This time last week we were all awaiting Election Day, probably with a mixture of apprehension and anticipation.  Now at long last the seemingly endless campaign is over, and we have the results.  Sadly, we remain a divided nation with about half of us highly pleased and the other half sorely disappointed.  As you have probably surmised from other posts of mine, I am a dyed in the wool conservative, or perhaps I should qualify that a bit.  I am a political and fiscal conservative and a social moderate.  A friend expressed concern that many of us conservatives were “gloating” over the results.  I don’t think that gloating is the right word; I think a collective sigh of relief is more like it!

This election showed clearly how disenchanted both the Left and the Right are with the political elite of both parties, with a totally biased media, and with the scornful disregard toward the average American.  Both parties need to do some serious soul-searching and reorganizing.  I won’t even begin to tell you how I feel about most of the media!

Now, as I have noted before, President-Elect Trump was not my first choice as the Republican candidate, but once he was selected, I threw my support wholeheartedly behind him.  Many of us have not been happy with the direction our country has been taking for the past eight years, and we dreaded the thought of another four or eight years of the same course.  Now that Mr. Trump is our elected President, we all need to offer him our support.  His success is the success of our country.  I pray that God guides him and that he surrounds himself with wise and capable staff.

After every election, we hear the usual grumblings about the Electoral College.  I think the creation of the Electoral College was one of the most brilliant political compromises ever devised.  Struggling with how to unify thirteen disparate colonies into a single nation, our Founding Fathers created the Electoral College as a way to ensure that the smaller, less populated states continued to have a voice and not be overwhelmed by the more heavily populated states, in those days, of Pennsylvania, New York, and Massachusetts.  If you look at the election map from this election and see the sea of red with the pockets of blue, you can again see the inherent wisdom of our forefathers.  I for one do not care to have my future determined by the states of California, Illinois, and New York and by people who are so diametrically opposed to many of my values!

I have to conclude with a few comments to some of you who are so upset about the election results.  To the spoiled, Hollywood elite, most of us really don’t care whether you stay or go; in fact, some of us don’t even know who you are or watch your stupid shows and movies!  Why should we care about the opinions of a bunch of overpaid and under-educated bunch of pretty boys (and girls)?  Many of us are far better educated and knowledgeable than you, and guess what, we work at real jobs for a living!  We worry about making ends meets, paying the bills, getting our kids through college, and planning for retirement.  Instead of buying millions of dollars in jewelry, why don’t you build housing for wounded veterans, support shelters for the homeless, or contribute to a local animal shelter?

And, to all of you sobbing little college students who are too distraught to take your midterm exams, get over it!  If having your candidate lose is the worst thing that ever happens to you in this life, you are leading a charmed life and are better off than 99.9% of the people in the world. The real world doesn’t have a safe zone for you.  You don’t always get the coveted job, the big raise, and the first place ribbon and live happily ever after.  So dry your eyes, blow your nose, and go study for those exams!

Last but not least, to those of you out protesting in the streets, my my, you are really accomplishing a lot, aren’t you?  You’re certainly helping your friends and neighbors by destroying their small businesses.  I have to wonder how much alcohol is involved in all these riots.  Let’s have a few beers and go burn a couple of police cars!  Why don’t you put all that angry energy to some constructive use?  Go volunteer at a local soup kitchen; go home and scrub the kitchen floor, and do the baseboards too while you’re at it; or sign up for a history class at the community college in your area.

The good news is that our country will survive.  The sun still rose last Wednesday morning, and the earth didn’t tilt on its axis.  Like a sailboat that tacks with the wind and follows a zigzag path to its destination, our country swings back and forth from Left to Right, from Democrat to Republican, and so on.  This is a natural path of correction and growth.  God bless and guide our country!

Right now I have to admit that I am tired of politics, the media, and all the so-called pundits!  I’m ready to watch the Broncos, plan Thanksgiving, and get started on my Christmas shopping.  I may even have to swear off of social media for the time being!

©The Eclectic Grandma, 2016