President Trump

Made myself write that.  The only thing that encourages me out of that title is that it is not Madame President Clinton.

Unfortunately, it is not what I predicted.  There is a bit of pride that stings in that.  But, you know, I got it wrong.  Along with a whole bunch of others, we all got it wrong, looking at the electorate.

That is the bad part for me, ego wise.  The bad part for us all, is that the only marker we have as to what this new era will be like is the campaign.

Drain the swamp, the one in DC.  Say a bunch of stuff, that no one really will hold him to.  Except the folks that came out of the hills, the backwoods, the farms and the rural areas.  Those folks are going to remember the Wall, Mexico paying.  They are going to remember stop all Muslims from immigrating.  They are going to remember 25 million jobs.  They are going to remember bring manufacturing back. Bigly.

And, no disrespect, if you voted for Trump.  It was your right, and more people exercised their right like that than did not.  I am not going to argue he is not the President, nor do I hope that he does poorly.  He is going to be my President in January, too.

The fact is, he is going to be the single most powerful person in the world.  He will have the ability to at any point, turn to the mid level military officer that is never going to be more than a few steps away, and tell them launch.  They produce the machinery of power, and the order goes out.  The nuclear complex is built on not asking why, or should we do it, it is built on asking is the order authentic, and acting, if verified.  It is a terrifying prospect.

Let me give you some history.  In 2000, I was in uniform.  Swore an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.  Obey the orders of the President and officers appointed over me.  November 2000, the country elected a man intellectually incapable of the job.  We all knew, were kind of in on the joke.  Don't worry, he'll surround himself with smart, knowledgable people, that are in the establishment.

We got Cheney, Ashcroft, remember them.  They built a governmental system that was broken.  Regardless of ideology, they lied to Congress, the American people.  Hell, they lied to Colin Powell and got him to lie to the world at the UN.  Just to get involved in a war in Iraq, instead of focusing on Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda.  We are still there 15 years later.

If you don't remember, or weren't aware between 2001 and January 2009, the other cool things they did for us, were to completely tank the economy, like Great Depression tank it.  How?  They removed themselves from the marketplace, let the corporate entities regulate themself.  They sold subprime loans, wholly unethical practices, built a big chunk of the American economy into overvalued real estate, which, when it collapsed, nearly took down the auto industry with it.

Elections have consequences.  Electing people that are "different", change agents, has consequences.  I don't think Trump is as dense as George Bush turned out to be in reality.  More worrisome, I think he is as vain, trivial and clueless as he has portrayed himself through this election.  But, that is what I think, and not what I know.

I pray I am wrong.  And, I pray that this works out.  I fear that it will not.  This is no longer a middle finger to the world, this is real.  Every single word, action and sign that Trump shows from this moment on, will cause ripples through the global economy and the world.  Every single word, action and sing that Trump shows from this moment on, will be acted upon by other players on the world stage.  There are not any do overs.  There are not any oops moments.

It is an awesome responsibility.  I don't know that it is going to turn out well.  I pray it will.  But, there is an incredible and truly scary host of things that could not work out well.  That is the risk for every new President, regardless of background.  But, never before have we spent 17 months reinforcing to a man motivated by the reinforcement, that he should ignore completely, the folks that know the answer.

Did not sleep well.  Hope I worry for nothing.  Pretty sure I am not.