Mariner, like millions of the electorate, was shut down for a few days while reasoning skills and dozens of new inconsistencies had to be rewoven into something that represented a functional reality. Guru was called in to help.
The broadest overview of the 2016 election revolved around the idea that it was time for the US to make a legitimate turn toward present and future reality. It was time to step out of the Reagan model of economy and early twentieth century social constraint. It was time to rebalance, indeed restart, the democratic model that was the foundation for creating the US Republic. It became obvious that democracy and the principles of liberty and justice were disappearing faster and faster.
More targeted were the widespread issues of race and employment. The elitists of the US have ignored the lower classes – which have long suffered, and quite severely, the loss of manufacturing, misunderstood movement of jobs overseas, influx of immigrants seen as a direct threat to any jobs that may be left. In an excellent column about the results of the election, Fareed Zakaria added urban versus forgotten rural which may be where the surprise Electoral College results emerged.
For the 2016 campaign, three prominent candidates emerged to wrestle with the unrest that was obvious among much of the citizenry: Hillary Clinton, who defended the Reagan “establishment” feeling it should continue but be a kinder and gentler government; Bernie Sanders, who championed major changes to governance that would stop the systemic abuse of democracy by republicans and special interests; and Donald Trump, who had no public service experience but had marketing and sales skills that resonated with those citizens who most desperately felt the Government had deliberately failed them.
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Bernie has been in government his entire life and was championed by those citizens who wanted to toss out the Establishment – replacing it with younger, more idealistic leaders. Donald was championed in similar fashion by older citizens who had lost jobs and did not share in the oligarchic wealth. His lack of experience in government, his narcissistic personality and disregard for decorum made him a perfect candidate; a good metaphor is a battering ram used to break through castle gates. His citizen base wanted the government dismantled lock, stock and barrel. Casualties be damned. Hillary carried the baggage of thirty years of Clinton management. Clearly pragmatic rather than principled, Hillary had public and private agendas which led to widespread mistrust among the voters.
The Democratic Party failed to recognize, similarly to the Republican Party, that the party had lost the support of its base. As Zakaria pointed out, the American culture displayed urban entertainment, music, movies, advertisements, and all the jobs and unshared profits; rural culture was absent and unrewarded. The democrats were pegged with a moniker: elitist democrats.
None of the three voter bases liked the other two candidates. The two democratic finalists for the Presidency would not get much voter support from the opponent’s base. From the beginning, whoever between Hillary and Bernie won the primary, the base would not receive full support from the democratic opponent for the final run. On the republican side, Donald clearly would receive little help from the republican ‘Establishment’ base but had no other republican competitors. Further, a percentage of Bernie’s base would switch to Donald because they had the same disadvantaged life as Donald’s base. The ‘silent majority’ (stressed rural populations) chose to vote for Donald – flipping the Electoral College. Hillary wins the popularity count with the Elites but rural precincts win the Electoral College.
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Donald swiftly is changing his platform to move to the political center. It is too early to understand what issues he actually will take a stand on to impose his platform. The people he knows and trusts are a ragtag bunch of sensationalists, racists, gofer business types and political class D ball players, e.g. Rudy Giuliani.
Guru is most concerned about the Supreme Court. Donald and the antique congress could do significant damage to the future of the US for decades. China, Russia, the Middle East and Central Banks likely have their fingers crossed on this issue.
Infrastructure may get a start but it will be a bruising experience at the state level with no compromises offered to local distribution of profit. FDR will roll in his grave.
Congress will become even more draconian about governance and liberal issues like PBS and abortion.
As far as Donald is concerned, who knows? Guru is the first to say Donald is unpredictable.
REFERENCE SECTION
Definition of an existentialist:
‘To be fully alive, fully human, and completely awake is to be continually thrown out of the nest. To live fully is to be in no-man’s land, to experience each moment as completely new and fresh. To live is to be willing to die over and over again.’
– Pema Chödrön
A spot-on description of one who experiences an existential world. Pema Chödrön is an 80 year-old Tibetan monk and US citizen. Pema is a Buddhist nun and follower of Rinpoche Trungpa Chögyam. Meditation is central to Chögyam. Dozens of websites, many with videos, are available.
About civic duty and self-governance:
‘. . . So it’s not the role of the government to solve all our problems through legislation. But they [problems] must be attended to nonetheless.
And here’s the problem: The less the culture attends to these things, the more the government will attend to them and the less freedom there will be. The greater the role the government plays, the more it crowds out the culture’s role, the role of the people – and the true freedom of the people.’
– Eric Metaxas
From Metaxas’s book about the unique role of self governance in the creation of the United States and relating to the bonded relationship between the three principles of the Golden Triangle: (Os Guiness, author): The Golden Triangle of Freedom, or freedom, virtue, and faith. This triad of cultural goods is mutually reinforcing. “Freedom requires virtue; virtue requires faith; faith requires freedom.”
Ancient Mariner