Some solace and hope, perhaps?

There is hope, a little.  Ok, it seems like the world collapsed Tuesday night.  But age provides some perspective.  My despair as a college sophomore after Reagan was elected in 1980 was nearly bottomless and it even deepened with his reelection and his VP's election in 1988.  My votes for president did not contribute to a victory until Bill Clinton was elected when I was 31.  I have some sympathy for folks who grew up voting for Obama twice only to see Trump elected this week, but frankly you didn't have to wait a dozen years before you had someone in the White House you could have faith in. 

But I offer a few things to consider to bring solace and perhaps hope.

Had Hillary Clinton been elected, Congress would have spent the next 4 years investigating everything in her life from her real estate dealings in Arkansas 40 years ago through her over-tipping a barista at a NY Starbucks who looked vaguely Muslim in 2014.  With two houses united against her, nothing would be passed.  The Democratic Senate seats up for re-election at the 2018 midterms (23 out of 33) would be easy targets, as congressmen and senators of the incumbent president usually take a hit at midterms.  Democratic representation in the House would be depleted further.  The Republican Senate would probably deny even hearings on any Supreme Court nominations.  Any legislation she suggested would be rejected, followed by months of hearings on why she suggested it in the first place.  Yes, she would be President, but she would be ultimately domestically ineffective due to a Congress which has had half a dozen years of practice doing nothing.

Though it's grim to predict, the economy runs in cycles and it's due for a downturn (79, 87, 92, 00, 08).  Throw in soon to be enacted irresponsible tax cuts for the rich with consequential ballooning of deficit and national debt, a possible increase in prices on consumer goods should trade barriers actually be erected and reciprocated, and the economic and political uncertainty in Europe in the next two years and the likelihood of some sort of downturn of a politically harmful nature to those in power and thus optically responsible, the Republicans, is very strong.  With interest rates already at rock bottom, the Federal Reserve would have few tools to combat financial problems and a Republican Congress would likely refuse to pass a stimulus of any meaningful strength.  Their inaction will come to haunt them at election time.

As mentioned above, the coming midterm election in 2018 would be horrible for Democrats had the White House incumbent been a Democrat. The only things that truly unite Republicans are hatred of Obama and Clinton, delight in tax cuts for the rich, and the pursuit of power, no matter the human or ethical cost, so, after the tax cuts are passed, the coming two years will likely be filled with squabbling within their ranks, though they will pass some heinous legislation.  Without their hate targets, they will tend to turn upon each other, like the orcs and uruk-hai in Mordor.  Incumbent parties tend to lose seats in midterm elections with very few exceptions--twice in 80 years.  Therefore, the Republican disarray between Tea Party, Trump Party, and traditional Grand Old Party combined with the typical midterm incumbent vulnerability will help the Democrats keep seats in the Senate picked up in the 2012 election, rather than lose them if Hillary was President.  They may even pick up seats, perhaps even take back the Senate that year (so hold on a couple more years, Notorious RBG, as two parties can play at low-end judicial appointment denials).

Though many express hope the House could be taken back in traditionally anti-incumbent midterms, most seats are now so excellently gerrymandered that it will take the redistricting that follows the 2020 census to get more Democratic seats.  Frankly, our soon to be ex-President is aware of this, as is the party, so much of their political efforts in coming years should be on recapturing state legislatures, some only recently turned Republican during the anti-Obama, racism-fueled efforts of the the GOP in the elections since 2008.

The timing of the coming economic downturn will determine which election it will effect, 2018 or 2020.  The Democratic base will be energized after 2 to 4 years of Republican control.  Should the downturn come next year, it will help Democrats in the midterm elections.  Should it come before the 2020 election, combining its effects with the efforts at taking back state legislatures, the likely unpopularity of Trump and his inevitable desire for re-election, and a stronger Democratic party in the Senate, the election will hopefully bring a new dawn for Democrats, with probable control of the White House and Senate come January 2021 and, perhaps after redistricting for the 2022 election, the House.  Though it's morbid and draws on negative stereotypes to say, a lot of old racist white folks will die between today and the next two elections (it's the cigarettes and obesity), replaced by young folk, many people of color, with a thirst for justice.  The only question is who will rise up and lead the Democrats.  We don't know his or her name. 

Yes, horrible things will happen in coming years.  One, perhaps two Supreme Court nominations replacing liberal justices and continuing the conservative court for decades to come. But the Supreme Court has been conservative since the Nixon administration with the occasional swing vote of an O'Connor or Kennedy or change of heart from one of the rest of the conservative wing.  Hillary Clinton would likely not have been able to change that with the Republican stated intention to block any justice to bring the court up to 9, ignoring precedent dating to the 1860s.  So there's really not much of a change there, and we've managed to survive with a right-leaning court for decades. 

Some major revisions of health care law are likely, though they could not completely repeal ACA completely as it would have political consequences they could not endure (they wanted to repeal Medicare and Medicaid after they were passed:  both are untouchable now).  Taking away health coverage for millions won't play well.  And the lack of an instant repeal of ACA will alienate their base.  

Of course with any Republican Congress there will be huge spending on military hardware to satisfy congressional districts and donors.  Much of it will go into inventory or aid overseas, as the military doesn't even want much of it and Trump doesn't have much appetite for war. Its scale would be limited as the rationale of truly ludicrous excessive defense spending present during the cold war with the Soviet Union has but a pale echo in the current growth of Russian and Chinese military ambitions.   

We'll see some growth in Putin's power, though likely not an invasion of the Baltics, but perhaps more interactions in the "stans" of central asia as their autocrats die off leaving power vacuums.  Trump is unlikely to interfere.  Likewise with the growth of China's military to match its economic might.  Perhaps some backtracking on Iran nuclear weapons agreements, new sanctions, and escalation of hostilities in middle east fueled by fury at US aggressive policy.  Backtracking on environment legislation.  Perhaps more efforts at denying people their right to vote.  Reneging on trade agreements will not bring the instant prosperity promised, only higher prices, so more alienated republicans.

For those without the memory of the Reagan years, this all seems horrible.  But I felt similar misery that November night in 1980 that folk feel now. His tax cuts, wasteful military spending, hypocrisy in foreign affairs and teflon presidency in general were a non-stop horror show and frustration for folk like myself.   People thought the Republicans were in power for ever (it certainly felt like it).  Back then there were enough white voters to re-elect him and elect his Vice-President Bush for a term.   No longer, as long as people actually vote and vote Democratic.  Had some of the folk who voted for Jill Stein in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin voted for Hillary Clinton, Bill would be picking out White House china instead of Melania.

The US tends to take steps forward for years, sometimes decades at a time, but then faces a conservative backlash for a few years or decades, which in turn only spurs more progress. Three decades of dramatic progress from the thirties to the sixties were followed by two decades of conservative back lash.  The cycles are more accelerated now, perhaps a decade or so each way.  There can be interruptions, like the Carter presidency and, in all likelihood, the Trump presidency.  But the wave of progress that began in 2008 is probably not spent yet.  As Annie and Obama said, the sun will come out tomorrow.