Concerning the Presidential election

A friend counseled clergy that we should avoid commenting on any election result until at least a week after the result.

That’s probably good advice; it’s also advice I’m going to ignore.

This has been a difficult election season for all of us, and its outcome is itself difficult for many of us. It has shown that our nation is divide to an extent that few of us realized just days ago.

Mr. Trump has pulled off a stunning upset–one of “Brexit” proportions, so to speak.

Honestly, I’m gobsmacked.

I struggled this morning to explain to my children why someone so habitually demeaning, so palpably angry, and so perpetually dismissive could be elected to the highest office in our land.

It’s surprising that a human being should be any or all of these things. What’s surprising is that most people feel the intuitive need to conceal it beneath a veil of what’s commonly called civility.

Many will say–and with merit–that Secretary Clinton most of these things as well. Yet the fact that she reserved these unsavory characteristics to the private sphere was, at least, a tacit acknowledgment that they were vices.

On the contrary, President-elect Trump made brazen virtue of profound vice. And this has understandably produced fear in those groups who have been the subject of Mr. Trump’s ire.

There have been rallies overnight, and there have been protests.

In the wee hours the President-elect made some effort to extend an olive branch–albeit an awkward and poorly-phrased one–to those whom he has alienated.

It was a small step.

It showed restraint.

Regardless of one’s politics or one’s view of Mr. Trump, he is the President-elect. And I pray God that he turns out to be worthy of that office.