Don's Tuesday Column

              THE WAY I SEE IT   by Don Polson  Red Bluff Daily News   11/22/2016

 Give thanks, no political gloating

It is the week of Thanksgiving that gives us all cause for reflection on gratitude in our lives—if such sentiments fit into the routines of shopping, food and games. Family ranks high on that list; unless, of course, thanks arise over not having to endure their company for a while. I’m just saying it’s not always a “Norman Rockwell” tableau.

Ironically, anecdotes are circulating of invitations including “let’s just not discuss the election” advisories. As with numerous other cases of double standards, such preventative requests were not much seen in the last two elections. Perhaps it was presumed that only ideological retrogrades would voice objection to the nation’s first black president, or even express disappointment that our candidates lost.

In fact, it did not require gross restraint to leave politics at the doorway for those of us nursing our “how could we lose?” hangovers. Unless we were among fellow conservatives, propriety and politeness dictated “no politics or religion” at the table. Amongst ourselves, however, if someone overheard our thoughts and took exception, they weren’t forced to listen.

There is, however, a tongue-in-cheek case for mildly upsetting the gathered, disappointed Hillary voters with seemingly innocent offerings like “She might have won if” 1) she hadn’t set up that unprecedented private server with the expressed intent to hide her emails and “official” communications from scrutiny; 2) she hadn’t rejected the proven political advice of her husband to get out into the working class counties and make believe she cared about their jobs more than the deep pockets of leftist, environmental donors;

3) She hadn’t kept her multi-hundred-thousand-dollar speeches under wraps, or at least 4) never talked about believing in “open borders and open markets,” let alone 5) having one set of “public positions” and another set of “private positions.” That surfaced from a speech she gave to big bank/financial/investment house grandees forking over said exorbitant speaking fees just to hear how she would cut them in on friendly terms.

One could point out that the sympathetic voice and persona we saw in her concession was strangely lacking throughout a campaign in which she morphed into a harridan, practically shrieking at her rallies and to the world a message of…well, what really was her message? I’m only interested in assuaging the bruised hopes of Clinton devotees with a message of what could have been; how it was really much closer than the Electoral College suggested.

An emailed message, “Excellent analysis! And nice job of not crowing” in last week’s column struck me as a fair response. I truly wasn’t rubbing it in the noses of the 28% of county voters that went for Hillary. It was just a fair view of what the numbers said to me.

Hence, it was surprising to read Mr. Minch describe it as gloating (def: “to show malicious pleasure”). It could be fairly said that Trump supporters were treated to some of the most blatant pre-election gloating in our collective political memories. When I wrote, “The constant triumphal-ism from Democrats was fed by their certainty over perpetual electoral victories,” it was a non-gloating way of pointing out the near-celebratory proclaiming of Clinton’s winning the progressive throne of the presidency. Obama’s third term and all.

If I were to gloat, with malice, it would go something like this: Are we finally done with the Clinton’s and their traveling circus of corruption, self-dealing, influence peddling and grifter/grafter mentality? The voters said as much. They proclaimed the end of the progressive experiment in running our lives, families and businesses from the far-off elite towers of authoritarian rule by regulatory and academic overlords. The people mandated that all things liberal and Democrat-inspired be cast into the ash heap of history. Those who’ve presumed their own superiority by virtue of their adored liberal leaders and supremely-correct ideological conclusions—they shall henceforth keep silent, bow before our electoral win and sheepishly accede to our policy prescriptions, laws and judgments. Be humbled, losers! Schadenfreude (def: enjoying the misfortune of others) is good!

Winning progressives would have made such noises. However, I wouldn’t say such things with sincerity—partly due to the lack of malice in my heart, mostly because the election results supported no such “gloating.” Trump losing by about 1,700,000 votes constitutes not so much a mandate as permission to try to implement what he ran on, just like if the reverse happened and Clinton won 300+ electoral votes but lost the popular vote.

There was no sense of accommodation with Republicans by Barack Obama, who gloated that he won, they lost, “elections have consequences,” and that they should go to “the back” of the bus or line or whatever. He said we should make our case and win elections, so we have a Republican Congress and a President-elect Donald J. Trump. I don’t believe for a moment that Hillary would have given more than a superficial nod to her defeated foes as she charged ahead with what Obama’s and Hillary’s supporters openly proclaimed to be Obama 3.0.

Online readers are owed the knowledge that the commenter using the pseudonym “Another Bob” is actually Chico Democrat, super delegate and practitioner of political skullduggery, Bob Mulholland. I have posted on my blog a half dozen links (sources: krcrtv.com, democraticunderground.com, wordpress.com and topix.com forum threads) that readers can access to decide for themselves. The post is titled: "Another_Bob is Bob Mulholland using fake name to slime his foes.” I discourage no comments; I only decry someone anonymously casting aspersions on my motives and character without the accountability of using their real name.