The people have spoken, as that post-election expression goes. Trump wins! A lot of re-thinking of our election process has followed, but only on the part of those who supported, well, anyone but him! Yes, the people have spoken, and they have clearly revealed possessing a few mind-sets, all of them irrational but for those supporters who are extremely wealthy. After all, it should clear by now, after 35 years of Reaganomics (in one form or another) that as the saying goes, “there are two kinds of Republicans; the filthy rich and fools” Fools? At worst, some Trump voters are racists if not part of the white supremacist movement. After all, the Klu Klux Klan endorsed Trump. Enough said there. Others, maybe not inclined to join the Klan, stated implicit with their Trump votes, they are okay with our now President elect’s clearly demonstrated lack of grace as a candidate, as he denigrated women, Mexicans, Muslims, mocking a disabled person, even criticizing as “being weak” John McCain’s prisoner of war experience during the Vietnam conflict. All of Trump’s voters now own their candidate’s regrettable attitudes, beliefs and behaviors, whether they realize that or not. Remember. Either filthy rich or fools.

Yes, those people have spoken. Unfortunately, not enough people showed up at the polls to reject Trump’s horrifying lack of respect for those he maligned. I kept waiting for the media to finally, finally, back off on their Trump fetish, for the press to demand actual substance rather than essentially just giving amplification to his undeniable vile style.

I’ve previously blogged about how our elections, for a long time, have resulted in “leadership” that turns out not to be not much at all interested in doing the work of, by and for the people. And not just who becomes President. Congress, as well. Yeah, money has corrupted the process, but the process has been granted permission to be corrupt by those who vote for its occupants. And not just congress, but also state legislatures. We have been living in an increasing age of legislation clearly designed to suppress voter turnout among Democrat-leaning minorities, the elderly, disabled and college students. The people also “spoke” during all the elections that enabled this cynical form of governing to carry out their not-so-hidden agendas.

Now, with the election of the Empty Suit, perhaps we have reached the nadir of this kind of political free speech. What should have been a simple choice for logic and reason, tolerance and empathy over hate and fear mongering was, apparently, not so simple after all. In spite of the electoral college math being the only reason Trump won–after all he lost the popular vote by two million votes–I can’t blame the electoral college for his victory. Indeed, Trump was a candidate rejected by many current office holders of both major parties, and by most newspapers, including some that had not endorsed a Democrat for President in many generations (ironic, given the aforementioned “fetish” the mainstream media showed for Trump’s repulsive antics).

So, who to blame?

Let’s point a disapproving finger at the millions of voices that failed to “speak” on election day. Whom are these accused? Presumably, they are among the several million voters who supported Barack Obama in both of his electoral victories, but inexplicably did not do the same for Hillary Clinton. She may have been less than the ideal choice for the Democratic party (obviously!) but if she was objectionable, Donald Trump should have been easily seen as a catastrophe-in-waiting, a profound lowering of the bar for measuring a candidate’s experience, disposition, platforms and proposals, all imbued with a respectable degree of accessible, thoughtful, detail open for serious analysis . Trump, rather , offered ugly rhetoric, cynicism, self-absorption.

There really is no precedent for this grotesque outcome. I used to think Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and George W. Bush were disturbing for a variety of reasons. Any ex-President can be criticized. Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, Carter, Clinton and our current President were/are certainly not without faults. We all have faults…

…however…

…in contrasting Trump to any of those former occupants, each and every one of them are towering figures of principled intents, people who, regardless of Republican or Democrat, at least demonstrated some measure of decency, of acceptability that conforms to even the most lowest common denominator aspect of political image-projecting. Now that the people have spoken, albeit in political gibberish, I contend that now there essentially are no prerequisite character qualifications to be President. In fact, I now believe that even your neighbor, perhaps a blue-collar worker, especially a white, male working class neighbor, one who has laughable if not frightening personal opinions, attitudes, beliefs and even obnoxious, toxic behavior still can easily become President, too. It’s now revealed to be a simple formula: announce candidacy; somehow entice the media to put a mic and camera in front of face, and let the bile flow, however disgusting, disrespectful it may sound; but the sensation-seeking media provides near around-the-clock coverage to every uttering, continuing to do so for so long that the inanity becomes a clarion call to other Joe Blows. Millions of Joe Blows. And in spite of the laughter and can you believe this?! reactions of people far and wide, their laughter is dismissed, rather than dismissing the crude manifestation of their laughter. In short, Joe Blowhard, with his outrageous babblings out in the open, is provided with a twisted legitimacy. Then enough people, no longer laughing, simply assume this bozo could NEVER get elected, there’s just no fucking way he could be elected. C’mon! Really? Just wait until election day and this blowhard hater will be history. Except not enough of these self-asssured critics bother to make the simple effort to let actions speak louder than foregone conclusions. They decline to speak where it counts the most: the ballot booth!

Joe Blow is President!

And again, we all get the government we deserve.