GorT’s friends, family, and even co-workers are a pretty diverse bunch in social issues, economic issues, and definitely in political issues.  And within that group there are those that range in extremes on all of those issues.  There were the die-hard Trump supporters, the pinching my nose and squinting Trump supporters, the neither candidate supporters*, the not-Trump so I guess Clinton supporters, and the full blown Clinton die-hards – basically the full gamut.  What gets me is the complete meltdown that Clinton voters are having over the last few days.  Let me frame this in explicitly stating that I never supported Trump nor did I vote for him.

First, many are saying that those that supported Trump support the advancement of racism, sexism, bigotry, etc. in America because Trump has done, said, been accused of doing or saying, or his actions have been construed as such. Extending that logic we would have the following:

1. A vote for Clinton would be a vote for supporting grossly negligent handling of classified material (based on a statement by Director Comey that is factually what was assessed).
2. A vote for Obama was a vote for supporting domestic violence to advance a cause and for supporting extreme anti-government sentiments.
3. A vote for Bill Clinton was a vote for supporting womanizing, degrading behavior towards women, and extra-marital affairs.

None of which make sense.  What matters is what Trump does in office – and admittedly, I’m nervously watching and waiting to see.

Second, many cannot understand how Trump could have won the election and have resorted to complaining about the Electoral College.  That isn’t the answer – we’re not a democracy so we cannot simply abandon it. We are a federated republic and constitutional representative democracy. Popular vote isn’t the end-all-be-all.  Furthermore, the following graphic from The Economist outlines some interesting trends that should be considered:

Clinton received less support from male voters AND female voters than Obama did in 2012.  She also lost voters in each major racial demographic while Trump gained in all but the caucasian demographic.  He gained Black**, Asian, and Hispanic voters over McCain in 2012.   Clinton lost ground in every age group from 18 to 64.  Clinton lost ground with the poor (under $50k income) and gained ground with the middle and upper class (over $100k income) while Trump actually gained with lower income America.  She also lost significant ground with union members while Trump gained. And finally, Clinton lost ground from where Obama was in 2012 in her own party and with independents (Trump did too).  Maybe those struggling with the how question should look at the Democratic party.  I had a stout democrat friend allege the day before the election that he believed that people think the country is on the right track with where the Democrats have been taking it and they’ll support Clinton’s policies and ideas.  National polls (take those with whatever size grain of salt you wish), actually show that about 60% of the country think we’re not headed in the right direction.  Also, for those lacking a civics lesson, it’s the Congress with the President that generally sets the direction of national policies so both parties have been complicit in this over the last few years.  I suspect that one of the draws of Trump was that he isn’t a career politician – many probably hope that he will bring real change to the federal government.  It’s akin to the reason I liked other candidates on the Republican side who were also non-politicians.

Third, to those college and high school students who are so stressed and upset that they can’t (or won’t) go to classes or take exams, I worry for your future.  Life gets much harder.  Maybe some of you are paying your way through college or have student loans but I’ll wager a number of you are benefitting from scholarships and your parents.  If you are going to be this dismayed at the election results, even if you buy into the doom and gloom perpetrated by liberals as to what the next four or more years will be, then heaven forbid you get married or have kids or struggle in a career – real life that is much more immediate will likely hit you 10 times harder than this…and there’s no taking a break from those things.

Finally, to those painting Trump supporters and, worse yet, conservatives or republicans, with the broad brush of being against the advancement of women, unsupportive of gays, minorities, etc., or in general bigots, be careful.  I think it is these broad brushes and the loud mocking by things like SNL, Daily Show, Colbert Report, and others have essentially backfired and created a whiplash effect.  Many conservatives I know are very supportive of all those groups.  I’m not denying that there are bigots and people filled with hate and racism and sexism.  But, such broad strokes really offend those of us who associate best with the republican party only to be branded racists, sexists, homophobes, and misogynists.  And maybe these same “entertainers” or satirists*** should get out of their echo chambers, leave the hall of mirrors, and take off their rose colored glasses and take on a broader range of political targets.  Either that, or maybe we should take politics a bit more seriously than punchlines on the late shows.

* This would be GorT’s group
** GorT has friends who have no heritage back to Africa but they are labeled “African-Americans” and it drives them bonkers – they say, “I’m black, you’re white”. Fine. It’s a fact.
*** While they’ll aspire to be labeled satirists, they fall short of true satire and are really using satire to advance a political cause and their own ratings rather than to expose a problem and drive awareness.

GorT

GorT is an eight-foot-tall robot from the 51ˢᵗ Century who routinely time-travels to steal expensive technology from the future and return it to the past for retroinvention. The profits from this pay all the Gormogons’ bills, including subsidizing this website. Some of the products he has introduced from the future include oven mitts, the Guinness widget, Oxy-Clean, and Dr. Pepper. Due to his immense cybernetic brain, GorT is able to produce a post in 0.023 seconds and research it in even less time. Only ’Puter spends less time on research. GorT speaks entirely in zeros and ones, but occasionally throws in a ڭ to annoy the Volgi. He is a massive proponent of science, technology, and energy development, and enjoys nothing more than taking the Czar’s more interesting scientific theories, going into the past, publishing them as his own, and then returning to take credit for them. He is the only Gormogon who is capable of doing math. Possessed of incredible strength, he understands the awesome responsibility that follows and only uses it to hurt people.