When all you can play is Trump
Share
Tweet
In pinochle, when you can’t follow suit, you are required to play a trump card. Come Jan. 20, it doesn’t matter whether or not you voted for Hillary Clinton – as I most certainly did – you are stuck with the Trump card. He represents the only game in town.
Taking the torturous card-playing metaphor one step further, those of us who voted for Hillary (the pant suit?) – especially here in the reddest state of them all – have no choice but to fold our hands (in prayer?).
As has been mostly the case through the years, Republicans rule at the county, state and national levels in the Equality State. Oh, yeah, every once in a while we will elect a Democratic governor when the Republicans overplay their hand, but that’s not the way to bet. Still, there are hundreds of loyal Democrats among us, and it’s to them that I am addressing this column.
But first, here’s a disclaimer. I am not a Democrat. Yes, I walk like one, talk like one and most certainly write like one, but if I’m not mistaken, I have been a registered Republican as long as I have been voting, all the way back to the Lyndon Johnson administration. My reasoning? I like my vote to mean something in the primaries, and here in Washakie County, that usually entails voting for the least objectionable Republican.
That being said, I identify with those who belong to the Democratic Party. I believe that global climate change is exacerbated by human activity, that women should be paid on par with men and have the right to make their own reproductive choices, that voting should be made easier, not harder, that . . . well, you get the idea.
I voted early (but not often) and was in Mazatlan, Mexico, when Donald Trump was elected. To say that I was disappointed doesn’t do justice to the post-election hangover I experienced, although the tequila may have been partly responsible. Anyway, I have had almost two months to recuperate, and my Republican friends have, for the most part, been pretty good about not rubbing it in.
Now comes the hard part: Watching Donald Trump being sworn in as President of the United States. But watch him I will, and I will wish him luck, because, for better or worse, what he does over the course of the next four years will have a profound effect on the lives of my children and grandchildren.
For those of you who voted for somebody besides Donald Trump – and there are actually hundreds of us right here in Washakie County -- take heart in the knowledge that the United States of America has survived a Civil War, two world wars, a Great Depression and numerous presidents who have been less than exemplary. An argument could even be made that Mr. Trump is not the least qualified president in U.S. history.
I am not prepared to make that argument, however. Not yet. The hand has been dealt and we’ll just have to trust the system to see how things play out. That’s the American way.
Still, I wish I could cut the cards just one more time.
Duane Groshart is a former sports editor for the Daily News and has contributed to the Daily News during six different decades.
He is happily retired and living in Worland.
