We are about to enter into a dimension as terrifying as any we have known, a vast and timeless horror that rival's Dante's 9th level of Hell. It is not the middle ground but the end game, choosing shadow over light, favoring superstition over science, and it lies in the pit of man's fears and the summit of his ignorance. This is the dimension of hatred and bigotry, controlled by the narcissistic whims of a spoiled 70 year old toddler. It is a nightmare dimension which we call....The Drumpf Zone.
The above is based on the opening lines of that great TV show, The Twilight Zone. Even that show never contemplated something as horrible as what we are facing.
So, anyone who regularly reads my speculatron columns knows I was wrong about the big one. Hillary Clinton did not win with electoral college vote in the mid-300s.
Yeah, Tom. If you're so smart, why did you get that so wrong?
First and most important. in spite of everything, I had more faith in the American people that that. I could not conceive that enough people would fall for the con man act that he could cobble together enough electoral votes to be competitive. I underestimated the American people's anger and their willingness to be sold a bill of goods. They elected a circus clown, a carnival barker, a man devoid of morals and ideology, someone who clearly only cared about himself. I have read hundreds of explanations as to why someone might have voted for Trump, and I dismiss them all. It was an act of political insanity. Period.
Secondly, we're talking about a race where one candidate won the popular vote by almost 3 million, and the other won the electoral college by winning three Rust Belt states by a combined margin of under 80,000 votes. No, it shouldn't have been a close election. Clinton should have walked away with it. But it also shouldn't have ended in such a wide chasm of difference either. It was the widest discrepancy and the biggest failure of our electoral system in American history. I have made a practical, non-partisan solution to this problem in another political post, and even though it is non-partisan, my conservative friends still scoff and sneer at it. What an ugly divide we live in.
Thirdly, I was right about an important component of the election, and that it would be all about the Rust Belt states. The South would go Republican, many of the coastal states would vote Democratic, and so on, regardless of who the candidate was. The Rust Belt, as can be clearly seen by the close votes in those states, is where the battle needed to take place. And that is where the campaigns needed to focus. Trump's team recognized this more than Hillary did. They picked a Midwest governor as the Vice Presidential candidate, and they campaigned relentlessly in that region. Meanwhile, Clinton picked the bland and milquetoast Virginian political insider, Tim Kaine. Not only did Kaine not help in the Midwest, he really didn't help anywhere (some could make a case for Virginia, but I even doubt that), as he quickly disappeared into the media ether. She should have chosen a populist firebrand, like Bernie Sanders, or Elizabeth Warren, or even Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown. And she should have camped them in the Midwest. They could have easily made up the 80,000 vote margin.
Fourthly, I was right that it was a stupid, short-sighted strategy for Clinton to focus her campaign on the idea that disaffected Republicans were going to come over to her. I felt it in my bones that, despite what many of them were saying, they would come home to roost among the Trumpian base. Comey was hurtful, but it was just an excuse to do what they wanted to do, anyways. The conservative media had spent DECADES reviling and demonizing Hillary, and in the end, it was just too much to overcome. There may come a time when many of these common sense Republicans will wake up and admit that Trump is worse than Clinton, but it will come far too late to help her, and way too late to help the country.
So what happens now?
I don't know. Nothing good, other than the hope that a Progressive Majority may galvanize in the near future.
The Donald is a temperamental brat, a inappropriate tweeting machine, one whose bravado and defensiveness will endanger us all, particularly as this childish dope will soon have access to the nuclear codes.
If we can escape nuclear annihilation, we'll still be stuck with the most corrupt regime since Warren Harding. This is not speculation. It's baked in to how he wants to manage and profit form his businesses, and in the type of cabinet he chose. I think one of the reasons he admires Putin so much is that Putin has used his leadership role to amass a fortune that is, by some estimates, as large as 85 billion dollars, making him the richest man in the world. You don't think Donald "Surrounded by Gold Fixtures" Trump is not envious of that? This comes as close as any explanation I have read to understanding why Trump may be doing what he's doing.
Global warming, instead of being checked, will be accelerated. It won't be just your children's children that are effected by this. It's won't even start with your children. Now, it will also be YOU.
The safety net programs will be under constant siege, with the basic programs that the working poor and middle class have paid into and relied on, subject to weakening and destruction. Some may be privatized so that the wealthy can exploit them and take advantage of those who need them.
Our foreign policy will become more chaotic and unstable. We may withdraw from some places and engage in others. We will always be one tweet away from a third world war.
At best, some manufacturing jobs may be kept, but they will be lower paid, with no union representation and fewer benefits.
Voting right will return to the Jim Crow era. White privilege will be set in stone. It will become dangerous again to be "different". The press and the internet will be under constant threat and assault. I will continue to speak out as long as I am able. There are no guarantees. Yes, it;s going to get that bad. I already can sense the change of tone in this Trump dominated area I live in.
DC Comics, and other entertainment ventures, use the alternate world concept, and even number their alternate realities, ones where Superman never existed, or turned out to be villain, just as examples. DC refers to them as Earth One through Earth 52. Marvel Comics has more complicated designations, like 616abc (made up example, but you get the idea).
Rod Serling, we are drifting off into The Twilight Zone, to a dimension more frightening than we have ever known.
Buckle up, everyone.
We are bout to enter into.....
Alternate Earth #666wtf.
God help us all.
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