Leadership For All People

This election was very close. Trump won the Electoral College and Clinton won the popular vote – much of which was California.   It is always better to have a real landslide than a narrow margin of “victory”.  There is no argument or legitimate second guessing when that happens.

One of my comments all along has been that both the establishment in Washington and the mainstream media were and have been in denial right up until the polls closed on Tuesday night.  It was clear there was something going an undercurrent if you will that was outside the expected.  But they seemed to be blinded by some pre-conceived diagnosis of the result although I thought the undercurrent was and had been obvious.  Why was Trump getting so much traction and prevailing in spite of their conventional wisdom?  I kept saying that the “smart” people were missing something and were in denial and or somehow thought that the movement was not as wide spread as it really was.  Similar was happening on the other side of the aisle – Bernie was gaining traction of a different sort but in direct opposition to the mainstream of the Democratic Party.  They just managed or manipulated it better for their desired result but the message was similar.  The Republican side got more negative press about it probably because of the inflammatory style.

I am not sure about all of the aspects of cause and effect, but I have witnessed division in this country on several fronts over the last 8 years.  It may have started before that but it has grown at an ever increasing pace in the Obama administration.  I believe he disenfranchised many segments of the community.  Personally, I never voted for him.  Initially because he had no real track record of accomplishment – in fact it was just the opposite, failure, but not a lot of that either.  Then I saw the trend in the first four years and saw division growing so I could not support him a second time.

In California, there is a growing movement to split the State.  It is similar in that there is a disenfranchisement of various sectors, specifically the rural areas of the State.  Nationally, the rural communities have been ignored, abused and taken advantage of by the urban segment.  You can say that the population rules but when one segment is hurt dramatically, there is a backlash.

I have seen racial tensions grow.

Gender issues that should never have happened grow.

And more!

I believe these issues have been fostered by the establishment policies – I am not going to judge whether that is intentional or malicious – it is just an observation.  But there seems to be a tendency to promote the divisive side.  I can go on but I am not sure that will help.  The point is we are not what we once were and by that I mean we have back tracked on progress on many fronts.  Corruption in government is real and more blatant that ever.  Worse public attitude and opinion seems to look the other way which is the same thing as condoning and enabling this travesty.  Can we ever get back to a more altruistic approach? IT is not and cannot be “what is in it or me?” It cannot be that simply self-serving and survive long term.  IT has to be what is in the best interests of the Country as a whole and to some extent beyond.  Can we reverse and reroute the cultural trend?

As I point out to people: there are lessons to be learned in what we have witnessed in this election cycle.  I hope we learned them and more important I hope we can be committed to do something to fix a severely damaged if not broken system.

Meanwhile, we have a new leader (right or wrong; like it or not; reality is reality) and we need to make him successful to the best advantage of the country.

WE must change the path we are on.  WE must be more inclusive.

Leadership needs to be leadership for all the people.