What The Hell Do We Do Now?

Relax.

Take a deep breath.

Things are going to be okay.

Not easy, but okay.

Just imagine what might be going on in our country today if Kamala Harris had been elected president in a very close election, let’s say a handful of electoral votes, with very close races in Arizona, Michigan, Nevada or Georgia.

Blood in the streets.

And not just today. Every day, every week, between now and January 20. And beyond.

Seventy-five million people voted for Donald Trump. He won. Just imagine what those millions would have done if he had lost. He had them fired up and ready to storm the court houses and state capitols, and march in the streets with their red MAGA hats in search of LIBERALS, who rigged the elections.

Here are some interesting numbers.

Those 75 million people are just about the same number that voted for him in 2020. But four years ago, Joe Biden got 81 million, ten million more than Kamala Harris, who got just 71 million four years later. You want to know why we didn’t win? BECAUSE TEN MILLION OF US DIDN’T VOTE!

In 2016, Hillary Clinton got just 66 million votes, four million more than Donald Trump. She won the popular vote, but lost the Electoral College vote, because her voters lived in the wrong states.

The total number of voters in 2016 was 129 million. But when Joe Biden won in 2020, the total was 155 million, with Biden getting 81 million of them, and Trump 74 million. When we vote, we win!

And then, in 2024, Trump held on to his 74 million and added another million. But ten million Biden voters stayed home. Because of that, and not because of anything else that happened in this election, Kamala Harris is not going to be President of the United States.

Let me repeat. 2020: 155 million voters. This year: 146 million. Case closed.

I’m just sharing the numbers. I’m not going to try to analyze any further.  Because I am not going to fixate on what happened last week. I have better things to do. My wife just painted the bathroom. I’m going to go watch it dry.

But, yeah, we’re probably going to get some bad government, and the U.S. is going to do some crazy shit, and good people are probably going to get hurt. Poor people. Old people. Sick people. People of color. And yes, women.

And bad things are probably going to happen around the world. In Europe. In the Middle East. In Southeast Asia. In Mexico and Central America.

But I have faith in the American people, and in our FRIENDS around the world. We’ll step up, and step in, we’ll do what we can to prevent the disasters a lot of us think are forthcoming. There is still strength in numbers.

I am old. I am not as active as I once was. Golf and hunting and hikes in the Bad Lands are not as much a part of my life as they were just five years ago.

But I have the YMCA with its walking track, and for swimming, and I have tree-lined city streets for walking outside when the weather is nice. I have a wine store and a grocery store just blocks away. I have a vehicle with a remote starter for cold days, and gas is under three dollars in some stations, so I can afford to drive it. I have a warm stove in my upstairs living room, and cable TV and Internet, and a 2024 crop of potatoes and garlic in the basement, enough to get me through the winter. And just enough money in the bank to pay for things I need, and some of the things I want, but don’t really need.

I have a loving wife, and more close family than I can count on my fingers and toes at the other end of my cell phone signal.     

So I’m relaxing. And taking deep breaths.

I know, not all of you are as lucky as I. I also know that most of my friends are liberals, like me, and want to jump in and save the world from this goofy fucker we just elected President of the United States.

My advice: Don’t.

Don’t give in to that temptation. It’s just what he wants us to do. He wants us to fight. So he can say “I told you so. Look what they’re doing. We’re trying to get this country back on track after Crooked Joe Biden’s time, and they‘re fighting with us. I told you so.”

Because whatever he says, half of Americans are going to agree with him. Maybe more than half. And we’ll lose. Again.

So let’s be very, very cautious about what we do. Let’s pick our fights very carefully. And let’s not be in a hurry. Let’s ACT, when the time is right, and not REACT, to all the stupid and selfish things he is going to do.

It’s okay to be sad. For a while. We lost. To a goofy, foolish old man. But don’t let that sadness linger. Life is still good in America. And North Dakota. And Bismarck. And at 920 Arthur Drive.