The day after

Well this is about to get interesting. There are a lot of bleary eyes and shocked expressions around me this morning. I can’t say I’ve seen any overt celebration in person (my Facebook feed is another story).  Perhaps there are some that are secretly celebrating for their own reasons or perhaps it’s just the crowd I am with this week for work.
There are a couple of things that worry me and a couple that give me hope. First the worries.
Our 45th presidency was going to be a shit show either way. The thing that concerns me about the particular shit show my fellow Americans have selected is that it’s going to be highly unpredictable. Say what you will about the defeated candidate, she was predictable to a fault. The only thing that anyone knows about our president-elect is that it’s all about him. No, I’m not worried about his seeming bigotry, racism or misogyny. Maybe I’m fooling myself, but I think that was more than half just for show driven by a keen sense of what he needed to say to win. What I am worried about is that we don’t know what he will actually do, only that but will be whatever he calculates is best for him at the time he is making the decison. It will be interesting to see how his ‘deplorables’ react the first time that his personal gain runs in the opposite direction of theirs. More on that later.
My other worry is not the mandate the president elect might take from his near landslide victory, but more the mandate that some of his more extreme supporters will assume exists for them. What will they now view as acceptable behavior and conversation?  You could argue that the SJW phenomena has grown under the moral shelter provided by the exiting administration. What form of social discourse will emerge in the next four years?  SJW has eroded western values like freedom of speech and the free exchange of ideas and it’s reaction will do more of the same. Funny how the results are the same even though the motivation seems to be diametrically opposed.
But it’s not all bad. The first thing that gives me hope is to think back to all the things our current president promised and compare that to what he actually did. As near as I can tell Gitmo is still open, we’re still in at least 2 wars in the middle east and we still have a major terrorism problem.  That’s not an indictment of Obama, but rather a call to realize that stump speeches are one thing and reality is quite another.  Perhaps the only thing less true than campaign promises are words uttered in bars a half hour before closing time.
My second hopeful thought may be a bridge too far. It is definitely a strange combination of dystopian and Pollyanna world views. It’s clear that we’ve “kicked over the table” to borrow a phrase from one of the talking heads I watched this morning in a effort to distract myself with a bit of schadenfreude.  That’s what a majority wanted and a minority is in shock over today.  As this plays out, could this be the catalyst for both groups to realize that the game is rigged?  Will the “winners” realize that while they changed the means, the ends are the same, causing them to see through and break out of the ruling and ruled paradigm?  Will the “losers” in their shock realize that they lost because they over reached by using government force to drive their agenda, causing them to return to peaceful, rational means of change?
If we’re going to make a change (or burn it down all depending on your POV) then let’s not be half assed about it.  Carpe diem.