The pessimist in me says, “Don’t count your chickens until they’ve hatched.” Yeah, Tuesday whomping should be a cause for celebration, for high-fives and cheering. I get it. We just put the nail in the coffin of Trumpism.

Not so fast. First, a reality check.

States must certify the results. A lot can happen between now and then, considering Trump’s and GOP-led legislatures past actions.

Second, if you get past that hurdle, you still need to be sworn in and gaveled on January 3^rd, 2027.

Formality, you say? Tell that to the people who were present on January 6, 2021.

Okay, you get past all that and then, you realize the orange stain, Donald J Trump is still President for another two years.

 You got this, you say. We control the House and the Senate. We are not going to be like those GOP/MAGA supplicants and sit on our hands and knees waiting for some blessing from Trump.

He is on his way out, you defiantly shout.

 Not to rain on your parade but may I remind you that he still controls the executive apparatus (no small thing) and he has six justices on the Supreme Court who seem ready to give him a pass for “official duty actions” that most people in their right mind would call a crime.

 And let us not forget those GOP left in Congress, in State and local legislatures and his network of ass kissers and money givers and media suckers can still find a way to clog up the machinery of change.

And we will not forget the MAGA ass-wipers who believe Trump is Jesus Christ, a gun-toting SEAL Team operator, a Master of the Human Race, an evangelical bible-humping savior put on earth to smite the evildoers for which they will handsomely reward him with billions in crypto and sign off the mortgage on their homes.

 Did mention, that Trump was still President.

 My friends would say we have the power now. We have a mandate for change. We can fly. Soar over their heads.

 Reality check.

 You have a political party that does not march to one beat. Your strength of political diversity along with your past practice of selecting leaders who kowtow to corporate money and foreign lobbyists and worse, are not willing to get down into the mud to wrestle power from those who would steal it from you (yeah, I’m talking about Schumer and Jeffries), so don’t believe the fight is quite over yet.

 But it is a good first step.

Now, let us get to the point.

Millions of people across this nation voted for change. And they are demanding that change come in many forms.

 First, let us take care of the economic issues first.

 Whatever is causing prices at the gas pump, in the grocery stores, at the restaurants and in my favorite fast-food joint to be high, stop it.

I know and you know that will not be an easy call since Trump is as he said still President and he believes that he has the power to impose tariffs on our best friends and to bomb back to the Stone Age our enemies and conduct trade policy as if it was his own bank account.

 So, I do not see that happening anytime soon. However, when it begins to hurt him personally and politically (I am not sure what that looks like since he only cares about the personal impact) just maybe there will be some relief.

Otherwise, we are just going to have to wait another two years until 2028 and hopefully we wrestle control of the White House and keep the House and the Senate in Blue hands.

 If Trump does not destroy us in the interim.

Two, we need to create a national reconciliation strategy to demand accountability and seek justice for the past two years of horror and corruption.

It is now about revenge. It is about righting the ship. Ensuring that the nightmare ends and we can get back to the business of the modern America, not the slide back before the civil rights era.

 There must be a reckoning over the next two years while the Democratic majority tries to wrangle fairer economic and social future for all Americans.

It will not be easy.

Trump has a lot cards to play. He is not going to go easy into the night, no matter what he says.

Have you ever known him to do so?

Never.

The best we can hope for is new leadership, an organized constituency willing to set fire to that leadership, a reminder to the leftover GOP that they are next if they don’t play ball, and all of us ready to do it all over again in two years.

 It is going to get ugly before it gets better. There will be pain and there will be fury.

We all need to hang on and be ready to ride an uncertain future to a better America. A great America. Not of the past but one born from of the fires of history and a new beginning.