I recognize all too well how the country has been completely obsessed with the (surprising) results of the presidential election. I frankly find the government – in all its flavors (federal, state, city) to be a nuisance with which I’d like as little to do with as possible, so I don’t get real worked up about who the temporary occupant of the White House is. As for the recent election, I wanted both of them to lose, so I got half my wish.

All the same, I do think the POTUS has two important roles in our country: (a) moral leadership (b) security through temperament.

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So here we are. In just a few days, we will be in the thick of election day, and by Tuesday evening, we should have a good idea as to what the next four years are going to be like.

I started off this year with a post about the election, and I’ve written about it from time to time since then. The entire post can be summarized with its closing line: “It’s as simple as that. Status Quo means Hillary. Financial Mayhem means Bernie. Fear means Trump.”

Unfortunately, we didn’t get financial mayhem, so Bernie’s out of the picture. As some of you know, this saddened me greatly, because the country at last had a chance at a truly moral leader. His endorsement of Clinton now baffles me, considering the disgusting behavior that the DNC took toward destroying him, but I suppose his reasoning is the same as 90% of Clinton’s supporters (“He’s not Trump”), so………shrug.

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Near the end of the book The Big Short, there is a scene in which two of the principal characters are sitting outside in downtown Manhattan during the throes of the financial crisis. The entire financial world is in absolute pandemonium, but as they look around them…………nothing. Birds are singing. Children are playing. People are walking around, getting their errands done. A guy passes by on a bicycle. Nothing is different than it ever was.

That’s always been one of my favorite parts of the book, because the contrast between what those guys were experiencing (being completely and utterly enveloped in global chaos) and what was going on in the normal world is applicable in so many facets of life.

I begin this post with that anecdote because, with but a single week left until we have elected a new President, it seems everyone is convinced that Things Will Be So Different once the deed is done.

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