Not a joke ...

Now that it really has happened, we are going to have to start taking a Trump presidency seriously and going back to review what he promised to do during the campaign and trying to figure out whether he actually meant or believes any of it.  I tended to assume that he was just a skilled carny or was actually trying to see whether he could actually do or say anything that would really disqualify him and cause him to lose enough support to drop out of the race.  It was not until leaking the Access Hollywood tapes didn't do the job that I began to believe he might actually have been right about the loyalty of his supporters even if he shot someone on Fifth Avenue.

So far, with Bannon, Flynn, and Session appointments, it is looking as though he might even intend to try and make good on his campaign themes and promises.

We need to be vigilant and be careful not to normalize him and his ideas.  After all, treating him and those ideas (and all of his character flaws) as though they were equivalent to Hillary's use of a private email server is a big part of the reason we are here in the first place.

I keep thinking to myself that our founding fathers designed our constitution and government with built-in checks and balances for a reason and that reason was to protect the American people from the dangers of an authoritarian tyrant.  Over the next four years, we are going to find out whether they succeeded.

In the meantime, in the spirit of 240 years of democracy and peaceful transitions (as well as survival of the Civil War), I choose to believe that we can survive four years of Donald Trump.  Despite his racism and bigotry, misogyny, and xenophobia, one can only hope that he is at least a patriot who cares a little bit about the future of his country.

In that spirit, I wish Mr. Trump good luck with that border mall he promised to build and getting Mexico to pay for it, and may he and his Muslim band have lots and lots of hit records.  Excuse me, I forgot he is not a joke.