Pima County appears to be an outpost of sanity and wisdom in a nation addicted to abuse and too dumb to see the obvious.

Donald Trump is heading back to the White House. Vice President Kamala Harris ran a strong, disciplined campaign and whooped Trump’s butt in the only debate. But voters found something unacceptable about a black woman as president. Wonder what that is?

It’s hard not to call Trump’s win “a mandate” given the coattails that seem to be in play on Capitol Hill.

Pima County may be voting in typical form. Democrats are sweeping to victory, however a couple of the wrong Republicans may be losing. The Dems are running ahead in local races that they’ve had trouble with for generations, in fact.

While I’m waiting on the local results, as there are stacks and stacks of ballots left to count here, I’m just going to give a rundown of the national results and then shut up about about it for a year or so. Trump II has to play out and while it does his voters can’t say “I didn’t vote for that!” 

Absolutely they did
and the information was all over the Internet. Americans are about to
find out what happens when they cast an informed vote for an uninformed
president.

I have no doubt the Sentinel’s reasonable readership rejected the hate and fear, while doing actual research. So this column isn’t aimed at you, Dear Reader, for you are a bastion of calm and a redoubt of learned wisdom in a gathering storm of insanity.

Voting for what?

Let me explain what I mean by an uniformed vote.

Take the “democracy” argument off the table. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I get it. It’s too abstract. All voters cared about was the economy.

In what bloody universe does removing 8 million workers from the labor force accomplish anything other than cause a huge recession? Lay 8 million off and see what happens.

Trump, to his credit, doesn’t think it’s 8 million. He thinks it’s more so his plan is to do even more damage and he doesn’t realize it.

And how in God’s name do higher tariffs lead to lower prices? Imagine if Harris proposed a 50-cent gas tax but said “don’t worry, Exxon would pay it.” The New York Times would have never stopped laughing at her and neither would voters. When Trump says the same thing there’s a collective pause. “Oh well, he is a businessman. I’m sure the Chinese Communist Party is writing a check to cover it.”

In 2017, he took over from a president who left him 2.4 percent growth and 200,000 jobs being created a month. All Trump did was maintain that. How is he a guru?

If the rationalization is that he’s not actually going deport millions or raise tariffs through the roof, then voters elected him to fail to enact most of his economic agenda.

Other parts include tax cuts for yacht rockers and cutting $2 trillion of federal spending, which would mean 7 percent of GDP goes “poof.”

I just want to double check. Voters wanted a better economy, right?

This is kindergarten economics. No one asked voters to put two and two together. Just put the pencil on the damn paper so the lead will make a mark. That’s all. Nope. Too much complexity for voters too busy playing Fortnite (you can’t even spell “Fortnight” right).

Could it be that the country believes being malevolent and publicly depraved makes for a good leader? Someone might want to tell the Romans under Commodus, the English under Richard II or any number of peoples who lived under such despots as their countries nearly collapsed.

The economy is now experiencing 3 percent growth. Unemployment is low
at 4 percent. The S&P 500 has reached record highs. Inflation has fallen to
2.4 percent and record amounts of oil are flowing out of U.S. wells. We produce more of it than any other nation on earth.

This is the hellscape from which we are hoping to awaken?  Or is it just because people are mad at “woke?” Woke only became a thing under Trump’s watch. Or did we not get that part?

America is not going to like what happens next but is it ever coming.

Mango unchained

Don’t tell me “we did Trump before and it was fine.” We did Iraq once
before we did it a second time and it damned near ruined the country
for a decade.

Trump I operated with limited goals and under restraints. The second time will be an unleashed attempt to remake America and stick it to anyone who questions him or challenges him on his idea that higher tariffs don’t raise costs.

Tariffs are coming. Deportations of the people who may or may not be U.S. citizens are coming. The de-professionalization of the federal work force is coming, in favor of Trumpocrats at every lever of power. Project 2025 is coming and it portends to remake America with Christianity center stage in public life.

Hell, Trump said he was open to banning vaccines – banning vaccines – so smallpox may be coming (Oh, well, y’knowww … he’s a businessman).

Climate change? Well, 2 degrees of warming is pretty much a done deal now. A
concerted effort is needed right now to stop it. Trump will do the
opposite as the leader of the most powerful government on Earth. 

Americans, this year, voted for climate catastrophe. Mark the date.

Trump said he wants to model his presidency after the 1890s – a decade defined economically by the worst depression in U.S. history until that point. No telling him that. No telling the voters that, either, apparently.

And democracy? Well, there’s this. It’s now a viable idea to be a real, macho, manly man and try to violently seize power if said alpha male loses an election. Those bros are now one for one in winning the next election.

Trump has been very open about what awaits those who stand in his way or questions his authority. The criminal justice system awaits. He’s clear about the only kind of election he will abide. That’s the election where his side wins, otherwise it’s fraud and he’ll be in a position to do something about it.

Wringing of the hands

Something else is coming: Democratic Party hand-wringing and bashing of Harris. 

Horse hockey.

Harris ran a great campaign but the voters just wanted Mean Daddy back. Harris might use taxpayer dollars to fund prisoner sex changes. Trump has said he wants to use the the military against any one who mouths off against him, shoot dead protesters, jail journalists in an ode to the First Amendment and do all that nutty economic stuff. Well, at least it’s not a sex change, right?

They wanted this and it’s coming. No one’s going to listen to anything except what occurs to Trump at any given moment of the day, as if no more is required than that.

I had a big book called the Almanac of American Politics 2005 Edition.  It included an essay that concluded George W. Bush’s re-election spelled the end of the Democratic Party for years to come. It wound up being two years, precisely.

Pundits will spend the week after the election as if Nov. 6 is the new normal. Normal is always new because it’s always changing.

What do Democrats need to do? Mostly, not a damned thing. Just let Trump be Trump and stay out of the way. Show voters what happens when someone who refuses to learn anything exercises unparalleled presidential power.

The Democrats only win when Republicans self-destruct. A big self-destruction is coming because voters didn’t want to know nothing from nothing.  The economy is Trump’s one card. He busts that, and the 2026 midterms will make 2018 look like 2022.

In fact, if Trump doesn’t destroy democracy, the best thing that could happen to rid history of MAGAism is to let Trump play for four more years. Have at it, Commodus. 

The country needed W’s second term to get over neo-conservatism and the wisdom of putting an alpha-male businessman thinking with his gut and not his noggin in charge of anything.

Accomplices

Oh, I could do a whole ‘nother column on the accomplices in the coming train wreck. From Democratic “messaging gurus” to Sen. Kyrsten Sinema and Attorney General Merrick Garland, plus the national political press. Did they ever fail.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu smashed Gaza to pieces and got his boy back in the White House so the Israeli military can smash the Palestinians into more pieces.

It turned out, Trump didn’t need the river-to-the-sea vote to win the White House. He did need megadonor and Israeli hawk Miriam Adelson to give him $100 million he needed to run his race.

Who’s Trump going to listen to now?

The Google machine offered plenty of information for people to,
ahem, “do their own research.” It went about as well as horse dewormer
as a cure for a respiratory virus.

Orwell lives!

Look, I got what people were pissed about in 2016. Trump’s initial election made sense to me, with a long recovery from the Great Recession, when bankers were bailed out but no one else.

This one? Airline travel is at an all-time high. People don’t take vacations at a record rate during a dystopia. They tend to buy one-way tickets.

Housing
prices are way too high. What’s Trump’s plan for it? Well, mass deportation
is basically his idea to free up the housing stock but people will be too busy looking for a job to buy a house.

Trump’s incoming economic czar Elon Musk promised pain for America not a week ago with massive budget cuts (presumably not to SpaceX). I’m pretty sure that’s not what Pennsylvania voters were asking for when they voted for the La Naranja.

Here it comes anyway. Trump promised.  And as he said in his victory speech: “Nothing will keep me from keeping my promises.”

Truth is, no will be in a position to stop him. Voters had your chance.

Yes, Mr. Orwell, ignorance is now strength in the United States of America 2024.