Maricopa County, AZ had 724 polling stations open for the general election and Trump still took it. They had 60 polling places open for the primary election. What gives? I guess they really needed to make it easy for disenfranchised Democrats to vote for Clinton.
Hillary was a sure thing, right? Every poll I saw showed her with either gaping leads or at least a sliver of a lead over Trump. For months, even the polling site I love to cite the most, Real Clear Politics, had electoral maps that were mostly blue all over. But not today. No, those polling maps are red right down the middle. Not even the left or the east coast could save her.
Jill Stein got 1%. Oh, well. I love the Green Party, but as some people have noted, they really do need to work on critical mass. What I mean by that is that they need to get people into office in Congress and in statehouses to build the kind of momentum they need to get into the White House. I applaud their efforts and look forward to seeing them again in the next election.
BTW, just in case anyone should happen to blather some nonsense about it, Stein supporters did not cost Hillary the election. Hillary won the popular vote.
So, any Electoral College haters out there? Let's have a show of hands to see how many people would like to grind the Electoral College into dust. I know I would, but not because Hillary would have won. I just think they're done and I think we need a better system for choosing our presidents. I'm even up for ranked choice voting.
I'm not excited that Trump won and Hillary lost. I wanted Jill Stein, but I'm kind of relieved to see that we won't be continuing the Clinton Dynasty. There's enough resistance in both houses to keep Trump contained from doing really dopey stuff. And if he does decide to unwind a few trade deals, I won't be disappointed if he manages to pull that off. Sorry, I don't think he's dumb enough to start a nuclear war. Maybe that's because Trump and his family and all of his customers breathe the same air and drink the same water that most of us share. Even Putin claims that he will calm things down with Trump in office.
I really don't know what to make of Trump. I consider him to be entertainer more than serious politician. I honestly didn't expect him to win, either. I figured he would drop out before leaving the lush life he already has. I don't really share the same fears and concerns that most people in social media have expressed about Trump. But at least Michael Moore can say that he was right about Trump winning.
I'm an agnostic about Trump and life in general, so I have a wait and see attitude. I have few expectations about anything having been bitterly disappointed before. That wasn't working for me, so I adopted an "I don't know" attitude about life. That's how I am with Trump, too. That's how I was with Clinton.
I'm also an optimist. I am an optimist because I've found that I tend to get what I think about. If I live in fear, I tend to get the things I fear. If I live in hope, I tend to get the things I hope for.
Here's another reason I'm agnostic. I believe that faith is the conscious reservation of judgment. I reserve judgment about Trump now that he's president elect because even Trump wasn't sure he was going to win. Now that he's won, he's going to have to cross the canyon between what he said he would do, and what the rest of the world will let him do.
This is not the end of the world. Not for me, not for you, not even for Clinton supporters. There is still Congress, even if they don't listen to us much. There are still 25% of federal employees who said they'd quit if Trump is elected, so get your resumes ready if you want to work for the Feds. There are many variables, and many of them are unknown at this time. We don't really know for sure what will happen.
All we can say for sure is that if we want change, we must be the change we want to see.
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