In light of the recent win in Alabama, I began thinking about the world we now live in.  Many of us whooped and hollered.  We celebrated the win. We puffed out our ample bosoms (I like to think that no matter what the cup size or no cup size at all, every woman possesses ample breasts). We roared 2018 is gonna be our year to win.

Normally, I am a Pollyanna about many things and like to see the glass half full. I tried. I really, really did. The reality is, Doug Jones won by a razor-thin margin. The message…almost half of the people of Alabama were prepared to look the other way and essentially ignore or try to convince themselves the compelling evidence was false news is frightening to me.

What does that say about the United States? First, we elect a President who is an embarrassment at best, and a narcissistic sociopath at worst. His base doesn’t care what he does. Sexually assault women…fake news. Collude with Russians…fake news. Support neo-nazis…they’re good people. Make fun of persons with disabilities…misinterpreted. Slut shame a female Senator…get your mind out of the gutter. Admit to knowing Flynn lied to the FBI thus setting up an obstruction of justice claim…not my tweet, and oh by the way you can’t charge a sitting President with obstruction of justice.

Not enough people are shouting WTF and holding those in power accountable. Why? Because we have lowered our expectations. How could we not? We’ve come to expect bad behavior, horrible policies for the middle class and poor in favor of the rich, new hateful and discriminatory executive orders and rhetoric. The face of America is now an angry white man with a red baseball cap.

CNN does their job and reports all the WTF moments, but nothing changes. That’s how it all starts. Complacency. Lowered expectations. Alabama wasn’t a victory or a wake-up call. We didn’t win, really. The Republicans lost because a fatal error was made in candidate selection. The victory was not because we did a bang-up job with the election. Think Nazi Germany. It could happen again.

Reframed expectations. We are waiting for 2018 so Democrats can take back the Senate. We hope. If that doesn’t happen, I predict we will adjust again. Hold our nose and wait until 2020.

The rest of the country will continue to reframe expectations. They’ve already started with 1) What Republicans ultimately stand for; 1) What is acceptable behavior for a politician leading the charge on morality and Christianity, 3) How new policies affect the poor and middle class. An alarming number of those Trump supporters will never change their minds about him no matter what happens, including if Trump converted to Islam. That is the most disturbing part of what America has evolved to.

This all reminds me of those Mad TV skits called “Lowered Expectations” which were parodies on the on-line dating craze.  I used to laugh my butt off, now I’m not laughing so much as I watch the real Donald in the role of President.

So if you want to escape to a good book. My expectations of you won’t lessen. I promise. I sure hope you never have to reframe your expectations of me. I’d like to think I’m getting better as a writer, not worse. If you would like to test out that premise, feel free to click on the links and read all my books so you see first hand how I’ve evolved.

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