With crimson streams of leaves winding like tracers in the wind, Mother Nature seems wholly absorbed in the season of autumn and totally disinterested in the season of politics. That said, her leaves are like ballots, cast in colors, arriving unpredictably from mixed sources, differing mostly perhaps in that they are not counted. Hmmm. Guess that difference depends on how you see the pedigrees of key battleground ballots. One hopes that when all is done there will be clarity, confidence and…healing.  

Clarity up first for me – no, not clarity on outcomes – clarity from me because I’ve been exasperated by my own rule of avoiding partisan discussion. So, I want to thank all my friends on both sides of the political divide for putting up with that. What follows here is partly adapted from something I posted on Facebook, namely that you have my highest respect and gratitude for enduring my attempts to be thought-provoking, to offer perspectives, to balance and to be reasoned in these emotionally volatile times, all without descending into partisan rants. I know I strained your tolerance sometimes.

If it’s any consolation, I received dissenting communication from both sides of the aisle, which is the surest sign that I was reasonably objective. I also received much affirmation from both sides of the aisle – again, my gratitude. Frustrating, for me, was receiving many private communications asking for my thoughts on issues or candidates. While the election isn’t certified as of this Sullygram distribution, it is at least over as far as the voting, and so if it’s of any consequence, as my incoming communications suggest, I don’t mind sharing my candid views at this point. Not inviting debate, please, and I’ll keep my attempt to satisfy the curiosity I’m still receiving very short and general.

Do I like Donald Trump? No. Do I think he’s a successful President? Yes, given the needs of our times and the extreme place where we are in our history. By 2016 I never expected anyone to do more than slow down the end-stages of the radical Left. And for me, political correctness married to anarchy in the streets of 2020, airbrushed by the media, confirmed where we are in the globalist paradise of an Orwellian 1984. Trump’s odious style and disorienting manner of speaking is, again for me, a refreshing break from the polished say-nothing rhetoric of politicians in general. I prefer his “tell-it-bluntly” style to the “charm-me-lies” of duplicitous politicians, even though tell-it-bluntly is never forgiven for being right while charm-me-lies are often accepted as gospel no matter how outrageously they fail or are wrong. But the Muzzle Media, which invariably starts with a false premise and reasons from there, is long since indistinguishable from politics. Emotional conditioning by all media -- news, social or cultural -- counts big when Kool-Aid is served up.

I’m hard-pressed to see any mandate in this election. Particularly if the Congress stays split along Trump’s legacy. Quite the contrary. If there’s a bigger example of David vs Goliath, I’d like to know what it is. An outsider with a crude personality came into the Oval Office with the avowed purpose of clearing out the swamp of politics inside the Beltway, thus threatening nearly everyone including his own party. I didn’t expect him to be loved for that. Thereafter he broke all Washington traditions by delivering on nearly every promise he made, re-negotiated the killer mistakes of past administrations on both sides of the aisle to create a breakthrough economy that for the first time favors minorities and women, forged energy independence that freed us from foreign wars by effectively ending the age-old mantra of the Left “no more blood for oil,” largely cleaned up the previous messes of terrorism, lingering wars and impending nuclear breakout, rebuilt our perilously debilitated military, and brought back 600,000 manufacturing jobs sent overseas by the previous administration that told us “they ain’t comin’ back,” just to name a few highlights. He did it, of course, with over 90% negative coverage and a virtual media blackout, enduring one Congressional mugging after another, all while he rubbed rhetorical salt in the wounds of his detractors on something as fickle and repressive as Twitter, thus ratcheting up hate to unforgiving levels. And all of that was accomplished in the face of unprecedented institutional resistance, sabotage, phony investigations and impeachment designed in part to misdirect from the biggest un-investigated crimes and treason in modern times. Nope, don’t see a mandate. What I see is a split election that rejected the radical Left in Congressional results, despite the deeply corrupt ballot fandango that was choreographed strangely enough almost exclusively in the battleground states, while culminating four years of soft coup with pure emotional hate for a flawed President who was probably the only thing slowing down the slide to Marxist-style socialism-and-beyond in the formerly united states of America…

My overriding criteria then for a candidate is whether they make sound judgments. If they have horrible judgment, they will make horrible decisions. The record between Trump and Biden, as it was between Trump and Hillary, is a no-brainer for me. Trump made the hard calls neglected by many previous administrations in both parties, and he’s the first one in living memory with real world practical experience outside politics. Hate the man, if you need emotional relief, he still represents a set of positive ideas and values foundationally American. But all his re-negotiations and initiatives, along with blunt common sense, seem likely over now, and it will be back to politics as usual soon with Left-wing socialism one-party, one-payer, et al in sight of the finish line.

Just as it did in 2016, the media grossly under-reported Trump support. Whether you again believe that was innocent blindness or you’re crystal-clear it was calculated suppression, here in 2020 they have declared narrow wins and made their anointings. The media won. The swamp won. Goliath won. As with Gore in 2000, the Trump campaign will get due process in the courts. If the sweep is complete then, it may still take some time, but the Left will get exactly what it asked for and the media will gild it gold.

So, here we are – fait accompli! I’m gonna buy a lot of bananas now to help our Republic and pray we don’t continue moving toward a narco state as some areas of the country are doing. Hope you still accept me as a human being deserving of the right to think as I do, whether you agree with me or not, and as someone who kept his powder dry out of respect for you as communicants. I’ll continue to support a united America, however the will of our collected states shakes out. And I especially wish Joe Biden a long if semi-coherent grip on things, if the election is certified. He’s the only person standing between us and his hard-Left VP’s ascendance, or in a worst-case scenario, the ascendance to the Oval Office of a Cruella Deville Speaker of the House. Tolerate me, please. You have to remember, I’m the product of a lifetime of living relatively outside groupthink and social influences. I mean well, and this is just about my honest reasoning. My emotions, as far as positive outcomes go, probably align with yours…
 

A passel of photos included below: #1-3 skiing the first snow at Elm Creek back on October 20; #4-8 love the way Mom Nature paints this time of year. #9 “Visit a dream often enough and it becomes half-reality,” I recently posted on FB. That’s my inamorata garden statue, She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. #10 The bruise that saved my life. I’m chicken of heights and when I stupidly hung out a high window to wash the glass, I was suddenly more outside than in. Ruptured bicep began to cramp up, but managed to lock the arm around the frame. #11-12 Love the way sunset and these Indian grass tassels kiss in the evening.

Thomas "Sully" Sullivan