"Give him a chance."
I hear it every time a new president is elected. "You have to give him a chance." It's the day after election day and the president-elect is someone I did not vote for and do not trust but I'm supposed to forget all that and shut up at least until inauguration day because I have to "give him a chance." (By the way, it's been 28 years since the winner of a presidential election was someone I voted for.)
But it's all BS. Neither I, nor anyone else has an obligation to give any newly-elected president a chance. The number one reason is that a chance is not mine to give or refuse. Donald Trump has won the election. He will be president in January absent some unforeseen eventuality. But there's nothing I can do to deny him his presidency. He will assume the office and with it all its powers. What he does after that is entirely up to him but he will have his "chance" with or without my assent.
And I don't see any reason to change my attitude about Trump just because he's been elected. Donald Trump was the same person on November 9 that he was on November 8. The parts of his character, his qualifications and his platform that I find objectionable are still there. There's no reason not to point them out just because Trump won.
And when, as I suspect will happen, Trump's presidency goes completely pear-shaped, it will be useful to demonstrate that such an outcome was not only predictable, but predicted. After all, Trump is still Trump. He gives no indication of a well-thought-out philosophy of government or a decent knowledge base about national and international problems. He seems motivated chiefly by his own ego, swayed by flattery.
He is already throwing off signs that he will be reneging on the postures that made him so popular with his most devoted worshipers. The wall won't be an uninterrupted physical barrier from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean. Obamacare might be amended instead of repealed. And remember "Drain the Swamp?" Trump has brought Trent Lott, one of the Swamp's slimiest alligators, onto his transition team.
Trump's dedicated followers are about to learn that this campaign was just another deal to him. Now that they have given Trump what he wanted, he doesn't need them anymore.
