Well, it’s over. The most vile, despicable campaign in recent memory has finished, and we must begin to pick up the pieces and figure out where we went wrong. What lessons do we learn from the 2016 election?
For me at least, after a bad night’s sleep, the most obvious lesson is that the American electorate values, above all, celebrity. Given the choice between the most qualified candidate in a generation and a nasty, racist, xenophobic reality TV host they chose the host. Given the choice between a seasoned, internationally-respected diplomat and a man under indictment for raping a thirteen-year-old girl, they chose the accused rapist.
So where do we go from here? Truth to tell, I don’t really know. I think we need to expand our pool of candidates into the world of show business. It’s worked well for the Republicans (see Reagan, Ronald; Schwarzenegger, Arnold). Americans in the aggregate simply do not care if their politicians have any workable plans to improve life in this country, they simply want to be entertained. Who knows, maybe the glass ceiling will finally be shattered by Cher.
As for me, I’m ordering a bunch of “Don’t Blame Me, I Voted for Hillary” buttons.