Reflections on the Trump Victory from a Liberal Gone Independent

Surprisingly, I feel at peace with President Trump’s impressive victory last night. Regardless of where we stand, the election was fair, safe, and much better this election than the last one.

I am also fine with being wrong. Sometimes, I even like being wrong. After I voted, I made the decision to become an independent voter and will no longer support the Democrats as a party member.

Trump’s Win is a message to the Democratic Part.y

I often quote my late mother saying, “The Democrats keep talking about the middle class. I am not middle class. I am poor. They are doing nothing for me.”

And they did nothing for her because there is no middle class in the United States. There is the working class, upper elites and high-income-makers, and the super-rich.

The hourly wage earner has spoken this election. They are sick and tired of the long hours, lousy pay, and no hope for a better future. Though I am not sure that Trump, a University of Pennsylvania graduate, and Elon Musk will be empathetic to the plights of hourly wage earners, it makes sense that hard-working Americans made little progress under Biden or the Democrats in general. I am a former college professor gone wage earner. We’ve been forgotten.

Yes, Men are in Trouble

The number one killer of white men in the United States is suicide. When I taught full-time, my classes had very few men in them. In fact, in one recent class, I only had two men and 14 women.

Higher education not only left men behind, it kicked them out. I felt kicked out as a male professor because of my movement toward psychology, communication, and the impact of girlhood images on males. This was not a topic that my largely female colleagues and administration approved of. They would not support my Fulbright, and I eventually left.

All the while this was happening, we continued to see men’s success in school plummet. No one did a thing about it. I remember my son looking at me and saying, “I don’t like boys because boys are bad.” He was seven years old at the time.

The problem in our culture is that we bounce back and forth between two extremes: one radicalism replaces the other. Balance is nowhere to be seen. We call this mental illness in therapy.

Girls are in Trouble

Teen girls are four times more likely to attempt suicide than boys, but boys tend to be more successful. Girls often use poisoning or suffocation, but boys use a gun. I do worry for our girls because we are always going to put the economy over their safety. A lot of money can be made exploiting young girls in particular, but we also unnecessarily censure girls for just being girls on social media. Men also tend to prioritize their wants over what their daughters, girlfriends, or wives need. Will a Trump administration somehow fix this? We want to protect girls, but should we be the Taliban and continue this senseless censorship?

It is not lost on me that every woman that President Trump picked for his first Cabinet looked like a former supermodel. I do not doubt their ability. But we don’t see older women or women that look different. This concerns me because girls are very attuned to this kind of thing. “Be sure you are smart, but you still got to look good” is the resounding message we often see. Can a girl or woman be respected that falls outside of what the President-Elect finds personally attractive?

Pending Legal Cases Against Trump ShouldBee Dropped

The American people have given the verdict in Trump’s pending legal cases. The cases need to be dropped.

I don’t write this carelessly. But we cannot have the President of the United States on trial while he runs a country. Such is distracting and dangerous. Such would do much more harm than good. Let the election results pardon his past alleged actions.

I am not a fan of Trump because what people say matters to me. I work with kids. Should kids talk about others the way Mr. Trump speaks about his adversaries? Republicans have convinced me that while Trump says a lot of things they, too, disagree with, what matters is his policy and his drive. Of course, I worry that what he says about making America Great Again is also just rhetoric. That is what I am afraid of.

Now that Trump will have more power than ever, he will be the only one to blame if something goes wrong. I want things to go well, too.

Foreign Policy

This is my greatest hope in President Trump. I almost did not vote because the Biden administration is stuck in an 80+-year-old policy vacuum:  Only the United States should control the world through the appearance of democracy. But if you ask many of our allies and even foes, the U.S. often forced, coerced, and dominated other countries. For almost as long, U.S. foreign policy has consistently failed. It appears to me that the whole purpose of these endless wars was just a means to prop up stocks and fill personal portfolios with cash. Can we make money less evilly and destructively?

Yes, the war in Ukraine needs to end. The chance for a Ukraine victory is long over. Russia will likely get what it wants. We must negotiate with the Russians. Taiwan is a Chinese problem because China looms over the island and Taiwan is not a sovereign nation. This is Chinese business, not the West’s.

As for the Middle East, the United States has to stop acting like a deer in headlights and form a lasting solution. Maybe Trump’s deal-maker skills will work here.

Our planet is on fire, and I would ask the Trump Administration to sit down with China and Russia and map out a “next-century” agreement between the three most powerful nations in the world. Before we go back to killing each other, we need to save the planet first and work together. We need to set parameters for space that we collaborate on and agree upon. We need to work together unless we want our sons and daughters to die on a battlefield.

Mr. Trump pulled off an amazing win. While I have a lot of fear and worry, I now look to him as our leader and wish him and JD Vance the very best in running the nation. Regardless of our political leanings, we all need a strong leader now.

I would like to congratulate former President Trump on his decisive win. He deserves credit because he never gave up. That is Trump’s strength. He is tough. He persists, and that is what the United States should be as a nation. I hope he can change the United States for the better. Stranger things have happened, I think? Maybe not. There is always hope.