After Tuesday’s disaster, I’ve mainly been focused on recovery. It’s hard for me to focus on anything but the election and what it means.
So the featured post will be a wide-ranging election reaction, starting with my personal response, followed by an examination of what happened and possible explanations of why. I’m going to discourage one kind of reaction: Don’t jump on some I-was-right-all-along interpretation. It’s easy to do, and it can provide some short-term comfort, but it guarantees that you won’t learn anything from this event. And I think there are things to learn, but I don’t quite have a handle on them yet.
Anyway, that post is almost done and should be out shortly.
Beyond that, I once again will not do justice to the rest of the world. It’s going to take at least another week to regain my curiosity about events unrelated to the election and the new administration. So the weekly summary will probably be short and appear before noon.
Take care of yourselves out there. Some of you need to reach out to friends, while others need to be alone for a while. Do what you need to do.
The Weekly Sift 
Comments
what happened was our American citizens rejected everything you woke libtards stand for and all the lies and incompetence and warfare you have tried to stop Trump from being elected and the Democrat party will need 12 years of soul searching before Steven Fulop will be in the White House
Why so angry? Your candidate won! Personally, I’m looking forward to two months from now when my grocery bill is reduced by half, gasoline is a buck a gallon, the Mexican border is hermetically sealed and all wars are halted. Sounds good to me.
No. What happened is that 31% of “our” American citizens cast their vote for a convicted felon, adjudicated rapist, and person indicted, based on overwhelming evidence, for leading a seditious conspiracy against against our country in order to keep himself in power, and then stole top-secret documents on his way out and then lied about having them, and who ran a campaign of hate and retribution. If you’re one of these people, may god have mercy on whatever it is you have that passes for a soul.
30% voted for a highly qualified candidate who would have protected individual freedom and choice and who would have continued the economic policies that have made the US, in the words of the recent The Economist cover story “The Envy of the World”. And who isn’t a demented old man clearly losing control of both his body and mind.
And 39%, a cohort greater than either of these two groups, didn’t vote at all. So, a plurality of “our” American citizens didn’t do anything, much less indicate support for the Big Daddy you’re in such thrall to.
He’s a criminal, many times over, responsible for the most serious attacks against our government, its institutions, norms, and Constitutional structure. He belongs in prison, for life. And that’s only because the death penalty is morally wrong, a position plenty of governments in this world wouldn’t let themselves be constrained by when dealing with the leader of a failed coup who followed it with espionage.
Thank you Doug for your thoughtful comments. I always look forward to your columns as a source of sanity and a measured response the current events. Please know that you are appreciated for the effort you make, your column is one of my go to reads to start my week.
1. I echo anonymous #3 – thank you for your deeply insightful analysis and comments. I can’t count the number of times I’ve read one of your posts and found myself thinking that you’ve accurately described some important principle or dynamic that helps me think about things clearly.
2. I find myself thinking that a lot of the explanations for what happened are contributors to the outcome, but are a result of, or are enabled by, one general trend that’s happening in so many places around the world: the creeping difficulty, precarity and uncertainty facing the middle ~ 90% of the population.
So many people feel that they’re not only not able to get ahead, but that they’re one accident, illness, or stroke of bad luck away from going significantly backwards.
This enables the narrative that the system is rigged against you – because it’s rigged against everybody who’s not part of the system. Even if you have a decent middle-management position at a large, strong company, you’re one layoff away from falling to the bottom of the pile. The CEOs and directors are protected, but the rest of us are always at risk.
This also allows demagogues to scapegoat their favorite disfavored group, with some substance to it – when things are uncertain it’s always better for there to be fewer people to compete with for jobs, resources, support, attention, and anyone outside is an easy target.
So this systematic undermining of the fortunes of the middle ~90% (or whatever percent it is) both causes problems and enables bad actors to both distract and further undermine them.
And while this happens, those benefiting from “the system” are able to further rig it in their own favor.
3. Take care of yourself too.