YOUR AD HERE »

Vail Daily letter: Post-election observations

The bad news is that Donald Trump is going to be president.

The good news is that Hillary Clinton is not going to be president.

I hope my pessimism about Trump proves to have been excessive. But I still wonder wistfully about how things would have gone if the GOP choice had been someone such as Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker or Dr. Ben Carson.



The left is showing its true colors, in its reaction. Protestors blocking traffic, scrawling obscene graffiti, committing vandalism and even soliciting assassination. Trump supporters have been assaulted. There’s talk about disrupting the inauguration ceremony in January.

A representative Twitter submitted for our consideration: “We are now under total Republican rule. Textbook fascism. (Expletive) you, white America. (Expletive) you, you racist, misogynist pieces of (expletive). G’night. “

Support Local Journalism



Many people were disappointed with the results of the 2008 and 2012 elections; but I don’t recall a lot of reaction like we are seeing now.

The mainstream media, of course, have been disgraceful in their partisanship, and show no evidence that they plan to mend their ways.

Jesse Jackson is the latest figure calling for a presidential pardon of Hillary Clinton, even before a specification of charges has been drawn up. I wouldn’t be surprised if President Obama did grant an omnibus pardon both Clintons, plus who knows how many of their accomplices.

There’s talk about doing away with the Electoral College. But if it had been the other was around — Trump prevailing in the popular vote, and Clinton winning with the Electoral College — would we be hearing any of this?

Michael Baca isn’t going to wait for the law to change. He is a Colorado elector pledged to Hillary Clinton. But he and some other electors have styled themselves Moral Electors. They are trying to get others in the electoral college to renege on their commitment to vote for Trump, because he is unacceptable to Baca and his cohorts. This is a common thing with the left. If they don’t like a law, they claim a higher moral imperative that justifies violating that law.

Events on college campuses show how deplorable things are in higher education. Student anxiety has led to safe zones with distracting toys, professors canceling tests, calls for sanctuary campuses and declarations that Trump is not their president. The Twitter quoted above is typical of the language you get from many students these days. Where do they learn that stuff?

Besides government reaction to illegal activity, there needs to be a private sector reappraisal of the culture that prevails in colleges, especially the liberal arts. There is an endless series of stories about the foolishness that abounds in academia. Between that and the exorbitant price charged, there is a need to take a look at fundamental reform of higher education.

There are promising developments that may provide release from the stranglehold the higher ed establishment has on learning and job opportunity — online courses, television programs, videos, local discussion groups and community colleges. Proficiency exams that test what you know, regardless of how you got to know it.

Alternatives that would offer learning opportunities that will not bankrupt the students and can be utilized by persons who are older, out in the real world, with family and job responsibilities and more experience about life. And which will provide intellectual variety. To paraphrase Thomas Sowell: When the college types complain about lack of diversity, ask them how many of their professors are conservative.

Terry Quinn

Eagle


Support Local Journalism