a staggering force

"After a year and a half of erratic tweets and rambling speeches, we can’t be certain. We don’t know how Mr. Trump would carry out basic functions of the executive. We don’t know what financial conflicts he might have, since he never released his tax returns, breaking with 40 years of tradition in both parties. We don’t know if he has the capacity to focus on any issue and arrive at a rational conclusion. We don’t know if he has any idea what it means to control the largest nuclear arsenal in the world." the new york times 9 november 2016_______"the disappointment and pain with which the result of the late animated canvas has filled our breasts would be mere affectation for us to deny, or to attempt to conceal from our readers. wholly unexpected the event took us completely by surprise. not for even a moment apprehended, the blow came upon us with a staggering force." the national intelligencer on the election of james k. polk to the presidency in 1844______________there are winners and losers in american politics just like anywhere else...there were losers in every presidential race and the media that endorsed the losers always has had bitter lamentations the day after..i will acknowledge that james knox polk did not have command of thermonuclear weapons...however he did threaten war with the united kingdom and he did oversee the mexican-american war...which led to him being considered historically as a "strong" president and drove the supporters of henry clay to distraction...they were contentious times...the abolitionist movement was growing..annexing texas and the expansion of slavery were at issue...and the cultural divisions between the north and south of the country were widening...nothing is new in american politics and the losers never disappear...( have a shufti at wolfgang shivelbush's "the culture of defeat" sometime )...to not have expected a backlash against an eight year obama presidency..or immigrants..or gay rights is to have been woefully uneducated in the peculiar traditions of politics in this disunited disparate country...the pendulum always swings back and to deny this is to be foolish...it is a profoundly conservative country and in possession of a delusional exceptionalism...a "splendid little war" almost always distracts people form domestic chaos..polk did it and became "strong"...we have a couple going on right now...no need for the trumpists to start a new one...then again the old ones are just that...old...time, one supposes, for politicians to find a new venue for young people to be killed in...one wearies of politicians...one wearies of lies and distortion...one has found orwell prescient for some time...one supposes that his distrust of the "official" versions of events was predated by other, perhaps less skilled, doubters...as a class, irregardless of party affiliation, politicians are, at best, untrustworthy...at worst they are lying, scum-sucking whores..i know where my sentiments lie