The Night Of
“I think it’s my adventure, my trip, my journey, and I guess my attitude is, let the chips fall where they may.” – Leonard Nimoy
If you asked me a week before the election what I’d be doing on November 8th, I probably would have guessed I’d be up late watching some mishmash of news networks, following the drama and the tension, feeling anxious and emotional like everyone else, wondering whether Hillary would get in, or if Trump would take a clean sweep, or whether there’d be signs of rigging, etc.
In truth, I actually spent the night in quiet solitude. I’d been sick all week from stress related to work, personal stuff, the weather, and probably political stuff, too. Yet, two emotions above all filled me that evening.
The first was acceptance. For months leading up to the election, I’d done everything in my power to support Trump on his own merits, to dispel falsehoods levied against him, to help raise awareness of Hillary’s physical and moral ills, to share information put out by Wikileaks and Project Veritas, and to fight a war on two fronts against statists, and even my fellow libertarians, at times.
But on that fateful night, I think the universe decided to cut me a break. I had done all I could reasonably do, and had enough success to feel confident my energies weren’t wasted, that I was at last being given permission to rest and relax. The die had been cast, and all bets were placed. The only thing left to do was wait and see what turned up.
I felt accepting of the outcome, regardless of what it was. That if Clinton won, life would go on as it had been, and I’d take up the fight again the next day to do battle with the forces of statism and social justice. Whereas if Trump won, I could rest easy knowing I’d gotten exactly what I wanted, and could instead turn my attention to holding him to his promises.
The other dominant emotion I felt on election night was relief. Relief that all this drama was coming to a close, and still further relief as the last votes were counted and the results posted to Google. Rather than watch any sort of political media, I instead indulged myself in some cannoli cake, drank some Pinot Noir, and watched Arumba play Factorio on YouTube, as the Google ticker tracked the votes in the background. The social media scene was fairly quiet – the calm before the storm that would soon follow. I made a post here or there, but nothing too serious or antagonistic.
In a separate tab, I had open States Poll’s map that projected a landslide victory for Trump, which turned out to be fairly prescient when compared with the actual results:
At 290 to 228, I’d call that a landslide victory.
At least as far back as the primaries, I’ve been rather vocal in my support for Trump, even as a libertarian. I owe a lot of credit to Stefan Molyneux for initially helping me dispel the bullshit and board the Trump Train. I now feel vindicated for that early decision, especially having suffered my share of slings and arrows along the way for doing so.
Around 11:20 PM, with the election all but over, rather than jump for joy like an idiot whose team just scored the winning touchdown at the Super Bowl, I merely smiled and said inwardly, “I knew you could do it.” I went to bed that night happy and at peace. A long and arduous battle had come to its conclusion, but a new set of conflicts was about to begin.
The Following Mourning
“For some reason I thought taking his life would bring catharsis … instead I only feel a deeper sadness, another soul lost fighting for the wrong side.“ – Shinobi Sensui
If you asked me a week before the election what I’d be doing shortly after hearing of a Trump victory, I probably would have told you I’d be gloating my ass off, rubbing it in people’s faces. To be sure, I’m enjoying drinking in all the liberal tears.
The best part of waking up…
But the more of them I consumed, the more of them welled up to the surface inside me until my inner empath couldn’t help but shed a few in sympathy.
So many people – millions, in fact – are grieving at this very moment. For many, these aren’t just crocodile tears, but actual, bona fide tears of visceral pain and trauma. Granted, much of it is self-inflicted, due to willful ignorance or a susceptibility to fear-mongering and race baiting by the media-political complex, but it’s also quite heart-wrenching to watch at the same time.
One of my Facebook friends posted a video of Miley Cyrus crying in response to the election results:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaWrKF-YZ2c
I went into it looking for a good laugh, popcorn in hand, ready to post a Loki meme in the comments or laughing Wise Guys or something. She’s a misguided idiot and a hypocrite to be sure, thinking that Hillary somehow deserves to be anything but in jail; but by the end of the clip, I felt a deep sense of pity and also, perhaps most surprisingly of all… a modicum of actual respect for her.
As desperately as Miley Cyrus wanted Hillary to win, she at least had the grace and humility to say she would give Trump a chance, which is a lot more than I can say for the violent protestors who shout “Fuck Donald Trump!” or the media-political complex. Her only request was that Trump promise to treat all people with respect, which I’m confident he will do going forward.
I also watched Hillary’s concession speech, which surprised me as well. I know she dragged her feet with it, and I’m in no way being apologetic for anything she’s said or done thus far; but all credit where credit is due, I really enjoyed it. Regardless of how else I might feel about Clinton, one thing I do think she does extremely well is project a public image of respect, dignity, and tact. At times, it’s easy to get drawn into her siren songs of sophistry and forget she’s really unprincipled at heart.
With regards to Clinton, in particular, if her actions and policies matched the caliber of the rhetoric in her concession speech, it would have been her in the White House right now. It just goes to show that, even when we’re right, we can still be wrong. Wrong about the true character of people and how changing circumstances can transform us as well, often for the worse, but sometimes for the better. That everyone at least has within the depths of their souls the innate capacity for good and I think it’s that essence that needs to be tapped into at this crucial moment in time.
The Daze to Come
“I am sympathetic to the idea that we need to figure out all these people who are having nervous breakdowns, we need to figure out something about them; but we need to utterly crush and destroy the people who have led them to have nervous breakdowns and that includes the media and that includes most of conservative media.” – Mike Cernovich
There’s a lot going on in this time of transition. I’m hopeful for the future, but there are still many who are angry and afraid. Many are still in denial and cannot let go of the fact that theirs was an ideology based on greed, fear, ignorance, and envy. They will continue to double down on the attacks and divisiveness.
Still others will use this as an opportunity to hold Trump and his supporters under a microscope and scrutinize every last little thing that goes on, which is one of the reasons I’m so confident Trump will do well over the next four years. His ego and desire for social approval won’t allow him to fail. The moment even one Syrian child dies, the media will be all over it and blame Trump’s immigration policy, while ignoring the myriad violent attacks committed by illegals and anti-Trump supporters.
Those of us who supported Trump and came out victorious have the greatest responsibility in holding Trump accountable for whatever he does going forward. We must take the lead in reaching out to others and proving that Trump and his movement are every bit as great as we believe them to be. To reunite this country and make America great again.
We must be compassionate, but we must also be just. A lot of people are hurting right now, but a lot of people also caused this hurt and need to be punished for it so as not to propagate their evil any further.
Not that I’m pointing fingers at anybody or anything.
In his acceptance speech, Trump called for a unified America, saying that he cannot be the President of part of the country, but wished to be president of all of the country, and he reached out to those who disagreed with him to humbly ask for their guidance and support in trying to be a better leader.
It brings tears to my eyes, just thinking about it. It reminds me of a certain speech Bill Whittle gave to that same effect three years ago:
“Listen, I know you’re not gonna vote for me. I’m not here so that you vote for me. I’m here because you told a lot of lies about me that I don’t care about you, but I do. I can’t be President of half the country, I need to be president of all the country and I’m here because I need to hear why you’re so angry.” – Bill Whittle
Tell me that doesn’t sound exactly like what Trump is doing right now?
As far back as August, in what I’ve since come to call his Great Uniter Speech, I could see Trump was transforming from being the great fear-monger to being a unifying force for good. That’s what this country needs right now, more than anything.
You may have noticed that during Trump’s acceptance speech someone from the audience shouted out, “Jail Obama!” Trump did the right thing in ignoring him, because even if that’s ultimately something that winds up happening, this isn’t the time for that. Trey Gowdy and others can deal with prosecutions if they want, but Trump and his supporters must focus on regrouping and recouping the country.
A Brighter Tomorrow?
“Truth, whomever speaks it, is from God.” – Legal Maxim
I think the first thing that has to happen is we need to give the millions of people undergoing cognitive dissonance the space to peacefully vent and heal. As long as they are not spreading falsehoods or committing violence, I say let them get it out of their system. But for everyone else, there will be harsh punishments, to be sure.
The mouthpieces of the media-political complex have been severely damaged, but they are far from destroyed. We will see them come back with a vengeance for this insult, and try to paint Trump as ultimately something worse than Hitler, if that’s even possible. We must be vigilant of that, and not fall prey to the types of falsehoods that nearly derailed his campaign. Notice, for instance, that the rape allegations seem to have started to go away on their own? Amazing how people change when forced to bend to political power.
Heads will roll in due time. We’ll forgive without forgetting, and the most heinous of actors, we won’t even forgive, but it’s important to make sure that we continue to follow the rule of law and use voluntary methods to do so whenever possible. To focus on civil discourse and lead by example rather than by force.
I’ve always been more of a cleric than a warrior. I think those of us who supported Trump this far need to have the grace and humility not to gloat, but to reach out and prove to these people once and for all that we are still a united people, or at least we can be again, even under someone like Donald Trump. I would say perhaps especially under someone like Donald Trump.
That goes for my fellow libertarians, as well. We need to recognize that we dodged a bullet in not having Hillary elected, and acknowledge that while Trump may ultimately turn out to be an authoritarian, he could go the other way as well and reign in the size and power of the State. The fact that there’s even a chance of that is more than we’d have gotten with Hillary. Like it or not, his policies will affect us too, for better or worse, so we should do likewise in taking responsibility for our opinions and make sure it’s the former.
For my part, I have been trying to flood my Facebook wall with mostly positive or informative stuff of late. Stuff that proves Trump is not a monster, but a compassionate, and generous human being; videos from leftists explaining why Trump won, that don’t include institutional racism or capitalist patriarchy; and yes, some harsh truths as well, that help hold up a mirror to the left, revealing just how unappealing their ideology really is.
The left’s already working hard on Trump’s reelection campaign, but the silver lining is we might finally abolish the Electoral College once and for all.
As a brief aside, I just want to say to the LGBT community that Pence is not the monster you think he is, either. Or at least, there’s no evidence he is that I can see. But if you insist that he is, then I’d suggest you do everything in your power to keep Trump alive and unimpeached, since he’s one of the most pro-LGBT candidates to come out of the GOP, and is far more in your favor than Hillary, who took money from countries that throw gays off of buildings. So, yeah, you won’t have to worry about Trump in that regard. It’s going to be okay.
On that note, it warms my heart to see that at least some people are already starting to snap out of the pro-Hillary, anti-Trump hypnosis. That the real nightmare isn’t the one they woke up to, but the one they’ve just woken up from. I think some will need more time and some may never come around, but I’ll keep fighting the good fight and pushing for truth and liberty.
I’m happy to report, at least anecdotally, that people also appear to finally be engaging more in policy discussions now that the sensationalism and scandals have failed, which is good.
A number of people have done as Miley Cyrus has, and come forward to say they’re willing to be open-minded and give Trump a shot as long as he’s fair to them and does what he promised to do, which of any candidate in history, he’s most likely to, since he’s not bought and paid for by the powers that be. To the extent that people are willing to support Trump in that regard, we should support them as well. After all, we’re all in this together, we might as well make the most of it going forward.
And then, of course, there’s still the vestige of rank liberal hypocrisy to deal with.
I want to close this article off with something else that really surprised me, and that’s the magnanimity and grace with which Obama is handling this transition of power. I disagree vehemently with Obama’s policies, and his facts may not always be accurate, but if there is one thing above all else I have to give him credit for these eight years, it’s his maintaining a public persona of dignity and respect, and his amazing abilities as an orator.
Here is the speech he gave the day after the election:
Truly magnificent, and he’s 100% correct. Credit where credit is due, Mr. President. I’m just sad it had to be like this. Perhaps if those of you on the left actually aligned your actions with your words, we would be all for you. Instead, we must watch as the world turns its attention to the dawning of a new era under a President Donald J. Trump.
With a Republican Congress, he’s certainly been afforded every opportunity to succeed going into this. Let’s just hope and pray and work to ensure that he doesn’t squander it. Let’s work to make America great again.
* Marushia Dark is a fantasy novel writer, founder of The Freeman State, and an admin at Just Statist Things. You can follow them on Facebook and Twitter.
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