Election 2016

Looking back on the presidential election of 2016.

I voted, Hari voted, and from the reports of the lines everywhere, a whole lot of Americans did the same.

In the months leading up to the election, we heard horrific smear campaigns from both sides.  Donald Trump admitted to vulgar "locker room" talk and was accused of sexual assault by roughly a dozen different women.  Hillary Clinton was investigated repeatedly but the FBI for violating privacy and security requirements for emails she received as part of her work as Secretary of State.  The mud-slinging was truly epic.  But as we got closer to the election date the end-result seemed a foregone conclusion: Hillary would win.  You saw it on the news, heard it as people were talking, read it on social media, and the polling all showed that she had a solid lead.  It was done.

After we got home from the gym I had the boys shower, then come down for dinner.  Of course we had the election coverage on, flipping from channel to channel to see results as they came in.  As they finished up dinner I gave them permission to stay downstairs as long as they were quiet.  We never allow this on a school night so they were all in.  Before the election results were in, this is how things looked...

And in retrospect, I think we did the right thing.  I voted.  We let our kids see part of the process play out, then we all drifted off to sleep before we could find out what happened.

Here's looking to 2020...