Trump – Page 6 – Oscar Valdes

The Further Decline of The Republican Party

It wasn’t enough to not rise in criticism of Mr Trump’s claim that the presidential election was ‘rigged and stolen from us.’

Not enough for Republicans not to denounce his encouragement of the assault on the Capitol on January 6^th.

Republican legislators had to improve on their dismal record and now have voted Liz Cheney out of her 3^rdposition in the Republican hierarchy in the House because she would not accept Trump’s statements.

Liz Cheney would not consent to slavish obedience to Mr Trump. She may not even retain her seat in the upcoming mid term elections in Wyoming, which she represents.

I find it absurdly fascinating, that the former president still casts a spell over so many legislators.

Absurdly fascinating that the task of educating Republican voters has been deferred, and that bowing to an out of office failed politician is still considered lofty.

Unbelievable.

For a brief moment, I thought Republicans would come to their senses.

I was mistaken.

There is, though, a movement building by a rebellious party faction that is saying enough is enough. They are saying that there should be no further tolerance for Mr Trump’s influence on the party.

But will it gather strength?

I think it has a chance.

I do because there is a segment of Republican voters who are not blinded by Mr Trump’s antics. Men and women who are able to see clearly who Mr Trump is. Now ensconced in his Mar-A-Lago retreat, he continues to nurture dreams of a comeback.

But it is pure denial. Pure fantasy.

The former president botched the nation’s handling of Covid, alienated our allies, failed to stand up against racism in the land, stirred anti immigrant sentiment.

The task ahead for the enlightened resistance against his influence is clear. Those who refuse to see him for who he is are in need of urgent reeducation.

A democrat can’t do it.

But a clear eyed Republican can.

The party has those in their ranks. They are now willing to move to center stage and defy the wrath of those who have been blinded by Mr Trump, and then firmly confront the crisis of identity the party is facing.

The majority who elected him in 2016 thought they had found themselves a prize. Instead, they got one of the least insightful presidents that have ever been elected.

It is time to acknowledge the mistake and move forward.

Sadly, there is also a chance, that such acknowledgement will not happen.

And then Democrats will find it easier to win the upcoming mid term elections. Then the next presidential contest. And the one that follows.

Truth that lays bare before our eyes, sometimes cannot be seen.

Remember the tale about the emperor without clothes?

Oscar Valdes. Oscarvaldes.net

Open Letter to President Trump. On Asian Americans

Dear Sir,

I was glad to hear that you came out asking people to not hesitate and take the vaccine against the coronavirus. It will make a tremendous difference and, no doubt, save lives as a result.

Thank you for that.

I would now like to ask if you would be so kind as to put out a general appeal to all people to please refrain from showing hostility to Asian Americans.

The number of hate crimes against them has increased.

Your having called the corona virus the ‘Wuhan virus’ has not helped. You labelled it as such because you thought it would boost you in your campaign. But that is now over.

Members of the World Health Organization have travelled to China to investigate how the pandemic started. It will take time, maybe even years, before that matter is fully resolved.

And, for sure, Asian Americans have got nothing to do with how the pandemic came about.

Nothing at all.

They are our brothers and sisters, our friends and neighbors, doctors and nurses, engineers and technicians, scientists and artists, servers and cooks, workers in all fields of endeavor, contributing their best effort to the progress of this nation.

And yet, some people, angry with all the restrictions and losses the pandemic has forced upon us, and unable to reflect on the complexities involved, have chosen to act irrationally and vent their anger on Asian Americans.

There is no justification whatsoever for such violence.

As you well know, we have a long history in this nation of targeting minorities with tragic consequences. You, yourself, have done so. But perhaps you can now rise above it and plead for thoughtful and considerate behavior.

People are capable of evolving and finding their better selves. We all are. You, too.

You didn’t get reelected but you still got 74 million votes.

A call from you to show moderation and respect for others, no matter how superficially different they may be, will likely do us a lot of good.

And help us on the path to greater self knowledge for, as they are us, we are them.

Thank you, Mr President.

Oscar Valdes

Oscarvaldes.net

Letter sent to President Trump. Mar a Lago Resort.

1100 So Ocean Blvd

Palm Beach. Florida, 33480

Xi Jinping Replies to Elsa (7) Our Model vs Yours

Dear Elsa,

There are many advantages to democracy and I am glad you in America are satisfied with it.

We in China like what we have and see no reason to change it.

In years past many of our citizens left to study abroad and some did not return. But now, seeing the clear progress our nation has made under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, more and more are starting to come back. They are not under any pressure to return. They do so because they want to be part of one of the greatest experiments in social, political and economic organization the world has ever seen.

Nowhere, ever, has a project of this scale been tried out and because of it, Chinese feel very proud.

In a very short period, historically speaking, we have transformed our vast nation. We have become a power in science and industry, and soon will become the leading economy of the world.

There is no stopping us.

How can you argue with this kind of success?

If the great majority of people were not happy they would not be working hard. Sure, there are some dissatisfied too. There will always be those.

Is there corruption? Yes. But if you are caught you are punished severely, not just given a slap in the hand like in America.

One of the most important steps forward for the Communist Party was the recognition that money is a wonderful incentive. In the earliest periods of social organization under the rule of the Communist Party, money was criticized. But that has changed radically.

Now anyone with good ideas can make good money in China, so long as they play by the rules we set. We do have capital controls, for instance, so we let you take some of the money out of the country but not all, for we need it to run the nation.

Anyone can build a great company in our land, but they will have to allow for supervision by members of the government. This makes for discipline and helps avoid excesses.

People with money in our country cannot simply decide one day that they want to run for president. That will not happen in China.

But it can happen in America. And Elsa, that is not good.

To be part of the governing body in our land you have to have been educated as a party member and have spent a lifetime serving the people. You cannot, like Mr Trump, decide one day that you want to be president, just because you were bored building hotels.

In your country money buys the elections. If you do not have money then you cannot pay for advertising and the people will laugh at you. It doesn’t matter how competent a person you may be, people will say, ‘show me the money!’. Do Americans not have firm convictions of their own that they have to go by what advertisers tell them?

And it is that same money that opens doors for people to make deals so they can turn around and have even more money.

So what happens to the average person? They get left out. They are not heard. Sure, the politicians go around shaking hands and asking questions and kissing babies, but in the end it is the people with money who influence the big decisions. The rest is a good show.

There is another more problematic side to democracy. People have trouble getting along.

In your congress, for instance, one half thinks the other half does not know what they are talking about.

And after more than two centuries as a nation you have yet to solve the racial problem. What does that tell you about democracy? All those years and you could not come to the table and acknowledge that Blacks are just like Whites. (We can discuss the Uighur problem another time).

Elsa, China is the future. Our political system is the future. And we Chinese designed it.

America is in decline. How else can you understand the lack of a coordinated effort in handling the coronavirus, the assault on the capitol, the continued bitterness between brothers and sisters.

Politics is a sport in America and much energy is wasted because of it. Not in China. And because of it we will surpass you.

It is sad to see your fast decline. You still have a few decades left but, unless there is a miracle, I do not see your citizens ever uniting. They do not want to. Texans believe that your God looks on them more favorably than on Californians, and vice versa.

Elsa, the world is now looking to us as we shine a bright light on the path to follow.

If you have not visited our great land, please do so and witness history in the making.

Best

Xi Jinping

Chairman

People’s Republic of China

Founded Oct 1, 1949

oscarvaldes.net oscarvaldes.medium.com oscarvaldes@widehumr

Elsa and Xi (4) In A Democracy We Can Change Our Minds

Dear Xi:

Thank you so much for your reply. I was not expecting it.

Tomorrow is a great day for America. The nation gets to see a new president take office. We chose a different one because we disagreed with the direction Mr Trump was taking us in.

We didn’t like that he showed no inclination to bring us together as a nation. With him it was all about pleasing his supporters. But America is composed of many groups, all of which must learn to work together.

We didn’t like that he didn’t show competence in handling the pandemic.

We didn’t like that he tended to dismiss our longstanding allies, underestimating the work that had been patiently done over many decades.

We didn’t like that he got us out of the Paris Accord on climate change when the entire world is making efforts to stem global warming.

We didn’t like the way he was addressing our racial issues.

Xi, we could remove Mr Trump, because we have a democracy and the president is up for reelection every 4 years. And even if we liked a president, they wouldn’t be able to serve more than two terms.

Why do we do this? Because we know that human beings are fallible, all of us, and renewal is essential to our survival.

So, even if the Chinese like you a lot, they should have a right to hear other viewpoints and decide if you are the person to continue leading them forward.

There are so many examples of human beings’ propensity to think they own the truth. But truth about anything is hard to own. The search for it takes time and we must be open to hear other opinions.

Science teaches us a great deal about this. To explain natural phenomena, scientists first come up with a theory. Then people set out to prove it. So long as research shows support for the theory then it is valid, but the moment new evidence is produced that disproves the theory, then the theory can no longer be supported and scientists have to come up with another one.

Science teaches us, then, that living with doubt is essential and so is the working to resolve it.

In a democracy, we can change our minds. In a democracy we accept that mistakes are part of growth and that we can rectify them.

This is why I was so disturbed when you decided to eliminate the limits on your presidency.

I understand that China has suffered from many invasions by foreign powers and that the Chinese people wish to affirm themselves in the world, but why should freedom of expression be sacrificed?

Just like inventions come up that help us do things better and more efficiently, so too with leaders. Others will come up who have a better idea to lead us forward.

To let the process work, we need freedom of speech. When speech is censored, those imposing the restriction are saying they are afraid of free thought and will use whatever force at their disposal to suppress it.

But that blocks the forward path of the nation.

Are you so afraid of what your people will think or say that you have to censor them?

To censor speech is to do to a mind what locking a child in a box will do to stunt their growth. The child will not have a chance to grow and when he or she is let out of the box their bodies will be deformed. It wasn’t so long ago, that some women in China had their feet bound to prevent their growth.

There is no justification to censor speech in a nation with the abundance of talent and creativity that China has. To do so is to stunt its development. To do is to deprive not only China of its possibilities, but the world’s as well.

Xi, you are now a respected leader. You have helped lead a nation to economic and military might. But the nation’s civic growth is just as important if it is to achieve a proper balance.

I am sure Confucius would agree.

The good news is that you can still change direction. We will all be most grateful. And in the eyes of the world you will have a very special place.

I look forward to hearing from you again,

Very best to you,

Elsa

oscarvaldes.net oscarvaldes.medium.com oscar valdes@widehumr

Trump – The Day After

He’s in the Oval office and his adult children, Ivanka, Eric and Donald Jr, are seated across.

He’s in a sad, pensive mood.

Both Facebook and Twitter have banned him from their accounts for the remainder of his term.

Some of his staff have resigned.

The phone is not ringing like it was before.

The TV is muted but still the scenes of the chaos from the assault on the Capitol the day before are replayed.

He looks at his children. They’re all quiet.

Trump – I didn’t intend for it to get out of hand. But I was well aware that the electoral ballots were being counted.

Ivanka – It was horrendous… the disrespect of the Capitol… I could barely watch it.

Donald Jr – You didn’t intend for it to get out of hand…

Eric – Right… it just happened… it was a patriotic demonstration… people need to be able to protest… it was probably some communists in the group masquerading as your supporters that stirred up the rest. We’ll have to investigate.

Trump folds his arms.

Trump – I suppose… I wanted to write my own ending to my presidency… not wait till Inauguration Day.

Ivanka – That you did.

Donald Jr (glancing disapprovingly at Ivanka) – It’s not like this is the end of his political career.

Ivanka – I think it is.

Eric – What? No. Dad… this will blow over… look at all the Senators who have come out in favor of overturning the election, even after the riots.

Donald Jr – There were too many irregularities…way too many… it’s not the end. It can’t be.

Ivanka – Excuse me, but I don’t see what’s the point of glossing over the issue. This is the end. That’s it. No more.

Eric (miffed) – The end… after 74 million people voted for him?

Donald Jr – Of course it’s not the end.

Ivanka rises and walks off a few paces before turning to her brothers.

Ivanka – Just what are you doing? You’re not helping anybody here. This is not what dad needs now… not what any of us needs now.

(she now faces her father)

What you needed from us after the voting ended and it was clear Biden had won, and still you kept denying the evidence, was for all of us to have come together, sit you down and just tell you, ‘Give it up, dad… you lost… and the longer you keep denying the truth, the more likely you will be of doing something stupid, really stupid, which is what yesterday was all about.

Donald Jr (jumping to his feet) – Stop it, okay, stop it now! You’re being disrespectful.

Ivanka (firmly) – No, you stop. Since when is telling the truth disrespectful?

Eric – You’re getting hysterical.

Ivanka (calmly) – Isn’t it really easy to call me that, Eric? What about what I just said we should’ve done?

Eric – Dad had it under control all along.

Ivanka – No, he didn’t. He never did have anything under control. And he didn’t because he didn’t muster the guts to do it.

Donald Jr – Don’t talk like that!

Trump – Let her talk.

Ivanka returns to her seat. She leans forward and then, holding her face, struggles to hold back her tears as she looks directly at her father.

Ivanka – I’m sorry dad… but you screwed up… you really did… this is big… really big… and there’s no turning back, is there?

Trump nods slowly.

Trump – No… there isn’t.

Ivanka – There will be no more presidential campaigns for you… no more rallies… you’re done politically… and maybe even as a businessman…

Donald Jr – What are you saying?

Ivanka (ignoring her brother, still looking at her father) – Who’s going to return your phone calls?

Trump is silent.

Ivanka – And all because you couldn’t process the pain of your loss… all because you couldn’t pause to admit your mistakes and learn from them.

Trump now rises. He crosses to the window and looks out. The sun is setting and the city’s lights are turning on.

Trump – There it is… isn’t it? As simple as that.

(pause)

I’m going to miss Washington. Yes, I am. The thing is… I had great moments as a president… I’ll never forget those moments… but I failed overall… and I did because I gave up on trying to reach out to the other side. If I had… I would’ve learned as I went and I’d have won the election. Take the Covid crisis… if I had just let the doctors take over and tell us what to do… instead of me fighting them all the way… then it would’ve been different. But I had to hog the mike. I had to be the one always in front of the camera. I was too insecure to let it be otherwise.

He turns around, walks back slowly to his seat and sits down.

Trump – Ivanka raises an issue I had not thought about… caught as I was in my own anger… I may have damaged the Trump brand… and that may affect your careers.

Eric – Never mind that, dad, we’ll deal with it.

Donald Jr – It’s not over. Give it some time… and you’ll be able to run again in 2024. And beat Biden.

Eric – People love you… and they will forgive you.

Trump leans forward and looks down at the ground for a moment. Then he looks up at Ivanka.

Trump – What do you think I should do now?

Ivanka – Apologize to the nation.

Trump – Apologize?

Ivanka – Yes, dad. If only for your dignity… for your self respect. You need to go on national television and apologize to the nation for all your mistakes. And maybe… maybe… you’ll find forgiveness.

Trump – All my mistakes?

Ivanka – Yes. You don’t have to mention all of them, I suppose… but just say that you’re sorry for all your poor decisions. You should include yesterday.

Trump – You think they’ll vote for me again?

Ivanka – Dad… forget about running again… what we’re looking for is for you to show humility… and maybe find forgiveness.

Trump – My political career is over?

Ivanka – Yes. Over.

Trump – I destroyed it myself?

Ivanka – You did.

Silence for a moment.

Trump – Do you still love me?

Ivanka – I do. I wish though… that I had been more forceful in trying to get you to listen to me. I regret that.

Trump – You tried… many times… but I didn’t get it. Thank you. I appreciate your words.

Eric and Donald Jr look at it each other, uncomfortably.

Ivanka – Dad… I think we should leave you alone now… so you can start working on your apology to the nation. There’s no time to waste. You must act now. I’ll be glad to read it before you go on the air.

Trump – Thank you,

They all rise and he hugs each one of them.

They exit.

He remains standing for a moment and, after the door closes, he goes to his desk and sits down. He picks up pen and paper. He looks up at the portraits of past presidents. Then, he starts to write.

‘Fellow Americans…’

The End

On Demagoguery – PiSTE – Power in Submission Thinking Error.

When a nation or an Aggrieved group of people perceives itself as being challenged by a Rival group, they have the option of competing or attempting to suppress them. If either of those approaches fails, then the resentment of the Aggrieved for the Rival group will grow.

The Aggrieved group may continue to search for a solution or, if despairing, settle instead to be led by someone who comes along with an idea to relieve them of their pain.

But anyone who comes along with such an offer will want something for it.

The person presenting themselves as the problem solver will say to the Aggrieved group, ‘I see your pain, I feel it, and you are right to feel as you do and here I am to fight for you.’

What that person will want in return is the surrender of the group members’ individuality.

When the Aggrieved group gathers to hear the leader, the individual members will not have a question and answer session at the end. Their meetings will not be set to reflect on their doubts and recriminations as to why they have failed. Their meetings will not be set to educate, but instead to affirm their cherished views, regardless of a changing world, all of which the new leader is most glad to validate for them.

The new leader needs room to maneuver, and thus he is not to be questioned. He will do the strategic thinking for the Aggrieved group.

‘I will make you feel good about who you are, as you are now,’ says the mighty leader.

Implicit is that thought and self criticism is to be sacrificed in the interest of feeling. But once you adopt that position, the stage is set for abuse to happen.

Speaking from his elevated stage, looking down on his followers, the leader is promoting a transfer of power from the group unto him.

The leader will ceaselessly remind the Aggrieved group that they are better than their Rivals, that their views should reign supreme, and that the challenge the Rival group poses is, indeed, the reason for all their ills.

The Aggrieved group’s core beliefs are to be seen as immutable. The simpler the communications, the better. Complexity is to be avoided. Tweets are perfect for this exchange.

Left out of the discussion is why the Aggrieved group did not better organize itself to fight against the Rival, instead preferring to blame and disparage.

If the above is familiar to you it is because this is what is happening in America today.

Many Americans have surrendered their power to a leader who never dared to challenge them, just like he did not dare to challenge himself.

There is no real power in political submission but merely the illusion of it.

A mind that does not question itself is a mind that settles for less. It is a mind that defrauds itself. It is a mind that chooses to die.

Oscar Valdes Oscarvaldes.net oscarvaldes@widehumr oscarvaldes.medium.com

The Nation Thanks our Postal and Poll Workers and Ballot Counters

Thank you for the commitment to your task.

When there was much uncertainty as to the outcome of the election

You remained steadfast in carrying out your duties

And gave us confidence that the results would reflect the will of the people

For a few tense days, all eyes were on you

And you responded admirably

Reminding us once again

Of the importance of working together

That there is a place for everyone in this land,

And that it takes all those efforts to make our system thrive

There are many things on which we will disagree

But we must always seek a measure of compromise

Or we will become vulnerable to leaders keen to exploit the differences

For their selfish reasons

If Red and Blue makes Purple

Then that is what we should strive for,

Purple to bridge the gaps that divide us

Purple to bring gender and racial equality to our land

Freeing us to think boldly, conquer our fears and act courageously.

You have done your part

And in so doing affirmed our democracy.

It has been a wonderful display of patriotism and citizenship.

The nation is deeply grateful.

Oscar Valdes

oscarvaldes.net oscarvaldes@widehumr oscarvaldes.medium.com

The President’s Regrets

Alone in the Oval Office, the TV off because the count in Georgia and Pennsylvania now has Biden in the lead, while both Arizona and Nevada continue to lean democratic, the President sits and lowers his head. The long dreaded defeat has finally arrived.

‘I tweeted too much. Which meant I didn’t take time to reflect. Presidents shouldn’t tweet so much. Joe doesn’t tweet like I do but I’ll pass it along anyway, just before the transfer of power.’

‘I should have let the scientists lead the effort on the coronavirus from the very beginning. This is a big one. If I had done that, then if the virus would have spread, I could’ve blamed them. But no, I chose to be the man in charge, even though I didn’t know a thing about the virus.’

‘I identified too much with the Right, as if this country was not a huge place filled with people who have lots of different points of view.’

‘I should have worked more with my supporters, to tell them that to make America Great Again it will take the work of all Americans. I cringe when I hear Joe Biden talk about how he’s going to be a president for everyone, and that during his term there will be no red and blue states. Damn. That should’ve been my line.’

‘I should’ve danced more with Melania, sang her a song, just be with her. Relax with her. And spent more time with my son Barron, too, see what he had to say. The young can always teach us something if we care to listen. I didn’t.’

‘That’s a problem I have, listening. A huge problem. If I had listened, I wouldn’t have fired good generals like Mattis and Kelly.’

‘If I had listened, I would’ve kept some of my early economic advisers who told me to go easy on the tariffs on China. Sure, there is an issue with their theft of intellectual property and their push to world dominance, but I ought to have been more gradual.’

‘I should have brought more women into the cabinet, lots of them. My cabinet should’ve been at least half women. And I could’ve even appointed a woman to be secretary of state. Hell, I would’ve been reelected if I had done that. But I didn’t.’

‘And why did I go bananas on overturning environmental regulations? The climate issue is real. Everybody thinks that. How come I was so blind and deaf about it?’

‘And the George Floyd incident, that was a missed opportunity. I could’ve jumped in and said, “This is horrible. Ghastly. There are great cops in our nation, but this is not permissible. This is murder, and I will make sure that justice is done” But I didn’t do it.’

‘I pissed off a lot of European allies. There was no need for that. There were other ways I could’ve got them to pay more for the costs of defense.’

‘I am feeling depressed. And have no one to blame but me.’

Good luck, Mr President.

Oscar Valdes wrote extensively in an effort to get the President to reflect. And sent him his books.

Oscarvaldes.net oscarvaldes@widehumr

As Election Day Approaches

There is an oppressiveness that hangs in the air in our nation today. The oppressiveness of having in the White House a man with no interest in building bridges to unite us.

He is a president in name but not a leader.

He is a man who has failed repeatedly to stand up against racial injustice.

He is a man who has done profound harm to the nation by not siding with science in our struggles against the pandemic.

The notion of freedom that is so dear to us, is perverted by a man who doesn’t have the basic decency to acknowledge his limitations.

This is a man who could not stand up to Vladimir Putin on July 16^th 2018 when, after meeting with the Russian tyrant, failed to confront him and say to his face that our intelligence agencies had solid evidence of Russia’s interference in our 2016 presidential election. Our president said, instead, that while he believed our intelligence agencies, he also believed Putin’s denial of involvement.

Our president is the man who could not confront the Saudis when ample evidence was offered by Turkey (and confirmed by our agencies) that Jamal Khashoggi, a journalist with the Washington Post who was critical of the Saudi regime, had been brutally murdered and hacked in the Saudi embassy in Ankara.

Our president is the man who could not step up and speak loudly against police brutality in the wake of the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis earlier this year. The video showing the officer pressing his knee against Mr Floyd’s neck for over 8 minutes as he lay handcuffed on the ground, was not enough to move the president to be outraged with the rest of us and grieve the loss of a fellow American.

Instead, when protests followed, he summoned security forces to clear the area in front of a church near the White House so he could pose for the cameras while holding a bible.

Never mind attempting to reach within himself to find the decency to stand up for the downtrodden.

Our president stands as a symbol of shallowness, of contempt for our basic liberties, contempt for the sacrifice our soldiers have made in defense of our land, as when he was quoted making derogatory statements of men and women fallen in battle.

And yet, some people are still willing to vote for him.

The 1930s and 40s saw the rise of the extreme Right in the world (Germany, Italy, Japan). In Germany and Italy it took the form of a clown posing as a leader and a population allowing itself to believe they were better than the rest of humanity. The misery, the atrocities perpetrated as a result stand as a record of our propensity to deny what is in front of our eyes.

But it keeps happening.

There was a moment, years ago, when I remember thinking that I had already watched enough movies about the Holocaust. I was wrong. We need to keep making them, again and again, while adding works about the new cruelties we keep inflicting and witnessing; the genocide in Cambodia under Pol Pot, the massacres in Rwanda, the plight of the Rohingya in Myanmar, the forced confinement of Uighurs in China, the ongoing mistreatment of minorities throughout the world.

And yet, the other day I saw a frontpage article in the Wall Street Journal about a wealthy farmer in one of our northern states. He argued in support of the president, and that doing so would ensure that taxes and regulations would stay down. ‘We have to take the good with the bad.’ To the gentleman, his economic concerns were enough to override everything else. That is the same restricted mentality that leads to the rise of extremism everywhere.

Closer to home, yesterday I made a call to a friend and casually asked, ‘you voted yet?’, and the friend replied, ‘I don’t vote.’ I was dumbfounded. ‘I don’t like either candidate,’ the friend continued.

‘But wait,’ I pleaded, ‘the preservation of our liberties requires that we exercise choice, you may not like either of the candidates but surely there are advantages to choosing one over the other.’ ‘Don’t insist, I’m not voting,’ came the reply. I said no more. But today, I left a text urging the person to please reconsider.

I remember reading once that nations deserved their leaders. Without bothering to properly reflect on the meaning of the sentence, I repeated it to an old Cuban émigré who had served several years in prison under Castro. He politely disagreed. ‘We didn’t deserve Castro,’ he said, his expression revealing the pain he’d endured in the struggle for liberty in his land.

Do we deserve our current president? No. But let us not prolong the oppressiveness under which we now live, or we might forget what the sweet scent of liberty feels like.

One last thought. My heartfelt thanks to all the campaign volunteers who keep reaching out to persuade the undecided, the men and women who keep making call after call to motivate the apathetic and disinterested, our fellow citizens who seem to have no clue as to what it takes to preserve our freedoms.

Oscar Valdes oscarvaldes.net oscarvaldes@widehumr

Tips to Manage the Loss of the Presidency

Accept your limitations. You are not God, even if your supporters sometimes treat you as one.

The pain of the loss will be great at first but gradually will ease.

Talk to yourself. ‘I made mistakes, tried the best I could given what I have.’

‘I forgive myself for all my imperfections and promise to do better.’

Seek the company of your loved ones. Thank them for all their help.

Remind yourself that you are one of a very select group of people.

As soon as you learn that the vote favored your opponent, concede. This is very important. To be graceful in loss. Call the winner, wish them the best and offer your assistance. The nation will remember you fondly for it.

If you begin to think hostile thoughts, seek the advice of psychiatrists/psychologists from Walter Reed Hospital. You are human. Human beings get angry in loss.

Do not make any rash decisions. For the sake of the nation, consult and consult again before making choices.

Exercise. Go for long walks. Dance with your partner. Sing your favorite song.

You will laugh again. At yourself and at the world.

There is life after the presidency.

Watch comfort foods. They can pack the pounds very quickly.

When or if foreign leaders call to express sympathy, ask them to support the new President.

Consider an executive order establishing the office of the psychiatrist/psychologist to the President. A part time job. A few hours a week. So the incumbent can drop by to chat about whatever is on their mind. Records of such sessions to be kept confidential for 100 years.

Good luck.

Oscar Valdes oscarvaldes.net oscar valdes@widehumr