The last time a Democrat won the presidential popular vote of the American people, we instead got George Bush as president. Bush appointed people who were either incompetent, sycophants or neoconservative. As a result, Bush’s incompetence allowed the worst terrorist attack on American soil, an illegal invasion of Iraq — a country that did not attack us on 9-11 nor did it possess nuclear weapons, and the near total collapse of the American economic system.

On Tuesday another Democrat won the presidential popular vote of the American people, we instead got Donald Trump. The Trump brand is it’s OK to be a racist — those who don’t think it is OK are just being politically correct. It’s OK to proclaim that Latinos who immigrate here are mostly rapists and criminals; OK to boldly use your power of position to grab a woman’s genitals; OK to announce there will be no traditional jurists appointed to the Supreme Court as only ideologues opposed to the rule of law will be chosen; OK to eliminate the rights of men and women to collectively bargain for things like fair wages, paid sick time, paid vacation, paid maternity leave and a 40-hour work week; OK to appoint people as the heads of government agencies not to run them effectively but to destroy the agency from the top down and then claim that government doesn’t work; OK to bundle together every entitlement program for elimination then block granting money to states where each state can choose whether or not they want to continue an entitlement like food stamps or Headstart; OK to actively pursue an unholy alliance with Russian and Syrian dictators for the purpose of slaughtering Syrian people; okay to eliminate most regulations like clean water, clean air and Dodd-Frank banking rules, for example. It’s OK to privatize Social Security, Medicare, education, prisons, postal service and just about any government program you can think of; OK to tell lies about trickle down economics being a success where clearly the Bush era has proven that cutting taxes on the very rich only makes them richer and then tanks the economy for the rest of us.

I can see President Barack Obama is doing his best to follow the rules of American democracy by meeting with the president-elect, but here is the thing. All of the rules that applied to the past couple hundred years of American democracy are over.

What will happen when those who voted for the Trump brand realize their pensions, savings, Social Security, Medicare, Affordable Care Act health insurance, drinking water, safe food, safe bridges, aviation safety, auto safety requirements, trusted banking and more are in jeopardy? “I told you so” will be too kind for these voters.

Looking forward, the only hope I can see is the next national election two years from now, but by then there might not be much left of American democracy.

Worse, no recognition of climate change will mean our only hope to save planet earth will be for the rest of the world to organize together to save the planet and just forget about Trump-brand America.

Ted Hinnenkamp

Albert Lea