That’s the only word that describes my reaction to the election. Kudos to Bob Wilson, who bet me months ago this would happen – he was right, and I was very wrong. I owe you a drink; make mine a triple.
I’ve heard from many of like and opposite political mind today, and will be the first to admit I cannot get my head around what happened. It’s not so much that the professionals got everything completely wrong. No, it’s that we elected a person who, according to many members of his own party is totally unqualified to be president in so many ways.
After reading JD Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy, I’m beginning to understand the large swath of the population that is pissed off, feeling left behind and abandoned. I also absolutely get that we Democrats are partially or perhaps largely to blame. I don’t buy some of their complaints, but that’s irrelevant; they feel aggrieved.
So they voted to “drain the swamp”, to change Washington. Interesting thing about change; it can be good, or it can be bad. In this instance, it may well be really, really bad. To get an idea, of what we can look forward to, take a look at the disastrous Kansas Experiment.
There will be huge repercussions for the healthcare industry. Rand Paul has promised to put an ACA Repeal bill on Trump’s desk week one. We’ll see if that gets thru the filibuster, but even if it doesn’t there’s much Trump can do administratively to alter ACA.
Now’s not the time to get into this in detail; I’ll be hosting a special post-election Health Wonk Review Friday that will dig deep into the issue. For now, I’ll leave you, dear reader, with a message I sent to our three wonderful, smart, caring, adult kids.
Ok family. We have today to feel miserable and angry and disgusted. Tomorrow we get to work on fixing it. 74 years ago your 19-year-old grandfather flew through fighters and flak above Germany to save our country. It’s our job now. I had become complacent and lazy about preserving what we are so lucky to have. I see that very clearly, now that the consequences of that inaction are so apparent. It’s on us.