On January 20^th 2017, Barack Obama launched his preferred career: permanent celebrity.  After eight long and painful years, the seemingly never-ending national nightmare came to a close.  As an added bonus the Clinton crime family has been irretrievably dispatched to the hinterlands of New York State and the national Democratic Party, now becoming the exclusive home of the radical left, is in shambles with no national leaders on the horizon.  While this process began in the spring of 2010 with the advent of the Tea Party Movement and overwhelming Republican success in two mid-term elections, the final coup de grace came on November 8^th of this year with the election of Donald Trump. 

During the past Republican primary season, I was an outspoken critic of Donald Trump.  While not donning the mantle of NeverTrump as did others, there were twofold reasons for my disapproval.  First and foremost was my abject fear of Hillary Clinton winning the presidency.  An eventuality, if it were to come to pass after eight years of Barack Obama, would be an unmitigated and in all likelihood, irreversible disaster for the nation.  Based on countless polls and his bombastic and unorthodox campaign, Donald Trump appeared to be, of the top three or four most likely Republican candidates, the one most easily defeated in the fall by perhaps the weakest and most flawed candidate for the presidency offered up by either political party in the past 75 years. 

Fortunately for the nation, Hillary and her campaign became arrogant and overconfident in the final five weeks of the campaign opting to be aloof and disregard the “rabble” in flyover country.  Nonetheless, if just 70,000 voters out of nearly 15 million in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin had voted for Hillary instead of Trump my worst fears would have been realized.   While impossible to identify, the people of the United States owe an incalculable debt of gratitude to those 70,000 citizens.

The second factor, and one of considerably less importance, in my opposition to Trump during the spring of 2016, was that Trump was not a reliable conservative rather he was all over the ideological spectrum depending on the issue whether it was abortion, trade, taxes, health care or the judiciary.  Further, I could not in good conscience trust him to keep his campaign promises.  I confess that the latter is based on my brief but unpleasant dealings with him in the mid-1980’s in Atlantic City.  I would have preferred any of three or four other potential nominees.

Nevertheless, despite my determination not to vote for Donald Trump, when November 8^th arrived and I was standing in the voting booth staring at the name of Hillary Clinton, I closed my eyes and checked the box next to Trump’s name despite the fact I live in a state that would elect Homer Simpson president if he had a (D) behind his name.   Just before midnight, when it was startlingly announced that Hillary lost, I was so euphoric that I opened a bottle of 26-year-old Glenfiddich Single Malt Scotch I had been saving for a special occasion. 

So now Donald Trump assumes office with a herculean task before him.  He must first clean out the Augean stables as contaminated by his predecessor and then embark on restoring America.   I have been impressed by virtually all of his cabinet choices and a much of his White House staff.  It has been a guilty pleasure viewing the hysterics of the Hollywood and academic elites as well as the meltdown of the Democratic Party hierarchy.   The near daily filleting of the mainstream media, long overdue, is exceedingly enjoyable.  Watching Obama scramble to appear on every venue possible to reinforce his monumental ego and pen a fictitious narrative that is his so-called “legacy” (a sub-conscience admission that he has been a monumental failure) has been the very definition of schadenfreude.

While Trump still has his awkward Twitter moments, he has confirmed his intention to name constitutional conservatives to the courts, build the southern wall, eliminate regulations and reduce taxes.  However, I do strongly disagree with Trump on issues such as protectionism, tariffs and his overly-accommodating overtures to Vladimir Putin and will continue to rail against them and him if he does pursue these policies once in office.

On 20^th of January 2017 Donald Trump embarked on a perilous journey with the fate of untold millions alive and yet unborn in his hands.  His will be a transformative presidency.  Either he will succeed in returning the nation to prosperity and the tenets of its founding or he will fail to do so and thus turn the United States over to the radical Left that is the Democratic Party in 2020 and an irreversible downward spiral into chaos.

Godspeed, Donald Trump as you embark on this journey.