The results of the 2016 presidential election sent a shock wave throughout the United States and around the world.  Contrary to the expectations of many, if not most, Donald Trump won the election. 

His opponents were stunned.  They had already crowned their candidate as the winner.  The party had already been planned and prepared.  There was no possibility that Hillary Clinton could lose.

However, after a short period, Trump's opponents recovered.  They would fight back.  They simply could not tolerate this frightening – to them – specter who had promised Americans that he would build a wall to protect their country and that he would "drain the swamp" in Washington.  They could not accept as president anyone who does not share their ideology and their plans for the United States.

His enemies, who had plotted during the presidential campaign to ensure that Hillary Clinton would be elected, immediately began to make their plans to undo the horrible and unthinkable mistake made by the voters of the United States.  They decided that they would muffle and nullify the voice of the people by removing the president from office.  They would impeach him.

And so, aided and abetted by the media and by high-ranking members of the government itself, they initiated their war.  They would do whatever they had to do by whatever means they could imagine to damage and to destroy the president, his administration, his friends, and his supporters.  It was a civil war, ferocious, with no holds barred and no sense of decency or honor.  It would be pervasive and relentless.  Nothing was sacred against their onslaught, not even the Constitution, not even the rule of law, not even the presumption of innocence until proven guilty, not even the right of others to believe anything other than what they believed.

Proof of the commitment of President Trump's enemies to weaken and overthrow him, a person duly elected by America's voters, assails us every day.  The media fill newspapers, magazines, daily newscasts, and internet postings with negative stories.  Whether they're true or untrue is not important.  Reporters are no longer reporters.  They have become judges who see their role as accepting negative opinions from the president's enemies and correcting the unacceptable opinions of the few supporters who occasionally have an opportunity to speak.

One representative example, among the countless possibilities, of the ruthlessness of President Trump's enemies is the recent public spectacle of the Senate Judiciary Committee.  Poor, "terrified" Christine Blasey Ford!  In spite of her protestation to the contrary, Ford was a pathetic pawn placed on the sacrificial altar by the pitiless Democratic members of the committee in their dogged and reprehensible destruction of anyone who might be an obstacle in the attainment of their sacred goals.

In spite of this constant stream of attacks, President Trump has been remarkably successful in the short period of time he has been the president.  Most of his successes are not reported in the mainstream media, and, if it is begrudgingly reported, the news is almost always accompanied by a caveat that any credit really belongs to his predecessor, that the news is really bad, or that the administration is not telling the truth.

Rare for a politician, President Trump is steadily keeping his promises.  He has a goal of rescinding two government regulations for each new one instituted, thereby saving billions of dollars.  He is committed to negotiating free and fair trade deals after years in which other countries have benefited from trade policies that favored them over the U.S.  As a result, American businesses created 3.9 million new jobs, and the number of workers who were not in the job force decreased by 2.7 million.  Under his leadership, the economy grew at an annualized rate of 4.2%.  Unemployment recently dropped to 3.7%.  The economy boomed, and optimism rose.

Some Americans probably believe that it makes no difference who controls the government in Washington because all politicians are the same.  That is, they think only about staying in power and keeping their party in power.  They do not care about the people.  If you share that opinion, consider some of the results of leftist ideology in the Obama administration.  During the eight years he was president, the domestic product growth rate varied from a low of 1.6% to a high of 2.6%.  Unemployment ranged from a high of 9.6% to a low of 5.3%.  The number of American workers who dropped out of the workforce increased from over 80 million potential workers to over 95 million, an increase of 18%.  During his tenure, his administration added 184 major regulations, at an implementation cost of 80 billion dollars a year.  While he was president, the national debt rose from under $11 trillion to almost $20 trillion, an increase of 86%.  The number of people on food stamps rose from 34 million in 2009 to a high of 48 million in 2014, which was 15% of the U.S. population, before dropping off to 44 million in 2016.

On a smaller scale, many large cities have been under the control of leftist politicians for decades.  These politicians became powerful and rich, while those who believed their promises and voted for them became poorer and more destitute.  Their failing policies led to huge groups of government dependents permanently mired in poverty, self-pity, resentment, and hopelessness.

If you think implemented ideology does not affect the well-being of yourself and others, much less the country as a whole, think again.

Cortes J. Bicking wrote, "The person who cannot lead and will not follow invariably obstructs."  In the midst of the present civil war, we might express that idea as follows: the party that will not accept the results of a lost election, and will not follow the new presidential leadership, will inevitably do great harm to the commonwealth.

It's time to make our votes count, and to do our part in making and keeping America great!