“As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”—H. L. Mencken 1880-1956 (American journalist, satirist, cultural critic and scholar of American English. Known as the "Sage of Baltimore," he is regarded as one of the most influential American writers and prose stylists of the first half of the twentieth century).

Almost 100 years after you wrote that [1920], Mr. Mencken, it’s now as if we have some mad reincarnation of the captain of the Titanic at the helm of our ship of state. Full speed ahead in a fog.

So our new president is this guy in his 71st year who has spent his life ripping off our society at every opportunity and never spent a day serving the public. Good luck, America. Trump reminds me of some aging atheist suddenly aware that his self-exalted being is not excluded from the reality of mortality—who suddenly joins a church and begins singing in the choir. And of course, there’s always the sudden vault into history books, having one’s portrait hanging on the walls of hallowed halls, etc. A true narcissist needs that sort of thing. Perhaps with all of his money he can build a memorial to himself—something larger, of course, than the Lincoln Memorial.

I believe I can safely say that never in the history of this nation has there been a presidential election campaign during which a candidate was so fixated on genitalia, his own and that of women in general—while knowing so little about foreign relations or the actual makeup and operations of various other departments of the U. S. government. And likely no candidate who (despite in this case his vague promises of jobs) has shown so little real concern for the poor, suffering, the generally disenfranchised.  Or been so obviously racist and sexist. Such a hero of white supremacists.  Anyone as vulgar, unhinged and incoherent.

With population burgeoning in a thus-shrinking world, good luck to all of you human brethren outside the fences of this newly-gated community where so many of us have tried so hard in more normal times to live up to the words on the plaque in the Statue of Liberty. Words that promised an inclusive society to you tired, poor, huddled masses yearning to be free, you homeless and  tempest-tossed. You’re pretty much on your own now. But many of Trump’s legion still will be in church moving their lips during the congregation’s singing of hymns and dropping a few dollars into the collection plate—as if it absolves them from sin and just as if they really care about the less-fortunate. 

So, enough of the conciliatory b.s. being scattered around like rose petals by some who should know better. Donald Trump is not “our” president; he is “his” president. Our government will be an oligarchy at best—as a “let the chips fall where they may” philosophy comes down from the top and  “let them eat cake” comments come up at elegant cocktail parties when someone happens to mention the poor wandering among us without bread.

Immediate post-election harassment of women and minorities began mounting up all across the country—from elementary school on up into all segments of society—as we began discovering just what sort of country we really are, what sort of people we’ve been rubbing elbows with.  Racists, sexists and the generally self-absorbed are coming out from under their rocks and out of the woodwork all around the country. Apparently they feel empowered by what they feel is some sort of mandate for humankind, via the prophet Donald, that justifies them.

The chips that fall as Trump chops away at social concerns of the multitude perhaps are epitomized by the young elementary school student in Utah, a victim of the new post-election harassment surge. As reported by a spokesman for Canyons School District, this child indicated that he didn’t think he’d be back at school the next day. When asked why, he said: “Because Donald Trump was elected president. I may have to go back to Mexico.” Bullying in the schools is being reported throughout the nation as kids take their parents’ bigotry to “show and tell.”

By the Friday after the election a tsunami-like wave of hate crimes was sweeping across the country—vandalism, threats, intimidation, assaults. According to Richard Cohen, president of the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Alabama. “The white supremacists out there are celebrating their victory and many are feeling their oats.” The University of Pennsylvania was seeking the source of “violent, racist and thoroughly repugnant images and messages” to a group of black freshmen (believed messaged via an account based in Oklahoma); in Syracuse, N. Y., a group of pickup trucks draped with the Confederate flag drove through an anti-Trump rally. In Columbus, Ohio, a man banged on the window of a car a Muslim woman was driving, her elderly parents and children with her, and told her, “C**t, you don’t belong in this country. In Columbus, Ind., home of vice-president-elect Mike Pence, the two sons of Presbyterian pastor Rev. Felipe Martinez were bullied and harassed, and swastikas and KKK grafitti were found along a popular trail. At Canisius College in Buffalo, N.Y., an institution with Jesuit roots, a black baby doll was left in a college elevator with a rope around its neck. A swastika and the words “Make America White Again” were spray-painted on the dugout of an upstate baseball stadium. In San Diego, a student’s hijab was pulled tight enough to choke her and her car was stolen. A woman near the University of Michigan was forced to remove her head scarf after a man approached her and threatened to set her on fire. Middle school students in Detroit were caught on camera shouting “build the wall.” In Queens, N. Y., a 19-year-old woman wearing a hijab was seated on a bus; a middle-aged white couple boarded, approached her, and the woman told her she wasn’t allowed to wear the head covering anymore and tried to pull it off. “Whites only” spray-painted on the door of a school restroom . . .

These are just representative; I got tired of checking the Internet. It’s obvious that not only adults but also children emulating their parents and some of their peers also feel legitimized—by Trump’s seemingly acceptable character—to zealously pursue their pathological need to feel superior to others. I also would bet the farm there’s been a major upward surge on the domestic abuse front—B-word, C-word and battering behind closed doors.

I don’t know what sort of “complete change” in Washington, D. C., Trump supporters were referring to in disguising their individual self-interest in recent months, but the election certainly didn’t effect much change at all in the makeup of Congress. The change we’re actually getting, before Trump actually struts into office Jan. 20, is described above. Change in the year ahead will include such things as the already wealthy being handed money they really don’t need, while the poor wind up without free school lunches for their children.

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What others are saying: “. . . Trump’s main problem in governing is not going to be some fascistic ideology. His problem is going to be his own attention span, ignorance and incompetence. If he’s left to bloviate while others are left to run the country and push through infrastructure plans, maybe things won’t be disastrous.”—David Brooks, syndicated columnist, New York Times

 Did you realize?-- Hillary Clinton won the widest margin of the popular vote in the history of presidential election defeats, but lost in electoral votes—despite livs to the contrary spread via Facebook, Google and elsewhere.

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