What the Yard Signs Told Me

Many years ago, when there were three channels and a lot of snow on your black-and-white television screen, a journalist friend used to predict elections by counting yard signs.

Recently I tried his method during a driving trip through four southwestern states: Utah, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico.  Somewhere around St. Johns, AZ, I lost count of all the Trump/Pence signs.  Yesterday, back home in New Mexico, I counted my third Clinton/Kaine sign.  It’s a landslide, folks.  Get ready for President Trump. 

"The fault, dear Democrats, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings."  We are underlings to a system that has devolved from merely bad to criminally evil and corrupt.  The system gave us two utterly unqualified candidates for the presidency.  The Democrats had an opportunity, in Sen. Bernie Sanders, to choose a candidate who might have swept all 50 states against Trump or any of the other Republicans seeking the nomination.  Instead they rigged the process to put forward Hillary Clinton, knowing that she espoused a foreign policy that would take us to the brink of World War III, had insurmountable problems involving her use of a private e-mail server as Secretary of State, had the baggage of her husband’s marital infidelity trailing her like a hungry jackal, and would be vulnerable to some of the most vile attacks from the right in the history of presidential politics.  Go figure.

The Republicans, having sold their souls to the most extreme right wing elements in their number, had an opportunity to restore their party to the decency and honesty of its Eisenhower years, but could not find within their ranks a single person who reflected the better angels of their own destiny, offering instead the likes of Cruz, Rubio, et al.  They tried to pose as reasonable, honorable men.  Trump instead ran as what he is: an egomaniacal, racist, woman-bitching imbecile. The genuine article took the nomination.  Go figure.

An old comedy monologue punchline goes something like, “Somebody told me to cheer up, things could be worse, so I cheered up, and sure enough, things got worse.”  Cheer up, America.  Things will indeed get worse, much worse, after Nov. 8.

Remember, the fault is not in your stars.  Try to learn from that.  If you can.