When Trump led the birther movement, he quickly learned how easy it was to gain a following from some of the most anti-intellectual and ignorant folks in the America. Unless he was truly fathered by an orangutan, as Bill Maher suggested, he also knew that what he was advocating was quite removed from the truth. More likely, he wanted to destroy Obama because of his race, as he had learned from his father about discrimination and prejudice and keeping the uppity Africans in their place.

Armed with the knowledge that Americans could be led and misled with the flimsiest of facts, he sailed that pirate ship to the presidency. Bully tactics, common to both authoritarian and insecure personalities, became his staple for knowing our his competition—”Little Marco”, “Lying Ted”, “Low Energy” George, “Crazy” Ben—all were impaled and fell before Trump’s vitriolic utterances.

He addressed ‘hot button’ issues like immigration, the danger of foreign terrorists, a woman’s right to choose her own life and destiny, gun control, black violence, and Mexican culpability for what he liked to call a disastrous American economy. Blacks lived in an inner city graveyard. Towns decimated from the loss of manufacturing jobs were living without hope and only he could add dignity to their undignified lives. He knew all this and, in his tiny heart, he thrived on it.

Not many educated people took Trump seriously. He was the clownish buffoon, the Lenny Bruce of the political world who mouthed his disjointed thoughts into something that occasionally resembled coherency. His orangish skin with white eye sockets was a strange new figure reminiscent of Batman’s Joker. His head, topped by a cultured comb-over of straw-like hair, begged us to question the nature of its reality.

He began his line of campaign promises with a pledge to build a wall between Mexico and the United States that would be paid for by Mexico. He would deport any Mexican illegally resident in the US. Some Mexicans, he mused, might be good people, but Mexico sent the criminals and the rapists to the United States to work the fields, drive the nails, mow the grass, plow the snow, build the pipelines, and make the beds.

He announced that he would ban Muslims from entering the United States. He would not accept immigrants from war-torn Mideast countries. He would be the Law and Order candidate and, most telling of all, he was the only one that would fix an America that was on a fast downward spiral into poverty and oblivion.

How could anyone take these policies seriously? Not even the opposing candidates questioned the legitimacy or possibility of these false promises. That most of his solutions were unconstitutional was not even considered. Hilary Clinton was, after all, ready to break the glass ceiling once and for all—until competition showed up in the urban scarecrow figure of Bernie Sanders. Bernie has a twenty-minute memorized speech that he delivered over and over, speaking about how the one-percent ruled the world, how Wall Street and the banks have ruined the economy while enriching themselves. He wanted health care for everyone as an American right, free college for the masses and called his program a political revolution.

The free college and Revolution grabbed the younger generation by the seat of the pant. All young people want a revolution. The older generation had lived through the revolution of the 70’s and had learned that revolutionaries are either destroyed of assimilated into the system. They never had a better answer that the imperfect system that we have now. By working inside, they found, they could profoundly change some things. The distribution of wealth was closely held by the well established rich. It seemed that nature itself had no qualms about severe inequality and chaos. One kid would eventually have most of the marbles.

Hillary Clinton, Trump realized, was not necessarily fated to be the ordained leader of the free world. If Bernie and a few minor party candidates could divide the vote, Trump could sail upstream with the wind at his back. All he needed was a string of bologna, some white bread with enough Russian dressing to make a palatable sandwich and he could force feed it down the throats of this who still refused to believe in him.

November 8, 2016, in the early hours of the evening, the world gasped as they learned that the United States had elected Clara Belle the Clown leader of the free world.

Trump’s bold-faced lies work for him now as much as they worked for him as a candidate. He consistently misleads the people. He will rationalize most anything.

No matter that there is no proof of voter fraud, millions of people voted illegally according to the new American Führer.

There are so many lies from his mouth, it is hard to remember them all. Instead of making America great, America is frightened that the country they have loved is about to become an alt-right wasteland. Trump’s cloddish footprints will soon be found all over the social landscape that we have worked so hard to create and protect all of our lives.

There is little doubt that Trump is the most unethical conman ever elected to the presidency. There is no doubt that his election was a huge error in judgment by some of the American people. They will learn to regret it as time progresses.

Americans have been politically divided for years, but the divide that separates us now are far more serious than any time since the Civil War. We live in dog time. Every day seems to be a month and every week a year. Liberties are being breached because no one had addressed the long term effects of such radically racist policies.

Courts are disrespected as the Executive Branch seeks to control all the government. Millions protest and march in the streets worldwide. The world is much less secure with Trump in power. This insecurity will surely erupt into violence in the future. Pent up emotions, like temperatures, can only be controlled so long before they come to a boil.

So far, demonstrations have been peaceful. People have listened to the words of John Lennon, who told us, “When it gets down to having to use violence, then you are playing the system’s game. The establishment will irritate you—pull your beard, flick your face—to make you fight! Because once they’ve got you violent, then they know how to handle you. The only thing they don’t know how to handle is non-violence and humor.”

Trump has failed to consider is the indomitable spirit of the majority or Americans. He has also underestimated the power if the courts to protect our democracy. If he thought could stack the deck with his power players and ride his whirlwind to world domination, he thought wrong.

Much is wrong with society, but it is our society, not his. We reserve the right to build is as we see fit. We will iron out the wrinkles in our social fabric. We will make technology work for all of us, not the wealthy few.

The golden age of civilization is still ahead of us, not behind us.

We will persist.

We will resist.

We will win.