To poach a title from Pink Floyd’s playlist, the U.S. election results have let a lot of us unbelievers feeling uncomfortably numb.
And if there’s one lesson learned from the Donald’s stunning upset as pollsters continue to choke down a heaping helping of humble pie, it’s that experts and predictions don’t mean a thing.
Some of the harder statistics to wrap your head around are that one in five folks of Hispanic persuasion voted for a man who wants to build a wall to keep their relatives out of the country.
The fact less women voted for Clinton than Obama is another scalp scratcher. Having her e-mail account re-F.B. eyed a week before the election was another strange twist in a series of events throughout the campaign that defy logic on too many levels to list.
Whether the low voter turnout speaks to an epidemic of disconnect, coverage overkill or poor quality of candidates that dragged on interminably, America has decided on something new rather than something old, borrowed and red white and blue.
Whine all you want about electing a man who appears to be unable to grasp the remotest semblance of what’s right and decent when it comes to women, a man who set new records for the number of lies and how often he repeated them is king for the next four years. More proof that you get what you deserve as much as what Trump paid for.
In the final analysis, Hillary was probably pilloried because she offered nothing fresh or novel, just the stale promise of more of the same. If you believe political parties go in in cycles, set your washer on spin because “Make America great again” ruled the day.
Our neighbours to the south have anointed a leader short on experience that now has his twitchy finger on the nuclear trigger, and that should make everyone in Sooke and the surrounding planet very, very nervous.
If there is a sliver of silver in the storm clouds ahead, it’s that in the strange system to the south, the chain of command has many loops, and there’s a lot of Republicans who aren’t exactly thrilled with what just went down. Even George Bush had his leash shortened by the party’s hierarchy from time to time during his eight-year rain.
So let’s all calm down a little, exhale in unison and say a silent prayer that when what Trump perceives as a push turns to shove, cooler comb-overs prevail. Then in another 206 weeks, we can all shout “You’re fired!”
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Rick Stiebel is a semi-retired journalist and Sooke resident.
