The election is not the Super Bowl.
Unlike that event, after which everybody goes home and no one’s life is particularly changed except for team members and those who won or lost money, we will be living with the consequences of Tuesday’s vote for many years to come.
“Maintain the Hillary Hedge in Congress. Hold her feet to the fire. We’ve put her in, now we must rein her in.”
Does that sound particularly gracious? I recognized the very real dangers of a Clinton Presidency, as I have said repeatedly in this blog.
So I now say that same things about Donald Trump:
“He must be held accountable. He must be controlled. He cannot be allowed to wreak havoc on this country.”
I am quoting below a fine conservative writer named David Bahnsen, who has appeared before in this blog. My main disagreement with him in principle is that he refused to vote for either candidate, a position which I have always found, and still do find, logically inconsistent. However, having said that, his comments are very helpful:
We found out last night that there is such thing as an Obama-Trump voter. Everyone wants to believe that the government can solve their problems, or that a strongman can. The Obama coalition fell apart for Hillary Clinton because she was not credible, exciting, believable, or desirable. Millennials don’t trust her. Working-class whites loathe her. And the African-American vote appears to have voted for her in expected proportions but with much lower turnout.
But conservatives better admit this: Trump picked up the votes needed to win for the same asinine reason Obama initially did — novelty and messianic hope.
And that brings me to my prayer for Trump. I pray that he will forfeit all the demagoguery that defined his campaign, and transition to an ideas-based administration with competent and outstanding people ready to execute for the betterment of our country.
I do not believe he will. But I do hope for it.
Stuffing a protectionist trade pact down our throat will not help factory workers in Ohio who have been technologically displaced, but it will be fatal if it creates a trade war with China.
There is a policy agenda that can improve the situation in America dramatically, create growth, and allow for some of the aforementioned rifts to begin to heal.
And then there is his blustery, vindictive rhetoric. You must know what I am hoping for.
To those who supported Trump, congratulations.
I take back absolutely nothing I have felt or said throughout this ugly and painful election season — besides my inaccurate prediction that Trump would lose. I feel compelled to write and speak what I believe the truth to be, and I have tried to faithfully do that. My ultimate responsibility is to the God whom I serve, and I feel I have been faithful to Him and to the standards of truth I believe in. The campaign is now over.
I wish to be in conflict with no man — as much as it depends on me. Do I wish newly reelected Senator Marco Rubio was the one giving a presidential-acceptance speech today? You bet I do. And I frankly think it will still come.
Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/442056/donald-trump-2016-victory-what-it-means-where-we-go-here