Defeat

Most of my friends are in the pits because they watched the pendulum swing way beyond it's expected arc.  While the "madness" of a Trump Presidency was becoming real, my perspective was widened as I've been taking a class entitled "Why the South Still Matters."

The Union beat the Confederacy.  The United States was saved.  The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments were passed.  Slavery was abolished.

What I knew -- but needed to be reminded of -- is that Reconstruction only lasted until 1877.  Then, the Union army left the southern states, the plantation owners returned to power, the slaves were forced into sharecropping, and it would take almost 100 years before the north would dare intrude upon the south again.

And now?  We fret that the popular vote does not determine the winner.  I needed reminding that the electoral college was a byproduct of slavery.  It was designed to protect the less populated (by whites) southern states.

My quality of life depends on the times of FDR and Lyndon Johnson.  I need to remind myself that the pendulum keeps swinging.  Always swinging.