The Election of 2016

This post will probably be a little bit unusual for me. I tend to write about our every day lives as a way to memorialize moments for our family. However, I think one day my kids (and maybe an older me) will enjoy reading how I felt about other topics,so occasionally I branch out. Like today.

My mom was a pretty political person. In her college years, she was a staunch Democrat who campaigned for JFK. She grew a bit more conservative as she got older, but always enjoyed a good debate. I remember my first Presidential election in 1996, I was the only kid still at home and my parents and I were a house divided. The three of us cancelled each other out when one of us voted for Clinton, one for Dole and another for Perot. I enjoyed our spirited dinner conversations and the excitement of voting in my first election.

I haven't missed a Presidential election since. Some of my votes have been mailed in, thanks to military service. And, I didn't always vote in the the "lessor" elections, mainly because I felt out of touch being a resident of one state while living and working in another. This most recent election was the only one that (literally) kept me awake at night. I honestly could not fathom supporting either candidate. I wanted to like Donald Trump, I did like that he wasn't a career politician (although, some political experience would have been nice). But, I felt like he was also a misogynistic, despicable person. He lost me sometime in the summer after one too many awful comments. In my opinion, Hillary Clinton was only slightly better. I did not believe she was a good Secretary of State, I found the e-mail scandal horrendous (I knew people taken to NJP for less serious infractions involving classified material) and found many of the dealings of the Clinton Foundation morally questionable. So, what's a person to do? In the end, I voted for neither. However, I was hoping Clinton would win. To me, she was the lessor of two evils. I thought a Clinton Presidency would mean 4 more years of an administration similar to President Obama, which I could live with and then we could try again with two new, better candidates in 2020.

Thomas and I watched the news reports on election night together until about 10pm, when I went to bed. It looked as though Trump was going to win Florida and I just knew that was going to be the beginning of the end. Thomas was 100% certain that Clinton was going to win. He came up to bed at 2am and I awoke to ask the outcome. He told me, in a rather incredulous manner, that Donald Trump was to be our 45th President. I couldn't sleep for the rest of the night. I laid awake and thought about what this meant for our country. Although I am a registered Republican, there are some issues where I definitely lean Democratic--climate change probably being the biggest. I thought about what this meant for the Earth. I thought about what this meant for the United States internationally, and of course I thought about how it would effect the everyday lives of Americans here in our own country. None of my thoughts were pleasant.

In the following days, when I read who Trump was considering for the leaders in his Presidency, it read like a veritable Who's Who of the (Republican) Politicians I least admire--Rudy Guiliani, Chris Christie and Newt Gingrich. I told Thomas the only way it could be worse was if we threw in Sarah Palin, which they did the next day. Of course, nothing is set in stone, as the cabinet is still to be determined.

However, now that we are almost a week removed, I am choosing to be positive. It is beyond my control and I refuse to wallow in misery for the next four years. I obviously do not wish for President Elect Trump to fail. Rather, I hope that somehow he will miraculously unite our country and bring us 4 good years. Although many would say I am being foolish, I can't believe it is any more foolish than if you had told me, or anyone else for that matter, a year ago that he would actually be elected.

On a lighter note, the older kids were really invested in the election. We took them with us to vote and they wanted to hear about all the issues, they were very interested in people's different political stances and we had a hard time getting Jack to understand that it wasn't polite to ask people who they were voting for. We tried to lay out the positions of each side and play devil's advocate with a variety of positions. We also tried not to talk about it too much, although I think we failed in this regard. Luke could actually recognize Donald Trump on t.v and would say, "it's DonalShrump" when he saw an ad. He also said it when seeing the weatherman, newscasters, and others, so thankfully, his recognition isn't 100%.

In conclusion, this is not meant in a derogatory way to those who think differently than I do. I respect the opinions of my friends and families and accept that reasonable minds can differ.