EXTRA: The nation goes goofy?!?

We still laugh at the thought that the people of Minnesota once picked former professional wrestler Jesse Ventura to be their governor, and think it was silly that in California there was once bodybuilder-turned-actor Arnold Schwarzenegger put in charge of state government.
 

Soon to be relegated to the trash

Now, the nation as a whole seems to have decided to endure a moment of stupidity, what with the egomaniacal real estate developer Donald Trump seemingly elected early Wednesday to be the nation’s 45^th president.

TRUMP APPEARS TO have come up with more votes in the Electoral College than Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton – bringing to an apparent end the quarter-of-a-century she has been a part of the D.C. scene. Which reminds me of a psychic’s prediction once several years ago by one of the supermarket tabloids that said Hillary would never become U.S. president.

It seems they got one right.

Instead of picking the first female chief executive to head our nation’s government, we picked someone who likes to name the buildings he erects after himself and who may best be known to the general public for his stint with “The Apprentice,” the television show where he played a buffoonish executive who liked to tell everybody, “You’re Fired!”

The Chicago White House, so to speak, will now be that gaudy tower erected along the Chicago River – one that people have taken to making obscene gestures at when they walk by. George W. Bush probably rose a few notches in the estimation of his long-time political critics!

THE SCARY PART is that I suspect many of the people who chose to vote for Trump as president did so because they really think he’s going to be a chief executive who will conduct himself exactly as he did on that ridiculous television program.

Which is probably more scary than anything else – that people would be clueless enough to think that such an image wouldn’t be an embarrassment to our nation. It certainly is a mentality that would be eager to hear all the bashing of everybody not exactly like them.

 

Now a prominent Chgo site?

It also made me think there is a touch of sense to one of the political pundits I heard on a Chicago television newscast who said the key to Trump’s win wasn’t that he expanded the Republican voter base to new people – he made it larger by getting more of the same kind of people to actually turn out to vote.

I couldn’t help but notice the constant reports Tuesday night about the world financial markets declining – not that I’m terribly bothered by that. The markets often have their own ridiculous reasons for doing what they do, and often respond in negative ways to things that actually have benefits to society.

BUT IN SOME ways, I was thankful to be living in Illinois on Tuesday, where we chose a would-be ally for Clinton to serve in the Senate, gave a Democrat the vote for Illinois comptroller, and gave only minimal gains to Republican membership for the Illinois General Assembly.

Urban places like New York, Chicago and Los Angeles gave their backing to Hillary, whereas the states that shifted their anticipated Electoral College support to Trump are the ones where there is a serious split between urban and rural. A minor concession to Hillary partisans is they'll be able to say Trump couldn't even take his home state.

I have heard of a place like Pennsylvania described as Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, with Alabama sandwiched in between. It seems the rural parts of those states caused the flip – largely because they were enticed by the nonsense rhetoric that Trump often spewed. Places like Ohio and Florida, which also flopped to Trump, did the same.

Tacky, but timely

We’ll have to see in coming months and years just how much of the trash talk Trump intends to live up to. Honestly, I don’t even think Trump really knows what he’ll be able to do.

FOR HE HAS Republican Party leadership that isn’t all that enthused about having him around – largely because they view him as unpredictable-enough to mess with them and make them look stupid.

He’s going to have to make his own peace with them, or else Trump will find out how quickly Congress will turn on him.

Which could be the key to comprehending the next few years. We’re about to enter an unpredictable era – one in which we may often think we need a drink.

All I can say is that we’re likely to consume so many shots that when the Trump era comes to its end, possibly in 2020, we’re going to have a hangover unlike anything we’ve ever felt in our nation’s lifetime.

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