It has been 71 days since the 2016 election. During that interval, I have refrained from writing my occasional comments on matters political. I needed some distance. I needed to gain some perspective if I was to offer anything but the fulminations of a grumpy old man. But today I woke up to day one in the post Obama era and felt the need to do my best at making some sense of my feelings. We are a big country that is home to the widest variety of people. Our government, charged with holding it all together, is headed by one person who serves as head of state as well as head of government. For eight years that man has been a black man from Illinois. Never since I turned 21 and gained the right to vote have I felt so comfortable with the man leading my country. He was a careful man, willing to do bold things. He pursued our enemies relentlessly, without bluster and foolhardy reaction to provocation. By almost every measure, from the size of the federal deficit to the number of Americans with health insurance, to the popularity of America with our allies, America’s stock went up during his presidency. Remarkably there were no real scandals during his eight years, no one in his administration indicted, no stories of women snuck into the white house. As a citizen, I was in high clover. However, this country does not belong exclusively to me and people like me. The nation is closely divided and has been for decades. On average, in the twelve years preceding President Obama’s election, the winning popular vote was 47%. Obama won with 53% in 2008 and 51+ in 2012. This year 46% of the voters elected Trump President. Given these close margins and an electoral system designed to fudge the popular vote, we are going to have turn over. In Maine we say, if you don’t like our weather, wait a minute. Now a days, America can say the same thing about our President. But let’s be honest, something else is going on here. The divisions are so deep in our country that the Republican candidate was nominated over the opposition of almost all the leaders of his party. A party populated by middle class suburban and rural white voters which has traditionally nominated corporate family men for President, has given us a swashbuckling real estate developer who spent his adult life putting his name on buildings and bragging about his sexual exploits on the radio. I grew up in Republican America. I milked cows before school, picked apples after school, became an eagle scout and earned the money to put myself through college with the help of government loans. In the place where I grew up, there were jokes about black people, and jews, but the sharpest edged jokes were about know it alls from New York. Margaret Chase Smith represented the ideal in that world. That America is gone and if you needed proof, Trump is it. Voters, angry over a wide variety of things, said F U to the Republican leadership and then to the rest of the country and we will all share in the consequences, whatever they might be. In the end, unless Trump finds a way to burn the Reichstag, he will not, I suspect, be a successful President. He has in his life shown little interest in building an organization which goes beyond himself or defining and defending principles which reach beyond generations. He is not a Ross Perot, a Ted Turner, Bill Gates, Abe Lincoln, or Ronald Reagan.. His trajectory will have a major impact on the Republicanism but I suspect that will not be an unalloyed asset for the Grand New Party. To my friends who voted for Mr. Trump, I hope his election gives you something with a longer half life than just seeing people you don’t like get sand kicked in their face. I hope in the end Trump uses some of his power to tear down and remove the real roadblocks that are holding half of America back. That said, I must admit I am worried about this country which has been so generous to me. I could offer up a catalogue of concerns but let me just focus on today’s lead story. President Trump fires all America’s Ambassadors as of noon on inauguration day. It is raw meat for the partisans. It is bold, but in the same way as diving in unknown waters is bold. Do we really want to send the message to the world that there is no continuity in our foreign policy? Is America now so partisan that we are ready to flatly declare that not one Ambassador appointed by the other party is fit to serve one day while his or her successor is selected? Is hubris the new humility?