I've been thinking

I've been thinking:

• Donald Trump has not improved with experience, nor does he intend to.
• Colin Kaepernick should kneel if he wants to.
• Freedom to stand for the National Anthem also means freedom not to stand for it, or it's not freedom.
• I've been told I'm useless, a liar, and a hypocrite only once this year.
• We are so lucky to have missed Hurricane Irma's worst.
• Jim Comey's statements hurt Hillary Clinton, but her private server hurt her more.
• I recently submitted my 200th book review to a firm that does not want to be identified.
• I am still happily married to my best friend after 52 years.
• Black lives matter.
• The Internet Review of Books will be 10 years old on October 1, the same day I turn 74.
• New Mexico is far more beautiful than Florida, but Florida has the vibrant community we need.
• This winter we may visit Belize, the country of my father's birth.
• Trump will be re-elected if the Democrats aren't careful.
• Trump, Putin and Kim all deserve each other.
• A few of us post the American flag in 90 neighbors' yards three times a year, and they love it.
• Never, ever send me jokes that belittle President Obama.
• I am not religious, but if you wish me merry Christmas or a blessed day, I will thank you and wish you the same.
• Treat others the way you want to be treated.

So Donald Trump won

So Donald Trump is President-elect. For all the usual reasons, that is an election outcome I fervently hoped would not come to pass. During the campaign I didn't even want to mention his name, but I can't keep that up for four years.

Now protesters are exercising their right of free speech and assembly, but if their gatherings are mere expressions of hatred and bursts of vandalism, they will become isolated. Democrats should resist President Trump where he is wrong and support him where he is right. For the sake of national sanity, we must look for common ground. Trump has taken a number of conservative stands, but he seems not to have an ideology. And he touts his deal-making skills, offering hope that that he will not give the right everything they want. Yes, he will probably make them happy with his next Supreme Court pick, but justices are independent--for example, President Eisenhower appointed Earl Warren and later said it was the worst mistake he'd ever made. Whether a Trump appointee will one day overturn Roe v. Wade is a distinct possibility, and Democrats should fight hard to block such a person. But we shouldn't do what Mitch McConnell did, blocking any nominee no matter the qualifications.

By the way, my voting record hasn't been all that successful since my first vote for LBJ back in 1964: six wins and eight losses, which break down thus:

64 W     80 L     96 W     12 W
68 L      84 L     00 L       16 L
72 L      88 L     04 L
76 W     92 W   08 W