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The Controversy turned four years old yesterday - November 22nd, 2016. And as I celebrate this 4-year anniversary...I want to thank all my readers whether you agree with my views or not. This last year has been - without question - filled with much "controversy." And I expect - as this forum begins its fifth year on-line - there will be even more issues of controversy facing the United States and our world. As always, I welcome everyone to express your own opinions at the conclusion of any of my editorials. Please click on the word "comments" below the copyright and type your remarks in the box. I ask that you please share links to my column with others who possess a liberal and/or progressive thinking, as I do, or with those who take on a conservative way of thought. But no matter how you "float your boat"...if you're a Democrat...a Republican...or an Independent...thank you for reading The Controversy.
I had hoped this Thanksgiving week to be thankful that my next President was going to be someone who I admire...respect...trust...and believe would continue to catapult the United States of America in to the forward direction that President Obama began eight years ago.
I had hoped this Thanksgiving week to be thankful that come January 20th, 2017...Hillary Clinton would be our President. Instead...I'm upset...disappointed... heartbroken...and angry. Furthermore, I'm fearful and worried that Donald Trump will take America back more than 50 years to an era when racism and bigotry was a horror...when women were wrongfully looked upon as just housewives, baby-makers and objects of beauty for men...when an African-American could never have imagined working behind The Oval Office desk...when prejudice against blacks, Latinos, Asians and Jews was more the norm than the exception...when gays were living in closets...and when an expectant mother was forced to have a child she did not want or else find a butcher with a wire coat hanger to end her pregnancy.
I put my heart and soul in to Election 2016. No, I wasn't able to go door to door canvassing for Mrs. Clinton...and I wasn't an official member of her campaign team. But...as regular readers of The Controversy are well aware...I have written column after column...for a year...doing all that I could...in my small way...to help the former Secretary of State...as she ran for President.
I'm a journalist...a writer...and I've spent a large part of my 43-year media career as a news broadcaster and radio talk show host. And yet...I have trouble now... watching...listening to...or reading the news...when the stories being reported... feature Donald Trump. And this...is a serious problem for me. Furthermore...I have spoken with many other people - since election day - who feel as I do.
There are people in our republic...who voted for Hillary Clinton...because they couldn't stomach the possibility of Trump moving in to The White House. But there are millions of Americans...who looked forward to casting their ballots for Secretary Clinton...because we believe in her...and we believe that she would have made an outstanding President and Commander-In-Chief.
There are those of us...who not only embrace Hillary Clinton...honor her...revere her...and hold her in high esteem...but we have a strong and sincere affection for her. And we know...that she has a deep love and compassion...for the United States...and for every person who calls our country home.
I've written in several of my post-election commentaries that I am devastated and grief-stricken that Hillary Clinton will not be our 45th President. I genuinely get sick...every time I see Donald Trump on the news. I get nauseous. My blood pressure climbs. I literally get jittery. And I've cried on many occasions.
The election outcome has caused me such distress that I've needed to turn on television reruns...from decades ago...of I Love Lucy and The Mary Tyler Moore Show...just so I could feel better.
I've watched old sketches on The Carol Burnett Show...so I could get my mind off Trump...as Carol, Harvey Korman, Vicki Lawrence and Tim Conway...would make me laugh.
And I've gone to bed many nights watching 30 or 40-year old monologues by Johnny Carson...so I could sleep happy...instead of sad. As an American...I - and others like me - shouldn't have to feel this way. I - and others like me - shouldn't have to live this way.
Thanks to MeTV and Antenna TV...I've been able to escape - for a few minutes at least - and not have to think about the world around me...and how our nation is going to change for the worst...once Donald Trump takes the oath of office as our President.
As I write and publish this editorial...we have 1,440 days until our next Presidential election in 2020. I hope Democrats will bust a gut, if necessary...to get themselves to the polls when that day arrives. After all...if certain Democrats didn't stay home on Tuesday, November 8th, 2016...Hillary Clinton would be our President-elect. And to those Democrats who didn't vote this time around...they better not be shedding any tears of sorrow. They have no right...to cry. Unfortunately...I do.
And that's The Controversy for today.
I'm Gary B. Duglin.
"We'll talk again."
The Controversy is a publication of
GBD Productions. Founder and Editor-In-Chief of The Controversy is Gary B.
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Gary, you said everything I have felt and am feeling about Hillary. Exactly what I am going through. I haven't been depressed since I was in college many years ago, until the night of the election. I'm not going to say she lost because she didn't. I believe the election was stolen from her. But I could not believe there was any way that people could vote for the likes of Trump. There was a time that even one of the things he blatantly did would have been a disqualifier, but instead it only provided fuel to his "hate Hillary at any cost supporters". He could have done anything and it would not have mattered to them. They still would have voted for him regardless before they would ever vote for her. Blinded by their hate and ignorance they voted against their own best interest as already is evident. They of course have the right to vote for whomever they want but their ignorance affects a whole lot of people and as you said, will put us back 50 years. And the press bears much blame. They carried Trump's water and they carried the lies day in and day out about Hillary. I'll never forgive them. A lot of damage is going to be done and I'm old enough that I will never live to see it repaired. I've been a fan of Bill and Hillary's since I lived in Arkansas and he was Governor. I know how much Hillary cared and worked tirelessly for children. I was struck when I saw the date you mentioned of the four year anniversary of "The Controversy". It's a date I will never forget. My mother died when I was 13 on November 17th and was buried the day President Kennedy was assassinated November 22nd. I remember getting ready to go to her funeral and it came on the news that the President had been shot. I was living in El Paso, Texas at the time and he had been there just days before going on to Dallas. My whole world turned upside down when my mom died. I had lost the one person I feared the most losing. Won't go into the details but I left home at 14. On my own I left and my father said he would pack my bags if I would leave. And I did. I never looked back. My father hated me from the day I was born and I was reminded of it everyday. My mom, my protector, was gone and it was unbearable living there for many reasons. Ultimately I wrote a letter to the Children's Home in Little Rock and lived there for the last two years of my high school. And heard from people who knew Hillary how devoted she was to making lives more bearable for children. Been a fan of hers all these years. Everything you described since the election I'm experiencing too. My heart is broken, I get gut punches many times during the day reminding me. Hillary will always be my President, never ever Trump. I can't put the two words together President and Trump and I never will. I can't stand to watch the news and for me it's been the Hallmark channel and all their Christmas movies that has been my escape. I'm sad and heart broken and it grips me in the gut and it hurts like hell. The other thing that hurt so bad was losing my mom and feeling completely alone and vulnerable. The thing that angers me is that this vast country is being pushed around by a bully. We know he is unfit yet those who could do something don't. Obama has chosen to be the nice guy in this and that means nothing to an egomaniac. I'm terribly disappointed after really liking him a lot and that will be stay with me for a long time. Not over Hillary and how we have been deprived of the best, most competent person to be President and seeing history made swiped from us by the worst to ever run for President. This has done something to me inside and it's not going away anytime soon. My health is bad and I don't care anymore. The hope I had is gone. Like Hillary said, this one hurts bad. And does it ever.
ReplyDeleteThe following response to the above reader "Unbrokenspirit1" will be in two parts.
DeletePART ONE
Hello unbrokenspirit1 - Thank you very much for your thoughtful response. I appreciate you reading The Controversy. There are more of my columns that might interest you in the archives at the top right side of the blog.
Now...to your comments. I agree with you that I don't believe Hillary Clinton lost the election. Unfortunately though - because of our out-of-date, out-of-whack Electoral College system, Mrs. Clinton was robbed of the Presidency - as was Al Gore in 2000. To this day it still boggles my mind that decent Americans actually voted for a narcissistic, misogynistic, homophobic, xenophobic, racist jerk who is dangerously unfit to serve as President of the United States. You make a good point - as I have in the past - that each time any of us thought Donald Trump would be booted out of the campaign on his butt because of his offensive rhetoric, all it did was - as you say - provide "fuel to his hate Hillary at any cost supporters." As Trump himself said at an Iowa rally in January 2016, "I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue (in New York City) and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose voters." I remain baffled how anybody in his or her right mind could cast their ballots for somebody who I believe is mentally unbalanced to sit behind the desk in The Oval Office. And I first began discussing Trump's temperament as far back as December 2015 - when others in the media were merely laughing.
I agree with you that my own industry actually helped Trump to be catapulted in to The White House. Cable television networks - including CNN, FOX and MSNBC - all gave Trump FREE air time for more than a year. It was a way for them to make big bucks in advertising. I wrote a column - early on in the campaign - after the cable outlets handed Trump a full 45-minutes of live television for a press conference (that was supposed to be nothing more than a campaign speech of a few minutes. I also blame the other 16 Republican candidates who - for some strange reason - never stood up to Trump's bullying. I'm still amazed that people like Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, Carly Forina, Marco Rubio and others accepted Trump's insults on the debate stages. Somebody needed to put Trump in his place, but they never did. One (or more) of those candidates needed to stand centerstage and tell Trump to knock it off. One of Trump's challengers needed to act like Peter Finch's character, Howard Beale, in Paddy Chayefsky's Oscar-winning motion picture, Network, and say..."I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore." The other GOP candidates needed to stop Trump in his tracks...but they didn't even try. And some of them are now "in bed with him" (figuratively not literally). I've come to the conclusion that many politicians are nothing but whores who will do anything just to further their own careers. And if it means sucking-up to someone who wins an election - just so they themselves can benefit their own livelihoods - so be it...they'll do it.
GBD
END OF PART ONE OF TWO
PART TWO of my response to "Unbrokenspirit1"
DeleteI have been a staunch supporter of both Bill and Hillary Clinton since 1991 when then-Governor Bill Clinton was running for President. I've always said that if the U.S. Constitution permitted it, President Clinton could run for President today and win in a landslide. But then...I thought the same was going to happen for Secretary Clinton. Our country is so polarized today that it's impossible to predict how people would vote.
I'm sorry to hear that you lost your mom at such a young age and that you suffered so many troubles as a child.
Hillary Clinton would have been a spectacular President and I believe it's possible that she could have been one of our country's greatest. Plus - although she herself would have been "THE President"...we would have had two Presidents living in The White House. And Mrs. Clinton would have had the ear of Mr. Clinton...and his advice - especially with the economy - would have been invaluable to a President Hillary Clinton.
Don't let Election 2016 affect your health. As I get older I realize that four years can go by more quickly than when I was younger. I just hope that Trump doesn't sink our nation in to depths that drown us. Not all of us have life rafts or even life preservers that will save us.
Thanks again for your insightful remarks and your kind comments about The Controversy. Please share a link to The Controversy with all your friends in e-mails and on social media. www.TheControversy.net
GBD
END OF PART TWO OF TWO
Gary I think one of the things that hurts so much is this was probably Hillary's last time to run. Very painful to even think of that. The electoral college needs to go. Too late for Hillary but two Democrats have now "lost" because of that. I mentioned my mother to compare it to the sadness and devastation I've felt before. The sadness, hopelessness and despair all came back to me. I had so much hope for our country and the issues we face and it hit home hard knowing that the person who really cared and we knew would work her heart out for us and those facing tough issues would now not be there to fight for us. We lost a friend, a fighter, a real advocate for us and that hits hard. That desolate feeling was so much like I felt before. The finality of it breaks my heart. The fear of what's to come and what we face and thinking what could have been is what keeps that wound open for me. What boggles my mind is that we've seemed to be taken "hostage" by this one unhinged, incapable, unfit sorry excuse for a candidate. So much damage will be done. We would never allow a terrorist to come on our soil and do such damage. But we do a con man who we know is a con man.
ReplyDeleteWell said, unbrokenspirit1. Thank you very much for continuing to read The Controversy. I do appreciate.
DeleteI don't know if Hillary Clinton has it in her to run again in 2020. But who knows? After all - as you probably are aware, Vice President Biden this week left the door open that he might run in four years. He'd be a few weeks shy of his 78th birthday on election day. So anything's possible - for Joe...or for Hillary. Thanks again. GBD
I agree Gary and wondered too if Hillary does have it in her to run again in 2020. If anyone could it would be her. But they crucify her when she runs and attack her relentlessly with lie after lie about her. Don't need to tell you that. We've all seen the horrible treatment she gets. Although none so dirty as Trump has been to her. Hopefully he's an anomaly. The horrible and despicable things that he said and did and continues to say and do should never again be acceptable for any candidate running for any office and especially not President. The press let him get away with this but also his supporters who were more against Hillary than for Trump. They are in for a rude awakening alright. I'm not giving up on this election yet. Trump will never be my President. Bill used to say he believes in a place called Hope, well I believe where there's Hillary there's hope. She's won the popular vote beyond any others and for me, she's my President. I'm not giving up on her and from the looks of things neither are many others. It says a lot that so many others feel like you described you felt after the election, me being one. Though it has been painful I think it speaks volumes about how people really care about our country. I find a lot of hope in that. So thankful for those who really do care to try to do something about someone who is so wrong for our country.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree more. Thank you very much again, unbrokenspirit1 for your caring, thoughtful and insightful remarks. And, as always, thank you for reading The Controversy. GBD
DeleteYou're welcome Gary. I hope and pray those who can do something about this have the wisdom and courage to do the right thing for the country. Thanks Gary.
ReplyDeleteI hope so too. Thanks unbrokenspirit1. GBD
Delete