Random Thoughts Regarding the Impending Trump Presidency

I am not at all pleased with the prospects of a Donald Trump presidency, paired with Republican majorities in the Senate and House, and accompanied by Republicans in control of many statehouses and state legislatures. Not at all.

In my customary fashion I keep turning all that doesn't please me over and over in my mind, often in the middle of the night, searching for answers, or at least a way out.

Here are some of the thoughts keep invading my troubled head...

• Maybe a Trump presidency won't be so bad. Maybe we will all be surprised, and more workable solutions to ongoing challenging problems will be forged and perhaps forced upon us…but probably not.
• Maybe in the face of the unpredictability and irrationality of Mr. Trump and his kind more thoughtful and less doctrinaire Republicans and Democrats will work together to craft legislation and develop programs that will effectively counter the most extreme and uncompromising excesses of their respective parties, and appeal to the remaining middle of American politics…but, probably not.
• If Hillary Clinton were being inaugurated on January 20, many of my fellow citizens would be as unpleased as I am, especially if Democrats were in power everywhere else in government. I imagine that many Trump supporters have a hard time thinking my anxiety about a Trump presidency has any basis in fact. They are as happy for Friday’s approach as I am distressed by it.
• If Hillary had won, despondent Trump fans would probably be discussing not watching her inauguration, and some Republican office-holders would not be attending, which I would find woefully unpatriotic and small-minded. After all, the inauguration of a new President is an act of our democracy, not the installation of a new form of government.
• O, wait; I am thinking about not watching Donald Trump's Inauguration.
• Donald Trump has chosen people of small spirits, limited brain-power, and large bank accounts to be his closest accomplices. I fully expect them to do the heavy lifting on most everything while he travels and tweets the country pointing out how great America is now that he's in charge. They are the people we have to get to if we are unhappy with what's happening.
• I think President Obama has faced overwhelming odds the past eight years, and it's a miracle he has accomplished anything at all. I appreciate his mind and his ideals. I will miss his maturity and style. But I think he has been less effective than he would have been had he been a better politician, by which I mean more able to reach out to his adversaries and make them his friends, and influence them personally. I think it would not have been easy for him to do that because I think he and I share many of he same personality traits: we like to think about things, to turn them over in our minds, and announce their resolution in the expectation everyone will see it our way. I am not a good politician.
• I am a little weary of the parallel disdain for Trump and adulation for Obama that's coming across my Facebook feed. Would Obama look so good to us if Trump didn't look so bad? Would Obama look so good to us if Clinton were about to take the oath of office? I wonder...
• As of right now, I intend to watch Mr. Trump's Inauguration. The official parts of it anyway...not the concerts, parade, balls, etc. I think you should watch, too, because this is our event–our American event. It is not Trump's or the Republican party's coronation. I think it is fine that the National Cathedral is going to participate (sorry, my new Episcopal friends) because I think someone up there on that podium needs to know that those of us who perhaps did not vote for him are watching, and that all of us are looking for evidence that when he said the night of his election that he intends to be president of all Americans he really meant it. Same thing, only with higher stakes, for office holders not attending: he will be President, like it or not, and you are doing no one any good by symbolically burning a bridge you might need in reality. He will not forgive or forget your snub. Actually, the great thing to do would be to show up anyway, and take control of the news about event. I am probably not welcome at his Inauguration, but I will be there Friday…watching…although I do reserve the right to turn off the TV if my stomach starts to churn and my heart starts to die.