WarSclerotic

After Last Night, Power line, Scott Johnson, November 9, 2016

(Trump won. Of even greater importance, so did America. — DM)

With Donald Trump’s improbable victory last night, the Clinton Crime Family can retire from public life to enjoy its ill-gotten gains. Lady Hillary tastes the fruit of an incredibly bitter and humiliating defeat. Her zombie husband is now free to continue his “charitable” efforts and pursue other interests unimpeded by the need to keep up appearances.

I pray that Donald Trump will honor the high office he has attained. As Jesse Ventura put it when he proclaimed victory in Minnesota’s 1998 gubernatorial election, he has shocked the world. He has much to do and to undo to set our country back on course.

It was a great night for Republicans. Against the odds, they maintain only slightly diminished control of both houses of Congress. They too have much work to do and to undo to set our country back on course.

Mitch McConnell and the Senate Republican caucus have been vindicated in declining to act on the nomination President Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court. Trump will now have the opportunity to name the successor to Justice Scalia. To say the least, the prospect pleases — the prospect that the Supreme Court may not fall indefinitely to the left in the left’s battle to destroy limited constitutional government.

Clinton had the gall to make the reversal of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission a litmus test in her Supreme Court appointments. Intended to protect political speech from control by Congress, the First Amendment would have been turned on its head. Clinton thought she deserved protection from criticism in “electioneering communications.” In the ancien régime they called it lèse-majesté. It’s about as home in the United States as titles of nobility.

Trump’s election is unprecedented. Watching the returns come in last night, however, I felt the reverberations of 1980 with the narrow Republican victories in the hotly contested Senate races.

Rob Portman’s victory in Ohio was far from narrow; he crushed an opponent in whom Democrats had placed great hopes. Ron Johnson staged a glorious comeback with a little help from his friends and prevailed over the execrable Russ Feingold in Wisconsin. Todd Young’s victory over Evan Bayh in Indiana was particularly sweet. Given his military background, Young has an important contribution to make along with Tom Cotton in the Senate. Young has already made an important contribution to Evan Bayh. Bayh no longer has keep up the pretense that he is a resident of Indiana.

The schadenfreude we feel in the suffering of the Democrat/Media complex is delicious. Let’s enjoy it while we can. To the extent that Trump’s election serves as a repudiation of Obama, megadittos. Obama has sunk us in a hole out of which it will take us a long time to climb and formidable obstacles will be arrayed against Trump to the extend he seeks to get get us out.

Something was gaining on the Clintons. It finally caught up with them last night. I didn’t see it coming and don’t understand what it was. Having vehemently expressed the view since he emerged in the primaries that Trump was not a viable general election candidate, I need to fortify my understanding of practical politics at the presidential level.

I’m calling a minor penalty on myself for my errors of understanding, of prediction and of pessimism over the past year. I intend to refrain from commenting on politics at the presidential level for the next few months and to use the time to deepen my understanding before I let myself climb out of the penalty box, although I ask that you not hold me to this vow too strictly.

This entry was posted on November 9, 2016 at 2:32 PM and is filed under 2016 elections, Donald Trump - President Elect. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

Tags: Donald Trump - President Elect