Where to now, St. Peter?

“So where to now St. Peter
Show me which road I’m on” — Bernie Taupin

The great experiment in Democracy has been completed. The quadrennial Presidential election is over, and the American people have spoken!

The winner of the right to govern the greatest nation on the planet is:

Donald J. Trump.

No, that is not a typo.
No, I’m not pulling your leg.
Trump won. Again.

WTF?

So where to now, St Peter?

Like 72,511,519 other Americans, I was shocked, embarrassed, ashamed, angered and totally disgusted by the outcome of this election.

It’s been over a week since the results were announced, and I have resisted the urge to write an essay without having my wits about me. So, I waited.

And now I write.

I will write my feelings, my opinions, and I will write the facts.
Disagree with my feelings all you want,
but if I get any facts wrong, please, let me know.

In the ensuing days after the election, Trump supporters have acted exactly how you would expect. They were insufferable, both on social media, and on the Trump-backing “news” outlets like Fox and Breitbart. They also regurgitated all of the lies they have been repeating for the last decade.

Meanwhile, Democrats and Harris supporters have been searching for answers and pointing fingers in every direction trying to find a legitimate answer as to why, or HOW, Trump could possibly win.

Of course, they refused to look at the most obvious answer:

America is a stupid nation.

It’s true. We all know it. Democrats think that Republicans are stupid, and Republicans feel the same way. Both of those groups are probably right, but one of them is more right than the other,
i.e — one of the parties has a monopoly on the ill-informed and dull-witted.

Exit polls and pundits have been searching for reasons as to why the polls got it so wrong.
Some claim it was inflation.
Some claim it was immigration.
Some say that it was “wokeism”.

But at no point did anyone ask:
How many people couldn’t vote for a woman of color?

Don’t pretend that it’s not true.
Don’t pretend that it’s not part of the equation.

Several states are considered “swing states” and they decide each election.
Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Arizona are the big ones, but Nevada, South Carolina and Georgia have all become players on the national landscape.

In 2016, Donald Trump won almost all of those states.
In 2020, those states all “swung” to Biden.
In 2024, Trump won them all again.

Hmmmm.
Let me re-write that.

In 2016, they voted for the old white man over a woman.
In 2020, they voted for the OLDER White man.
In 2024, the voted for the old white man over a woman. A woman of color.

If you think that I’m wrong,
If you think I’m off base,
If you think that this isn’t a factor at all…
You’re either in deep denial, or you’re lying.

Everyone from the other side has called me a litany of names for even suggesting it.
“It’s about his policies!”
“Oh yeah?” I ask. “Which policies? Name them.”

Even through social media, you can hear the stuttering as they search for answers.

The most popular response is:
“We won. Just get over it. Accept it and move on. Don’t be a sore loser!”
Yeah? You mean like how Trump accepted losing and moved on in 2020?

More stuttering.

But let’s start over.
From the beginning.
And by beginning, I mean, 2016.

After a very successful eight years of Barack Obama, the Democrats nominated Hillary Rodham Clinton to be their nominee for President.

Wait, let me rewrite that:
The democrats CORONATED Hillary Clinton as their nominee.
They thought she was a shoo-in; they didn’t work hard enough for the votes of middle America; and they pandered to every marginalized voting bloc in the country while ignoring the biggest voting bloc there is;
White people.

The Republicans nominated Donald J. Trump:

I know, eight years later, it still seems ridiculous, but that’s what they did.

Despite getting 3 million more votes, Hillary lost based on the rules set forth in the US Constitution.

Truth be told, I didn’t vote for either one of them. I can’t stand Hillary, and Trump was just a cartoon. I voted for the goofball that couldn’t name one world leader. But I totally understand why some might find Trump appealing.
He was from outside the Washington cesspool.
He spoke like an uneducated regular guy, despite never actually having had a blue-collar job in his life.
And he wasn’t Hillary.
I can see the appeal. Kinda.

Fast forward four years:
They voted for him again.
Despite four years of lies, corruption, malfeasance, and total incompetence, they voted for him again.
I know, mind-boggling right?

After the election, said person committed THE most egregious act of
Anti-American, anti-democracy, anti-constitutional behavior the country has ever seen.
Worse than Nixon.
Worse than the Reagan scandals.
The then-sitting President of the United States attempted to overturn a free and fair election using his minions and psychofants (No. It’s not a misspelling. It’s on purpose.) to engage a multi-pronged approach to try and prevent an orderly transition of power. Aside from the litany of crimes and immoral behavior committed by multiple individuals, none of which has been proven in a court of law, the following is 100% true:
Trump never conceded the election.
Trump never congratulated the victor.
Trump didn’t show up at the orderly transfer of power outlined in the US constitution.

Fast forward 4 more years:
They voted for him again.
Ok. We’re beyond mind-boggling at this point.
We’re talking full blown cult.

No matter how many lies Trump told,
no matter how many horrible things he said,
No matter how many scandals came across his desk,
No matter how many bad policies were enacted,
Despite the horrible lies he told about this great nation of ours,
They stood by his side.

Remember earlier when I implied that Trumpers were less than brilliant?
Well, there are other factors at work here.
They like what he stands for.
They agree with his policies.
They agree with a “ total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.”
They agree with “they are bringing drugs, they are bringing crime, they’re rapists.”
They agree when he says that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country.”
They somehow believe that people are “eating the dogs, they’re eating the cats.”

But we can’t blame them for that, any more than we can blame a rabid dog for biting you.
That’s who they are.

However, we can’t blame the loss solely on the ignorant Trumpers either.
No, no, no.
There is enough blame to go around.

The Democrat party has lost a few MPH off their fastball.
Despite liberalism being the ONLY movement that has ever enacted policies that actually help Americans — See: Social Security, Obamacare, Unemployment insurance, The Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, and a whole host of other programs and policies aimed at improving the lives the of Americans who are most at risk, people have lost faith in the Democrats.

Despite the massive economic expansion under the last three “D” presidents, somehow people think that the Republicans are better on the economy.

Don’t believe me?
Look up the number of recessions under Regan, Bush, Bush II and Trump,
And then compare that to Clinton, Obama and Biden.
Go ahead. I’ll wait.

Let’s face it,
They lie better than we do,
And no one lies better, or more often, than Donnie Trump.

But I digress.
I was talking about the Dems.

They got old.
They got complacent.
They got self-righteous.
And they lost their balls.

It’s time to clean house!
Will the following people please leave the stage:
Nancy Pelosi
Jerry Nadler
Joe Biden
Steny Hoyer
Maxine Waters.
Bernie Sanders (I love you Bernie, but it’s time to go.)
We thank you for your service.
Now go play with your grandkids.

And would someone put a sock in Hillary’s mouth?
Every time she opens it, she sets back the Dems about a week, and the country by about a year.
Get out already.

It’s fairly evident that the Democratic party is the only party with ACTUAL ideas, and the ONLY party that has delivered any results.
-If you ever want to have some fun, ask a Trumper what the conservative movement has EVER done for America, and then watch the stuttering begin.
(Ok. I’ve picked on stutterers a little too much. I’ll stop.)
Their usual go-to is — They stopped slavery! Which was not only 160 years ago, but it was ended by “liberals”, they just happened to be wearing Red Hats at the time.

When you remind them that you asked about Conservatives, they either go with —
Reagan defeated communism!
When I ask, ok, that’s great, but what have they ever done for me?!?
The usual response is:
What have the Democrats done?
That’s when I know I’ve won.
I usually go silent for a moment, then I rattle off the litany of programs or legislation that has been enacted by Democrat Presidents and Congress in the last 50 years.
Then THEY go silent.

But I digress again. (Damm, I have to stop that.)
This is about the dems.
2020 was an anomaly. We were in the middle of Covid and we needed a candidate to take on the most divisive and corrupt President in modern history.
We chose Joe Biden. He won easily.
(Anyone screaming Voter fraud… seek help. If one thing 2024 proves, there was no voter fraud. If you truly think that Dems pulled off a massive coup and installed an illegitimate gov’t in 2020, but this time decided, “Nah, we’ll play it straight this time”, then you need to see a mental health professional. Seriously.)
Let me see if I can make this as clear as possible.
There is NO evidence of Voter fraud.
None.
He lied to you. You believed it.

The minute that Joe Biden won the Presidency, every Democrat and every democrat donor should have reached out to Joe and said,
“Congrats, Joe. Great job.
When are you going to announce that you’re not seeking re-election?”

I like loyalty. I’m a big loyalty guy, but there are limits. Loyalty to your country is more important than loyalty to your party.
The country needed the dems to have an open primary. Instead, Joe hung around too long, and when he did step away, it was too late to have an open process.
By default, we nominated, the VP, Kamala Harris.
Now, despite her flaws, Kamala is a far better choice than Donnie; who really isn’t a viable candidate at all — Since when do we elect felons? Lying felons. Lying, corrupt, narcissistic felons facing charges for trying to over-turn an election.

Kamala did have her flaws. Lots of them. All politicians do. All humans do.
Even me. (Not really, but I’m trying to be humble.)
But Kamala Harris is not a great politician.
It’s not enough to have the best ideas and the best plans.
You need to have the right messenger.
The Republicans picked the perfect candidate to pitch their message of hatred and intolerance and bigotry and divisiveness.

The Democrats must take a step back and stop telling the American public what they should believe and start asking them what they DO believe, and then work from there.

They don’t need to change their ideas.
Anyone who passed economics in high school knows that if you help the poor, everyone benefits, if you help the rich, the rich benefit the most, the poor, almost not at all. We just need someone to explain that to the people who might not have been fully present in economics class.

Who will that be?
I’m not sure.
We’ll work on that next time.
For now, keep the faith.
We’re doing the right thing,
we just did it poorly.
Don’t worry.
I’m not going anywhere.
I’ll be here, telling the truth.
They will be over there, doing the opposite.

So, where to now, St. Peter?