Well, that was a turbulent change of administration, wasn’t it? From disputes over the source of leaked DNC and Clinton emails, to claims of FBI intervention, to revelations the DNC had conspired against Bernie Sanders, to allegations the Russians changed the election results, to suggestions the popular vote was more important than the Electoral College, to appeals for faithless Electoral College electors, to calls for Congress not to play its Constitutionally-mandated role certifying the electoral results, the constant drumbeat was somehow Hillary should be President despite Trump’s clear win in the Electoral College.
But Trump was certified and sworn in, and is now our President. Except for the million or more people who swear he’s not their President, but avoid naming the country to which they have decided to pledge allegiance.
Street riots erupted in Washington along with the inauguration, riots by black-hooded window-smashers who said they opposed fascist brown-shirts while (like fascist brown-shirts) they shattered the glass in Starbucks and Bank of America — two large Hillary donors. A day later we saw the massive women’s march that brought millions of pink-hatted women to streets not only in Washington, but all across the country. Many of the women were a little vague about just what they wanted, but pretty certain they didn’t like our new President. A few said they feared being locked into concentration camps, but Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a Democrat, was the only President who ever did that. Now we’re being told the size of the women’s demonstrations is an important statement. The people saying that are the same ones who said Trump’s massive rallies were meaningless. It’s hard to grasp the wild and often conflicting nature of the entire experience.
An op-ed column by Asra Nomani in the Jan. 21 New York Times (Ms. Nomani is a Muslim who opposes extremism and voted for Trump) points out “more than 50 ‘partners’ of the women’s march on Washington have ties to George Soros,” a revelation many marchers would likely not be comfortable with if they don’t want government’s hands to touch them. Or else they don’t understand Soros’ deceptively-named “Open Society” philanthropy is all about totalitarian control of the world. Surely people understand Soros didn’t invest so heavily in a Hillary win to encourage openness. By the way, Ms. Nomani decided to attend the inauguration instead of the Women’s March.
Just a week ago we learned the remaining employees of the Clinton Global Initiative will be laid off on April 15 of this year. The CGI, for those who have forgotten, was created in 2005 to “turn ideas into action,” according to its statement of purpose.
It’s not closing its doors because the world has run out of ideas, obviously, but rather because foreign governments significantly decreased financial pledges after the results of the presidential election were known. Take, for example, the Australians and Norwegians, who decided in November not to renew annual pledges totaling more than $100 million. All of which leaves little doubt about what motivated donations to the Clinton Foundation in the first place. A novelist who wrote a book with such contradictory threads would see it rejected as “too unbelievable.”
We have just lived through sometimes frustrating, often bizarre, electoral and transition seasons that certainly made many of us shake our head in disbelief. But our turbulent election should really restore our faith in the institutions put in place by the founding fathers. Now it really is time for us to accept the results of the election and get on with our lives in peace.
Fred LaSor was an official election observer in several African countries. They were calmer than ours.