I have been writing this column for almost 20 years and I am grateful to The Signal for giving me this wonderful opportunity. It has given me personal joy to be able to express myself on a myriad issues over that time.
However, the last three weeks have been anything but fun. The anger and dismay from Election Day have not subsided, and not just because a Republican will be in the White House.
I survived Nixon, Reagan and George Dubya Bush, as did the nation, so it’s not that. It’s that it is Donald Trump.
Just because he won does not make him any more qualified to hold the office; it does not make him any more decent or moral. He is still a liar, a thief, a con man and a despicable excuse for a human being.
And he is going to be the most powerful person in the world.
So if you detect some anger and bitterness leaking through, you are not imagining it, and it will not subside until he is gone, however long that takes.
But even four years will seem like an eternity. It already does, and it has only been a couple of weeks.
The interesting thing to watch will be his supporters when they realize they have been conned by a master grifter.
He is already stocking his economic team with Goldman Sachs executives, Wall Street hedge fund managers and right-wing billionaires. That ought to be just the panacea for the problems of the undereducated and underemployed Joe Six Packs waiting for manufacturing jobs to come back to the rust belt.
Then they will have to deal with having their health care taken away, followed by the destruction of Medicare and Medicaid so there will be no medical coverage in the future, either.
Now there is a chance that an ego-driven narcissist who believes he is correct 100 percent of the time will not fail spectacularly.
If he can convince Republican budget hawks in Congress to spend $20 billion on a 2,000-mile-long wall, a wall that will do almost zero in preventing illegal immigration, that will go a long way toward fulfilling at least one campaign promise.
But what are the odds? Ditto solving the complex problems in the Middle East, defeating ISIS and global terrorism.
Again, just because you got 2 million fewer votes than your opponent does not guarantee competency or portend successfully fulfilling all the wild claims made on the campaign trail.
The voters whose support I have the most problem reconciling with Trump is the Christian right.
They have spent decades trying to remake America into a biblical utopia. They have been extremely judgmental of every part of society that falls short of the religious ideals they want all of us to live by.
And yet they supported and continue to back a man who has proudly broken every single one of the Ten Commandments, except maybe the sixth. And if Trump’s paper of record, the National Enquirer, printed a story about him killing a man in Reno, just to watch him die, not a single person would be surprised.
And he would not lose the support of most of those who voted for him in November.
If there is a silver lining to all this, it is that at least there is a playbook already written on how to deal with a president and an administration you do not agree with.
Obstruction to every single proposal, delay and destroy any and all administration policies, regardless of whether or not they have merit.
Make sure every nominee who needs Senate approval is delayed or denied the post for which they have been nominated.
Above all, be sure that everything that can be done to ensure Trump is a one-term president is done.
Republicans have proven there is no political downside to this approach. In fact, they proved it is an effective way to harass a president and minimize his accomplishments.
The only thing Democrats need to change is the creating lies, gossip and innuendo to denigrate the president. Just telling the truth about Trump’s business and personal life will have the exact same effect.
There, now I feel a little better.
Kevin Buck is a Santa Clarita resident. “Democratic Voices” runs Tuesdays in The Signal and rotates among several Santa Clarita Valley Democrats.
