGBTQ folks. They are still showing and being accused of racism and sexism and misogyny, so what is your point exactly? Obama was right?

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  622. “On Tuesday, we took one giant leap backward”
    Tell that to his first cabinet members– a woman, a gay man, and a black man. I understand that you only see what you want to see within the depths of your bias.

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  623. “If mr trump does something silly or stupid”…..(disbelief) with all due respect, have you been sleeping for the past 18 months?

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  624. He’s already backpedalling on his promises, talking about not going after HRC, saying good things about Obamacare, appointing Republican insiders to his cabinet after pledging to ‘drain the swamp.’ Where’s the criticism?

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  625. And, the first thing he does?, ( or, doesn’t do, actually)….. Trump fails to go to even one single veterans day event…. interesting, no?

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  627. “I believe that men and women, whenever possible, should be free to live their lives without government intervention. My family and my Christian faith are the center of my life. I like my guns. Chances are, I’m better than you at using them. I’ve worked with and for the toughest most dangerous men on the planet-men you’ve read books about, men you’ve seen movies about. I’ll never claim to be one. But I’ve proven myself useful in their presence. I share this with you so you understand where and who the message I’m about to deliver comes from.”

    And somehow this is just “CONSERVATIVES”??? Same ol same ol bullshit from the right; “we OWN” tough; “we OWN “patriotism”; “we OWN christianity and family and guns”. No, actually, you do not. And now YOU and all the rest of us get to suffer and watch our nation being destroyed by the KKK white supremacists THANKS to THE REPUBLIC PARTY who enabled and supported it all. For decades. Well done. Consolation; since the top 14 of 15 welfare queen states are RED, you’re all going to hurt even worse than the rest of us.

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  628. You comments are out of line. Wishing people were dead tells a lot about your lack of compassion, and reasonable ability to discuss issues. Calling people names just confirms your liberal, hateful posture.

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  629. Weak. When you stand on law, then fall back on some misunderstood theocracy you lose all credibility. Either you are saying God is so stupid as to put a soul in a creature He knows will never be born, or you don’t believe in the eternal nature of the soul. Either way you aren’t fit to comment on something you clearly don’t understand.

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  630. Weak reply. You cannot justify what you just did by falling back on Hillary anymore. Anymore than you can claim hero status for fighting in corporate sponsored wars. We know too much to allow your simple explanations. Your argument lacks foundation or scope.

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  632. You know your argument loses a lot when it only consists of name calling. The main thing that you tend to leave out is the most important to us deplorables is that of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. God has his hand in the way s of man. You deplore Trump but you know God never chose the most popular nor the best looking nor the strongest. In fact he always used the weaker one that man would not choose. You know David was not a sinless man but he was a man of God’s own heart. Just saying??

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  633. On election night I called 3 people and texted one other. My worries for their safety went through the roof seeing what happened as a result of Trump/Pence winning.

    Over and over I watched Michael Moore’s video clip from “Trumpland” trying to understand what just happened.

    Here’s what he said :

    “I know a lot of people in Michigan who are planning to vote for Trump, and they don’t necessarily like him that much, and they don’t necessarily agree with him,”They’re not racists and rednecks. They’re actually pretty decent people. So I wanted, after talking to a number of them, I wanted to write this.”

    “Whether Trump means it or not is kind of irrelevant because he’s saying the things to people who are hurting. And it’s why every beaten-down, nameless, forgotten working stiff who used to be part of what was called the middle class loves Trump. He is the human Molotov cocktail that they’ve been waiting for. The human hand grenade that they can legally throw into the system that stole their lives from them.”

    “They see that the elites, who ruined their lives, hate Trump. Corporate America hates Trump. Wall Street hates Trump. The career politicians hate Trump. The media hates Trump — after they loved him, and created him, and now hate him. Thank you, media. The enemy of my enemy is who I’m voting for on November 8th, Trump’s election is going to be the biggest ‘f — you’ ever recorded in human history. And it will feel good.”

    “And it will feel good. For a day. Maybe a week. Possibly a month. And then? Like the Brits, who wanted to send a message, so they voted to leave Europe. Only to find out, that if you voted to leave Europe, you actually have to leave Europe. And now they regret it.”
    “So when the rightfully angry people of Ohio and Michigan and Pennsylvania and Wisconsin find out after a few months in office that President Trump wasn’t going to do a damn thing for them, it’ll be too late for them to do anything about it. But I get it. You wanted to send a message. You had righteous anger, and justifiable anger. Well, message sent. Good night, America. You just elected the last President of the United States.”

    I couldn’t believe that I was agreeing everything he said and how right Moore was.

    My partner just said to me : “Calm down. Let go of your anger. We survived Reagan, Bush Sr and Jr., we will be ok.”

    No. I will not sit back and watch everything I and my friends have fought for erode away.

    Even if Trump doesn’t care about gay people, his VP mate IS A PROBLEM. The republican sociopaths blocked Obama’s SCOTUS choice thereby ensuring that whoever Trump chooses screws the country over for decades to come.

    We need to either seriously overhaul or outright rid an invention by this country’s founding fathers that was brilliant at the time :

    http://thefederalist.com/2016/09/16/the-electoral-college-still-makes-sense-because-were-not-a-democracy/

    “Pure democracy” is just another phrase for “mob rule.” Dictatorship of the majority means 51 percent of the citizenry rule the other 49 percent. That minority has no rights except those the condescending majority grants. It works well for those in the 51 percent, not so much for those in the 49. Plato knew it, and James Madison, who knew his Plato, did too. Plato and Madison both recognized that justice and liberty for the minority is possible only when power is shared between groups in society.

    Plato’s “Republic” heavily influenced Madison and the other framers to devise a Constitution that protected the minority. Plato held that the ideal, i.e., just, form of government was one in which power was shared correctly between workers, warriors, and rulers. Madison held that the ideal, i.e., American, form of government was one in which power was shared correctly between judges, lawmakers, and rulers.

    Inspired as it is, our Constitution protects the minority while preserving the best of democracy: we the people elect representatives to run the government (republic) and we do so by majority vote (democracy). Ergo, this is a democratic republic. Ergo, an Electoral College.”

    HOWEVER, the 1% have all the power.

    Let’s get one thing straight : we are NOT a democracy. We are a republic. That is the way our government was founded and it will remain that way unless a violent revolution like what happened in France 300 years ago drastically overhauls everything.

    In the film “Requiem For The American Dream” Noam Chomsky a world renowned American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, logician, social critic, and political activist puts the intellectual underpinnings on why the American Dream is fast becoming a nightmare.

    His ten principles are pretty easy to understand as he invokes the Founding Fathers and Adam Smith to buttress his intellectual arguments that income inequality in the U.S. is not only a problem but a huge problem that not only affects us in the pocketbook but undermines our democratic processes that have stood us so well over the last 200+ years.

    We have a professional class in the U.S. that has become immune to the globalization issues facing blue collar workers and both political parties have turned a blind eye to helping American’s who have borne the brunt of trade policies that benefit corporate America at the expense of working people.

    Also the constant drumbeat of the elites against labor unions in our country, an organizing group that once had immense power to protect American wages. In the new “sharing” economy there are vicious fights to keep the sharing workforce from unionizing.

    Also massive attacks mounted against public sector workers including teachers because they belong to a union. These attacks are not random events but carefully orchestrated events with an end in mind: the continued growth of the 1% that even Adam Smith warned us about.

    The big fear among the enormously wealthy is that the majority of American’s will get too much democracy and start pushing for rights that have long been denied them.

    They rely on law enforcement and even the military if necessary to protect their property rights and right to govern or manipulate the legislators who supposedly represent their constituents but in reality only represent the interests of the 1%.

    The #Occupywallstreet and #blacklivesmatter movements of today are examples of citizen dissent whom those in power see as a threat to their rule and the militarized police response are their hired militia to suppress voices of injustice.

    Cecily McMillan is one such witness . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJzJV6QdLw0

    Chomsky lays this all out in his documentary. You may not agree with everything he lays out, but he makes an awful lot of common sense. Many Americans are finally waking up to this reality.

    Journalism has been dead for at least ten years with a few exceptions. This is a country designed to enrich a tiny minority while passing the costs on to the poorest of its citizens. In rural America, a woman working fill time at Walmart has do decide on food for her family or an epi-pen for her allergic child. Decry all you want, but the reaction of anger is genuine. The elitist ruling class will fall one way or the other. It always has and always will.

    But change hasn’t and will not happen because of the way this country was founded. Unless we collectively fight back, the status quo will remain no matter who is in office. We have a choice.
    And there is plenty of blame to go around. I supported Sanders because my partner and I agreed with him on everything he said, but not everyone including liberals would. I still support Bernie. I’m just as angry as you are. But I wasn’t going to throw my vote away to some moron who couldn’t name one political world leader or another idiot who believes that vaccines cause autism or WIFI signals harm children or emit radiation. The choices were terrible either way one worse than the other.

    Blame Debbie Wasserman-Shultz who is responsible, and those who either didn’t vote, or did a protest vote.

    For people of the south, corporations and billionaires such as the Koch brothers, The Devos’ and Walton Family control the Republican Party. Across the Bible Belt they pay fundamentalist ministers to preach against Democrats and minorities. They tell their congregations that Democrats and minorities have evil practices that will destroy America and the fundamentalist way of life. Fundamentalist Protestant ministers are tools for the wealthy elite to gather votes from the poor who are ignorant enough to support the party that oppresses them.

    I reluctantly agreed to get behind Hillary after Sanders lost the DNC nomination. Do I believe that Sanders would have been elected against Trump? I’m not so sure. Don’t forget that there’s a huge swath of the country that is willfully ignorant. The moment you mention to them the word “socialist” they will not get behind that person. They are also racist, anti-Muslim and anti-semite despite being pro-military and pro-Israelí. Sanders is jewish and has publicly stated socialist views. And if by some miracle he did win the Presidency, the sociopaths in our government and corporate interests would have made sure nothing Sanders wants would happen including single-payer.

    I’m not afraid of socialist ideas. The problem with the word “socialism” is dictatorships around the world have taken power all under the guise of that word. Look how that turned out.

    Now as far as bringing jobs back to this nation? How many? How about the 23 million back from China and India? That would be a start considering how those nations and the greedy corporations FUCKED US they helped and still helping gain massive profits (however those same nations decided to steal their intellectual property which I say GOOD) over under NAFTA and now TPP which is being hotly contested. That’s a reason why corporations and Wall Street hate him. They know that when it comes to jobs, once nationalism takes hold the population will unite and get behind him. Will it be enough? Apparently it was enough to get him elected.

    I understand the anger in this country. I am angry. I grew up in the ghetto. Poor. Very poor. I didn’t have much as a kid. I am the child of immigrants. I was born and raised in the United States by a single mother after my parents divorced when I was a child. This is my home. The only home I have ever known. I love my country. I was taught that education is a way out of hardship for a better life. I worked my ass off getting educated taking on debt in order to see a dream that so far in 10 years since I graduated college has been met with vicious employment ageism. I got screwed over. I want to work in IT engineering in the technology sector. I still haven’t been able to get permanent work.
    All the good paying jobs were given to China and India. 23 million of them.The U.S. government and corporations have essentially committed treason to the people of this nation. The rich are directly responsible.

    Bernie Sanders has said in a speech they need to be told that they “cannot have it all”, and he is right. So, I supported Sanders only to see the DNC fuck him over.

    When you have a conservative billionaire named Nick Hanauer warning other billionaires that “the pitchforks are coming” :

    http://www.anonews.co/ultra-rich-mans-letter/

    “At the same time that people like you and me are thriving beyond the dreams of any plutocrats in history, the rest of the country—the 99.99 percent—is lagging far behind. The divide between the haves and have-nots is getting worse really, really fast. In 1980, the top 1 percent controlled about 8 percent of U.S. national income. The bottom 50 percent shared about 18 percent. Today the top 1 percent share about 20 percent; the bottom 50 percent, just 12 percent.

    But the problem isn’t that we have inequality. Some inequality is intrinsic to any high-functioning capitalist economy. The problem is that inequality is at historically high levels and getting worse every day. Our country is rapidly becoming less a capitalist society and more a feudal society. Unless our policies change dramatically, the middle class will disappear, and we will be back to late 18th-century France. Before the revolution.

    And so I have a message for my fellow filthy rich, for all of us who live in our gated bubble worlds:

    Wake up, people. It won’t last. If we don’t do something to fix the glaring inequities in this economy, the pitchforks are going to come for us. No society can sustain this kind of rising inequality. In fact, there is no example in human history where wealth accumulated like this and the pitchforks didn’t eventually come out. You show me a highly unequal society, and I will show you a police state. Or an uprising. There are no counterexamples. None. It’s not if, it’s when.”

    That is warning. The inevitable will happen. This man understands this. And he is a conservative.
    I am fed up the collusion of corporate and state power. It is corrupt, absolute and stacked against all of us. If you are not part of that top 2% or even 10%, you do not matter. It is a government system that was originally intended to prevent tyranny from the poor against the wealthy however now is purposely designed to keep power at the hands of a very few instead of everyone.

    While I understand that is how this country was founded, this bullshit of “pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps” Reaganomics idea that has fooled the majority of the public the last 40 years has ruined a once prosperous and vibrant and well off middle and even a working class public. My parents and their friends once were able to live comfortably in their chosen professions when I was a child. Not anymore. I hate the people in our government and want THEM ALL OUT. I hate the rich. Their pathological greed never ends. Their avaricious view is why there are no jobs in this country. 23 million shipped overseas in 20 years.

    A friend of mine named Paul Bua re-posted another brilliant writing piece from his friend Darren Watts explaining how the people who voted from Trump got conned again :

    “You know what’s fascinating to me? How little joy the right wing is actually getting from this. I watch Twitter and various social media, including this place, and even the real morons are showing signs of fraying. I wonder if it’s beginning to penetrate their dim little minds that once the schadenfreude wears off, they’ve done nothing but screw themselves.

    I won’t lose health insurance, they will. I’ll get a huge tax cut, and they’ll get nothing. They won’t get the fantasy ‘high-paying manufacturing’ jobs back, they will likely get inflation which again won’t matter to me, but will to them. They will terrify a lot of minority children and their parents, there will be demonstrations and riots, but I’m pretty sure they won’t be here in idyllic Harford County.

    I hate to break it to these folks, but in practical terms – hardcore money terms – this is great for me, and will suck for them. My only pressing concern at the moment is whether I’m going to stay with one branch of DOD or move to another one. I’m covered. Them? Not so much.

    What’s changed for me politically is that I used to vote to help people like that, because it was my moral obligation to do so. I voted for Obama knowing I was one of the people whose taxes would go up. I voted to raise the state income tax in Maryland, which believe me, hurt. I’ve been lucky in life, but I know on some level what it’s like to struggle.

    “Those people” aren’t an abstraction to me as I sit atop my lofty perch, those are still in many ways ‘my’ people. But, ‘my people’ have just told me to go fuck myself. So I am freed from my need to give a shit about them.

    I suspect most liberals feel that way.

    Did the deplorables think we were raising our own taxes because we hate money? Did they think we were raising our own taxes just to help black people?

    How would that work?
    We were raising our own taxes to help anyone and everyone left out, black, white, Latino, whatever.
    We just felt since we were lucky, we owed something.
    Now we owe nothing to poor and working class whites.
    We wanted to help workers transition from coal mining to some more viable occupation.
    Wanted to help people retrain and re-educate and adapt. Wanted to help with their medical costs.
    Wanted to help keep the teeth in their idiot heads from rotting away because they couldn’t afford a dentist.
    Wanted their water to be drinkable.
    Wanted them to know that when they got too old to work, they wouldn’t live out the ends of their lives in squalor.

    You know, all those evil plans we liberals are constantly cooking up.

    Now, as far as I’m concerned, the red state folks can drop dead. The fact is we have no political power anyway, so we are absolved. Cheetoh Jesus will take care of all their needs. You know, once he gets done giving me a big pile of money.

    I’m sure that won’t bother some of them (until it sinks in, anyway), but in the end it’s really not good to have all the successful people in the country thinking, “Fuck us? No, fuck you.”

    Someone here the other day gave me the usual huffy bullshit about me not showing proper respect for those people. I had respect for those people. Past tense. Done now. And in a year or two, when those people start to realize that once again (surprise!) they’re still losing at three card monte I can, with a clear conscience, laugh.

    Be sure to let us all know when those high-paying manufacturing jobs get back to your communities. I won’t be checking the employment stats any longer, because it no longer matters to me. Your problems are no longer my problems.”-end quote

    #InTrumpsAmerica

    I am somewhere in the middle. I support the death penalty for murderers, people who rape and murder women and children, terrorists domestic and foreign, and fully support long jailing sentences for bankers, wall street crooks, and corrupt officials who helped crash the economy in 2008. I lost part of my 401K. I know many who lost everything that year.

    I am for responsible gun ownership and supporter of the second amendment. It is a right that was and still is guaranteed by the founding fathers enshrined in the constitution. I am also a supporter of equal rights for women and minorities. I also support the right to free speech. I am against media consolidation and absolutely hate monopolies. I despise the corporate-owned media. I hate corporations. They have proven that their loyalty is to no one but themselves, not even to their shareholders and certainly not to their country.

    There is anger in this country. It does not matter what political view a person holds.

    As much as I’d like to be an optimist, Trump is not it. The racism, sexism and a host of other offensive rhetoric and the emboldening of bigoted people he used to ride the wave towards the white house will not end well. I honestly want this country to collapse. I have had it. I want those in power government and corporate in front of a firing squad and the American people be the ones pulling the trigger.

    And as much as I hate to say it, the way things are now, it is NOT working for everyone.

    It is an US-we the 99% versus THEM-the greedy 1%.

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  635. I reluctantly voted for Ms Clinton, because I could not vote for someone who smells of fascism. I am a liberal progressive and believed Ms Clinton is part of Military-lndustrial complex that supports our wealthy elite in their greed. However, I did not see that her opponent had any better ideas except to reinforce the same philosophy of raping the snvironment, making war, and subjugating people by denying them basic human rights, not only in this country but also abroad where so many of our goods are produced.

    But as my permaculture friends remind me, where there is a problem, there is also an opportunity. If we can’t change society politically we can socially. A friend I made from Russia noticed how isolated Americans are from real connections with one another. We barely know our neighbors and consequently are often unaware that they may need our help. We also because of pride, shame, or just not knowing where to turn do not ask for help when we may need it.

    So if you are bitter about how this election turned out, or angry that you should feel threatened because of the choice you made you have the opportunity to make a change that really counts. Invite you neighbors to dinner. Make friends with someone not so like yourself. Stand with someone who is being harrassed. Or if socially awkward and embarrassed pay attention to what is happening in your community and challenge injustices either quietly or public ally. This not the time to withdraw further. Remember if they come for your neighbor and you remain silent they can come for you next.

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  637. See that is were you are wrong, I don’t need to be told to grow up and accept the results of this election.this man and what he stands for is not my president.and while I was serving in military he was on his 3rd or5th deferment.so I for one will never be able to look at that man and call him Mr president. Not my president

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  639. Just like our Dear President (notice I said *our* because even though I didn’t vote for him I’m not under some mistaken impression that by saying he’s not MY president he isn’t president of my country?) is acting like a true leader and allowing people to riot and destroy cities because they don’t like the outcome? Please. Protest all you want (although, it’s absurd) but rioting is ridiculous. In just the few short days since DJT became President-Elect, Russia and Syria have publicly announced their willingness to work with us, Mexico and Canada are willing to re-negotiate NAFTA, Israel’s Prime Minister wants to work to repair a damaged relationship, and the DOW closed at an all-time high.

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  640. Pardon me, but I really couldn’t find any hate at all in that essay. Could you explain? I’m hearing it over and over from you guys, usually when someone says something you don’t like or don’t want to hear. That is not hate.

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  641. So, anyone committing a crime should be deported? I mean then that would be the fate of all of those vandalizing buildings with swastikas, those assaulting Muslim-American women by rippining off their hijabs, and those throwing bottles at African Americans on the street, correct? Or is this just reserved for the “losers”?

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  642. Phew. So many of these responses are all over the board. Everyone is still polarized, arguing and worst of all, NOT hearing one another.
    Frankly, I find this a phenomenal essay. He hits the nail squarely on the head. I stand with the essayist.
    I couldn’t get through most of these messages which are frankly divisive, dismissive of legitimate concerns and rank with fallacious argument. Just one point to you righties. Two wrongs do not make a right. Tit for tat just doesn’t get you anywhere. So many of you justified Trump and your party’s actions based on the wrongdoings, real and imagined, of the other party. Going back to Jimmy Carter! Jeez!
    Jimmy and Hillary are not POTUS. Your guy will be. I hold POTUS to the highest standard. Shouldn’t we all?
    Peace to you all.

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  644. It is undeniable that Donald Trump has normalize misogynistic, racist language and attitudes, and that there has already been an uptick in hate crimes and hate speech since he has been elected. So no, maybe not everyone who voted for Donald Trump is a racist. But everyone who voted for Donald Trump decided that as part of the entire package deal, they wanted to condone his racism — and if they DON’T condone it, they should already be calling on the candidate they supported to address the hate crimes that are occurring all across the country, to denounce them in no uncertain terms. But Trump’s supporters aren’t doing that, and so Donald Trump continues to hire our nation’s most notable homophobes and xenophobes for top cabinet positions.

    But the thing you’re most wrong about? That the left can’t win elections as the party of LGBT, minorities, and women. Of course, for the sake of the future we need to embrace leftist economic theory as well as social values, but that’s by far a majority of the country right there, and the old white dudes are dying.

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  646. If you think all those millions of people protesting in the cities across the country are on someone’s payroll, well honey, have i got a bridge to sell you!

    Liked by 3 people

  647. However, Clinton has no charges pending while Trump does. Fraud, racketeering. Like the Trump “U.” patrons, you have been defrauded of your vote. He is already backsliding from the promises that got him elected. He’s hiring lobbyists. He’s no public servant.

    Liked by 2 people

  648. You should have written this article. If the writer couldn’t see how Hilliary Clinton would have been a catastrophe for this country, he has no business labeling himself as a conservative.

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  649. No the “Left” did nothing of the sort. They did call out those like the article stated were willfully blind to the section of the party that was racist, homophobic, Islamophobic and bigoted. Yet surprisingly those who voted for Trump NEVER condemned that behavior, not in any way shape or meaningful form. The polls show people couldn’t talk about Trumps policy because he has none. Not one specific thing he can point to that would benefit the “middle america” Its the same thing we hear every 4 years from the Republican candidate. cut taxes, limit government, deregulate industry. It has not changed.

    If Trump wanted to help “Middle America” he could have proposed any number of solutions. Here are a few.

    #1. Legalize Marijuana and tax it. Colorado has for example created jobs in a new industry that has boosted the states treasury. Now as with all things there are growing pains that they are working on. However their model shows it can be done. This also in turn has reduced the number of people incarcerated for drug offenses saving the state money on jails and lawyers.

    #2 A Proactive jobs bill. (Not the Keystone pipeline) As with the oil spill in Alabama and then the explosion a month later. Deregulation and lax oversight have allowed companies such as Colonial to reap huge monetary rewards but end up hurting the consumer when things go awry. This jobs bill go not just for clean energy but for infrastructure as well. With 65,000 bridges, pipelines and roads in need of repair or updating.

    #3 Increase in wages. Stagnant wages in combination of increased cost. (inflation and corporate greed) Studies have shown an increase in wages has a negligible effect on business. More disposable income allows for more spending and a more robust economy.

    #4 Taxes- This is two-fold. Yes those that make more then 250,000 should pay more in taxes. Trump has not paid taxes in what 18 years? You cannot sustain any government without revenue. The U.S. Postal service actually makes money. It also includes cutting spending on things not needed like Oil, Medical, Pharmaceutical subsidies and closing Military industrial contracts that provide no immediate or long term value i.e. F-35 advance combat fighter jet.

    #5 Education- ties into number 4 that surplus thats not used on jobs is used to promote education. A smarter populace is a more productive one. we are rapidly falling behind internationally in crucial elements such as STEM fields. We need to invest in better education for all levels nationally. We are ranked almost in the 30’s internationally in Math and Science..

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  650. Great piece of trash Chris W. …more hate. God Bless America. Let’s see what happens. Time will tell. The people have spoken. OBAMA had his time. Time goes on as does history.

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  651. This is an excellent analysis that does the work of separating voters who wanted change from the racism undergirding Trumps campaign, and yet does not shy away from holding holding protest voters responsible for the fear monger about to be our president. in fact the reason people voted was not EITHER race or class but it did involve both. Many on us on the left were torn about voting for HRC too, but came together to support her in the wake of the racist hate speech, misogyny and xenophobia…..sadly, without success. It is up to all of us who believe in human and civil rights to come together now and block policies and groups that threaten minorities, non-Christians, lgbt, women and the other precarious members of our communities that are now paying the price for the horrors unleashed by this election.

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  652. It’s that type of ad hominem attack that caused Hillary to lose the election. I’m a Black, gay man who has fought for social justice for over 25 years and I will no longer accept the status quo and corruption found in BOTH parties. If you are unwilling to hold your candidate and political party to higher standards, you will ALWAYS be “Justifiably” pissed.

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  653. Hi Sean,

    This is very eloquently written. Please ignore all those who are calling you a RINO and please keep writing your thoughts and opinions as we ride this wild rollercoaster of American politics. I believe we are all, deep down, moderates when it comes to politics. I voted for both Republican and Democratic candidates. I’m socially liberal, but very fiscally conservative. At times when others are at risk of having their freedoms being taken away, I vote for the former because my wallet is in no way comparable to the livelihood of minority Americans. It’s saddening to see my fellow citizens align with their party rather than the values you listed. Your values and your opinions Sean, they matter and don’t let anyone else put you down for them. I am giving the President-elect a chance. I see good things that will come our way because of him (abolishment of TPP, promised increase of American infrastructure) and I also see bad things (weakening the EPA, corporate tax cuts). I am ready to speak good of him when his accomplishments deserve it, and I am willing to criticize him when he fails. This, I hope, is what his supporters will do, too.

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  655. If you are going to claim that Trump should be judged because the KKK supported him, then that means you have to judge Obama because of the following video.

    Right?

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  658. Jesus also said, “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” “What you have done to the least among them, you have done to me,” “women are more precious than jewels,” “Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith; these are the fruits of the spirit,” “thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor…” And so on. So, as. Christian, how can you support a man who goes against 88% of Jesus’ teachings in favor of supporting claims that require an extended definition of “child”. And, I assume if the passages you quoted above are the the most important passages to you that you support government programs that provide pre-natal and early childhood programs? Because most people who cite those verses vehemently oppose government spending on programs in place to help actual, born children. I get that this sounds aggressive but it’s something I’m really wrestling with.

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  659. ” I believe that men and women, whenever possible, should be free to live their lives without government intervention” The why do you vote conservatives? Why did you bring up guns? the idea that liberal;s want to take your gun away is an example of GOP frenzy. You say you are a Christians, but yet you side with the group that uses the government to take peoples rights away? IS it that you put you belief above the rule of law? or the rights of others? Most of you post is an example of how the GOP has lied, over and over again to spread FUD. You have fallen for it hook line and sinker. They need to keep upping there lies becasue fewer and fewer people are actual republics any more because they slid off into loony toon land about 25 years ago.

    I’m gladsome people on the republican side are having a wake up call on how far the republicans have swung. You friends that said nothing? The are just straight R voters and everything else is an excuse. Any Christian that voted fro trump should be ashamed of themselves.

    For those that think this is just becasue an R won: I pity you. I pity that you can’t see the bigger picture, I pity that you voted for a man backed by Russian oligarchy. I pity that you think using lies and devise words to specifically divide the county worked on you.

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  660. None of you “moved on” after Obama, hahahaaaa! That is one of the most blatant revisions of recent history I’ve ever heard! People whined and gnashed their teeth about him all the way to present. “Moved on”?!! HAHAHAAAAA

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  661. BEST ARTICLE OUT THERE. Keep writing! You are so right, and so coherent. I was an investigative reporter for “60 Minutes” before I left the business in frustration twenty years ago, and you, of all those who have written, have nailed the heart of this issue. Thank you!

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  662. The deplorable people Hillary Clinton was referring to are NOT the working class white people like me (former Trader Joe’s employee) and my husband (electrician), they are the KKK members, neo-Nazis, militias, border patrol, and anti-immigrant groups. Those are the deplorable people who I understood her to be referring to.

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  663. Don’t like it? Move! I am so sick of this crap! What’s done is done. We moved on after Obama…so get the hell over this!

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  668. Hey Roosterpete, I can understand where you’re coming from with regard to identifying that it may be a minority of the people who voted for Trump that align with the White Supremicist/generally prejudiced viewpoint. And, I don’t want to endorse any acts of violence, because that does not lead to solutions, rather it leads to sides becoming more entrenched in their perspectives and not feeling heard. I do feel that it’s important to point out that the “push back” that you’re saying is enacted by the conservative is grounded in a viewpoint that is inherently oppressive and moves away from equity. The journey toward equity related to a range of social issues has been like water over a rock, and yet there has been progress. Any small minority that seeks to return to an unequal system wherein one race and gender is in a position to oppress all others is a regression of our society and not representative of the notion of liberty and justice for all. Rather, it is unjust. It is that injustice that undercuts efforts toward equity that has led to such vehemence from the majority. The silence of the conservative suggests the acceptance of unjust and oppressive perspectives. While the change is what was desired, the oppressive and prejudiced views that accompany that change can be admonished……unless, of course, it is a return to that oppression and prejudice that is also desired.

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  669. I wish the Republic Party had done the same when Obama won. You’re asking for everyone to give Trump a chance. The Republican Party’s response to an Obama win was to promise the country they would impede every single Obama idea. And that’s exactly what they did. Now that all is said and done you Obama haters like to criticize him for not “working with congress” among other things. I watched all those Republicsns in congress complain and denigrate. Now we’ve got trump in office and he wants to bring Creeps like Newt Gingrich back!!!

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  670. Exactly! If you look at my FB page which I opened to public I was able to Prove that regardless of politics or who some voted for the heart of America is still full of compassion. I had a few combative people but for the most part healthy dialogue was had. This is the America I know!
    I’ve been unable to write since that issue of OTV. I still have faith !
    https://www.google.com/amp/s/otvmagazine.com/2016/09/28/faith-and-what-you-wont-learn-about-me-based-on-the-box-i-check/amp/?client=safari

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  671. A Tired Veteran you just did what you conseratives have been doing all along, turning it onto Clinton! She is not President Elect, Trump is. I would like to ask you just one question, Did You speak out when he was running for president and said all those awful things or did you just attack Clinton and ignore him? In my opinion your outrage should be just on you shoulders.

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  672. Hello. First of all, thank you for your insight and honesty. As a liberal who also did not go to the ballot box with glee, I am both profoundly disappointed and bizarrely hopeful with the result of this election. The silence and the acceptance of Trump’s consistent hate speech stunned me. I personally am not religious, but I found the hypocrisy of those who are and chose to vote for Trump anyway, nauseating. And the amount of women who voted for a self professed misogynist says more about the state of the value of women in this country that I’d care to admit. We don’t even value ourselves. When Donald Trump was elected, I broke down and sobbed. I cried for the loss of America’s progress, knowing it was America’s fault. At first I thought I didn’t know my country as well as I thought I did. I thought there really were more racists, misogynists, xenophobic’s and just plain suckers than I thought. But then I saw how many Americans chose not to vote. People allowed their disappointment with the DNC to supersede America’s common good. And there is the real crime in all of this. Yesterday, at 48 years old, I went to my first protest. I went because I felt like I had to. I had to raise my voice and let people who are now under threat that I am here to support them. In the middle of a sea of peaceful protesters walking to the Federal Building in Los Angeles, I found my hope. And that hope goes to exactly what you wrote about. Before the results, I was concerned that a Clinton win would start a revolution in this country. I thought that Trump’s supporters who promised a civil war would actually start one, and it would be bloody. It never occurred to me the revolution would be the other way around. You’re right. Progressives have the numbers. What we didn’t have before was the motivation. And now we do. Bad on us for being lazy and complacent. But that’s in the past. Now we are going to fight like hell for the future.

    ps. We liberals accept everybody as long as they do too. Come on over. I’ll make tea.

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  673. The author did a fantastic job. As a publisher /creator of Open Thought Vortex I feel I owe it to readers to share work that is compelling , thoughtful and reflects the values of the rich diversity of the world we share. He hit the mark. Thank you for commenting & reading . Please share. This is important. We must heal. We must heed his advice.

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  674. The simple conclusion is either the KKK or the Black panthers would be celebrating based on the outcome of the election. It is a sad reality that race and morals are attached to candidates… BOTH of them! So when you critisize voters for making a choice, and assume you know the consequences – and subsequently write this blog to shame them…. You need to to step off your judgemental throne and ask if perhaps there was another reason Trump was elected.
    In my case, I voted based on economy and it’s effect on everyday Americans like myself. I am not sure how a President’s personal views and bias would allow him to single out WHO a robust business friendly economy would benefit…. just like the Surgeon who is an absolute ASS, performs multiple successful surgeries on white and minority children….. as much as he PERSONALLY wishes for success of one patient over the others. THE AUDIENCE and HIS POSITION WOULD NOT ALLOW IT!
    So, I say to you, Sir – and whoever elae questions my morals for choosing between 2 evils…. Get over the Racial dooms day nonsense and Hope that a Successful “white” economy benefits ALL AMERICANS…. as I assumed it would when I voted.

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  675. But I, as an American minority, cannot ignore the racist Pandora’s box that has been opened wide, for them to come out and feel comfortable in their skin to express and act on their racist beliefs. I’ve read some of them – the Daily Storm, or whatever – basically saying they are here and they will be heard.

    I am truly afraid of how they and their ilk will affect what they consider the ‘other’ – those who are different. We are many; we transverse the spectrum of race and sex, and we are human beings.

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  677. Republicans didn’t elect Trump. 37% of people who voted in the election were Democrats, 32% were Republicans and the rest were independent. So assuming all Republicans voted Trump and all Democrats voted Hilary (neither of which is entirely accurate, of course) that means a whole lot of independents voted for Trump. This is true of every election where it is the independents who make the overall choice….

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  678. “Racism, faithism, any attempt to deny the rights due any minority member, is anti-American.” I’m a progressive liberal, and this is exactly what my friends and I believe. We are patriots. We love our country, its principles, and its Constitution. That’s why we protest, fight, and generally get enraged when any group tries to deny civil rights to our fellow Americans. I wish you didn’t think we were idiots. We fight for the same freedoms you do.

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  679. Obama was supported by the New Black Panthers, Black Muslims, CAIR, the Muslim Brotherhood and no liberals ever said a word. Obama accused conservatives of being violent, “clinging to their Bibles and their guns”, and the liberals all agreed with him. Obama accused conservatives of being racist and misogynistic and there was silence.

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  680. Dear Tired Veteran, it sounds all well and good. But if you really want the other half of the country who didn’t vote for him to give Trump a chance, then I strongly suggest your Dear President-elect act like a true leader and apologize for all of his harsh, abusive racist rethoric that hurt and denigrated millions of people. This would be a beginning to healing the wounds and uniting the country.

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  682. The emails contained classified information and this was pointed out by Comey. He just said there is no intention which is just plain wrong. She still violated security protocols and if it was anyone else they would have been indicted. She had Unsecured server also a violation of operational security. So not wanting a liar and some one who has never accomplished anything but getting rich makes the rest of us bad. By some of your comments I can see your sense of entitlement and when you didn’t get your way you resort to name calling like wishing someone dead. How grown up of you.

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  683. He already has done stupid and silly things, yet you still voted for him. So no, I don’t trust you to hold him accountable once in office. You’ve already proven with your vote that you won’t.

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  685. You’re the one who voted for a guy who said “I alone can fix it.” By your candidate’s words, there is literally nothing we can do. We have to wait for Trump to fix it.

    So……. what’s he gonna do? And decide quick. The country is finally turning into the hellhole he always claimed it to be.

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  686. A key component of your statements here are that the persons accosted by statements made by President Elect Donald Trump were in fact made at “Americans”; when in truth they were meant for those persons whom decide to ignore our current immigration policies. And to set up a valid counter argument- our current President isn’t exactly a perosn that follows or enforces certain rules…

    To take it one step further the words President Elect Trump used are terms which are not new to me or anyone else I know. For a public figure to use slang or common phrases shouldn’t but will be used out of contexts at every possible moment. (This thought excludes the Access video – there’s no place for that; of which he publicly apologized for.)

    The way I see it the more labels, slangs and abbreviations we place on ourselves the harder it’s going to be to bring neighborhoods, communities and nations together. In my eyes there shouldn’t be: “what kind of American are you?” listed anywhere. I’m tired of people going around with an ethnicity attached to the term American. You’re either American or your not. Period. Enough with demanding this great nation change to meet your specific idea of a global utopia.

    If the liberal of the nation truly want to be inclusive then understand what that means. It means one of two outcomes will result: a) we dissolve our current way of living and allow socialism to further divide us (say goodbye to freedoms we currently have) b) we would have to impose our laws and regulations globally!!! Which would lead to a world war…? 🤔

    Personally, again I would prefer to keep our troubles contained and show the world, as usual, that tolerance and understanding is a key component of our culture. There are so many great things about this awesome nation people forget. And everyday it seems a little bit of it gets brushed aside. Without people like Donald Trump who can come about and slap the hell out of the world to make people see what’s happening we’d truly be lost with no forseeable path back home.

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  687. This last paragraph is how I believe The losers should act we are all Americans and should not be destroying are homes car business movement in traffic etc these paid protesters should all be sent to another country

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  688. I’m not telling anyone it will be okay. But I am telling them to get off the calling people racist, and privileged train that they are all on.

    The far left has got to stop assuming everyone who voted against Hillary is racist. Most lean left on some things and right on others.

    They valued trade reform, (nafta and the way we finance the eu) and immigration reform. That is not so extreme. But Hillary made no effort to appeal to that portion of the electorate. She left them with no other choice but trump, who spoke about those issues at large.

    The polls show people were afraid to even talk about trumps policy points that appealed to them. They were afraid of being labeled racists. That’s what McCarthy did, only he called people commies.

    If the left wants to win elections they must appeal to more Americans than just the left. They can’t be the party of only minorities, lgbt, and women. They must appeal to middle America.

    Sorry, I do not support trump. I’m with Bernie till I die. But the left went too far with the racism. It’s infuriating to even people who didn’t vote trump.

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  689. I’m sorry, but if ignoring the working class in favor of free trade was the more practical option, why did Hilary end up losing to Trump? Like it or not, those people helped push him to victory as much as the racists did.

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  690. Jerry, as a man, you’ll never understand this. No woman in history has ever aborted a baby in the late stages of a pregnancy just because she didn’t want it. The only reason they are aborted that late is due to medical issues. There are cases where the baby in the womb faces a rare disease or issue that will make it impossible to live, and if the mother continues to carry that baby, it can affect her health too. So aborting the baby is a way to save the mothers life. Now you’ve put people in office who don’t believe in doctors or science and would force that mother to carry that diseases and fatal baby because they believe in preserving the “life” a child who is basically dead. Republicans have always claimed “less government”, yet they seem to always want to be involved and make decisions on the personal lives of women and THEIR bodies. Also, if you’re a 14 year old girl who was raped and ended up pregnant, you wouldn’t be sitting here making judgements on women and what they do with their bodies. And don’t even mention adoption, there are millions of adopted children in foster care that will never see families because there’s too many of them. Anyone who wants a child to live in that system is sad.

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  692. The great irony is that after this, close friends of mine have been targeted for opposing Trump. I never feared so much for my personal safety as I have once Donald Trump took office.

    I’m as liberal as all get out. I’ve never opposed guns. And I’ll go for every background check I need to, along with every training I need and should take.

    But I am far from alone. Interest has massively spiked. And so you have all of these liberals arming themselves.

    So imagine it’s 2020. Hillary Clinton is no longer on the ballot. Most of the country is opposed to the candidate Republicans are forced to run against.

    And now you have a slew of armed liberals that you can never make the statement they’re coming for your guns again.

    What’s your argument then?

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  693. What he said about it how we tend to gather with familiarity has its bases in science, how he describes it though is taken out of context a bit, as it goes back further than seventy thousand years and stems from when humans were strictly hunter gather family units. This trait came about to protect hunting grounds and the family unit from outsiders and is deeply rooted in our social behavior and probably always will be though it morphs with time and tends to be more of a group collective that transcends ethnic boundaries today and tends to be more nationalistic. We have a long way to go before we truly get rid of this aspect of the human condition.

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  695. Writing a thoughtful and intelligent post is hardly whining. Why is it that it is okay for Trump supporters to continue their political commentary and discourse but it isn’t for those who are in opposition to his viewpoints? Did those who oppose the Obama presidency “just shut up” as I have seen so very many Trump supporters post? I would challenge people on both sides to continue to challenge and be engaged in the government in a more productive way that I have seen so far. There has been violence, hatred, and vitriol on both sides. I have seen more of it from the Trump side but I am willing to admit my own bias there and acknowledge that may very well be due to the limited pool of commentary I have seen. I don’t choose to read the more radical “liberal” postings and my feed has been flooded with some pretty staunch supporters who have had a lot of nasty things to say about the other half of America.

    Rae, you accuse liberals of having blinders on, being ignorant and unthinking, yet a big criticism I have seen is that liberals think that of conservatives. It should be a two way street. We do everyone a disservice when we discredit the legitimacy of any viewpoint other than our own.

    Also, and I hope this doesn’t fall on deaf ears but instead on an open mind, Don, I challenge you to examine more closely what discrimination is. I would not presume to say you haven’t faced adverse circumstances, but a straight, white, Christian male has a lot of inherent advantages in our society. I believe it is disingenuous to say otherwise.

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  696. I am a patriot. I think progressive liberals are idiots. I agree with everything you wrote here. Then again, as someone that pinhead liberals would sneer at as “conservative”, I found Trump intolerable and unsypportable no matter what. But that still won’t make me liberal. Racism, faithism, any attempt to deny the rights due any minority member, is anti-American, and no real conservative would excuse that. Then again, no real conservative would have voted for Trump.

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  697. Sanders’ ideas were impractical. Hillary’s were not.

    The fact that you’re still appealing to the emails as some kind of serious problem shows how desperate you are. They were investigated twice by the biased FBI and even then, there wasn’t anything to convict her of.

    Oh, and Trump has done several stupid things, and has lied way more than Hillary ever has. You can get to criticizing him NOW.

    You just hate Hillary because you’re an old idiot who thinks this country is yours and clings to whoever appeals to your racist, sexist views in the most direct of ways. You’re the one who belongs in “the shallow end of the pool”, and I can only take comfort in the fact that one day, you and others like you will be dead.

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  698. Of which there are infinitely fewer because of Democratic policies. Abortions have reached an all time low under Obama.

    They previously reached an all time high under Reagan.

    Safe. Legal. Rare.

    Liked by 5 people

  700. “He was elected because the only message that matters for the American government in 2016 is a need for change.”

    Totally content-free.

    If I hear another talking head referencing the right direction/wrong direction poll, or writing vacuously about the need for change… well, stop! Steop!!

    Liberals want change, they want the obstructionist republicans in congress gone! Conservatives want change, they want that black family out of the white house! Libertarians want change, they want to be able to smoke dope and pay less in taxes. I could go on and on. The percentage of people who want change is going to hover in the 65-75% range for the rest of my lifetime and maybe my kid’s lifetimes as well. Still 92% of congress is re-elected. This is change?!

    Trump won because just enough people aren’t ready for a female president.

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  701. This may come as a surprise to you, but HRC won’t be on the ballot again ever. You lost that argument after the last ballot was counted. So what are you going to do when you’ve enraged a majority of the country and the Republican Party doesn’t nominate anyone but is forced to go with DJT as their candidate?

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  702. Liberals are great at feeding the feers that Republicans are going to enslave them and take away all the civil rights America has struggled to ensure. The same rights supported by Republicans as well.

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  703. Here’s the problem, you and many Liberals may have had a hand in the creation of this future you fear. The same people who you claim have been silent, have been silent against the people who use hate to tell them they are racists, bigots, xenophobes and misogynists if they vote for Trump, when they are not. How many times do you tell someone they are something and they start to believe it and act it out? There are many variables to why people act out in hatred, but if Trump is a factor in an outbreak in hatred that you are predicting, Liberals who have used the same hatred they are against are just as responsible. There are different genres of music, but they all are music; there also are different genres of hate, but they are all HATE none the less.

    But let’s put generalizations aside, which is the cornerstone to ALL HATE, let’s do some critical thinking here. First, you can’t predict the future, didn’t the new that predict Hilary winning teach you that? So in turn, wouldn’t all news that say we are doomed may not be true either? Second, every person is an individual, who are made up of their own experiences (not yours), which determine how they react to things, especially if they are holding onto emotional pain that they do not know how to heal. People don’t just give hate and pain to people for the hell of it, it’s because they are holding onto pain, given by other people, and they are passing it along. The key to get through this is that we all heal our emotional pain and then help others heal. Change doesn’t happen by playing the blame game of who did what and shaming people into thinking they have to do something. If you want to make an positive impact on the world, heal yourself, then teach others how to heal. In order to do that, you need to be HONEST WITH YOURSELF and stop blaming. A focus on what other people are doing wrong is just a cop out from facing what people fear most, their own imperfections and flaws. Learn to accept yourself and work on the parts you can change, that’s how you make an impact on the world. QUIT BLAMING PEOPLE AND GET TO WORK!

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  704. You made some very good points but I guess since you make the claim that the majority of conservatives and trump supporters were quite about the Klan’s support you didn’t pay much attention to what was said by those in the blogs and others area were they were told repeatedly to go back to the DNC were they belong.
    Though I am an independent, half of my family has been Republican since the founding of the party and half has been Democrat since the founding of the party, guess which side has more racism in it.
    I personally do not support this tolerance as you call it for racism, exclusion of anyone legally allowed to participate in our government period. I hold no ill will towards anyone that wants to become a citizen legally. I now live in a border state and have for 30+ years. I have seen the crime and victimization of illegal immigrants by the gangs from their own community, not white or black Americans, but their fellow Asians, Africans, and Hispanics by mostly MS, 13 for those of you that have been sleeping for the last 20 yrs MS 13 is the most violent largest Hispanic gang in the world and they are in every major city in the country and were ever there is a large illegal immigrant population, they make millions off of extorting these groups by intimidation and treats of calling I.C.E. on them, if they do not pay. But the non-border state only really care about immigration reform every four years when they are lied too, by the media and the DNC saying these reforms are based on racial discrimination, simple fact they are committing a crime under U.S. law and should be punished under said law period.
    Did you all sleep through the Bill Clinton Presidency as he got elected with the stance on immigration that Trump has taken and Bill Clinton was the toughest president on immigration across the board on not just illegal immigration, but legal immigration as well.
    Also no one in this country screamed foul when Jimmy Carter Not only banned Muslims from entry into the U.S. After the Iran embassy incident, but deport every Iranian student and business man in the country. So please stop the nonsense, was Trump the best choice no, neither was Mrs. Clinton Many people that voted Trump did so because the last thing we need is another scandal filled Clinton presidency, it make the country look bad.

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  705. I’m not exactly sure where to start.. I think this guys perception of humanity is completely biased and wrong. [Left to our own devices, solely seek out familiarity..]

    If race is an issue within personal circles of life, then it becomes who we could become and some do become, their fathers son… Our desire to belong and or family bonds.. That’s what creates belief and place..

    This guy exclaims that we’re, at our core, shallow and simple minded. I don’t buy it.

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  706. I’m working hard, as an extreme liberal (far beyond Democrats) to assume that Trump supporters had some very good reasons for voting the way they did; why do you assume that all those who didn’t vote for Trump have unintelligent reasons? Why do you think so many highly educated professors are liberal? Do you really think you are describing any of our beliefs and values in such a way that we would actually agree with you?

    If you can’t describe your opponent’s view in such a way that they can say, “yes, you understand what I’m say,” then you are simply building a straw-man argument, claiming it’s the one we are making, and then showing how stupid it is. I agree that everything you described as liberal ideas are very stupid. But I also do not know any liberals who actually believe any of the things you are attributing to us.

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  707. Reblogged this on New Horizons and commented:
    Let me ask my Conservative friends this: how in the world did Trump go from being “the lesser of two evils” who I was told to vote for while holding my nose, merely because he is a shade less evil than Hillary, to being a person whose every statement and idea must NOW be defended as the best possible thing for this country? If anything his victory should allow conservatives to relax and STOP seeing the man through rose-colored glasses, and be willing to identify and distance themselves from the crass and obnoxious rhetoric the man has been spewing all year long. Instead a funny thing is happening. Conservatives are holding on to these things, while Trump himself is distancing himself from his old persona and making overtures of reconciliation and peace with the other side. Unbelievable!

    For more in depth analysis of this new reality read the blog below. Yes, praise God, the greater of two evils has been defeated at the ballot box! Now we can move on and work together to keep a short leash on the lesser of two evils.

    Liked by 3 people

  708. “If insistence on decent treatment of all Americans makes me a liberal . . . . ” There is one group of Americans whose rights no one is mentioning—the millions of persons who are not allowed to live because of being aborted.

    Liked by 4 people

  709. I agree with your point about Bernie. Actually I agree with everything you say here in your comment. in my long reply above (If you were responding to me), I was merely pointing out that I could understand that some of the things that appealed to Trump supporters actually made sense and weren’t inherently bad. I’m way too liberal for most Democrats even, so this is me bending far backwards and trying to offer the benefit of the doubt to people who are very hard for me to understand. But I’m trying to!

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  710. You have ignored how corrupt HRC is, the willful work to eliminate Sanders with the blessing of the DNC. She set the tone early, unfortunately Mr. Trump didn’t elevate to talk policies and ideas, he attacked back. I wonder what type of election Mr. Sanders would have run, how Mr. Trump would have been forced to run a different campaign.

    When the people voting are castigated, and blindly called names (deplorables) because they don’t trust a candidate who continually lied, lied under oath, ran an illegal email server with confidential information on it….and your wondering why people wouldn’t support that…because they have grown tired of career politicians who have rarely had to work to establish a business or save every last penny to ensure that their children will have a better life than they did…they are tired of being dismissed.

    As a Veteran I can assure you I too have traveled and seen the evil of mankind, it doesn’t mean i will blindly follow. If Mr. Trump does something silly or stupid, I will not hold back in criticizing it. I hope the country will give him a chance to lead, I hope that his appointments will be solid and intelligent men and woman who truly want to make the republic strong again….that it won’t be pay for play. Only time will tell.

    Today for today, both sides need to grow up and accept the results, attacking people who voted for Trump or using it as a reason to be racist, those, those citizens are the shallow end of our pool….lets show the world that we can set a standard….not act like a bunch of petulant children.

    Liked by 10 people

  711. My support for Donald Trump was based solely on one thing. First let me say that while trump will be my president for a time, Jesus Christ will be my king for eternity. Trump supports pro life. Jesus said “suffer the little children to come to me”. There are millions of children who will never have opportunity to worship him in this life because their’s was snuffed. Jesus also said “if anyone offends one of these little ones, it would be better for them to have a millstone hung around their neck and be cast into the sea”. The implications are obvious. Jesus is pro life. Is there forgiveness for abortion? Yes if there is repentance. So don’t try to convince me how awful this country is going to be. It’s already worse than it should be.

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  712. And, lest we forget, there is a very good chance that Trump will, advised by fools and consented to by cowards, destroy the Supreme Court which in the absence of willingness to govern by our elected representatives, has far greater political impact and economic influence than it was ever intended to have.

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  713. Anytime anyone anywhere in the world has planned great relocations of millions of people, thousands of deaths at a minimum have resulted, and sometimes much worse consequences than that. Essentially what Trump plans to implement here would be genocidal. Be forewarned … we the American people, like the German people in the 1930s, were not planning genocide … to some extent, the deaths of millions were an afterthought to all that planning, a very gross “unintended consequence”. We must positively DREAD the unintended consequences of a Trump presidency! And I personally am unable to accept same. I’ll fuck with him until he surrenders!

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  714. People of all stripes: It is not “poor loserdom” to peacefully protest injustice. We need to keep Martin Luther King, Jr’s dream alive. Speak up and out often, be kind, be true.

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  715. My only quibble with this excellent post is that I think in the long run more damage is going to be done to the foundations of our democracy and our economy than an open door to racism or misogyny can produce. Trump doesn’t know how to be president. He values loyalty above competence. He wants at all times to be the smartest guy in the room, which lowers the bar considerably for those who will advise and influence him. Where there is a vacuum between his ears, those people are sharp, driven and committed to agendas that will take us backward in more ways than tolerance of “the other.” Our economy is very complex, our way forward for the environment will involve sacrifice — more in some quarters than in others. Insensitive to nuance and complexity, Trump will lash out in this direction and then that, hearing only the last person he talked to; he will step aside and let unelected nincompoops make big decisions; he will spend political capital taking revenge on anyone who crosses him.
    I dearly hope to be back here in two years to admit that I was wrong, that Trump rose to the occasion, that Trump acknowledged his own lack of readiness and chose correctly when delegating his responsibilities to others. However, at this juncture, with Newt Gingrich, Rudy Giuliani and Sarah Palin on a list of possible cabinet members, I see no reason to hold my breath.

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  716. Good, clear writing and coherent argument, Sean. I’m a ’98 Navy grad and was happy to hear that you’re one of ’99. I’ll be coming back to read more of your thoughts in the future. Keep up the good work!

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  719. Look, I like Bernie but he should have ran as an Independent. He only switched parties last year in order to run as a Democrat. Maybe instead of blaming the Democratic party you should blame Trump and the spineless Republican leaders who refused to stand up for what’s right.

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  721. Hi there. Our views are probably very different, but you get it. This isn’t about policy. Thank you for this post.

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  722. Thank you. I am a center left democrat. I am proud to be a resident in prince William county vVirginia. We voted against hate and incivility.

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  725. Racist hatred?!? Have you seen your obamacare policy!?! It’s junk. Affordable care act? What a huge lie that was. Just because they didn’t support the biggest legislative economic calamity to ever be put in front of a President for a signature they are racist?!? Obamacare premiums are up over 200% at a minimum with deductibles are unpayable. Quit using your trump word of racist every time someone disagrees with you. More people should have voted to kill that bill but they were afraid of being called racist.

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  726. Reign of terror?!? You are a first class loon. The reign of terror is in our inner cities and I’m pretty sure Trump isn’t a cause of it. Have you ever been beaten for being white? I have. I forgive those poor ignorant people. I could drive you though dozens of different cities where you could be beaten just for being white. It wouldn’t even matter if you said you voted for Clinton and Obama. I’m sorry if you don’t like it that the grown ups are back in charge of the house but I think we have seen the result of what 8th grade politics (promise of free ice cream and no homework) has gotten us. 45m people are on food stamps. We have a labor participation rate worse than Jimmy Carter. There are fewer business startup than any time in history. We have to do our homework now and get back to doing chores. I love watching you all mentally implode over the fact that we have people in office that are going to actually follow the law and want EVERYONE to do well. It makes me laugh when I hear over and over that Trump won because of ignorant, uneducated white people. Haha. You have to be kidding me. It’s people who want the law followed and people who want this country to continue being the beacon of hope for all other countries to look toward. Reign of terror….wow. Maybe an increase in your meds will help,

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  727. Great post!

    Only one quibble. You write, “At stake for them, is participation in our society.” Their freedom, in other words. But for many of them, what is at stake is their lives.

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  730. There are several ways to protest instead of non-voting at all: write in, skipping the actual vote in the ballot of whoever is not liked (I think that in one state about 90,000 people protested this way).

    Non-voting is no protest. It is letting other people make your decisions.

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  731. You have written a well thought out piece, but you forgot one salient point. There was a candidate who was ready to shake up things in a good way that would have benefitted working class and middle class Americans. His name was Bernie Sanders. Unfortunately, the Democratic Party establishment went with Hillary even before the first primary was held. What we got for that was a candidate whose message was almost entirely “he’s not qualified,” and very little, if anything, about what she wanted to DO if elected. While Trump was holding rallies and meeting people (campaigning), Hillary was having fundraisers and doing debate prep. From what I could see, she did very little campaigning in the Rust Belt states that have continued to be hard-hit by the Great Recession and jobs going overseas. And when she did campaign there, she didn’t tell people what her plan was. She didn’t even HAVE a message until after the convention (“Stronger Together”), while Trump had one from Day One. It was a conceit that the Democratic Party thought they could win on no campaigning and just piles of money.
    For the future, the Democratic Party needs to pull itself together and find some reasons for people to vote for their candidates – reasons that resonate with the middle class, then get that message OUT there. It can’t just be “I’m not him (or her). Because we saw what that gets us.

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  732. Yes but the frustration is they throw gasom the fire to put it out. Republicans are great at playing into peoples fears. Keep the focus on the 1% of welfare budget so we can get richer making up reasons to go to war.

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  733. I need more intelligent conservative voices in my selection bubble. I will follow your blog from here on out.

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  734. But do you think Americans are still being played? The GOP is standing back and watching us burn the Trump house down so they can put in Pence. Then what? Theyre really good at sleight if hand. Look at Jeb. Theyll jump in to save the muslims so they can get after LGBT rights. Someone they dislike as much as Trump cant be all bad.

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  735. We should always hold our govt responsible for their actions regardless of how you lean. I challenge you to try and listen through the mainstream media megaphone and criticize action or inaction. Obama is on video saying much worse things than Trump. Obama is on video using the N word. Obama admits to hardcore drug usage. Clinton has been party to and accused of many more acts of sexual misconduct than Trump. I suggest we challenge and hold Trump accountable but get in boat and row man. We have had 8 years of horrendous racially divisive leadership which I notice you completely overlook. We decry the deaths of degenerate criminals at the hands of police and somehow use that to suggest there is a bigger problem than we thought. Of course there is racism. There always will be. We should seek out racial injustice and stomp it out. Fighting illegal immigration is no more “racist” than fighting drug trafficking. It’s ILLEGAL!!!! If you don’t like the law support a change. I have been discriminated against my whole life and I am, straight, Christian, male and white. Some day I hope to be rich if I work hard enough but of course I’ll be a bad guy for that. Quit whining. You all that feel slighted by this election need to stop complaining and do what I did after two consecutive elections that were the “end of the world” for me…row! Help your fellow man. Be a good person. Work hard. Love you family and your country. Help those less fortunate than you whenever possible. Support your causes and beliefs and work hard for them. I don’t suppose anyone got pulled out of a car and beaten for their skin color this year because they voted for Clinton….people did get pulled out of their car and were beaten for voting for Trump. You mention the KKK which is an embarrassment to this country but note there is painful ignorance on both sides. Stop complaining and get back to work. We will all be better for it.

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  738. I could not agree more if I tried!I grew up poor,only have a 10th grade education,but my mother-an immigrant- taught me values,decency,compassion and the belief that my personal success cannot come at the expense of or through suppression of rights of others.For my family Trump was never an option,or even a consideration.

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  740. Non voters felt backed into a corner with no reasonable choice to make. Not voting was a form of protest. So why would you be upset with them for practicing thier right to protest? Is it because you thought that they would vote for Clinton and then everything would just be fine and dandy?

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  744. Not to point at you specifically, but what blinders must you have been wearing during the primary race? The channeling that suffered Sander’s candidacy was promoted by elite voices such as yours. That’s why your own set finds your words credible, but no one else does. You know your subject area perhaps, but you don’t know the lives of those who don’t live like you. The hot winds that blew on Election Day were caused by the Democratic establishment’s failure to acknowledge the fire that has been smoldering in the heartland.

    The author of this piece is thoughtful and open minded. He is able to see beyond the horizon of the world he lives in. That’s a rare ability these days.

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  745. Please stop confusing the word liberal and Democrat, and learn what those words actually mean, aside from pop culture blog references. Anyone bragging about not having a liberal mind loses credibility right out of the gate. I could read past the first paragraph

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  748. This is good but it is soft – it also lacks historical context. Remember, Obama inherited a crisis. His initial prioriiy was to stave-off economic ruin. Republicans then refused (racist hatred) to cooperate with his proposed policies and agenda. We simply cannot marginalize that a Christian vote for Trump was essentially a vote of hypocrisy. Men like Giuliani, Trump and Gingrich are morally compromised. Pence and the proposed domestic leader, Ken Blackwell, support policies that are the antithesis of being socially inclusive. People have not taken to the streets because they are soar losers, they a protesting the reign of terror promised to be unleashed upon all of us!

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  749. I love this…. I would love to hear your perspective on human natures instict that encourages bias. In all of us, not only in the few instances mentioned in your writing. How it prevents us from coming together. How it makes a situation such as Trump being elected seem different according to our history and biases.

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  750. Pingback: What Now? | Ozarks Blue

  751. I thank you for this. One of the more heartbreaking aspects of this election was the full-throated endorsement by conservative family members who have always advocated for the highest standards of decency and morality. Your essay feels like a balm for my troubled soul.

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  752. Based on what I’ve seen, living in the US for the last 35 years – you’re a liberal. Never seen anyone who claimed to be a conservative who cared about people who weren’t rich white straight Christian men, or who could think rationally, or who had any connection to reality.

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  753. I see you’ve completely ignored that the “support” for the KKK and violence is so small and condemned by the vast majority..but you’re pinning it on them anyway. The violence that the left is already displaying is the reason why your conservative friends were all quiet. You’re allowed to scream, insult and spit in their faces…but the second they push back, they are the bad guys and the ones that actually suffer the consequences. THAT is why we’re where we are.

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  755. Thank for your commentary. I am one of those progressive liberals and completely agree with your view. You have captured the essence of what is going on. We feel we’re not fighting a political battle but rather that we’re fighting a human rights battle for those who have little to no power and are faced with the possibility of even less under Trump. Liberals are doing this because we aren’t seeing anyone in prominent Republican offices doing anything to combat this from within. It’s also a huge environmental issue for us. The future looks bleak for our planet because a populist leader seems willing to damage our future for present day, destructive jobs. Anyhow, thanks again. Much appreciated.

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  758. Wow. One of the best articles I’ve seen so far, certainly the best at making this argument. At this point in time, a liberal cannot convincingly make this argument to Trump supporters. As a professor of English for over 20 years, I too often get dismissed based on who I am before I start speaking.

    I really don’t understand why so many people in this country (including many, if not most, of my own relatives) say they value education and yet at the same time declare invalid any liberal statement made by a professor because we’ve been “brainwashed.” It’s very weird. People seem to listen to and value highly educated people’s thoughts on almost any issue but politics. And when it’s about politics, our thoughts are just paid less attention to, they are actually declared to be insanely invalid.

    So, your ethos–your character–in this essay is an essential element in the argument you are making, and I’m glad you started with an explanation of who you are as an author.

    We need people from all different perspectives to challenge those with similar views: For example, if someone is going to convince liberals like me to think with more complexity about conservative motivations and ideas, then the message needs to come from fellow liberals with a slightly different viewpoint.

    The same thing happens in the other direction too: liberals and conservatives rarely change their minds by listening to arguments from a person from the other side. We all seem to move just a little left or right based on listening to somebody we already feel we largely agree with, somebody we don’t already shut our ears to before they start talking.

    Yesterday, I read a great article getting me to think with more complexity about what good motivations Trump supporters had. That’s important. The problem, of course, is that his language wasn’t only about these policies; it was intertwined with appeals that greatly pleased white supremacists (of course, some of the policies themselves are based on racism–but not all of them, and liberals like me shouldn’t reduce everything he said to being racist and bigoted.)

    I wish there had been a candidate who had truly wanted to shake up our country in many of the good ways that Trump supporters wanted. I’m not arguing whether he will or will not do what they hope for, but I wish somebody with a care for others who are non-white had offered an option other than Hilary.

    By all means, let’s fight career politicians and governmental corruption and also try to figure out smart ways to protect our country. Let’s try to figure out how to help create more jobs, particularly for the working class who have gotten the shaft from the left and the right. And how do we make these jobs for the working class ones that earn a real, respectable living?

    I understand and sympathize with all of these concerns, and I understand and feel the anger of Trump supporters who have these concerns.

    But why did it have to be somebody who also used such dangerous, hateful rhetoric and who also has many ideas about changing the government based on those ideas?

    To return to my point about character, about ethos, and argumentation: In making arguments, we should be using more logic, and I’m saddened that I see that too few people on either side are convinced by logical argument (much less using it themselves). I’m saddened that most people really are influenced almost solely based on ethos and on the emotional appeals to fear, fears that can be manipulated so easily when racism is thrown into the mix.

    Thank you for writing a well-reasoned essay based on your perspective. I hope all are able to listen to your reasons because they are good reasons, and not solely because of who you are, even though who you are helps your argument.

    Thank you for offering in this essay a model for thoughtful, logical argumentation motivated by an empathy for those who continue to be targeted with hateful language and actions.

    Liked by 2 people

  759. Not to be persnickety here, but those who claim to be conservatives today are so far from the definition of conservatism, a venerable tradition old as British lawmaker Edmund Burke, as to be laughable. The idea of protecting individual freedom is essentially an idea that belongs to liberalism, not conservatism. Moreover, defending the “right to be free from government intrusion” is only mishmash for “stop federal regulation of business”, not exactly a political conservatism that would honor the traditions of democracy–which are under threat by capitalism that has gotten too big for its britches. The government is “us”; capitalism is “them”. Capitalism is an ideology antagonistic to the values of a democratic republic. Don’t defend the antagonists.

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  760. Pleasing all of the people all of the time is impossible, especially when the majority remain silent.
    I’m not upset with the Trump voters, but I am with the non voters. There was a lot at stake in this election and if you didn’t know the answer to your questions you weren’t trying very hard to find the answer because it was out there somewhere, probably not on the media sound bites, or tweets or facebook, but there somewhere. I hope our nation can come through this unscathed and the environment and economy aren’t the biggest victims.

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  761. One of the most powerful statements in favor of inclusion that I have read. You and I probably do not agree on much, but we both agree that the special promise of America is to overcome the divisions created by difference. Thank you.

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  766. I consider myself a liberal and have been trying to find the words to say to my conservative friends why I am upset that Trump was elected. You said it perfectly. Maybe if they hear it from a conservative, it will help them instand my fears.

    THANK YOU for writing this.

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  767. Thank you. As a 72-year-old Progessive New Yorker I hear you. But my ilk also needs to work harder at listening & understanding those who voted for Trump. Stop villifying them. They are not deplorable; they are scared, too, because they, too have been run over by the same callous careening bus of corporate global capitalism that is marginalizing & impverishing all of us, financially, spiritually & culturally.

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  771. Thank you Sean . You make me feel a little better. I am 65 this coming year I grew up in the 60’s and 70’s . To get women’s rights, gay rights, people of color rights and more recently health care it took years of protest ,money and tears . Philosopher George Santayana said “Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it.” Lets remember where we came from and lets not go back there …..

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  772. “If insistence on decent treatment of all Americans makes me a liberal in the eyes of conservatives, then perhaps we should spend some time to reflect on who our modern conservatives actually are. The world is watching.”
    I believe that the conversation is warranted. Every child is my child. Every woman my sister, every man my brother. We are the best we can be.

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  773. Thank you for this! Everything you say here resonates with me. Except we are so different. I’m a woman, liberal and an atheist! Just goes to show that people can be very different but still hold the same high ideals and morals.

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