My friends may be wondering, “where is the blog post about the election?” As much as I enjoy social media and I like to use a blog to share my thoughts, I haven’t been able to summon the energy to write about the election. Whatever I say, someone will make sure that I know, that they know, how ultimately wrong I am to have my own thoughts and feelings. I have read so many articles analyzing this election that my eyes are going to melt. I have heard so much vitriol my ears won’t stop ringing. People who are my friends are yelling at each other, not just on social media, but at social gatherings! People who I find to be normal, kind, people loving people still are spewing forth all kinds of nonsense at one another.

I say, Enough. We had an election. We will have another one in four years. Stop spending your energy in the wrong place. This election was about many different things to many different people. The pendulum of American politics is ever swinging.

Don’t over-simplify the American voters. They can be pragmatists. They can be dogmatists. They can be unaffiliated, party-liners, or single-issue voters. They can be first-time voters or every-time-the-polls-are-open voters. I myself am rather complicated. The American voter is as varied as America itself!

Our elected officials reflect the full spectrum of America from far-left to far-right and all points in between. But the power of the elected official is given by us—not taken from us. Mandate or not, the declared winner of any election becomes the representative for the entire constituency. We have serious work ahead as a nation in holding our leaders in all three branches of government accountable whether elected, appointed by the elected, or confirmed by the elected. The future of our Republic demands we pay attention and fight for it.

And that is all I’m going to say.

Still a patriot.

Still a voter.

Love y’all, Marla