Congratulations, America

We did it.

We elected a man with zero experience. A man who advocates war crimes, who likes torture, who lies pathologically, peddles conspiracy theories, and throws temper tantrums. A man who endlessly parades his racism, sexism, and chronic ignorance. A man who’s vowed to chip away at the Bill of Rights and the Geneva Convention. A man with no credible solutions to any of our major problems.

Go team.

Is there a word that means “surreal” and “horrible” at the same time? All I can think of is “Kafkaesque,” but that isn’t quite right.

Sigh.

I’m not so much depressed that he’s going to be our next president. If we can survive the Civil War and the Great Depression, we can survive this. But I’m depressed that we chose him. I’m embarrassed for us as a country.

Impeachment doesn’t give me a lot of hope either. I think it’s fairly likely he will commit impeachable offenses, but if he does, I think (1) a Republican-controlled Congress isn’t terribly likely to convict, and (2) Pence isn’t much better.

Any silver linings here?

Maybe one. This election is like a kid who finds a moldy, soggy bread crust on the ground and just has to eat it. The grown-ups keep saying no, but he finally manages to wolf it down. It’s going to be pretty awful for the kid, sure. But he just might learn something about eating moldy soggy bread crusts he finds on the ground. He might be better off in the long run.

I can hope, anyway.

Whatever happens in the next four years, I doubt it will be boring.