Denial is a dangerous thing as anyone confronted with it can tell you. There is no way to argue with someone suffering from it. Disagreeing with a person or people convinced their viewpoint is right even though all the relevant facts prove otherwise is a fruitless exercise; just try and speak to most Democrat voters following Trumps election win. That's the fact, Trump won and he didn't just scrape over the line, he took the electoral college vote 290 to 232.
The impassioned protests from those disgusted by Trumps victory, are reaching out for any and every reason to justify the defeat, in what was the most bizarre, and at times truly disgusting election cycle in any modern democratic countries history.
What we haven't really heard is any blame proportioned to Hilary Clinton or the DNC, who failed miserably in what should have been a comparatively easy victory. I'm sick of hearing the excuses; disgruntled middle America, electoral vote majority, the FBI, and on and on we go. These have become the Democrats version of Trumps tirades against the 'mainstream media' during the election cycle.
Why did Hilary lose? She lost because she failed to get her message across, she failed because in many ways the DNC and Democrat voters in general took victory for granted. They believed the polls, believed that surely Americans wouldn't, when push came to shove, vote for a sexist, racist, vitriolic egomaniac. Hilary et all fell for the oldest trick in the book; Trumps win was the electoral version of the three card Monty.
The very root of Trumps victory is summed up by thousands of posts on various areas of social media by Hilary supporters screaming from the rooftops, that even though Trump won, America is still "the greatest county in the world". It is a sad and at times pathetic attempt to comfort themselves in a delusion of epic proportions. If a Democratic country believes itself to be better than any other, the vast majority must at least have some kind of rational thinking. Trumps win proves quite the reverse, as does the Democrats reaction to it.
And so we come to "the rub".
I have spent a lot of time in America over the years for both work and pleasure, I have for most of my adult life considered myself to be a confirmed Americanophile. However, having driven across a vast section of the USA for four months a few years ago, I came away with the realisation of one major point that I feel most (including myself) forgot during the election.
Americans genuinely do believe they are the "greatest country in the world". Nothing and no one will ever convince them otherwise. Republicans believe it, Democrats believe it, simply questioning this sends most Americans apoplectic. Trumps "Make America Great Again", fed beautifully into the very foundation of the American psyche. The mere implication in slogan form that America's self-vaulted position might be under threat, and the result is here for all to see.
So instilled is this belief, that Democrats simply refuse to concede defeat on this issue even though they now have the most under qualified, self-obsessed individual ever to sit in a post war, Western democratic countries, leadership seat. If those protesting and marching across the country against Trumps policies want to rise from the ashes, maybe it's time to first find some acceptance and humility, free themselves from the shackles of grandiose denial, work towards what the country may well once have been, but following Trumps victory, has never been further from.
I am forty-six years old, I have lived through such monumental events as the fall of the Berlin wall, two gulf wars, 7/7 and Hurricane Katrina; but nothing, absolutely nothing, compares to the sheer sense of sadness and desperation I feel for America, and the knock on effect this has for the world in general. If Democrats do not want four to turn into eight years, they must first take full and sole responsibility for the reality that is President Trump; no matter how painful that may be to the very core of their patriotic beliefs.