Old Glory continues to fly high despite the rift separating the red, white and blue hues that decorate the dominant stars and stripes symbol of democracy and capitalism.
That a predominantly white demographic voted overwhelmingly in preference of the standard-bearing Republican represented red champion over the losing rainbow-identified blue Democrats seems nothing short of revolutionary in 2016.
Still red with rage one week after Donald Trump — a businessman and political outsider scored in excess of the 270 required by the Electoral College disappointed supporters of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
They continue to protest vociferously in more than 10 cities and in the process are shouting: “No Trump. No KKK. No fascist USA,” “He’s Not My President” and “We Reject the President Elect.”
There were protests in the Midwest in Omaha, Nebraska, and Kansas City, Missouri.
From the East Coast New England cities to the West Coast, demonstrators brandished flags and effigies of the president-elect, disrupting traffic and declaring that they will not quietly accept Trump’s victory.
Flames lit up the night sky in California cities of San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Oakland. Thousands of protesters burned a giant papier mâché Trump head in Los Angeles and started fires in Oakland.
Los Angeles demonstrators also beat a Trump piñata and sprayed the Los Angeles Times building and news vans with anti-Trump profanity.
One protester outside L.A. City Hall read a sign that simply said “this is very bad.”
In Washington D.C. dissenters stood outside the White House. They held candles, listened to speeches, and sang songs.
Reportedly, activists in Dallas, Texas gathered by the dozens outside the American Airlines Center, the city’s sports arena.
In Portland, Oregon, people blocked traffic, burned American flags and forced a delay for trains on two light-rail lines. A similar scene repeated in Seattle, Washington.
Here in New York, demonstrations have been growing uptown, midtown, and downtown in Manhattan.
Spilling past Union Square, Times Square, and near the luxurious Trump Tower at Fifth Ave. between 56th & 57th Streets, throngs tests the tolerance and capabilities of the NYPD.
At the 14th St. Union Square, an entire wall filled with posties provide evidence of a verbal assault on the president-elect and his supporters.
And while name-calling has all but discolored the landscape, conversations seem to negate the fact that in his last year and months in office, President Obama’s favorability rating is still spiraling up past other former presidents.
For half the voting population, it is bad that Trump won but worse for them is that along with the White House, he also will have his way in the House and the Senate now that his party controls the majority of elected state officials.
Perceived to be racist, sexist, and anti-gay, Trump’s majority endorsement seems almost un-American.
How could such a bigoted, Ku Klux Klan-endorsed individual win over a perceived liberal, diverse, sophisticated, rainbow coalition that twice elected a black man to lead the most powerful nation on earth?
Racist as some are now branding all of America, the argument does not balance against a black man voted to the most elite position in America. Less than a decade ago, millions of those same people turned out in record numbers to ensure Obama’s pioneering place.
Hindsight now seems obvious that the Democratic National Committee should accept a huge responsibility for making some of the most blatant and obvious errors a winning team would have foreseen.
Although Clinton scored almost 3 million more popular votes than Trump, the DNC should have weighed the fact she was a loser in 2008.
Instead of accepting rejection from a national constituency, it seems the defeat might have bolstered a sense of entitlement as the first-runner up to clinch the presidency and as a double bonus stake claim to history’s first female leader.
Disregarding any possibility of Vice President Joe Biden inheriting the place he apprenticed under a historic commander-in-chief the DNC did not seem interested in indulging the qualified Democrat.
It was clear from the start that had he run he might have been the DNC’s second best choice.
In fact, Biden when pressed by the media, opted out.
By then, Clinton had already amassed a hefty cache from DNC supporters and accumulated super-delegates to ensure the party’s nomination.
Something should be said for second bests, a senator from Chicago was just that when he first ran for the highest seat in the land.
Not lost in the minds of most is at the time, the DNC seemed more eager to promote the ambitious former First Lady than to elevate the young, former community activist and Harvard graduate who eventually made history.
Obama persevered in 08 and Clinton was forced to wait eight more years.
Some claimed, afterwards, the DNC encouraged Obama to make concessions yielding to her quest to take on the task of being a high-profile Secretary of State.
Whether Obama enthusiastically chose his former rival for the powerful duty of shuttle diplomacy or was encouraged heavily by the DNC, full transparency might never reveal the Democratic gesture.
Like Obama in 2008, Sen. Bernie Sanders fought to the finish. He won 22 states and promoted a progressive agenda that appealed to millennials, celebrities and the Black Lives Matter movement.
The DNC seemed to ignore the avowed socialist and forged a media blitz hailing the hope of a female pioneer.
Not since Brooklyn, Rep. Shirley Chisholm campaigned for the presidency in 1968 has anyone epitomized a candidacy declaring independence.
Like Chisholm Trump presented a commitment of being “unbought and unbossed.” Trump campaigned as an equal-opportunity offender.
Some of the GOP’s top leaders did not endorse him.
Not a single former president supported his bid.
Presidents George W. and H. Bush rejected Trump’s ideals. The fact a third benefactor to the Bush dynasty was denied when Trump trumped Jeb could also add to his un-bossed, blitz campaign.
Trump criticized his party’s war hero Sen. John McCain calling him a coward who “surrendered” to the enemy.
Trump had choice names for the GOPs Majority Leader, Paul Ryan.
He blamed Sen. Ted Cruz’s father for contributing to the assassination of Pres. John F. Kennedy. During the competitive primary season, Trump boldly declared that Lee Harvey Oswald and the father of the would-be-presidential hopeful were buddies.
Compounded by insulting comments Trump made about Cruz’ wife Heidi, perhaps the once-optimistic GOP presidential contender has many more axes to grind with his former rival and new leader.
Trump flatly promised to round up 11 million immigrants for deportation.
Despite his marriage to immigrant Slovenian Melania, he vowed to rid the country of illegal aliens.
He also said he would force Mexico to pay for a wall keeping Mexicans from crossing U.S. borders.
Trump repeatedly promised than he would “jail” Clinton.
Other outrageous promises included a ban on Muslims from entering the country.
The Affordable Care Act known as Obamacare prominently factored on his agenda to change history President Obama wrote into law.
However, President-elect Donald J. Trump quickly toned down the rhetoric apparently realizing that talk is not cheap.
The stock market plummeted when news of his election awakened the world. However, it quickly rebounded when he humbly offered a positive acceptance speech vowing to unifying America and promising fairness to every American citizen.
One day later he was seen seated next to the top DEM he had assailed most consistently. Appearing almost beholding, Trump sat side by side his predecessor who he said was not a legitimate American because he was born in a foreign country.
It was at the White House that the abrasive businessman used the opportunity to right a few wrongs. He revealed he would reverse his rigid decision on the health plan and will maintain portions.
On the second day of his immediate transition period he surprised the media and others by announcing his choice to head the transformational team.
It will not be New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie as projected, but his vice presidential choice Gov. Mike Pence.
Undoubtedly, Trump has a few more surprises to unload.
While fear seems to be the overriding emotion among some Dems, Americans should be confident about the provisions of the Constitution.
It seems one of the biggest fear is that former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani will be appointed Attorney General or Secretary of State.
Another is the appointment of an extreme conservative to replace Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court.
Through all this, it would behoove everyone to remember the words of Franklin Delano Roosevelt who on his first inaugural address, Mar. 4, 1933, said:
“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
Catch You On The Inside!
