Embarrassing

It looks like Facebook and Twitter firestorms over the election of Donald Trump have calmed a bit, but the new approach seems to be long, heartfelt articles in major left-leaning publications (e.g., NYT, LAT, The Atlantic, Salon, The New Yorker, WaPo, etc., etc.) that lament Hillary Clinton's loss and Trump's election. I suppose these pieces are supposed to be cathartic (for the writer and the reader) but upon closer examination, they're just a little ridiculous.

A typical example is a piece in the Washington Post by a single mom, Stephanie Land, entitled, "Trump’s election stole my desire to look for a partner." Ms. Land writes about her search for a life partner over the past months. She finally finds a nice man, and then states:

But two weeks later, the election happened. Once it was clear that Donald Trump would be president instead of Hillary Clinton, I felt sick to my stomach. I wanted to gather my children in bed with me and cling to them like we would if thunder and lightning were raging outside, with winds high enough that they power might go out. The world felt that precarious to me.

Ms. Land then tells us that her young daughter was traumatized (“But Mom. You said Hillary was going to win.”) and her car broke down. She concludes with this:

I’ve lost the desire to attempt the courtship phase. The future is uncertain. I am not the optimistic person I was on the morning of Nov. 8, wearing a T-shirt with “Nasty Woman” written inside a red heart. It makes me want to cry thinking of that. Of seeing my oldest in the shirt I bought her in Washington, D.C., that says “Future President.”

I guess people like Ms. Land can't process the notion that the future is always "uncertain," that there are an equal number of woman (and men) who feel differently that she does, and that Trump's election is no reason to alter her personal life. But whatever.

Let's think back to 2012. Yes, many of us who opposed Barack Obama's reelection based our opposition on an established record of failure. When Obama beat Mitt Romney, we were disappointed, possibly even chagrined, but very, very few articles like Ms. Land's appeared in any media.* With this in mind, Andrew Klavin writes:

... when Obama was reelected over Mitt Romney, a much wiser, more adult, and steadier hand, I was dismayed. I was saddened. I was even distraught.

But I did not become a sniveling, whiny, self-obsessed pansy. I did not, that is to say, behave like leftists are behaving now.

I did not cry. I did not protest. I did not demand a recount. I did not urge electors to betray the voters. I did not say Obama was not my president. I respected the will of the people, even though I found it hard to respect the people whose will it was.

But the left? Never mind the college snowflakes who can't even hear an idea they disagree with without retreating to a safe space. What about the adults? The New York Times, a former newspaper, now reads like a 12-year-old girls' sleepover after a mouse got in. It's embarrassing. "How to Cope With Trump?" "Trump's Threat to the Constitution?" "Trump's Agents of Idiocracy!"

The guy hasn't even done anything yet!

But that doesn't matter. After all, progressives have already made up their minds that Trump is a very bad—even demonic—man. And once a progressive makes up his or her mind, introducing evidence to the contrary is difficult or impossible. It's all about belief, after all.

And this comment, from conservative satirist Ben Stein:

Why are people so upset? What has Mr. Trump done that’s so awful? His choices for the Cabinet fall well within the range of the usual types — Wall Street, campaign helpers, ideological bedfellows. Despite what you may have read online, none of them has made horrible statements. None is a Klansman. None is a Nazi. They have different views from those of the ACLU, but that’s what you get in a free country.

The voters voted in a candidate with certain views. That candidate won fair and square. He gets to choose people he agrees with and who agree with him.

The media powerhouses and the morons on college campuses cannot accept that someone with views different from theirs will be president. They riot. They burn Old Glory. They stop speaking to me.

It's fascinating to observe. The reaction is ... well, embarrassing, and I don't mean for the "deplorables" who voted for Trump. I'm embarrassed for progressives. Hand-wringing, over-the-top articles like like Ms. Land's are truly embarrassing, and I suspect they will continue to appear in one form or another for the next four years.

Footnote:
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* Here is a flashback to my comments after Obama's 2012 win. You'll note that I was concerned, but not once did I suggest that I would in any way alter my personal life, that I was spiraling into a deep depression, that I was emigrating to Canada, or that I felt that Obama voters were deplorable or irredeemable. I did note that they were gullible, but that's pretty mild criticism when compared to current progressive rants about fake news, white supremacy, all of the "isms", and a dirty campaign (as if TV commercials in 2012 showing Romney pushing grandma off a cliff weren't, uh, dirty?).

UPDATE:
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You really can't make this stuff up. This piece, entitled "I accidentally slept with a Trump supporter" was written one day before the election. It speaks for itself.