Michael: It's Great to be Here for the Next 4 Years.

Summer tanager
With its siren red feathers
Surprises the eyes.

Monday, November 9, 2016

Many people, probably jokingly, threatened to move from the States if Trump became president. At least we got a jump on the gun and have our overseas hideaway already secured for the next 4 years.

I wouldn’t put it as simply as David Duke quipped this morning - “Our people won Trump the election.” In such a complex landscape as the U.S. there are a lot of both clear and murky factors that effect the results, but Duke’s assertion represents one of the uglier truths of this election; there is a large stream of racism, misogynism, homophobia, and xenophobia running through a large core of the populous. As Woody Allen would say, “I hope I’m not leaving anything out.”

This is not a proud day to be an American. Hell, even many Trump supporters weren’t proud enough of their choice to openly reveal themselves. That’s why so many of the polls were off.

On the bright side the people did reject both a Bush and a Clinton in this election cycle. Hopefully we’re done with our flirtation with oligarchies for the foreseeable future.

If only…This was one of the few times when I’ve donated to a political campaign - Bernie’s. I’m sure I’m not the only dejected ‘democrat’ this morning ruing the party’s decision to go with Clinton. But hopefully we’ll all get through the next 4 years, and then we can only hope Elizabeth Warren, or someone like her, will step up to reignite the progressive flame and move the U.S. forward again.

Until then we’ll sit tight and enjoy our tax break overseas.