Ubiñas: What's that noise? A bomb of a reality check

WHAT JUST happened?

I understand being angry and disappointed with the Washington establishment, being distrustful and disgusted with the "elite" media that couldn't be any more detached from the American public it purports to represent.

I mean, seriously, if one thing has become even clearer during this presidential campaign, it's that the media must diversify - by race, by socioeconomic background, by any and all indicators that might actually reflect this country. Because we clearly don't have a clue.

If we had any idea of what the average Americans cared about, about what was truly in their hearts and their minds, we wouldn't all be standing around in complete shock right now at how tight this race was; we wouldn't have duped so many citizens into thinking America was "better" than Donald Trump, that we had our issues but that love would trump hate and racism and sexism and all the other "-isms" that built Trump's campaign.

As Election Day neared, and I saw more and more Trump signs pop up, I warned against the silent Trump underground - our friends and neighbors, our family members and co-workers, who didn't post pro-Trump rants on Facebook or attend his rallies, but who quietly walked into the voting booth and BOOM!

You hear that - that's a bomb of a reality check that just detonated.

And now here we are, stunned at the state of our country. At the very least, at the level of anger and frustration that is blowing up in our faces. At most, and worst, the xenophobia and sexism and hatred and racism Americans either embrace or are willing to overlook to send a message.

And that message is one of self-destruction, because although Hillary Clinton has her flaws, her many, many flaws, the message we are sending by being so willing to make a carrot-colored caricature the president of the United States is that we are willing to throw our country under the bus, that we are willing to be the world's punchline, that we are willing to make a man with zero political experience and less global respect the 45th president of the United States.

As I write this, I am getting text after text from people asking, "Is this really happening?" Yes, it's happening, and whatever the outcome, God help us.

Whatever happens, the country we went to sleep in Tuesday night is not the one we are waking up to Wednesday morning.

Whatever happens, the message is clear: We will never be the same again.

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215-854-5943 @NotesFromHel

Helen.Ubinas