Thursday, March 28, 2024 -
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Shoe on the other foot

There’s a hefty dose of irony in the reaction to last Tuesday’s presidential election.

Irony is often mistakenly understood to be coincidence, a misunderstanding furthered by Alanis Morisette’s unfortunate “Isn’t it ironic?” song of the mid-1990s.

The actual definition of irony is when the opposite of what is expected happens, or is said.

Remember how so many were livid about Trump’s very inappropriate remarks about election rigging on not accepting the result?

Check out the rioters who won’t accept the results of the election, chanting “Not my president,” among them a small group who are actually embracing violence in their reaction.

Remember how so many, rightly in my opinion, eviscerated Trump for his bigoted and hateful comments on women, people with disabilities, Mexicans, Muslims, etc.?

Spend just a minute on social media and you’ll see an amazing flow of bigotry — now directed at Trump voters and supporters.

Some of you who followed Brexit might remember the frustration of many that the referendum was decided by a simple majority and was not representative of whole areas in the UK, such as Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Some of those same people are now complaining that the Electoral College is fundamentally unfair — something heard since the country was founded.

As I said, the irony.

It took me a while, but I have landed on the word to describe my reaction to this election: sanguine. I will wait and see and, to paraphrase Obama, hope that Donald Trump will succeed.

Mass hysteria is not for me.

Shana Goldberg may be reached at [email protected].



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IJN Assistant Publisher | [email protected]


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