So much for the calm...

For all the Election night memes, purporting a bunch of out of shape rednecks arming themselves like Arnold Schwarzenegger in Commando if Hillary Clinton won, the previously doubtful happened and Donald Trump won. Outside of ruining a bunch of excuses as to why they didn't take to the streets like Red Dawn and shit was breaking out as well as killing a bunch of half-witted memes, it did give them the chance to sit back and watch the festivities kick off.

And who would have thought the safe space community would be so willing to protest on the verge of rioting? Just because the candidate they wanted was jackmoved out of the nomination, and the nominee, the most dislikable candidate of the history of the United States political process, still lost?

For all their protestations, it’s kind of funny how they missed the whole point, how the electoral process once again functioned as it should, without a hitch. The pawns in a “rigged game” are mad they lost, because it just started dawning on them they were worrying about the wrong freaking game.

Not to mention, as the protests stretch toward a week straight following the election, I find myself wondering, how many of these brand-new street fighting men (and women) are among the 46.9% who didn’t even bother to vote. It’s not that some people need much more of a reason to riot than their team winning the championship (Kudos, Chicago, for not going stupid when our Cubs took it all a couple of weeks ago), but this riding of coattails is not going to do anything other than set the Democrats and the progressives back even further.

Which, in my mind, may not be a bad thing. Both establishment parties got their wake-up calls this election cycle, and in rather unexpected ways. The Democrats found out their playbook needs more pages than just pandering and shameless fundraising, and have to rebuild with no clear contender to tae over as the face of the party. The Republicans are having to scramble together a united front, having just spent the period between the convention and the election looking like a fist fight at a flea market, and they are having to do so with the guy they held their noses over. No matter which way the wind is blowing, nobody seems to like the smell at the moment.

That is not to say, however, that my Libertarian Party doesn’t need to regroup a bit over the next four years. We did make groundbreaking strides across all spectrums of the electoral process in this election, and I think the growing dissatisfaction with establishment politics will only serve to increase our numbers in the coming years. What we need to try and keep in check are nominating candidates that understand kitsch may be great, just not as much on the campaign trail, and make sure we don’t allow any more fat, dancing Republican shills on the stage at the national convention.

For every step forward we should have taken in 2016, our top ticket knocked us backwards, whether it was playfully faking a heart attack during an interview, making faces and sticking tongues out during interviews, or having the Vice-Presidential candidate endorse everybody but Libertarian candidates during the election cycle. Was Gary Johnson the right choice for the party? Yes, both times. Now Gov. Johnson has called it a career as far as future candidacies. It’s time to take the momentum and spend it wisely.

At any rate, our next chance to protest properly, at the ballot boxes, is coming up in 2018. Take some time to figure out exactly what you are protesting, and why. Do some homework other than reading bumper stickers and engaging in flame wars on Twitter and Facebook. Be smarter.
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Beats looking like a whiny jackass for a week after the election.

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