God bless America! We are such a hot mess, in desperate need of grace and redemption, but I sure do love us. All that defiance and triumph of the struggling human spirit. Democracy sure is messy, a hot mess.

All in good humor here, but those of you who are grieving today, try to remember that half this country is bitterly disappointed on election day…..for the other half, it just takes about six weeks longer.

I am grateful the election is over, I feared a tie, a contested election, and months of wrangling.  I am not surprised by the results, but I am surprised by the enthusiasm and the turnout.

There will be a lot of armchair quarterbacking post-election, but I just want to speak to one thing today. The working class, rural, small town voters, used to be called the “salt of the earth.” Listening to the media last night was almost comical because of the cluelessness expressed. I felt all those little knives, the number of times they said,”uneducated,” “rural,” and “this sure isn’t the Starbucks crowd.” They were sneering and dripping condescension as if, “not college educated” explains everything.

To make matters worse, they interviewed voters and conducted exit polls,and people spoke plainly about a lack of jobs, about feeling as if the country had left them behind, and all the political pundits just insisted the economy was booming, jobs were plentiful,and President Obama had a high approval rating. That kind of thing is crazy making, it is evidence of a complete disconnect from the reality of people’s lives. Incomes have declined dramatically, the cost of goods has skyrocketed, unemployment is rampant, and people are really struggling.

When we call people racist, sexist, stupid, uneducated, rural, and cast them out of the cool kid’s club as if their voice doesn’t matter, well, we shouldn’t be surprised when they all come together and find new representatives.

crazy