The Patriot Post® · How Great Is America?

We fully expected to be writing analysis about putting the Republican Party back together after Donald Trump’s inevitable loss to Hillary Clinton. We’ve never been so glad to be wrong — Trump will be the next president of the United States after a stunning upset. Not just an upset, but a resounding win, and a major defeat for the so-called “progressive” establishment.

Trump won at least 276 electoral votes, with more to come once a few too-close-to-call states are decided. That said, he also likely lost the popular vote by more than 200,000 votes, thanks entirely to California. Look for Democrats to start gunning for the Electoral College.

There are many storylines here, so let’s get to it.

First of all, we clearly had our differences with Trump and laid them out during the primaries. Once he became the nominee, however, we largely trained our fire on Hillary Clinton, and Mark Alexander even endorsed Trump.

Trump defied expectations all the way through the primaries, and proved once again that media pollaganda can be really effective — until the people reject it. We predicted in June that the Brexit vote could portend the U.S. results. That turned out to be correct. Voters didn’t let pollsters dictate the results.

Not only did Trump defy electoral predictions, but he proved that a Republican who’s not really a Republican can win. He and the party in part ran against each other. Trump repudiated the establishment, even as many of them tripped over themselves figuring out how to address his rise. It remains to be seen how much his positions on numerous issues, immigration and trade in particular, will influence and move the GOP platform in the days ahead. He’s not a conservative, but populism resonated and conservatives must use this new voice to right a lot of wrongs.

This is huge for the Supreme Court. Senate Republicans held fast in refusing to confirm Barack Obama’s pick, Merrick Garland, to replace the revered Antonin Scalia. Now, Trump will get to choose the next justice, and his list is impressive.

The importance of Trump’s victory is also hard to understate for other issues, from gun rights to taxes to foreign policy to the bureaucrats who run the government.

As for the Democrats, this is what happens when you nominate a criminal who was above the law in a rigged system. The American people gave her — and Obama’s banana republic — a pretty resounding rebuke. She even managed to cost Democrats the Senate. Hillary Clinton was a truly awful candidate. So awful, in fact, she couldn’t beat a man (and his supporters) she and her Leftmedia super PAC spent 24/7 painting as racist, bigoted and just plain crazy. Who knew that a good portion of America — the “irredeemable” “basket of deplorables” — doesn’t take kindly to being smeared in such a hateful way? Yet the Left is already doubling down on that as they express horror and dismay at the results.

We learned that Trump can talk over the media, directly to the American people. That ability is going to be critical going forward.

In any case, it’s Clinton who’s the criminal, and she was finally held accountable. That in and of itself brings an awful lot of relief and hope.

Democrats have already begun blaming the “rigged system” themselves — specifically FBI Director James Comey for “interfering” in the election by reopening the criminal probe into Clinton’s email 11 days before the election. Democrats should remember, however, that it wasn’t Comey who set up a private server on which classified information was illegally handled, all in order to conceal pay-to-play schemes at the Clinton Foundation. That’s all on Hillary Clinton. Furthermore, Comey did his best to provide a layup exoneration for Clinton. It didn’t work.

Will Comey have a job for much longer?

Again, this was a huge rebuke not just for the Clintons, but for Obama, who campaigned vigorously for Clinton and Democrats around the country. He boldly told voters that, while he wasn’t on the ballot, everything he had done over the last eight years was. Turns out voters weren’t so keen on his record after all.

How big a role did ObamaCare play in this result? Americans all over the country are being squeezed by skyrocketing health costs for which Democrats bear sole responsibility. Trump promises repeal, and Americans gave him a win and a GOP Congress to get it done.

Rather than rebuilding the GOP, it will be Democrats performing the autopsy and engaging in an ugly recriminations battle. They brought this crushing wave on themselves.

Finally, Hillary is such a — how do you say it? — “nasty woman” that she refused even to address her supporters last night, instead sending out her campaign manager to tell them to go home because votes were still being counted.

On Wednesday morning at about 11:45, she finally took the stage to offer a concession speech that wasn’t a concession at all, but her usual laundry list. “You represent the best of America,” she told her supporters. To be distinguished from the other side. After saying, “This is painful, and it will be for a long time,” she lamented, “We have seen that our nation is more deeply divided than we thought.” Because the Democrats’ playbook is based on a divide and conquer strategy, she then proceeded to divide everyone by their “identities,” which is exactly the problem. The American people said “no!” to that Demo division.

By the way, she also mentioned “Rule of Law,” which is frankly hilarious.

Trump, by contrast, was gracious to her, saying in his victory speech, “Hillary has worked very long and very hard over a long period of time and we owe her a major debt of gratitude for her service to our country. I mean that very sincerely. Now it’s time for America to bind the wounds of division. We have to get together. To all Republicans, Democrats and independents across this nation, I say it is time for us to come together as one united people.”

He also aptly summed up why he won: “It’s a movement comprised of Americans from all races, religions, backgrounds and beliefs who want and expect our government to serve the people, and serve the people it will. Every single American will have the opportunity to realize his or her fullest potential. The forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer.”

So on to the task of cleaning up from the disastrous Obama-Clinton years!