Yelling at Clouds

So after interminable months of campaign coverage, the shocking news of President Biden withdrawing from the race, the energy and hope of a surprisingly good Harris/Walz effort and the tension of election night coverage we awake days later still reeling from the realization that many of our fellow Americans (not most despite suggestions of it, because even in such a consequential race some 40% of eligible voters couldn’t be bothered to to – less voted than in 2020) were inclined to return to office the same man who left office in disgrace, under criminal indictment shortly thereafter and convicted of 34 of the many offenses he was accused of. After botching a response to a pandemic leaving some 400k dead Americans. After attacking our Capitol in a petulant and violent tantrum after losing the previous election – after that and much more the electorate opted to elevate him once again to the highest office in the land.

Yes, really.

The recriminations and retrospection is already well underway and it’s evident that in large part it was the disconnect of an actual healthy economy and the lack of it reflecting on many that appears to have driven the result. Given the option of flawed and slow and potential chaos, chaos won. Faced with the choice between a known con man and serial liar who had only just been prevented from undermining the foundation of our nation by (eventually) honorable public servants such as a spineless Mike Pence or slow to speak up Milley, Mattis, Esper, Bolton, Tillerson and good grief even the Cheney’s closed ranks to note his utter unsuitability for the office.

Think of it – in what world can a majority of your hand-picked staff recommend against you getting a job will you still be hired? This one. Our world.

Because hope and optimism do not matter if you never see it.

Because perception is key – no matter how unsubstantiated by fact or knowledge (or lack thereof).

So what do we do now that we’ve collectively decided the fox, while clearly undisciplined and easily manipulated and prone to vengeance is best suited to guard the hen house? I do not know. I’d like to express optimism that the youth with pull the country forward but they substantially supported the chaos agent. That women would revolt against the loss of their body autonomy – many of them too voted for it. That hispanics would recoil at being called criminals and literally garbage – no, many opted to pull the ladder behind them.

So we’re left with a LOT of uncertainty and worry and I’m left with the ugly and uncharitable thought that if the return to chaos and the resulting pain will finally convince people so be it – so long as it isn’t already too late for us to recover what may be lost in the interim.