Regular readers of this column know that I was a never-Trump and never-Hillary person but, now that the election is over, I can say without reservation that I am relieved beyond measure that Hillary Clinton failed in her bid to once again gain access to the White House. The idea of a return of the almost-certain parade of ongoing scandals she and Bill bring with them was not a comforting thought. Plus, her leftist, progressive agenda runs contrary to my opinion of what is best for the country. On the other hand, I am quite willing to give my support to Donald Trump. I believe he deserves a chance to do his job as the next president.
On the day of the election, Linda and I drove up to near Springfield, Mo., in order to purchase some bow building supplies. On the way home, I told Linda that I had resigned myself to Hillary being president and that I was not going to complain about it. I have a tendency to worry about what that sort of thing would mean for the grandchildren but, finally, we do need to resign ourselves to God's will.
That evening we sat down to watch the news with a certain amount of, shall I say, apprehension. By election day, I had already reconciled myself to the fact that one of these two people (Trump or Hillary) would be the 45th president of the United States. Make no mistake about it -- I greatly preferred Donald Trump to Hillary Clinton. According to most of the polls and pundits, Hillary would be elected, possibly in a landslide. Some of her people were actually thinking she might get over 300 electoral votes. So that was the atmosphere of election night as we waited at home for the polls to close and the vote count to start coming in from around the nation.
From the beginning, it looked like a competitive race. Trump got some early calls and had the higher electoral count, but there were no surprises and the evening was early yet. The battleground states where the polls were close was what everyone was watching, and the candidates were close. Weeks before, many commentators were saying that, for Trump, the important thing was to win Florida. Then they were saying he had to win Ohio, then it was North Carolina, then it was all these states plus one of the states that made up Hillary's vaunted Blue Wall. By election time, they were saying Trump would have to do all these things and more and it would still be iffy.
As the night wore on and more and more battleground states came in for Trump, our apprehension began to change to one of hope and, at some point in time, it became apparent that Trump had a real chance to beat the establishment and maybe change the direction of this country -- or at least slow the momentum toward craziness. The tipping point came late after Linda had retired for the night and I sat there alone. Pennsylvania had gone for Trump and he was now the President-elect.
Now, back to the craziness. I have followed the post-election commentary somewhat and I am shocked to see that some of the same people who tore into Donald Trump for not being willing to say he would accept the results of the election if he lost are now refusing to accept the results of the election -- surprise, surprise! There are actually people marching in the streets and destroying public and private property and calling for the assassination of Trump.
Can you imagine what the mainstream media would be saying if Hillary had won and her opposition were behaving in this manner? They would be calling for martial law in the cities. They would be saying that the voters had made their choice and the losers needed to get over it. They would be gloating and flaunting their win in the faces of Trump's supporters.
These liberals would certainly be shocked to see high schools shut down while the students and teachers marched against the results of the election if Hillary had won -- or colleges offering safe rooms to those who were traumatized by the election results in the event of her election -- or professors cancelling tests for those who were too upset to think clearly after a Hillary victory.
In other words, the progressives would be aghast at the thought of anyone needing to avail themselves of any of the contrived contrivances which they routinely offer to the young of this nation in order to indoctrinate these young ones in anti-democratic, anti-capitalistic, anti-free speech and anti-Christian thinking.
They would be stunned to see students carrying signs saying, "Capitalism Saves Lives" -- or drivers being pulled from their cars and beaten for voting for Hillary or demanding the Electoral College be eliminated. The liberal elite would be beside themselves in such a circumstance. That's because they would see it for what it is -- anarchy. And anarchy of the worst kind, anarchy against a free society with free elections and the peaceful transfer of power.
But all these things did happen simply because Donald Trump was elected by the will of the people. And now we see just how intolerant are those who preach tolerance, just how undemocratic are those who preach the leftist version of democracy, just how unfree are those who espouse the leftist form of freedom of speech. Those on the Left are exposed now so that all of us can see just how totalitarian they are who would shape the youth of our nation, just how Marxist they are! These are modern-day pied pipers who have ruined an entire generation of our youth and made them snowflakes that melt in the sun, ever needing the safe room to shelter them from democracy and freedom of speech and the rights of free men and women to determine their own destinies without government interference.
Sam Byrnes is a Gentry-area resident and weekly contributor to the Eagle Observer. He may be contacted by email at [email protected]. Opinions expressed are those of the author.
Editorial on 11/16/2016