January 20 Thoughts- In the Midst of a Dark Night For Many

Acceptance of the person as the President does not mean

• That I will be silent and acquiesce to what I disagree with,
• That I will not actively protest against what I find offensive to my values and the values of democracy and freedom, or that
• I pray for him to fail, except at those things which will harm our nation. 

Acceptance of Mr. Trump as President means

• that he was elected and I am willing to maintain my peaceful opposition to him and policies that I will work to change if I feel they are harmful.

It means that, as I have done with every President I have lived under in my 68 years, I will pray that he IS successful at

• keeping America great, 
• restoring that which may need restoring,
• supporting the least and the lost whether they be in poverty or forgotten middle-class workers, and
• that peace may reign thanks to our stance as a country to be fair to all.

Do not tell me to "Get over it!" Yet,

• I am always willing to discuss and civilly debate the issues. 
• I am willing to listen to reasoned arguments. 
• I will not denigrate those who voted for him. 
• I will maintain my acceptance of the peaceful transfer of power that we celebrated today.

I continue to wrestle with the dark night of the soul and will post the next installment of that series in the next few days. For today, I know that these may be difficult days ahead for many people. I have still not come to terms with what this can mean. As an American citizen, I rejoice in the peaceful election process. I hope we do not learn of more problems with the election than what we have already heard.

For today, I go to bed with a sense of

• weariness over the divisions, 
• compassion for those who lives may be made more difficult by the actions of the new administration, and 
• hope that we will discover ways to work together as the country we claim to be.

Some Quick Thoughts on Ethics

Over the past years I have developed into a kind of ethics "consultant", workshop leader, and a champion of ethical behavior. While mine has been in the health care field ever since I was in grad school in the early 90s, I am very aware of the wide-branching of ethics - and its lack in our society. A friend of mine has commented that many of the big problems we have faced over the past couple decades (or more) are due to the fact that we don't teach or talk about ethics.

Actually, I am not sure we ever have. Or at least we have never connected ethical behavior with day to day life. We allow ethics to kind of hang out in the cosmos with no clear application. Instead we take the position that the "ends justify the means." (Actually that is an official ethical principle, albeit one that I generally find hard to justify.) In any case, we have certainly heard a great deal about "ethics" in recent weeks with the election of Mr. Trump. Those who held Mr. Obama to high ethical standards are now ignoring the low ethical standards of Mr. Trump. 

His seeming unwillingness to follow certain legal issues- or spinning them into irrelevance (son-in-law as Sr. Advisor; not divesting things that could be conflict of interest) or just moving past them as if they didn't exist (I got elected. Now I don't have to show my tax returns.)

Ethics is a tough field to explain, expand on, and get people to understand. "So what," some might say, "if he's honest we don't have to worry. If everything comes out all right, well, ethics be damned." Until of course it's someone you disagree with. Round and round and round it goes.

Instead we get into heated arguments about celebrities making statements while ethics is set aside. Or we get the President-elect raising other issues instead of his personal ethics. (CNN is "fake news" so I don't have to answer their reporter's question.)

I will end this brief discussion quite simply:

• If we ignore ethics, we are doomed to be taken advantage of; if not by Trump, then by the next one who will follow the precedent.
• If we ignore ethics, or follow the "ends justify the means" thinking, we leave ourselves open to follow the whims and ideologies of whoever happens to think they are in charge this time.
• If we ignore ethics, we are ultimately ignoring the role of oversight of our elected officials, something the Founders would shudder at.

Just some quick thoughts, as I sit and watch in uncertainty and disbelief that this is really happening right here. Under our noses.

And we are letting it happen. 

Hence I continue to wrestle with my dark night.

Disappointment Ahead

I saw an article by fellow Minnesotan Garrison Keillor after the election about how those who voted for Trump will not get what they expect. I didn't care for some of the tone of GK's article, but in many ways he is right on target. Mr. Trump will not be able to deliver what they think he can do; nor will be be able to do what he thinks he can do.

The government works differently. Or it should.

No president has ever been able to provide what he has promised. Some of it is simply the great difficulty in moving from campaign rhetoric to reality. I also have a hunch that sometimes when the candidate becomes the president he learns inside things that were unknown before. He also realizes that in many ways he is now the president of all the people and that nothing is as simple as the relatively black and white of a political campaign.

But I speak from experience.To many people President Obama did not live up to his promises. The country didn't change in the ways he- and we- hoped it would. Guantanamo is still open eight years later. That is political life in a democracy. I pray that Trump's supporters are ready to be disappointed that he is not the savior they hope him to be.

Words (Sort of) Fail Me

Actually, it is not the words that fail me tonight, it is the ability to put them into sensible thoughts.

• Sadness- deep sadness over a loss in this less than hopeful election season just ended.
• Uncertainty- what will this change mean?
• Fear- what has this victory unleashed?
• Conflict- values and basic understandings of life and even of the role of our democracy in conflict- deep, divided conflict.

This will most likely go down in the long catalog of historic elections as one of the top game-changers. Nothing quite like this has ever happened before. A man with no public service experience, no government experience, no seeming understanding of how nations and governments are different from business.

More thoughts will come; more reflections will arise. We as a nation are in a different place tonight than we were when polls started closing on Tuesday. We have no idea what the next four months, let alone the next four years will bring. But yet, we are still the United States of America. We are all in this together.

Let me repeat the quote that I put on this page earlier today.

After climbing a great hill, one only finds

that there are many more hills to climb.

-Nelson Mandela

Actually, I chose all the quotes of these past two weeks at the very start. I knew that when we got to this day very little will have been resolved. No matter who won, I knew, we would have a very long way to become more united again. We have been deeply split; many feel deeply wounded. The voice of the people who felt left out has been expressed through Donald Trump. The wounded ones today are those who had other dreams of a nation living out its ideals.

It is not over. The great American experiment, the exceptional quality of this kind of democracy, is never finished. The pendulum swings from one side to another; one group is in the majority today, another will be in the majority next time. We must uphold that gift we have exercised for 240 years of a peaceful transition of power. Then we must move together to find the common ground, not allowing ourselves to get lost in recrimination, repudiation, vengeance, or just plain old apathy. There are many hills left to climb.

May we climb them together, even when we don't agree on what they might mean.

One More Election Quote: The Day After

After climbing a great hill, one only finds

that there are many more hills to climb.

-Nelson Mandela

Twelve Quotes till Election Day: Election Day 2016

Every election is determined by the people who show up.

― Larry J. Sabato

Twelve Quotes till Election Day: E -1

Twelve Quotes till Election Day: E -2

The ballot is stronger than the bullet.

― Abraham Lincoln

Coming to the End - What If.....?

The long, very strange road to the election is almost over.

Here are some of the thoughts I have rumbling around in my mind today. I am fed up, burned out, and just plain finished with the election. All I want to do is give you a few bits that I have heard on radio and TV the past week. No filling in the blanks- just the basics. Maybe next week it will clear. Maybe not.

• Trump has unleashed some demons that won't easily be contained.
• Hillary is a lightning rod and will probably not be able to do anything to win over those who don't like her. There is probably absolutely nothing she can do, esp. if the opposition won't attempt in any way to work with her.
• Some of the demons include racism and sexism. But beyond those- and perhaps more difficult in the long run- is the middle class white anger at what they perceive as the loss of their hope while others seem to be the beneficiaries of their hope.
•  US politics looks more like European politics than it ever has. Trump is a known type over there- conservative, mildly fascist. Sanders is also the other known type- the democratic socialist. Hillary is a throwback to the old politics.

• Chris Matthews on MSNBC
• If Trump polls 40%, and he very well could, pundits and the "elite establishment" better pay attention. It is significant that he, in spite of everything(!) could still get that kind of support. It says something very important that better not be overlooked by either left- or right-wings. Bernie Sanders did the same on the left. Together that would have made quite a majority if they could have agreed on issues. 

So, with all that in mind, that is about all I want to say until it's over. Maybe I can hibernate until Wednesday. Politics-wise- see you on the flip-side.

Twelve Quotes till Election Day: E -3

In America, anyone can become president.

That’s the problem.

—George Carlin

Twelve Quotes till Election Day: E -4

Any American who is prepared to run for president should automatically, by definition, be disqualified from ever doing so. ~Gore Vidal

Twelve Quotes till Election Day: E -5

If we got one-tenth of what was promised to us in these acceptance speeches there wouldn't be any inducement to go to heaven.

~Will Rogers

Twelve Quotes till Election Day: E -6

If voting made any difference they wouldn’t let us do it.

—Mark Twain

Twelve Quotes till Election Day: E -7

I offer my opponents a bargain: if they will stop telling lies about us,

I will stop telling the truth about them.

—Adlai Stevenson

(D-candidate, 1952, 1956)

Twelve Quotes till Election Day: E -8

I remember when Halloween was the scariest night of the year.

Now, it's Election night.

--Unknown

The Twelve Quotes till Election Day: E -9

"Because it would be hilarious," is probably not

a good reason to elect someone to be president.

-Unknown

The Twelve Quotes till Election Day: E -10

The politicians were talking themselves

red, white and blue in the face.

~Clare Boothe Luce

The Twelve Quotes till Election Day: E -11

Why pay money to have your family tree traced;

go into politics and your opponents will do it for you.

—Author Unknown

Debates are Over!!

 Next: The end of the election cycle!

Out-of-Control Election

I am fed up! This is a rant with no excuses for it. We have hit the lowest in "political" rhetoric that I have seen in my over 50 years of being a political junkie.

For me it is summed up in a word.

 Predator:
A person who ruthlessly exploits others. 
(Oxford Dictionaries)

It came into usage as an analogy to predatory behavior in animals.

Synonyms:

• Stalker
• Tracker
• Pursuer
• Lurker

 From Psychology Today:

Among their most dangerous features are a callous disregard for the rights of others and a propensity for violating norms. They can charm and manipulate others for their own gain, conning with no regard for anyone's feelings.

They look for opportunities—taking a security job that positions them to meet potential victims, for example—and they have no qualms, when the time is right, about exploiting them. We want to spot them, but they usually spot us first.

As predators get away with their acts, they learn the best ways to deflect others from discovering their secrets, and they enjoy the lack of accountability. They devise different sets of values for different life frames, so that they can speak convincingly about socially-approved venues of right and wrong, yet have no qualms about their socially-condemned behavior. -Link

I started writing this earlier this week after the ongoing conflict with Donald Trump's behavior. I would sit and watch him and his responses to the issue and would feel "creeped out." My radar kept saying, "This guy is creepy. He is a classic predator." I watched the way he walked, the demeanor, the sneering look, the "no one can challenge me and get away with it" attitude. It all rang out.This guy is a dangerous predator.

But then I decided not to post it. Maybe I was feeling overwhelmed by the whole election fiasco. Maybe I just wanted it to go away. Then Michele Obama spoke yesterday. She spoke of the way this has shaken her to her "very core." I agree. I have to say this.

For a public person like Donald Trump to do what he has been doing since almost the beginning and now this? What in the world is wrong with us? What is the world is happening that we as a nation continue to believe he is a suitable candidate for president? Because he got so many votes? No. He is a con man that knows how to play the emotions of many who feel disenfranchised. He knows how to touch the base emotions of our lives and play on them. His language that has gotten him into the most trouble is this so-called "locker room" language.

It is the language of sexual assault. It is the language of rape. Even if he didn't actually do what he claimed to do (locker room boasting), he is setting it out as appropriate behavior. And then one of his supporting male surrogates (Rush Limbaugh) in excusing the language, went so far as to say that we give too much power to the idea of consent. Men know when "no" means "yes" he implied.

WTF?

Where have we gone as America?

Yes, there are those who say that at least no one died like at Benghazi. Well, that ignores a great deal of information on what led up to Benghazi and what the Secretary of State could have done about it.

It also ignores the many women who HAVE died as the result of the type of actions that Trump and his surrogates are now trying to excuse. Assault, forcibly pushing oneself onto another person, rape. People die from it every day. As long as we want to excuse it, overlook it, do a "Tsk! Tsk!" finger wagging at boys will be boys, we are allowing the whole culture of rape and assault to go unchallenged.

We are being assaulted as a nation by Donald Trump. We are being emotionally raped by a political predator. He is getting away with standing in the middle of 5th Avenue shooting people. He just isn't using guns. He talks about jailing his opponent as if it is something he as president could do. He talks about suing the New York Times because it published accusations against him. He banned the Washington Post for a while when they criticized him. He has denigrated women, Latinos, Muslims while upholding dictator/oligarch Putin as a great leader. It hasn't been overt, yet, but watch- he will come after the Jews next.

And the press is only just beginning to realize their own mistake in not standing up to it earlier and aren't sure what to do about it.

What will happen if he is elected? How long will it take the nation to see we have been assaulted politically without him firing a shot? He will find ways to use the executive order power to undermine who we are as a democracy in ways no president has ever done. And there is a lot more to undermine than the 2nd Amendment.

What will happen if he is defeated? That is potentially more frightening in the short run. He has implied that if he loses it will only be because it was stolen from him. He couldn't possibly lose fair and square. That is predatory behavior and thinking.

For today, though, I had to say these things. Watch him. Not as a presidential candidate, not as a politician, but as a predator. Watch the way he moves and speaks. These were some of the things that people commented on about Bill Clinton in the 90s. Clinton may have learned his lesson.

Donald Trump hasn't.

God help us all.