320 Years of History
Gold Member
It's no secret that Donald Trump is the last person I wanted to see become president elect. As has happened in other matters, I don't get to have my way. Having my way, however, was never the point. The point for me was always that of seeing chosen a person whom I could reliably anticipate what they'd do and not do as President. The point was having a President whom I knew, not hoped or suspected, had a clear plan, one that I understood what it entailed and what it did not, for what they wanted to do and then set about doing them. The point was oderint dum metuant is inapt as the tacitly thematic warp and woof of America and its Presidency. But those are my values. Too few Americans share them. De gustibus non disputandum est....
Does it bother me that Trump will be the next U.S. President? No and yes. No because pragmatically the quality of my life was and remains unlikely to change. That'd be so, I think, regardless of who won. I have never lacked confidence I'd flourish on under any President for that's been so under past Democratic and GOP regimes. Knowing that from the campaigns' outset, my focus was not inward unto myself. Instead, my concern dwelt upon the entity that is the United States of America. No because, as with all outcomes, I and everyone else have options in their wake, even as the choices be one's we like less than they that might have been. There again, that's my way of playing the cards I'm dealt and considering what to do after the contest. When I must, I become the phoenix. So must we all. Igne natura renovatur integra.
But what about the "yes" of my answer? Well, I'm reminded of my earliest colonial ancestor. He was a man who came here seeking his fortune. He lived with no permanent home. He was the immigrant. He was a man whom Indians took in and showed him how to thrive in a world thoroughly unfamiliar to him. He was a man who had nothing but his fecundity and physicality to offer. He dug for furs, foraged and found his way to becoming a merchant trader and founder of a family that has hold forth by unwavering reliance on the values and commitment to not letting life happen to us, but making our way by taking what we had and building upon it. Flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo.
Applying his verve is what brought the American Dream to fruition for everyone who's ever known it. Sadly and given the rhetoric I heard during the 2016 campaign, given last night's result, I hear resoundingly affirmed that the notion of making lemonade from life's lemons is dead in America. Instead, we see half the electorate disinclined to hew "heaven" from the humble talents He helped upon them. Rather in vox populi they beseech their "savior," Trump, rain down prosperity upon them; they forget that ex nihilo nihil fit.
Questing for their "piece of the pie," voters have spoken, telling us the principles and practices that yielded glory, fame and fortune for every successful citizen this nation has known, including Trump, should reign no longer as the way. Yet that was never what the Founding Fathers intended. America evolved, however, to allow the sway of the masses to hold -- people's will to be sure, but not the undeniably hubristic will the Founders expected "we the people" to exert. Thus I accept that, but I know what they want is not the America theirs and my forefathers envisioned. Astra inclinant, sed non obligant.
Instauratio delenda est. Trump's supporters blame the establishment, the elites, for all that's wrong in their lives, with America and in the world. Voting for Trump, his ragtag band of bullies, race baiters, immigrant haters, muddlers, middlings and misdemeanant mediocrities cry, "Drain the swamp." Strangely they imagine after doing so, the "swamp's" bounty will remain available for them to exploit. Will it? Somehow Trump's cabal of caterwaulers contrive America will be great without the contributions and participation of the very people whom Trump's supporters have insulted, called crooked, and declared duplicitously disingenuous. Will patriotism prevail over pique? Aut cum scuto aut in scuto.
I don't know what will be the preponderant answer. During the day after, I heard some so-called elites say privately they aim to "take the bat and ball" and "play" elsewhere. That's certainly a viable option for many of my peers. I also heard some say they'd wait and see. Others still will stay the course no matter what. I wish the Trumpkins well, but I think they'll only ever truly come to understand what they've rejected if the establishment in large measure takes the first tack. "The People" have been more than adequately clear as far as I'm concerned. I say let "The People" find out just what America is like when 50%+ of its tax base leaves, when the intellectual and business elite "take their toys" and deploy them in other parts of the world that offer far greater growth opportunities than the mature U.S. economy does. Maybe Mexico will pay them to build an accursed wall. Castigat ridendo mores!
I'm of that mind not out of vindictiveness, but because I believe that there are no "Mulligans" in life or politics. Trump and his followers want to oust the establishment. Fine. The establishment -- the doctors, the patent holders, the lawyers, the bankers, builders, businesspeople, etc. who have "played by the rules" for all these centuries -- should leave and let the folks who wanted us gone have the nation to themselves and see how they make out. Cui bono?
Auribus teneo lupum. Of course, I hardly expect any such mass "brain drain." Yet that's essentially what "the elite" were clearly told "The People" want. They want us out; we should go. What's right about "the elite" staying? Is it fair that in wake of enduring our nation's scorn we should yet make the bounty of our efforts available to them? In this global economy in which is matters not where one lives and pays taxes, where it matters instead that one's mental might be brought to bear to solve problems? Every member of the establishment has made choices good and bad and had to live with them and learn how not to repeat them. Should these populists be allowed to "have their political cake and eat it too?" I say, "No." I'm not saying "let them eat cake." I'm saying they've baked their cake, now let them eat it and see how it tastes. Vincit qui se vincit.
Brutum fulmen? Probably, but it needed to be said.
Does it bother me that Trump will be the next U.S. President? No and yes. No because pragmatically the quality of my life was and remains unlikely to change. That'd be so, I think, regardless of who won. I have never lacked confidence I'd flourish on under any President for that's been so under past Democratic and GOP regimes. Knowing that from the campaigns' outset, my focus was not inward unto myself. Instead, my concern dwelt upon the entity that is the United States of America. No because, as with all outcomes, I and everyone else have options in their wake, even as the choices be one's we like less than they that might have been. There again, that's my way of playing the cards I'm dealt and considering what to do after the contest. When I must, I become the phoenix. So must we all. Igne natura renovatur integra.
But what about the "yes" of my answer? Well, I'm reminded of my earliest colonial ancestor. He was a man who came here seeking his fortune. He lived with no permanent home. He was the immigrant. He was a man whom Indians took in and showed him how to thrive in a world thoroughly unfamiliar to him. He was a man who had nothing but his fecundity and physicality to offer. He dug for furs, foraged and found his way to becoming a merchant trader and founder of a family that has hold forth by unwavering reliance on the values and commitment to not letting life happen to us, but making our way by taking what we had and building upon it. Flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo.
Applying his verve is what brought the American Dream to fruition for everyone who's ever known it. Sadly and given the rhetoric I heard during the 2016 campaign, given last night's result, I hear resoundingly affirmed that the notion of making lemonade from life's lemons is dead in America. Instead, we see half the electorate disinclined to hew "heaven" from the humble talents He helped upon them. Rather in vox populi they beseech their "savior," Trump, rain down prosperity upon them; they forget that ex nihilo nihil fit.
Questing for their "piece of the pie," voters have spoken, telling us the principles and practices that yielded glory, fame and fortune for every successful citizen this nation has known, including Trump, should reign no longer as the way. Yet that was never what the Founding Fathers intended. America evolved, however, to allow the sway of the masses to hold -- people's will to be sure, but not the undeniably hubristic will the Founders expected "we the people" to exert. Thus I accept that, but I know what they want is not the America theirs and my forefathers envisioned. Astra inclinant, sed non obligant.
Instauratio delenda est. Trump's supporters blame the establishment, the elites, for all that's wrong in their lives, with America and in the world. Voting for Trump, his ragtag band of bullies, race baiters, immigrant haters, muddlers, middlings and misdemeanant mediocrities cry, "Drain the swamp." Strangely they imagine after doing so, the "swamp's" bounty will remain available for them to exploit. Will it? Somehow Trump's cabal of caterwaulers contrive America will be great without the contributions and participation of the very people whom Trump's supporters have insulted, called crooked, and declared duplicitously disingenuous. Will patriotism prevail over pique? Aut cum scuto aut in scuto.
I don't know what will be the preponderant answer. During the day after, I heard some so-called elites say privately they aim to "take the bat and ball" and "play" elsewhere. That's certainly a viable option for many of my peers. I also heard some say they'd wait and see. Others still will stay the course no matter what. I wish the Trumpkins well, but I think they'll only ever truly come to understand what they've rejected if the establishment in large measure takes the first tack. "The People" have been more than adequately clear as far as I'm concerned. I say let "The People" find out just what America is like when 50%+ of its tax base leaves, when the intellectual and business elite "take their toys" and deploy them in other parts of the world that offer far greater growth opportunities than the mature U.S. economy does. Maybe Mexico will pay them to build an accursed wall. Castigat ridendo mores!
I'm of that mind not out of vindictiveness, but because I believe that there are no "Mulligans" in life or politics. Trump and his followers want to oust the establishment. Fine. The establishment -- the doctors, the patent holders, the lawyers, the bankers, builders, businesspeople, etc. who have "played by the rules" for all these centuries -- should leave and let the folks who wanted us gone have the nation to themselves and see how they make out. Cui bono?
Auribus teneo lupum. Of course, I hardly expect any such mass "brain drain." Yet that's essentially what "the elite" were clearly told "The People" want. They want us out; we should go. What's right about "the elite" staying? Is it fair that in wake of enduring our nation's scorn we should yet make the bounty of our efforts available to them? In this global economy in which is matters not where one lives and pays taxes, where it matters instead that one's mental might be brought to bear to solve problems? Every member of the establishment has made choices good and bad and had to live with them and learn how not to repeat them. Should these populists be allowed to "have their political cake and eat it too?" I say, "No." I'm not saying "let them eat cake." I'm saying they've baked their cake, now let them eat it and see how it tastes. Vincit qui se vincit.
Brutum fulmen? Probably, but it needed to be said.
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