This piece will be somewhat of a departure from my typical article. This will serve as a kind of meditation concerning the course of events during the past several days.

The 2016 presidential election has come to a conclusion. The campaigns are over, and the rallies are no more. Surreal as it is, Donald Trump is now the president-elect and he and his family will occupy the White House for at least four years. In an unprecedented manner, candidate Trump secured the support of all key swing states (Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania). In addition, the Trump campaign successfully acquired states that historically would have voted Democrat, such as Michigan and Wisconsin. The election of this man has left many in disbelief that the former host of a reality television program and steak-salesman will, come January, sit behind the desk. The desk of Lincoln and Roosevelt.

It makes me sick. Sick to imagine this man at the helm, commanding armies and navies and air forces. Meeting with foreign leaders, negotiating trade deals and vetoing bills. Regardless, my qualms don’t amount to much now. The country – and I – have no productive option but to continue with business as usual, to keep focused and not to allow this decision to compromise our day-to-day. Nonetheless, now that the path for the future has been chosen, I will continue with this piece by expressing certain observations I have made about the president-elect the tendencies he and his supporters have exhibited and what this could signal for the country.

Donald Trump does not strike me as a man of empathy, or honor for that matter. Donald Trump, thus far has exhibited many of the aspects by which autocrats are elected, and little none of the aspects which successful presidents have possessed – or had been recorded to display. I hope I am completely incorrect in this sense. I hope future president Trump proves himself worthy of the title commander-in-chief, for the sake of the country, I hope he proves me wrong.