Caution: You might find the next few hundred words
deplorable.
Not that I am trying to get one last needle at Hillary
Clinton after the election. We got in enough of those to go around from the end of
the Democratic National Convention up through Tuesday, when Donald Trump did
what few believed possible.
For her part, Clinton’s concession speech Wednesday morning
might have been the best she’s ever delivered. She was gracious, urged her
supporters to continue fighting for what they believe in and pledged to work
with Trump for the betterment of America.
A tip of the hat to her for such a statement after such a
devastating loss. It was classy and
needed.
There have been a thousand different theories as to what happened Tuesday, most carrying some validity. For my money, when she called half of Donald Trump’s supporters “deplorable” and “irredeemable” back in early September, it threw gasoline on an already simmering fire. It exploded Tuesday.
Even though she later said she regretted using the words, the
fact that she said them in the first place is one of the biggest reasons Donald
Trump will be taking the oath of office on January 20.
Undoubtedly, there were other factors, but in that one
sentence, Clinton summarized what many believe to be true in Washington. It’s
an attitude of “We are better than you. Your deeply held values no longer
matter to me or those around me. You are obviously intellectually inferior, so
do as I say."
There was already a deep resentment that Clinton got off with
careless handling of emails back in July. Whether criminal intent was involved
was not the question. The perception was obviously that Clinton was going to
get away with a crime that would have most members of the military facing a
court martial.
Whether the perception was warranted is not the point. The
description of those who did not support Clinton fit nicely with the idea that
Washington’s attitude was beyond caring and was now to the point of disdain for
the people it was to serve.
"Deplorable" took off and became a bit of a badge of honor among those
opposed to Clinton’s agenda.
I voted for Trump. However, that decision was not solid until
the day before the election and I still have reservations about someone who has
never held elective office leading the country. But, as I blogged Sunday, his
pick of Mike Pence as his running mate was the high point of the campaign.
Trump won, though, when he tapped into the perception that
Washington had totally lost touch.
That’s because it has.
From my little corner of the world, I have grown weary of an
insurance system that has seen my deductible skyrocket and has forced me to
fight for more than two years to have needed knee surgery. I’ve grown weary of a system that treats
unborn children as a simple mass of tissue until the time they emerge from the
womb and I am even more tired of being told I am wrong for believing life is
precious.
I’ve grown weary of an education system that tries to
silence mentions of one’s faith, but openly promotes an evolutionary system
that at its core denies the existence of God.
I’m beyond angry at the notion that I am wrong when I
believe that a boy who wants to say he’s a girl – or vice-versa – needs mental
help instead of being told that it’s OK to go to a bathroom or locker room
where he feels comfortable.
I’m beyond angry at being labeled a bigot when I say I just
want my teenage daughter to be able to go to the bathroom in peace and practice
modesty as she has been taught.
I’ve grown tired of going through the checkout line at
Kroger or Walmart, seeing people pay for their food with EBT cards then buying
beer, candy, dog food and everything else under the sun with cash. And I’ve
grown tired of seeing free cell phone tents dotting the landscape.
I’m even more angry when I, and people like me, are called
bigots for believing these ideas are not progress but are the very things
contributing to a decline in our country. I grew weary of the assertions that
those who opposed Barack Obama were racist or those who did not support Hillary
Clinton were sexist.
How about the truth: Most who oppose their policies do so
because they believe they were bad for the country. Period.
Accusing people of being something they are not simply
because they see things differently really is, well, deplorable.
For some reason, I believe there are millions of people who
feel the same way who spoke loudly on Tuesday. And if the Republicans lose
sight of this in 2018 or 2020, they will be voted out the same way.
I’ve also gotten tired of a liberal media machine that likes
to portray those who hold those same values as being “uneducated” and love to
spout those statistics. On my home
office wall, I have papers framed telling people I have completed the work for
both a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree but they don’t make me smarter. They just say I did the work and was introduced to some complex concepts.
On the other hand, I have nothing there showing the wisdom I
have acquired while going through the school of life, but I also know life has taught
me more than any institution. Many of the smartest people I know only have an education
from that school of life.
I felt frustrated, alienated and yes, angry, when I went to
the polls Tuesday morning and know I was not alone.
Now it’s time to heal. Trump, Clinton, Obama and many others
have made their statements about working together to heal our country. They are
right in doing so.
A start is when those in power, whether in Washington, state
capitals and city governments acknowledge the problem is not with the American
people but with those who expect to be served, not serve.
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