Wow! Voting really does matter

Phil Cobb

Something happened in our country Tuesday that I didn’t think was possible.

I have never in my lifetime seen the electoral system work like it did into the wee hours of Wednesday morning (why does it take certain states so long to count their votes?).

The first indication I had was at about 7:30 a.m. Tuesday when I entered my polling place to find approximately 75 people voting and standing in line, which stood in stark contrast to the four or five people I usually encounter.

Donald Trump will be the next president of the United States.

I think my friend Jerry Lutz said it best when he tweeted Tuesday night, “It’s amazing what a nation full of pissed off deplorables can do.”

I have to say, I’m a little shocked.

People I talked to thought the race would be relatively close, but I don’t think anyone thought Donald Trump had a real chance to win the presidency.

That’s probably due in large part to big media and their pre-election polls which had virtually awarded the job to Hillary Clinton ahead of time.

I think that was evident in the programming of at least the television news stations, which obviously had to call a full-blown audible when they began to feel the office slipping away.

I believe what we have discovered is that an administration can not trample all over the traditional values of a country without facing consequences.

Those consequences resulted in a very large conservative voter turnout, which awarded control of government — at least the government that directly affects this state, this region, and this county — to the Republican party.

President Barack Obama governed the nation in a direction that suited the values of a certain segment — albeit a large one — but failed to look back over his shoulder to see who and how many were following.

There has seemed to be an all-out assault on the traditions and the fundamentals this country was founded on.

It seems strange to me that a man like Donald Trump has somehow become the champion of those values. Hopefully it’s a do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do — or have done — kind of thing.

Somehow morality has gotten coupled with perceived ignorance.

This nation just rose up in a big way against that sentiment.

Republicans will have no excuse if they fail to follow through on the promises of Donald Trump the candidate.

President Donald Trump will have a majority Republican Congress to help him achieve his goals.

He will be able to have a giant and lasting impact on the Supreme Court — maybe the most important result of this election.

I’ve often heard that you can’t or shouldn’t legislate morality.

What I think we have discovered is that you absolutely can’t legislate immorality.

And that’s what I believe doomed the Democratic party in this election.

And in Missouri, a Republican-led government should be able to advance its agenda.

My hope is that it will improve the atmosphere for small businesses and their employees, who are currently hindered by excessive income taxes and healthcare costs.