What Happens Next?

It’s still difficult for me to process all my emotions from November’s election results. Feelings of dread about what happens next; feelings of loss for what could have been; feelings of disbelief knowing that so many of my fellow Americans voted for a person that represents the worst side of humanity; I’m trying to process all these feelings running on the same track. Underneath all of these is a feeling of deep anger at the people who believed Trump was anything more than a master con artist who says anything he has to, to get what he wants, and does whatever suits his ego.

I had many bitter fights with many members of my family, and many friends including people I’ve known for up to forty years, in the weeks leading up to this election. I could never understand how these people could support a man who encouraged hatefulness and resentments in his supporters. At the same time, it was hard for me to defend Clinton as I’ve never been a fan of either Bill or Hillary.

Although I think Bill Clinton did a reasonably good job during his two terms as President, I never respected that he pushed aside core Democratic, Liberal principles in favor of Republican “Conservative Lite”  policies. He left the Democratic party weaker after his eight years in office then when he entered. The party has never really recovered.

As for Hillary; I never doubted that she is intelligent and competent. But her entire career, she has always taken the safe, non-confrontational, path as a public official instead of standing up for core Liberal principles. Her vote for Bush Jr’s war on Iraq remains, in my opinion, her defining moment; a moment when she could have stood up and made a difference, taken a stand and said “No.” But with her “yes” vote she failed our nation, she failed the Democratic Party, and she failed herself. Although I voted for her in this election, I could never with clear conscience  endorse her.

Although I could never endorse her, I did my best to defend Clinton against the stupid crap floating around cyberspace. The increasingly more bizarre attacks over her God Damn e-mails eventually overwhelmed me with the sheer volume of hysteria. The number and twisted misinformation of the memes floating around  frequently left me feeling  as if I had fallen down a rabbit hole and was living in Alice’s world. The level of vitriol people expressed against her, and President Obama, routinely left me baffled. I often felt as if these people were truly living in an alternate reality.   

My first thought, on knowing that Clinton lost, was to apologize to Winnie for what her adopted country had just done.

So one month later here I am, watching a man with no personally redeeming values, a man who I would never invite into my home for dinner, playing at President-elect and making mockery of our government with his cabinet appointments. Now news is breaking that Russia directly meddled with our election for the specific purpose of getting Trump elected. If true, then America has just lost a war and been conquered by a foreign, hostile, government. We lost a war in cyberspace that our annual one Trillion dollars in military spending never even saw coming. 

Two days after the election, this e-mail arrived in my inbox:

Belize Property demand explodes over 800%
The SURGE continues!! As we reported yesterday, while we anticipated that the election results would drive a surge in the Belize real estate demand, we never imagined it would come so fast and so strong. Our website and phones continue to explode with serious interest from Americans from both camps!

As the news has been reporting, concerned Clinton supporters are looking to expatriate in record numbers. We are experiencing that same surge as our website traffic increased over 800% since the election.

The Trump supporters are also driving incredible demand as they’re taking advantage of this “once in a lifetime” investment opportunity. They too recognize that there will undoubtedly be an increase in the value of international real estate as a result of the massive expatriation and they’re positioning themselves to profit from it.

The situation has created a “perfect storm” and we’re confident that it will result in a rapid and sharp increase in the real estate values in Belize. Regardless of which camp you’re in, we STRONGLY encourage you to take a closer look at the real estate opportunities that currently exist in Belize before it’s too late.

Our friendly and informative representatives are standing by to help guide you through the process and to assist with any questions that you may have. As always, we appreciate your interest and look forward to assisting you in making your dream of owning real estate in paradise a reality!

So, with this e-mail, I know I’m not the only person in America who feels the dread of coming events. I honestly do not know what happens next, but I do know that we are all in for a very bad time.