Looking Ahead To Post-Election

I posted this as my Facebook status a while ago:

Oklahoma voting starts today!

I’m voting for Hillary Clinton. She has policies that I like across the board. She will appoint progressive Supreme Court justices that are pro-people instead of pro-business. She has the proven ability to work in a bipartisan way. She lets science guide policy. She is inclusive to people of all walks of life, including our LGBTQ brothers and sisters. She has the experience to keep our military strong. She is a champion of women and children. She will not work to keep our brothers and sisters of color from participating in the country and having their voices heard. She is not obnoxious. does not fear monger, and lives in a world that is reality-based. In spite of the avalanche of BS constantly thrown her way, she has kept to the high road with grace and dignity. She is uniquely qualified, and will do a fine job as President for all Americans.

There were some comments, pro and anti, not unexpected.  You will note that what I wrote above is all pretty much pro-Clinton, as opposed to anti-Trump, and that’s quite deliberate (I could write at least as much anti-Trump, if I wanted to).

One of my friends posted this as a response, both to my post and another friends comment:

America will survive whoever gets elected. The landscape may change, but we will survive and hopefully do a better job in selecting candidates next election.

I generally agree with this, in particular the first sentence and most of the second.  But I’m less sanguine about what the state of the country will be in the (hoped-for!) Clinton Administration.

In the past couple months, and weeks, I’ve seen a level of vitriol directed against Clinton that I would never have imagined.  One of the worst things I’ve seen is playing up that Bill Clinton has an african-american child by a mistress.  Another is the claim that the election of Clinton is a coup d’etat.  Another claimed that a list of ISIS members who donated to the Clinton campaign was found.  So many small facts have been overblown into supposed major crimes (think the after-the-fact classification of a few emails).  And all of this is on top of many, many made-up posts released for the low-information types to pass around.  A few lawmakers have been talking impeachment already (of course, no grounds for anything like that have been discussed).  And other people in Congress have already started talking about endless investigations, never confirming any SCOTUS appointments, and more obstructive inaction.

All of this I find really bothersome.  It’s a rejection of the Constitution by conservatives. It is continued attempts to de-legitimize any Democrat office holder. It’s cowardly.

I am generally all for a multi-party system of government.  But right now, I hope that not only does Clinton win the White House, but at least Democrats take the Senate, and for good measure, the House as well. Getting the do-nothing Republicans out of there will at least let some progress be made on solving or mitigating the problems this country has, which the Republicans have no plan to even address, much less solve.