Silver Linings

I might be going crazy

Because lately

I’ve been wondering

If there’s a silver lining

To Hillary losing the election

Hear me out

If Secretary Clinton--my chosen candidate

Had won the election

We would essentially be

In the same spot we were in

With President Obama

For the past two years

With a Republican controlled Congress

Intent on doing absolutely nothing

And chances are

All of us

Wouldn’t have been paying attention

Because ‘Oh, it’s fine

Hillary’s in the White House

We’ve got our ally working for us

In the Executive Branch

We don’t really need

To pay attention’

And that would have been a mistake

And even though

I wake up every day

With the same sense of dread

Everybody else has

I find it somewhat comforting

That people are paying attention

Also, if we had gotten Secretary Clinton

Into the White House

We were going to be absolutely decimated

In 2018

Democrats do poorly in midterms anyway

But with a Democrat in the White House

It would have been a bloodbath

At least now, we have momentum on our side

People--voters--now have something

To respond to

Provided we can survive

The next two years

There’s a chance we’ll see

What happened in 2006

When people responded to George W. Bush

By putting Republican politicians all over the country

Out of a job

Now, that was before the 2010 gerrymandering

Which is why taking Congress back

Will be more difficult

But it actually helps us

To have the opposing party

In the White House

And here’s the key--

Even when I was diligently supporting Clinton

I had a bad feeling

That it would end up hurting us

In 2020

As many people pointed out

We had the two most unpopular candidates

In the history of American politics

Running for President

And that meant that there was a good chance

Either of them would just wind up being

A one-term President

And we couldn’t afford that

Because in 2020

There’s a Census

And that’s when we can undo the damage

Of the past ten gerrymandered years

If POTUS continues down this route

--And there’s no reason to think he won’t

--And if we can, again, manage to survive until then

He’s going to be in a very weak position

When he’s up for reelection

It’s the long game

But it’s all we have

And even though a Democrat in the White House

Would have been wonderful

It might have put us at a disadvantage

Four years from now

And that would have consequences

Leading deep into the future

So that’s my silver lining

It’s not much

But it’s all I got

See you in the comments section