New Year Reflections

I keep hearing, "2016 was awful, I hope 2017 is better" or "I'm sure 2017 will be better, it can't be worse."

Me?  I think it'll probably be worse, and a continuation of the lousy parts of 2016. I don't have confidence in the Trump administration.  When he was running, I thought he was the Republican's punishment for obstructing Obama for 8 years.  Turns out we're all getting punished.  Hate crimes are up, his cabinet is filled with anti-global, anti LGBT and racist individuals.  Worst of all, there are Evangelical Christians holding him up as a man of God.  It is definitely not looking good for American Christianity if THAT is what is being held up as a great man.

The flip side is that the majority of voters did NOT vote for him.  Not only did Clinton get more votes, but if you add in the votes that the third party candidates got and the low voter turnout... turns out he probably got elected by only 25% of the country's eligible voters.  Perhaps having such an odious President will give the people a wake-up call and unite to ensure he and his administration don't screw everybody over "bigly."

I read that the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), MoveOn.Org and other progressive activist organizations are getting donations to mobilize and keep Trump and his cronies in check.  The fact that I'm skeptical about 2017 being a good year led me to start recurring donations to the ACLU.  At one time, I thought, "Give the President Elect a chance, he deserves a smooth transition, etc.". But as he built his cabinet and continued to tweet his love for Putin and disdain for Obama and our intelligence agencies, I decided that he was already blowing his "chance" in my eyes.  Besides, providing financial support to the ACLU to ensure liberties aren't trounced isn't disrespectful.  It's acknowledging how dangerous Trump and his values are to the country's progress.

I was once an Independent voter, but watching Mitch McConnell and his GOP cronies obstruct any chance of movement for the Obama administration pushed me to the Democratic platform.  Obama had a fairly high favorability rating and the GOP-led Congress had a low rating.  Why, then, did the country elect this clown on the GOP ticket?  For change, at whatever the cost.  Just like Hitler.  My 82-year-old friend (aka "Cowboy") called it months ago - said he's just another Hitler.  I hope he's wrong, but I will be praying that the good people of this country can keep him and his administration in check.  People fuss about the gun laws, weed laws, etc.  The biggest threat will be in the White House.