For those of us who voted blue, last week’s election results were a catastrophe of the highest order. We don’t think of the current president-elect as a savior who will restore America’s greatness, we see him as a severely flawed human being with the potential to destroy our democracy, thus wreaking havoc at home and abroad. We are not alone in our thinking. Before the results were even final, a German friend texted: “wtf is going on in the elections!?” Shortly thereafter I got an email from a former student in India: “The news broke on this side of the world, the poisonous powerful clown has won.” Later that day, a very dear friend in Paris wrote: “A 78 year-old thug, convicted of multiple crimes, a crook, liar, racist, misogynist, whose pal sells cars and rockets, takes back the reins of the United States.” The text from my daughter in Dubai is unprintable. I have since received many such condolences from friends and acquaintances throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, the Americas, Oceania and Australia.
 Foreign leaders are compelled by diplomacy to congratulate the winners of elections. That said, the obsequious post-election statements of UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and many other national leaders do not necessarily reflect their innermost feelings nor, obviously, those of their constituents. To most of our allies, Donald Trump is a dangerous amateur whose rise to power is inexplicable. That his willfully blind base and spineless colleagues afford him this power is a frightful statement about just how low this country has sunk. Every empire that has risen has eventually tumbled. There is no reason why ours won’t follow suit. I can only believe that Trump’s second term will hasten our demise as his hateful rhetoric and poisonous politics deepen the divide that dumbfounds our allies and gives hope to our enemies. Beware of false prophets!
David Stanton
Cook