Post 2016 Presidential Election Thoughts?

The galaxy has shifted.

Barack Obama shakes hands with President-elect Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House. Photograph: Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP

We live in a different world than we did on Monday, November 7th.

Then, we lived in a world of Barack and Michelle Obama, of The Clintons, Bill and Hillary – the once and future presidents.

That was the world this time on Monday.

Now, with a dark cloud growing over the nation and multiple demonstrations taking place in cities across our country, our President-elect and self-described billionaire Donald J. Trump, showman and republican has been chosen to lead.
I believe in our country, the republic for which it stands and the resilience  of the American people.

But like many, I’ve had a hard time processing everything that has happened in the last 24hours.
It’s time to get my head around this new world, that is now around all of us.

Hillary Clinton publicly conceded the election to Donald J. Trump on Wednesday, acknowledging the pain of the defeat in remarks in New York while calling on her supporters to accept that he would be president and give him a chance to lead with an open mind.

Question: Is this a world defined by what Trump promised to do while campaigning against Secretary Clinton, or a composite; a compromise between his promises and the world he will inherits?

To me, this is the critical question – morally, politically and even journalistically.
Trump promised to build a wall on the Rio Grande, is that gonna be it – or will he strike a deal with Marco Rubio, Lindsey Graham and Chuck Schumer that focuses on the real magnet for illegal immigration: the exploitation of cheap and vulnerable labor in this country?

Donald John Trump is an American businessman, television personality, author, politician, and nominee of the Republican Party for President of the United States in the 2016 election.

Will he take control of immigration in a way that fits with the constitution and reasonable compassion, even if it offends those within his own political party, his opponents and those his detractors are able to stir up against him?

Trump promised to ban people of Islamic faith from entering the country.

Really? How will a President Trump get 60 votes – including 9 democratic senators to vote for that kind of law? Or will he take a more refined approach to preventing those from coming to this country that do have dangerous terrorist groups in them?

He promised to kill Obamacare. The question again, ‘how will he find 9 democrats plus all the republicans in the senate’ to do that? And if so, what kind of substantive plan will he install? Would he really dump all the people that depend on Obamacare off of the insurance market?

Trust me, that would be a plan for political suicide. I’m guessing he’s surrounded by enough smart people who know it, or will know it – if he heads in that direction.

Among the many great things enshrined in our constitution, is that it throws up walls against would be dictators, it can strengthen the minority party – which is the current predicament of the democratic party. And that strength takes the form of a threatened  filibuster, the federal courts and of course, public opinion. History tells us that there is YUGE difference between the promises a candidate makes and the reality of his ability once elected. For America, that distance may end up being the country’s constitutional life insurance policy.

Perhaps the greatest leverage against any overreach of power Trump will have is that he will need to get democrats and reasonable republicans on his side, to do anything. Whether he knows it or not, or know it yet – to move this huge ship called the United States, it will take more than a one-man crew.