It's Been an Atrocious Election Year...

The recent presidential election has left me feeling depressed. It seems to have had that effect on quite a few die-hard lefties.

There are bound to be at least one or two people who'll point out that had Hillary Clinton, there'd still be approximately half the country depressed over the election results. It was a close election. And while Hillary won more physical votes, she lost by way of the electoral college. It's happened before. Trust me: as a voter who lived in Florida during the 2000 election between George W. Bush and Al Gore, I'm well aware that there are contentious elections. Any time you have bumper stickers showing up saying that the state you live in has Electile Dysfunction, you know that there are unhappy voters.

And yet, the 2000 election can't possibly as contentious as this year's election. While many Republicans hated Hillary, mentioning her emails during her time as Secretary of State, along with any and all complaints, it was nothing compared to how Democrats felt about Donald Trump. Heck, even members of his own party tried distancing themselves from him.

Anne Lamott is one of my favorite writers. She's written several books of essays about becoming a Christian (Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith), and her ongoing struggles of meshing her faith with her left-wing politics (Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith and Grace Eventually: Thoughts on Faith). In the first essay in Plan B ("Ham of God"), Lamott wrote, "Everyone I know has been devastated by Bush's presidency...So much has been stolen by Bush, from the very beginning of his reign...I have had it with Bush. Hadn't the men in the White House ever heard of the word karma?"

The first time I read these words, I practically cheered. I haven't voted for any of the Bush family: Not George H.W. Bush, not W., and not younger brother Jeb for Florida governor. Did I mention being a die-hard lefty Democrat - and a feminist, too?

And yet, while I've never voted for the Bushes, the thought of Trump in the White House, and seeing the people he's picking to surround himself with - rich white men who seem to be positively allergic to anyone who isn't a rich WASP-ish male - is making me positively nostalgic for the Bush years - all 12 in the White House, along with Jeb's in Tallahassee. For me to even think that way, much less write about it, should tell you something about my deep mistrust of he-who-shall-not-be-named.

That last bit - the "he-who-shall-not-be-named" - should look familiar to anyone who follows Stephen King's Twitter page. I've got to respect someone who calls the president-elect that.

When I went to bed the night of November 8, the end results weren't in. Around 2:30, I got up to use the bathroom and passed my youngest son, J., in the hallway. I didn't dare ask at that hour who won. I figured if it was a clear-cut Hillary win, he would have told me. The fact that he didn't say anything, other than to announce he was heading for bed, meant that either he-who-shall-not-be-named had won, or it was still up in the air. I hoped that it was the latter and went back to bed.

But no. When I got up in the morning, the obscene headline told it all.

The chatter on Facebook and Twitter has been crazy: it's not hard to tell who voted for whom by the posts.

But after a week-and-half, the die-hard lefties seem to be deciding, "Okay, so now what do we do?", while posting ways to get rid of the electoral college, and try blocking some of he-who-shall-not-be-named's picks from actually ending up in DC.

It's going to be a long haul. Let's just hope and pray he-who doesn't screw up as bad as we're afraid of.

Politics Make Me Sick

I never voted for any of the Bush family: Not George H.W. Bush, not George W. Bush, and not Jeb (although I almost thought that Jeb might be the smarter brother). If any of them were to run for office again, I still wouldn't vote for them. To paraphrase Dr. Seuss, I would not vote for them in a boat, with a goat, with green eggs and ham, I wouldn't vote for them, Sam-I-Am.

In the first essay in her book Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith, Anne Lamott bemoans the "scolding at the hands of the Bush administration."

"A friend called to wish me Happy Birthday, and I remembered something she's said many years ago, while reading a Vanity Fair article about Hitler's affair with his niece. 'I have had it with Hitler,' Peggy said vehemently...And I've had it with Bush." ("Ham of God," Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith.)

Throughout "Ham of God", Lamott states why she wasn't wild about George W. Bush. And I am as much a fan of the Bush politics as Lamott. Nothing personal; I'm sure that if one could pull politics away from the Bush men, if one could have a talk over, say, their favorite barbecue, places to vacation, and such, we might almost have a decent conversation. Almost.

That said, the current political scene is making me positively nostalgic for Bush family politics. Between Rick Scott, former chief executive of Columbia/HCA, now in his final two years as Florida governor and Donald Trump the GOP nominee for president, is there any doubt as to why I'm nostalgic?

When George W. ran for reelection, my dad called to apologize for voting for W. the first time around, later becoming an Independent (after being a life-long Republican) because of W. That said, I'm sure Dad is not rolling over in his grave, but, rather, spinning faster than a windmill during a hurricane.

First, Rick Scott. A 2012 Huffington Post article mentions his plunging popularity. Things have only gotten worse ("Rick Scott, America' eighth least popular Governor") for his popularity, and with good reason. He got into office on his "Let's get to work" campaign - promising more jobs for Florida - then promptly starting cutting jobs left and right in Tallahassee. He ran Columbia/HCA while the company was embroiled in controversy over, in large part, the company's Medicare billing practices. Although Scott wasn't implicated, the company ended up forking more than $600 million to the federal government for the largest fraud settlement in US history (taken from the Wikipedia page on Rick Scott). Then there's the fact that he passed on billions of federal dollars to help expand Medicaid that would have covered 650,000 Floridians. There's more, but you get the idea.

Then, there's Donald Trump.

It seems that every time the man opens his mouth, garbage seems to spew out. I would say it was mostly manure, but at least manure can be useful if one is planting roses or mushrooms. I have yet to hear anything that useful coming from Trump. It seems that Trump says something that takes maybe 30 seconds to say, then spends the next week back-tracking. He's managed to insult everyone and anyone who is not a rich white Christian man in great health.

Besides Hilary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and the mainstream media, Trump has managed to insult a growing list of people, places and things. Try people in his own party: Sen. John McCain ("not a war hero"), Former President George W. Bush, Sen. Lindsey Graham, and in a really low moment, a reporter with a disability.

That's just a start. Watching news reports on Trump, it's not hard for me to imagine him being responsible for starting a major war simply by acting like a spoiled brat bully.

Is it any wonder why, while I never voted for a Bush, I'm almost nostalgic?