Mr. Huckabloon

This one is too much not to comment on. I take issue with two of your ideas here...

The first, that Hillary Clinton is to blame for Trump's election, misses the root cause of Trump's victory entirely. While there were certainly some that voted for Trump because they hated Hillary, Trump ultimately tapped into the same nerve with the same type of people that Brexit did: marginalized working-class people who felt that the elites of the left had thoroughly abandoned them. People who thought their best days, and the best days of their country, were long past. Trump gave them something no other Democratic candidate would have: hope for a much better future. Not just for themselves, but for their children and grandchildren.

For proof, look at where Trump won the election: in traditional Democratic strongholds with a disproportionate percentage of blue collar workers: Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Iowa. ALL states that Obama won handily in both of his elections. The 2016 electoral map is *identical* to 2012 with exception of those 5 states (plus Florida, which is always a strange electoral state anyway). So no, I don't think that Hillary lost the election. Trump won the election by tapping into the fears, hopes, and dreams of working-class people who felt they had been forgotten. And the results were just as shocking to the country as the Brexit outcome because their root causes were so similar and so unexpected.

And of course plenty of people want to believe that Hillary lost the election because they can't come to terms with the idea that HALF THE COUNTRY disagrees with the progressive liberal elitist agenda espoused by the Democratic party. But that half of the country is just a bunch of uneducated hillbillys, right?

The second idea I take issue with is your statement about Obama: "What a statesman, what a beautiful and brilliant man. He understands that the system of American democracy, and keeping the country from ripping itself apart, are much more important than the outcome of any one election."

That's a description that's very far from what many Americans see. What many of us see was one of the greatest threats to American democracy in the history of the country. In your "Threat to the Republic" post you said that "Trump is an arsonist of Democracy" based solely on some vague statements he made. Obama, on the other hand, has PROVEN that he has no regard for Democracy time and again. This is a man who was elected to run the Executive branch of the US Government. For those of you unfamiliar with the US system of government, that's the branch that is tasked with executing and enforcing the laws of country. Congress (the Legislative branch) is responsible for making those laws, while the Supreme Court is responsible for determining the constitutionality of the laws passed by Congress.

But Obama decided that if he didn't like the laws that Congress passed and the Supreme Court upheld he would a) just issue executive orders to circumvent those laws and/or b) refuse to enforce them (just read this one report on his refusal to enforce immigration laws: http://www.fairus.org/DocServer/ObamaTimeline_2016.pdf)

Here's a man that unilaterally decided that the separation of powers built into the US Constitution was really slowing down his progressive agenda so he chose to ignore that bit. You want to talk about Fascism? REALLY??? Because that's pretty much the definition of the term.

And he got nailed *UNANIMOUSLY* TWELVE TIMES by the Supreme Court for overstepping the Executive branch's power (http://dailysignal.com/2014/06/26/supreme-court-rules-obamas-recess-appointments-violated-constitution/).

So I have to disagree with your assertion that Trump is a fascist and an "arsonist of democracy" while painting Obama as a "brilliant" man who understands the true nature of democracy. Trump *might* be a Fascist based on some of his past comments but Obama has *proven* that he's a Fascist through innumerable actions over the last eight years.

Now let the leftist howling begin... ;-)

Michael

Thanks for this, man. I have added an addendum to the dispatch itself to reflect its impact on me. Now, I'm off to the high Himalayas to absent myself from the entire political scene. 8^)