Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities

Render: Elected should know glory is fleeting

Now that the votes are in and counted we know that Donald J. Trump will be the next president of the United States.

Headlines, still treating Trump with the same consideration they showed during the election cycle, describe him as being “Holed up in Trump Tower,” rather than stating, “Trump is at home working on staffing his administration.”

Rube Render

Americans will have to wait and see how the new president will govern. Who will be secretary of such and such, what will be his attitude toward energy policy and so on?

I would like to look at some of the things we learned from this election.

Barack Obama had zero coat tails during his eight years in office. Political candidates were never able to take advantage of his popularity to help them in their own elections.

He lost his Democrat advantage in the U.S. House in 2010 and the U.S. Senate in 2014. Republicans held the House and Senate after this latest election.

The GOP has not held the House, Senate and presidency since the 1920s.

Obama is also in danger of losing his legacy, as Congress looks to amend or replace “Obamacare” with other health care legislation.

Earlier this week, CNN.com listed 24 diverse theories political pundits provided as to why Trump won the election. In all 24 reasons, none of them stated, “Hillary Clinton was a lousy candidate.”

Bill Clinton is a better politician than she is and a much better liar. You can find any number of film clips of Bill looking directly into the camera and hedging. Hillary never mastered that skill.

In politics, once you can fake honesty, you’ve got it made.

One reason given as to why Trump won was that he carried the Rust Belt states of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin and Michigan. That may be true.

What is true is that no other Republican candidate who ran for president during this election cycle could have accomplished this feat.

A stake has been driven through the heart of the Clinton dynasty. Hillary lost two catastrophic elections that she was guaranteed to win. Both times she lost to people the Clintons considered lightweights and inferior to them.

It is said that in ancient Rome when a conquering hero returned and was being honored in a tumultuous parade, a slave stood behind the hero holding a golden crown and whispering in his ear, “All glory is fleeting.”

Hillary should have paid someone to do that. So also should all newly elected public officials.

Rube Render is the Curry County Republican chairman. Contact him at:

[email protected]