It’s an ugly mood our nation is in, one that produced Trump as its candidate

If Donald Trump hadn’t come along and run for president this election cycle, it’s likely that someone just like him would have stepped up to the plate.

TRUMP: Not about him, about nation's mood

I don’t mean another rich guy with an overbloated ego. I mean someone willing to make the appeal to the ideologically whacked-out segment of our society that yearns for a day when only people like themselves were considered acceptable.

IT’S AN UGLY mood we have, with certain people convinced their lot in life is sinking away, and they view all the rhetoric being spewed about equality for all as a batch of nonsense.

After all, none of that talk being spewed by the Statue of Liberty was meant to be taken literally; at least not in their minds.

It is the gut feeling I have in my mind, and it seems that many other people have in theirs. To the point where I almost feel like I’m stating the incredibly obvious here in saying that the ugliness of this election cycle isn’t going away after Nov. 8. As it is, NBC News has a poll showing  45 percent of Republicans saying they won't accept election results that show Trump the loser. Which is why Trump can get away with spewing nonsense that he won't accept such results either.

If anything, it will step up a notch or two following Election Day, because I’m pretty sure that the conservative ideologues who will be disappointed by a Donald Trump defeat will not take his loss lightly.

IT’S NOT THAT they really care at all about Trump. It’s more that there finally was a presidential candidate whom they felt “got” where it was they were coming from, and wasn’t about to demean them for having such hostile thoughts about people not like themselves. They probably thought they had that in George W. Bush back in 2000, but he turned out (in their minds) to have a little too much concern for the immigration reform issue, so they turned on him.

The fact that their gut feelings that likely are shared by everyone who lives in proximity to them (there really are parts of this country that have so isolated themselves from society’s mainstream) will shock them.

How can Hillary Clinton have possibly won this election when they don’t know anyone who actually vote for her? How can that old hag (that’s probably the nicest thing they say about her) have support when everywhere they look, there are Trump signs posted about.

Although none of that nonsensical “TP” logo that lasted about a day a couple of months ago and apparently has withered away into nonexistence.

I STILL REMEMBER Election Night 2008, which most people think is significant for Barack Obama giving that victory speech in Grant Park. But which I remember for the concession speech that John McCain gave in Arizona.

McCain tried to speak as a statesman. He tried to appeal to the high road. He tried to make the speech that would allow him to exit the national political scene in grace and style.

His followers didn’t want any part of it. It was so blatantly obvious that this was an angry crowd, one that was having trouble accepting they could possibly lose to Obama (whom I’m sure they have their own list of slurs by which they refer to him).

There are times I wonder if that crowd, and all the people just like them across the nation, got together to ensure that this time around, there’d be a presidential hopeful who would appeal to them. One who would not feel the need to acknowledge society as a whole – but would just take their concerns into account.

THIS MOOD IS one that the Republican Party can be said to have brought on itself, what with the way they have made appeals to the bigoted segment of our society provided it cast ballots the proper way.

It is one that, I’m sure, will go in search of another candidate to try again after a Trump defeat. It’s not going to be something that will voluntarily wither away.

It will gain strength if it does turn out, as many political operatives are offering various mathematical formulas to try to justify, that Republicans leaning toward the ideologues will maintain some control over Congress – maybe complete.

I could see where some people will focus their attention on keeping the Senate and House of Representatives in Republican hands to act as a check on a Clinton presidency’s power. Which could mean more years of inactivity as a result.

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