For the record, that headline has been in my head for a couple of weeks, now, and I would have used it regardless of the outcome of last night’s election. How could I not, given the choice we had? It would be applicable either way; this post would be virtually identical if it had gone the other way.

Oh, and by the way, thanks, Erin, for expanding my two-dimensional see-saw balance analogy into a much more thought-provoking (and accurate) 3-dimensional pendulum analogy. Brilliant! I shall doubt you – quoth the raven – nevermore…

Anyway…

An amusement: at about 8:04 p.m. PST, literally minutes after the polls closed on the west coast, the AP called the three western states – Washington, Oregon, and California – for Harris/Walz. The amusing aspect of that is that I had called those three states for Harris/Walz weeks ago…

But, apparently (pending final vote tallies and any challenges, of course), it wasn’t enough to beat the “red surge” that swept through much of the rest of the country. As of this morning, all the news services – even the pro-Harris media – has Trump winning the Electoral votes needed, and are showing that he got the majority of the popular vote as well. Those numbers have to be confirmed yet, but it looks like he won, fair and square. In fact, late today Harris gave her concession speech.

And the anguish on social media… The tears are flowing, fear of what will happen after January 20 being expressed and expounded upon. And, boys and girls, while some of it is the gnashing of teeth and hating on everyone who voted Republican, which will fade over the next few days, a lot of that fear is justified.

You remember my last post, about “what we will have to fight them on”? With these two, both lists were long…

Both sides want some form of thought police, restrictions on Constitutionally-protected individual rights; each list of rights to be infringed upon is different, but they both want to exert more control over us, dictate things that they have no business interfering with. With Trump’s victory (and the possibility of a slim Republican majority in both houses of Congress), we now know which fights we’re going to have to fight. We’ve got 2 months to gear up for them. Once we’re done gnashing our teeth…

I have a mantra: “Do Only That Which Is Right.”

You’ll recall that I am issue-oriented – I have to be, to live up to that mantra – so there are some issues I land solidly conservative, and there are issues where I land left of center; this is why I hold to no party line and do not consider myself either conservative or liberal – or even moderate, actually, since I reject those labels. I support what is right, not what is politically expedient – or hateful. And there is a lot of hate coming at us…

So I expect some lively debates (here and elsewhere) in the coming months.

And I expect I will always be right…