"Not My President!!" Screamed The Millions Against Trump!! So Do I!!

What the founders of America feared, has now happened. Those greats, 240 years ago, all aristocrats and educated elite, have feared mob rule. So they, in the Constitution, built a firewall to prevent that. Called the Electoral College, it is intended to filter the popular vote.

Though with an attractive name, "representative democracy" is no guarantee that the winner of the popular vote in a presidential election, does necessarily win the Oval Office. What counts here, by today's calculation, is the winner of at least 270 electoral votes. In recent history, it happened in 2000, in Bush v. Gore. Despite losing the popular vote, Bush became President. And now in 2016, Hillary Clinton won the popular vote. But Trump is now the President-elect.

On November 8, I voted for Hillary. But this, in America's representative democracy, the candidate whom I opposed, Donald Trump, cancelled my vote out. By comparison, when I, as a dual citizen (Egyptian American), voted for El-Sisi in 2014, my vote was tallied for the Egyptian presidential candidate of my choice. That is because in a country, like Egypt, you have "popular," not "representative" democracy.

With Donald J. Trump expected to be sworn in on January 20, 2017, as the 45th President of the U.S., America is a land of anxiety. Why?

• He has never held public office before. That is where a holder would normally get to such a position. Through the grueling practice of politics. And "politics" is essentially the art of compromise. Donald has never practised that art;
• Trump has worked assiduously, through his own voice magnified by his troupe of surrogates, to inject doubt about the conventions of government. He has weakened the trust in a sitting President, in the legislative and the judicial branches, and in the political parties, including his own party;
• Even before the results of this nasty campaign, he inveighed against the electoral system. Calling it "rigged," is not reflecting the popular will, needs to be closely monitored by his supporters, and is driven by faulty polls and "corrupt media;"
• Donald has used, for his political advocacy, the weapons of insults, smears, innuendoes, and cruel sarcasm, against anyone who dared to disagree with him. An expert in TV showmanship, he put fabrications ahead of facts, fear mongering ahead of "trust in America," violence ahead of conciliation, and bluster ahead of cool-headedness;
• He repeatedly declared "I love wars;" showed more respect for Vladamir Putin than he exhibited towards his own President; threatened to wall off America against immigration; manifested outright Islamophobia; and promised to undo America's alliances and treaty obligations;
• Trump, by his own declarations, has a manifest disconnect with the global fight against terrorism. His claim about his possession of a secret plan to fight DAESH (ISIS) is laughable. And his assertions that he knows about strategy "more than the generals" is lunacy. Especially that he has evaded serving in any military role or capacity;
• He regarded tax evasion and avoidance as adeptness at using the law as a vehicle for manipulation.

Keeping all the above in mind, to which we should add his disdain for women, his uncontrolled propensity for unwanted and offensive sexual advances, and his refusal to pay those who work for him, in violation of his contracts, how can Trump lead America of the 21st Century?

The danger of a mobocracy which produced a Trump presidency cannot be over-stated. He can have his way for "America First." But how can he be trusted with the nuclear code, with treating his political adversaries with respect, with the issues of climate change, the sanctity of treaties, free trade, and bolstering international institutions such as the United Nations family of organizations, about all of which he invented stupid accusations?

"Making American Great Again," his battle cry, implies that America has been on a slippery slope due to a dysfunctional system. Any system of governance is always in need of change, because circumstances keep on changing. But how can President-elect Trump walk back from an ideology of "making America hate again?"

His unpredicted and unmerited victory has been due to an electoral system in which he does not believe. It  was also due to the rise of the poorly educated white population in the industrial belt who blamed economic unequality on the wrong party -the immigrant. The browning of America (by the year 2030, the white demography shall be at 45%). The culture of fear was Trump's daily tool which was allowed a cost free microphone 24/7. And the length of the Clintons exposure on the American stage for 3 decades entailed the negative cost of over exposure.

An era of American history has just ended on November 8, 2016. And an uncertain era of anxiety has just begun. The writing is on the wall:

• Through gerrymandering, the Republican Party, the party of war and foreign interventions, has built institutions at the state level. The result: 38 out of 50 state governors are Republican; both houses of Congress have Republican majorities sent through State elections;
• Since the passing of Justice Scalia, the US Supreme Court has been functioning without its full complement of nine justices. Votes of 4 to 4 means non-revision of the judgments of lower courts. A defacto nullification of the Supreme Court's role of judicial review. Now a Republican President, with expected support from a Republican majority in the Senate, can name and appoint conservative justices. Thus tilting the highest court of the land further to the right;
• Undoing the historic Obama signature legislative achievement, "The Affordable Care Act." Providing health insurance so far to nearly half of the 40 millions Americans who cannot afford health insurance; 
• Cutting income taxes for the top 1% of Americans (the billionaire class);
• Threatening to deport en masse 11 million undocumented immigrants, before "allowing them to re-enter America legally." Thus tearing the fragile fabric of poor families whose adults have invested their energies in jobs not preferred by American citizens;
• Supporting the National Rifle Association (NRA), under the deceptive mask of supporting the 2nd Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. There are 350 million guns in the hands of 9 million Americans. Annualy causing 30,000 deaths by gun violence all over America;
• Pretending to be charitable to worthy causes, such as the American veterans, when in fact hardly any contributions were made; and
• Threatening to sue all women (so far the total of 12) who have come forward accusing him of criminally assaulting them sexually.

Trump has called President Obama "a traitor;" threatened to institute criminal prosecution against Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for what he has fabricated as her "gross negligence" in Benghazi. That is where the U.S. Ambassador and 4 other Americans were killed by marauding Libyan militias. It was the Republican's in Congress who had refused to fund diplomatic security arrangements abroad. And the unfortunate death of that Ambassador was due to his decision to travel from Tripoli to Benghazi where no security at that US facility was up to par.

Trump's presidency shall undoubtedly reflect the deep chasms in American society; the decline of conventional norms of governance in Washington, D.C.; the absence of the citizen's trust in law and order measures and institutions, including the FBI as a neutral investigative arm of the Department of Justice; the resurgence of torture of individuals suspected of terrorism. Thus upending the legal principle of "you are innocent until proven guilty by court of law."

Even the appointment of top experts to make up for the inexpertise of Trump in governance, shall prove to be a futile remedy. The Donald's span of attention is very short; he digresses instinctively; he failed 3 times in debating Hillary; he gets bored with details; and he has repeatedly declared that he relies only on his gut feelings.

Snakes have the natural capacity of changing their skin. But not their nature. "Healing wounds," declared by Trump upon securing 278 electoral votes (for Hillary's 208 votes), shall be an impossibility for Trump, a racist who has befriended the stalwarts of the Klu Klus Klan.

Even Trump's battle cry "Make America Great Again" is plagiarized. Its original author is James Fallon, national reporter of The Atlantic magazine. That is the title of his book published in 1989.

Yet there may still be a ray of hope of this USA -United States of Anxiety. In the Senate, the Republicans have 54 seats, not the majority of 60 needed to overturn important items of Obama's legacy. Neither the so-called Obama Care, nor the right to abortion (Trump has threatened women seeking abortion with punishment), nor existing treaties which are already the law of the land since 1832.

In her concession speech, Hillary Clinton urged her supporters to "continue to fight for what is right." She added "we must defend the American dream which is big enough for everyone." So the battle for the soul of America is not an end.

But the message of Trump's victory to the outside world is that as America has turned to the right and inward. So should other States, looking for an American global role, seek their salvation from within. "The Strong State" is the logical answer to the Trump so-called movement.

It is catastrophic to see Obama, a professor of constitutional law, be replaced by someone who was publicly challenged by a gold star father, Khizer Khan, a Muslim whose son, an American army officer was killed in Iraq. His words addressed to Trump shall live on for a long time: "Have You Even Read the U.S. Constitution!!"

Trump's elevation to the presidency of America is akin to the peasant rebellions of medieval Europe. The periphery, for long neglected, rising, avenging their neglect from the center.

In multiple cities, anti-Trump demonstrations broke out. By the thousands, they marched through the streets from coast to coast. Their slogan was "Not My President." This is a reverse echo of the chants by what those who could not accept a black man, Obama, to be their president. An early sign of a deeply divided nation.

Calls are now filling the air. Calling on the Democratic leadership to step aside. Its ineptness in ignoring the backwoods where "the forgotten" either voted for Trump or stayed home on election day, shall undoubtedly be punished. This now looks like a form of an "American Spring" where the Millennials, the minorities, the women, and the blacks are lashing at both Trumpism and the old guard of the Democratic party.

What makes America America are not only the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution. To these, one should add underlying but vibrant concepts. These are freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, equality before the law, no formal State religion, no formal language, no king, freedom of movement, openness to immigration, civilian control over the military, freedom of the press, freedom of choice, an independent judiciary, and enforced respect for privacy. Above all, a peaceful and orderly transfer of power.

This entire fabric of what makes the U.S. an attractive place to live and prosper shall be severely tested by Trump -a racist and a xenophobe. An unqualified, narcissistic, lying bully, against whom a popular majority has voted on November 8, shall be sworn in on January 20, 2017 as the 45th President of the United States. A magnification of the failures of democracy -a term which has no precise definition in any legal dictionary.

November 8, 2016 marks a huge turning point in American history.

• It shall be the date on which a con man, a charlatan, was made President-elect;
• His elevation to lead this great and powerful country was not through a popular vote. It was through a dysfunctional system which delegates my vote to electors who can direct it to their choice, not mine;
• His victory is a defeat for an inclusive America, a post-racial America, and America which by its own constitution must separate between religion and the State, an America whose strength has been partly due to immigration, and partly through innovation;
• Regardless of present feverish attempts to make him act presidential, he shall always be what he has been for his whole 70 years of life -a rich man with no social conscience. You cannot make a pig attractive by applying lipstick to its mouth.

So, America, from now on, you have no claim to advise the world as to what democracy is, or how human rights might be observed; or how to run their national life.

The News Desk of the New Yorker magazine wrote: "The rest of the world is now at leisure to stand back and ponder the astounding dereliction of the American Presidential election."

Mr Trump: Like all the millions of Americans now planning to demonstrate against your presidency on January 20, 2017, I shall chant: You Are Not My President:

• For you have no faith in the principles under-girding the U.S. Constitution;
• Your presidency has happened through deceptive promises to masses which fear the future; and
• Your gutter language about "a rigged system" has made the teaching of national civics and respect for the law a real challenge. For it was an idiocyncratic system which made of you, a crooked billionaire who defied every norm, a president-elect.

The America which I have inhabited for 64 years has never elected for the presidency as vile a person as Trump. This shocking development has come about for a host of complex reasons. Not the least of these is that Obama soaring favorability could not be transferred to Hillary Clinton. The Latino-Black coalition exists in name only. One third of the Latin vote went to Trump, for the alluring promise of jobs. The threat of a wall on the Mexican border did not scare them off. And sizable numbers of the blacks did not vote. A non-vote, in effect, was a vote for Trump.

Now the only ray of hope for the de-Trumpization of America is in Trump's impeachment for any illegal act by him as President. Or in his voluntary resignation. Trump's removal, if it happens, would come at a much cheaper cost to America than threat of possibility of civil war.