On My Conduct During the Election

Since Donald Trump's election, I have had numerous opportunities to discuss its impact with friends, strangers, family members, and even with members of the Press. These conversations have forced me to think deeply about my views...but more to the point, my behavior during the election.  The bottom line is that I behaved badly, I brought discredit upon myself, and I've learned important lessons about how I wish to conduct myself in the future.  What am I talking about?

Let's start with what I am NOT talking about. I am not talking about all of the instances here and elsewhere on social media where I pointed out legitimate policy differences between what Trump was saying and what I believed and what I thought the bulk of Conservatives and Republicans believed. I am proud of the policy stands I took, and had I restricted my statements SOLELY to the realm of policy, I would not be writing this post.  But I didn't.

I said and wrote disrespectful, ad hominem, and personally insulting things about a man I have never met (Trump), and I lumped a good many of his voters into the mix. I allowed my deep disappointment in my candidate's demise (Rubio) to cause me to act inhumanely, and I allowed my ego--battered by having been so utterly wrong in my political judgment--to drive me into great fits of anger and pique.

Quite simply, I let the election get the best of me, and I allowed it to make me a lesser man. I was intemperate, immodest, and without poise. I cannot undo what I did, but I can resolve not to repeat it. So this is what I am going to do.

As I wrote when after the election, I wish the President-Elect well. I hope and pray he is successful. I have been greatly pleased by some of the people he has chosen to surround himself with, and I hope he continues to attract more.

Where his policy choices and my preferences overlap, I will say so.

Where they are in conflict, I will say so too, and I will explain why I hold the views I do.

What I will not do is insult him or anyone else. I broke my own blog's rules over and over, but I won't do it again. I aim to disagree without being disagreeable, something at which I failed miserably over the past year.

I ask you--my readers--to call me on this. If I lapse into personal attacks, I want to hear about it. I think the quality of this blog suffered greatly this year and it was entirely my fault. I think we can return it to a place of considered thought and opinion in 2017, and I hope that you'll keep reading.