Thank you Kamala, for bringing back the joy. Maybe not the joy you were thinking about, but I’ll take it. We’re not going back to normal, perhaps we never will. But we’re leaving the dystopian reality that was the failed Biden/Harris administration, and that is an encouragement. Like you, I’m still processing the election results (and many important seats are still being counted), but I’ll offer a few random thoughts today for you to chew on and hopefully address in the comments.

• Mr. Trump’s margin of victory was stunning.  I had said repeatedly for months that given how bad the Biden administration had been, and (after the Harris coup) how nothing changed with Ms. Harris (equally disliked, shared responsibility for policies) that this was Trump’s election to lose.  Yet I thought he could lose it, and it’s pretty clear I was wrong.  He continued to unnecessarily alienate people and try his best to fit Ms. Harris “unhinged” portrayal of him, and yet none of that mattered. And the question is why I (nor most commentators) failed to see the strength of the victory.  Is it really the realignment towards Trumpism, or is it because of the hatred of the bitter fruit of woke progressivism?  Obviously it is both (and probably more). 
• One stat I heard was that Mr. Trump improved on 2020 in 90% of the counties in America.  Not only did he win the key contests, he racked up votes all across the country, including in deep blue New York and New Jersey.  I thought there was the slightest of possibilities that he might win the popular vote, but I never imagined him getting a majority, and yet as of Thursday morning he has over a 4.5M vote lead in the popular vote at almost 51%.  He improved with minorities and impressively with the under 30 vote.  His vote significantly expanded the profile of those who voted Republican. I’m not sure about the enduring implications, but there is no doubt this is a clarion call to the Democrats to wake up.
• The recriminations have only started, but progressivism is in the bullseye, even more so than Biden or Harris.  Early Wednesday morning I decided to see how the left was taking this, so I turned on MSNBC’s Morning Joe and Claire McCaskill (former Missouri Senator) said this (my paraphrase):  “Abortion won almost everywhere, except SD, and yet those people voted for Trump even while voting for abortion—they didn’t hold him accountable.  The people just want to be able to send their kids to public schools and not have to worry about them coming home trans and they don’t want their communities overrun by illegals.”  It is going to be good for the Democrats and good for America as they face this electoral reckoning.  DEI, wokism, and the T part of LGBTQ were already breaking for the left, but now you should expect an acceleration as power-seeking Democrats will see the need to craft a different approach.  This is in part strengthened by the blowing up of the left’s identity politics of putting people in bins—they aren’t staying in those bins, and many are climbing out of the bins and over the fence to Donald Trump.  You Dem’s that invented Latinx, what were you thinking? 
• The assault, and yes it was an assault, on conservatives is over for the next several years.  Donald Trump’s line that they’re trying to get to you by coming for me was not far off.  The Fed’s going after abortion protesters that were exonerated by state/local officials, or the attorney general’s letter to prosecutors about the threat of parents at school board meetings is over. 
• It appears the left is giving up their lawfare pursuit of Mr. Trump, and that is a great thing.  They were never ultimately going to win here, and to continue in the face of this electoral statement by the American people would be harmful to all involved.    
• Mr. Trump’s strength is relative.  He is both the most hated and the luckiest* politician ever.  His 2016 victory was by the slimmest of margins against possibly the most venal and corrupt politician of them all, someone who was detested by many and liked by few.  His 2024 victory came against a DEI hire that was incredibly unpopular, who represented the comprehensibly failed presidency of Joe Biden.  While I’m amazed at the breadth and strength of his victory, he had the easiest of opponents to beat.  Given those failures, he should have won much bigger.  Even the hurdles he had to climb (the lawfare and the assassination attempt) actually endeared him to many, or at least motivated them to vote for him, not against him.  If Mr. Trump imagines he has this amazing mandate to do anything he wants, he’s as mistaken as the progressive left was. He has a mandate to fix the border and get the economy straightened out. Not much more, but certainly not less.
• We still have incredibly serious problems that no political “joy” (left or right) can imagine away.  Mr. Trump has repeatedly said he won’t touch entitlements, he won’t raise taxes and yet we’re $35T in debt with the pedal to the metal ($2T deficits forever).  Very quickly we’re heading to the tipping point.  Mr. Trump has always been nimble, shall we say, with his positions.  I expect increasing nimbleness will be needed, and sooner than he thinks. 

* No I don’t believe in a concept called luck. Our series in Daniel shows that God is always working behind the scenes.