LETTER: An amused look at Election 2016

Irony and hypocrisy are always entertaining after a national election, but this is undoubtedly shaping up as a banner year. Who doesn’t enjoy watching the self-righteous protests by Hillary supporters just days after their indignant complaints that Trump supporters would do the same if he lost. Or relish the improbable Republican victory in the supposedly Democratic stronghold of Rust Belt states. Or the fact that Trump got 30 percent of the Latino vote. Thirty percent! From the very same group he was accused of being so racist against. And who can resist the irony of Trump getting 42 percent of the female vote. Against a female opponent!

Here we have a silver-spoon multi-millionaire winning the votes of the common man, and a woman who worked her way from the civil-rights movement of the ’60s and the political backwaters of Arkansas and to become the most entitled establishment candidate since … sorry, I can’t think of anyone.

And then there is the irony of competence. Trump, head of a massive international business enterprise, is accused of being incompetent. Clinton, whose major accomplishment is being the wife of a former president, is promoted as one of the most experienced and qualified candidates of all time. (Yes, I know she was secretary of state, but name one thing she accomplished besides having the job when a famous terrorist was killed).

Irony is a fascinating thing. Who would guess that both Bill Clinton and Lyndon Johnson would appear on so many lists of the most racist presidents? Clinton for the massive increase in incarceration rates among people of color, and Johnson for the crushing poverty that his Great Society has imposed on minorities and who allegedly said, “I’ll have those n**ers voting Democratic for 200 years.”

So maybe labels really don’t mean anything after all. Nixon had Vietnam and his enemies list, but he also created the EPA and opened the door to China. How about we all just calm down for a while and see where a Trump presidency goes. It may go completely off the rails if he is more interested in promoting Trump Inc. than the United States. Or it might surprise us all and be something completely ironic and unexpected. —Rick Packard, Whitefish