Today is the day that the country I have lived in and loved my entire life has become something I no longer recognize. The ugliness that has been exposed since the election is truly like something you might have seen in my novel The Man From Taured or some of the other "other dimension" books I have written. People have asked me before, why would the townspeople riot in Dust? Why would X, a seemingly normal person, suddenly do Y?

I have thought, for a long time, that people were not inherently "good" as so many have said. I think people are inherently selfish, greedy little creatures that masquerade as something else. It's part of why I worry more about animals than people most of the time. At least when you are face to face with a tiger, you know that tiger is looking at you as lunch, not as a friend. Animals do not need the artifice.

I have thought that fighting against that was a good thing. That it was a noble thing. The fact that I feel any decent person should be willing and want to do that without having to have the threat of "hell" thrown at them from a giant invisible man in the sky always worried me. I think the desire to BE decent is inherent. I just think our selfish side wins out more often than not, so it is to be celebrate when the good wins.

That is why I will always feel President Obama was one of the best. Sure, there are things he did or did not do that I would have preferred he did not or did do. That's always going to be the case. This "it's all my way or nothing" attitude we have now is dangerous and stupid. Life is pretty much all about compromise and that is how it should be. There is my opinion, there is your's and then the truth is probably somewhere in the middle.

President Obama was a community organizer and advocate. A Constitutional lawyer. His entire platform of running back in 2008 was Hope & Change. HOPE and change. The fact that Cons mocked "hope" should have been the first real warning of how bad things were going to get.

Well, Cons, you got what you have been building towards since Reagan. I look back at the Reagan era in disgust these days. Never has there been a decade full of more self-centered arrogance, greed and mistreatment of others - until now.

So, today is a black day. Yes, President Obama was not perfect, but he tried. Man, he did try. He tried and, on the whole, he tried to do what he felt was right for everyone. He tried to help. The fact he was blocked at every turn will be noted, but perhaps ignored as it has been for a while now. He may have turned to Executive Orders to get some of it done which, although perfectly legal, seemed to anger folks, he did not destroy the Constitution, did not take your guns and did not turn us into a Communist state.

I cannot say the same for the incoming nightmare. However, given his attitude and behavior, I fear a Fascist state is more likely this time around. I am hoping with all my heart to be proved wrong.

So, to me, it is not just "getting over it" because my side lost. Nope. It's about the fact that these two people are so opposite that they might as well be the hero and villain in a comic book. Because Trump has made greed, hatred, misogyny, racism and fear normal. The fact that so much of this country is willing to embrace it and defend it no matter how horrible the crimes of this man - is just terrifying. It actually smacks of cultism.

I think it comes down to two word, really. I think it comes down to two words that start with the letter H as to why I will never, ever, under any circumstances support der Orange Scheisse Fuhrer, but will always admire and respect President Obama.

President Obama ran under a banner of Hope. Hope that we could all work together to change things and help each other and make things better.

Trump ran under a banner of Hate. Hating the rest of the world, minorities, women, immigrants, Muslims and everyone else who was not a white billionaire.

The words "hope" and "hate" make all the difference in the world. I choose hope and will always, until my last breath. fight against hate.