Well, that just happened.

Need I say more?  Of course I do.  I spent four years of my life studying political science at Wash U, one of the top universities in the country, in an attempt to understand this stuff.  I admit now what I think the entire political establishment is faced with: we have no goddamned clue what is actually going on.  I’m torn, y’all.  I  want to give my thoughts on things now that the anxiety and shock of last night has subsided to a degree.  I do.

And yet, I can’t.

Oh, I suppose I can in the formal definition of ‘can’ (and the German können).  After all, I ran The New Age of Politics for four years.  That spirit is still in me somewhere even if the blog is long since retired.

But not now.  Now isn’t the time for a good old political lecture from me.

People across the country are hurting today, fearful for what may or may not come to pass.  I will not dare to pretend to know this fear.  As a white, straight, male, I am in nowhere near the reality of my friends of a different race or ethnicity.  I cannot see into the mind of the immigrant from the Middle East I work with on this day and know his true thoughts about this.  I cannot feel the hearts of my friends who are LGBTQ+ and/or women, who woke up today facing the fact that the man who has so cavalierly run roughshod over their issues and beliefs is now their President-Elect.

To a man like me, the sentiment filling my Facebook stream today of my friends being fearful for their lives in Trump’s America can only be abstract.  But that does not mean I can sit idly by.

To those friends, some of whom I love as much as if not more than my own family, I am with you and I love you.  To all who are scared of the days, weeks, months, and years to come, I stand with you.  To those who feel abandoned by this country, their rights and very sense of self worth forsaken, I will defend you to my dying breath.  To those who will fight for those who cannot, I will stand and fight alongside you.

To all who need comfort, a friend, or a shoulder to cry on, I am here for you.

I am not perfect.  I am nobody special, really, when it comes to it.  Just an average guy down in Texas.  But it is only by standing together, showing each other and the world the true spirit of humanity and compassion and kindness, the resolve that pulls us together, and the ties that bind us that we can pull through what may be an extraordinarily difficult time.  I do not have all the answers, nor do I have any specific training in any of this.  But I will do the best I can.

This I most solemnly swear on my life, before God and my own honor.

The Clinton campaign was fond of the phrase “love trumps hate”.  A wise individual once taught me that love isn’t a noun; it’s a verb.  Love is an action - something you _do.  _My friends, it’s time to put our words into action.  Now, more than ever.

With Love,

Charles