Words Fail Me

I don’t have a lot to say this sunny Friday. There are a great many things going right, and the Democrats are treating us to an entertaining reaction to the Hidabeast losing. 

That being said, there is one item I think is comment worthy. There is already starting to be a buzz about who Trump will tap for Scalia’s seat on the Supreme Court. A fairly popular choice seems to be Ted Cruz. I kind of agree to that. At 45, he is relatively young, so he would be able to sit for 25 years. As the puppy blender notes, he is a shoe in, given that he’ll get a courtesy approval from his fellows in the Senate.

On the other hand, let’s not forget what the Bamster did with his choices. Because of him, we have Kagan who replaced Stevens and Sotomayor who replaced Souter. Neither of these appointments probably should have been anywhere near the Supreme Court. They both were extemely left leaning, similar to Ginsberg. So why shouldn’t Trump go the same route and nominate a justice that leans equally to the right. 

While Cruz would more than fill that role, I do have an alternative, or perhaps a candidate for Trumps second or third nominee. What about Mark Levin? He is am undisputed constitutional scholar. It would also be entertaining to hear him tangle with Bamster’s appointees. Heck, it would be entertaining to hear him tangle with the Democrats and the Rinos during the confirmation hearings. The one downside of placing him would be his age (59) and his health. He has had some health issues, and probably would not endure on the court for more than 10 years. But, it would be entertaining none the less.

Hope-N-Changing Trump

Yesterday was rather euphoric for conservatives. I have to admit I didn’t even know that the Democrats had organized protest across the country, marching and burning things. Like most old white guys, I was celebrating Trump’s victory by pouring myself into my work and getting things done. Not that I’m surprised much by the deplorable marchers and burners. After all, temper tantrums are kind of what they do.

The one thing I did do yesterday was read and listen to a lot of comment about what Trump is going to do once he is sworn in. It occurred to me while I was listening the laundry list of things people wanted to see him do that this was reminiscent of the ‘hope-n-change’ Obama supporters were doing right after he got elected. I recall they were counting on him to make their car payments, get slave reparations, and turn back to tide of climate change. Note that I said 2008, because by 2012, everybody knew that he was just going through the motions and none of that stuff was going to happen.

It was interesting to hear what my fellow conservatives hoped for in a new Trump administration. Obviously the big things where there, repealing Obamacare and undoing all of those dreadful administrative actions like immigration amnesty. But it was striking how humble their wish list was. Mostly it was more of less, and less of more.

The gist of what I heard was the hope that the government will go back to having little or no impact on our daily lives. Ultimately that really is the promise of a conservative government. It really should endeavor to have as little impact on the everyday citizen as possible. Perhaps that is the most important thing that I see in my personal mirror when I look on a new Trump administration.

But perhaps there is a great deal of circumspection here. Conservatives have learned to not dream too big in the last eight years. There have been too many disappointments from our leadership. Recall how we felt we had a chance when we took back the house and the Senate, and yet not one bill repealing Obamacare ever landed on Obama’s desk for him to not sign? So there are still a too many worms in our congressional woodwork for us to even hope that great things will be done or great walls will be built (or rebuilt). 

No, I think we will be good when all the tiny cuts are healed. There are many examples of tiny things that we see on a daily basis that are a result of Obama policies that we would be happy for Trump to ‘fix’: like the TSA no longer groping grandma but applying sensible screening techniques; or pulling down all those stupid signs that are marking ‘shovel ready jobs’; or letting our kids have hamburgers in their school lunches again. Yeah – those kind of things.

And there I go, holding up my mirror while looking at the new Trump administration. And yet Trump has not done a single thing since getting elected beyond making a victory speech. None of this optimism is earned. And yet, like most conservatives, I still feel a little giddy. Perhaps it’s not so much about what he will do, as to what the Hildabeast won’t do. I think it's OK to feel good about that!

There really is a new sun rising over America, so have a great day!

Taking a Breath

So Trump prevailed! I wasn’t planning on staying up for the results, and I didn’t. However, my wife did and I was woke up at around 3am to be told that Trump had won and Hillary conceded. My reaction can be summed up in one word – relieved. Relieved that the corrupt Clintons wouldn’t be in the White House. I’m not sure I could take another 4 – 8 years of a president I could never trust or respect. So good for Trump!

Now I’m not usually a cup half full kind of guy. However, there are things that really bother me about this election. The simple fact is that nearly half or more of the ballots cast were for an incredibly corrupt individual.  That means that statistically, about every other people that you see today thought that was a good idea. But perhaps am I overstating it. Let’s be rational and do some math. 

According to Google, there are about 319 million people in the US. 24% of them are under 18, so that leaves about 243 million voting age adults. About 0.7% are in jail, leaving 241 million or so eligible to vote. There are 11 million illegal immigrants, and assuming 24% of them are not of voting age that leaves another 8 million you can subtract from the voting public, so you would have around 233 million voters. Round that down by 3 million to take off people who are dying, have Alzheimer’s, or are otherwise understandably not going to the polls and you have around 230 million people. However, only about 118 million votes were cast last night. That means only 51% of the people voted, leaving 24.5% voting for each candidate.

Give4n that, out of the four people you wait in line with at the coffee shop, two of them are yawning and wondering what all the fuss is about because, for whatever reason, they didn’t bother voting yesterday. My guess is they looked up from their lives just in time to realize that once again they had forgotten to register to vote. I’m like that too, so I can kind of understand the mentality. You can probably pick them out because they will be the ones saying ‘Aw, both of the candidates were crap! I’m wasn’t going to vote for either one of them’. Only one of the four people standing in that line with you voted for the Hidabeast. They are probably the one being real quiet and they probably has a big frown on their face.

For those reading this that were paying attention, up there at the beginning of this I said ‘votes cast’. I didn’t say 'voters'. Yes, that was purposeful. You see, this election, like the last two, was frightening for me. Suppose for a second that there are say nine people in that line, five of them didn’t vote, and there is one old sourpuss and four of you foolishly grinning at each other. We would then have to wonder where all those extra votes came from, and why those other guys in line are grinning thinking they helped their guy win? It’s a little scary, no?

So that’s where I am this morning. I am happy that Trump won. I really hope that with a majority in the house and senate, he can undo a lot of the mess that Obama will leave behind. However, there is still those two other grinning guys and one old sourpuss to worry about, because there is a real problem when the numbers don’t make sense and reality doesn’t match the mathematical facts. 

Now is the time for us to really take a good hard look at our election system. Notice I didn’t say process. Process is set down by laws and the constitution, and seems to be pretty reasonable and fair. No, I am speaking about the system that we use to cast, collect, and tally our votes – the machinery of the voting. My belief is that it, like much of our nation’s infrastructure it is falling apart. It is on the very brink of crumbling at our feet and demonstrably open to compromise. I suspect, given the almost even outcome and the dreadful Democratic candidate, that much of it is already compromised. We are poised on an abyss here. We can pretend the problem doesn’t exist and in the next, or the next election, we will fall headlong into a benevolent dictatorship where all the votes are counted and always come out the way that our government wants. That, or we can do something about it. Something to think very seriously about on the day after the Election Day.