Donald Trump will be my President. And he will be your President. And saying otherwise will make you sound no better than the petulant parents who kept their kids home from school so that they wouldn’t be exposed to Obama speaking on a telecast, 7 years ago. He’ll be my President, and I intend to do whatever I can to hold him to all the legal and moral responsibilities of that job.
He’s going to do things I like, and things I dislike. And honestly, I expect much more of the latter. But I don’t think the solution to that is to disengage and be spiteful. I don’t have to like him or his plans, for him to still be the President. That was one of Hillary Clinton’s great downfalls… the constant refrain that she was mean and unlikeable. A leader doesn’t need to be likable. They need to lead.
I don’t know what Trump is going to do, as President. No one does, yet. You can’t take him at his word, on anything he’s promised thus far. For one thing, he knows full well he can spout off anything he wants now, before he’s legally held to a different standard. And he’s taking full advantage of that, for which you can hardly fault him. But for another, he’s backpedaled and reneged on every single major promise and platform issue. So his word is essentially meaningless. And he’s entering office with historically low approval ratings. He’s starting from zero, in more ways than one.
I think in about 15 minutes, his stage act will have to start coming to an end. It may just be morbid fascination, but I’m interested in seeing what happens in the long run. If he lives up to our worst fears, I’ll be there to demand correction and change. If he occasionally pulls a 180 — as he’s done repeatedly in life — and does something good, I’ll be happy and respect him for that.
And if you don’t like what happened with this election, what productive thing are you doing right now to change that?
