Originally posted on July 10, 2017, on "The Leftovers" at WordPress.com
Edited 03-19-2018: Additional Information*, Grammatically, Timeline Shift
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I mentioned earlier about starting a series where I would focus heavily on politics.
I'm calling it, "An Open Letter to The Right". I want to express my thoughts on the Trump Presidency and more about where the Republican party is currently. I want to try to connect the dots with direct and in-depth looks as to why I am unhappy with Trump's Presidency at this point and why I don't see it turning a corner anytime soon.
The best way to start would be to talk about the events from Donald Trump announcing his candidacy, leading up to November 8, 2016, the night of the Presidential Election.
I honestly don't remember anything else other than the now infamous remark about Mexicans during Mr. Trump's announcement to run for President of the United States of America. Just the one statement and the fact he entered the scene descending on an escalator.
Let me be very clear, there is no other Presidential campaign I can think of in my adult livelihood capable of surviving such a remark, yet here we are.
I remember saying two things to my Sister about Mr. Trump's campaign, "Get ready for all his dirty laundry to be aired out in public.", and "I really can't see how he would get past Hillary Clinton if it came down to the two of them.".
First, Trump's dirty laundry.
The absolute Mt. Fuji-sized pile of dirty laundry. The numerous offensive comments, him having 5 kids through 3 different wives, (both wives previous to Melania, he cheated on. *We now know President Trump also cheated on Melania.), and who could forget the most notorious of them all, the "Grab them by the p---y." scandal?
This is only the peak of the pile.
The pile would go on to total up to an amount easily burying any one politician. Honestly, it was enough it could have buried the entire class of Republican candidates, but it never happened. Each individual issue came up one by one and then somehow immediately got overlooked or left for dead and resuscitated by any Trump surrogate willing enough to do so.
Second, Hillary Clinton didn't help her own cause.
She left her robotics open to malfunction as she never fully equally matched but, still caused issues on her own which, somehow managed to end up in the same category as Trump's.
Trump was making disgusting comments about women and minorities, Clinton made the "basket of deplorables" comment. Trump was a womanizer, but so is potential First Man, Bill Clinton. To top it all off, she never could shake the Benghazi/e-mail scandal, which dogged her even after her defeat.
In the eyes of many Americans, the candidates' red flags were chalked up to a pretty even amount by the time the election rolled around. The only problem was the pollsters didn't quite agree. They had an extremely small window of a winning margin for Trump compared to Clinton's.
Like so many times he had done before, Trump shot right through the incredibly small gap to win the Presidency.
I remember I was watching PBS' coverage of the election results. They showed the sight of Trump's election night party and it looked as if his entire campaign staff was prepared to give a Concession Speech in every capacity compared to Clinton's election night party.
Trump's party looked like it was one step to the right of a John Hughes-esque High School dance.
PBS' desk of journalists, pundits, correspondents, pollsters and former political advisors was absolutely stunned.
They had no clue what had just happened or how it had even transpired.
I have grown to dislike the idea of sports being used to describe politics but, make no mistake this was an upset. A New England Patriots Super Bowl 49 style upset.
This is my abridged version of events.
"The Left", lost. No first female President, no hope in keeping any version of the status quo, and a complete re-imagining of what it means to be Presidential.
"The Right", got their man. No experience, hopes of draining the swamp, and an entirely new image of the American Presidency.
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