Like most Americans, I could hardly wait for November 8. This election year was the most grueling, nasty and unpredictable in my lifetime. Almost everybody got predictions wrong. Everybody, that is, except my Lesia. She was confident all along that Donald Trump would be our next president.
I’ve been a Republican all my adult life. The GOP has been good to me, honoring me with many significant appointments. I am grateful.
I have participated in every presidential campaign since 1960. Lesia and I even shortened our honeymoon in 1964 to campaign for Barry Goldwater. All my presidential votes have been cast with enthusiasm.
This year was different. During the GOP primaries I initially supported Ben Carson. I had followed his life for years, read his books, and promoted him as an exemplar of grit and focus to my university classes. When Dr. Carson dropped out, my next choice was Marco Rubio. Chris Christie trashed him during the debates and the senator never recovered.
Mr. Trump’s nomination did not fill me with joy, especially after his campaign manager Paul Manafort had his people change language in the GOP platform removing references to lethal weaponry for Ukraine. Fortunately, Mr. Manafort faded quickly once his ties to Viktor Yanukovych and Vladimir Putin were exposed. Still, I found reports of close ties between Messrs. Trump and Putin extremely troubling. I was also turned off by Mr. Trump’s behavior. No “gravitas” as they once said about George W. Bush. I pegged Mr. Trump as a narcissistic, vulgar oaf, hardly a person to serve as president of the greatest country in the world.
Taras Szmagala’s interview in The New York Times gave me pause. He is an old friend, my “kum.” I respect his views.
The entire campaign season was ugly. Mud-slinging from all sides. Yuk! It got so bad that I stopped watching the evening news for a while. Who needs all that vitriol!
I agonized. I knew I could never vote for Hillary Clinton. Her advocacy of Planned Parenthood and partial birth abortion, her support for progressive Supreme Court judges, and her unbelievable lack of accomplishment – she couldn’t point to one outstanding achievement after all those years of public service – were non-starters for me. I seriously considered a write-in, perhaps John Kasich.
While I was hesitant about Mr. Trump, Lesia was not. She was on board the Trump train from the get-go. When I would grumble every time Donald said something off-putting, Lesia would make an excuse. To preserve our domestic tranquility, I finally stopped grousing. And then it happened. New disclosures from the FBI, more dirt about the Clinton Foundation, the Soros involvement and Zenon Zawada’s letter in The Ukrainian Weekly finally turned me around. During the last two weeks of the campaign, I was once again a passionate supporter of the GOP presidential candidate. I joined the “deplorables.”
Like Lesia, our two sons, Stefko and Michael, and our grandchildren were with Mr. Trump from the beginning.
Although there were many Ukrainians who supported Mr. Trump – there was even a late effort to formally establish a Ukrainians for Trump organization (led by Roman Golash, Oleh Saciuk, Jaroslav Martyniuk, Christine Hoshowsky and others), their efforts were not visible, especially in The Ukrainian Weekly, the premier English-language Ukrainian publication. Perhaps they can now resurrect the Ukrainian National Federation of Republicans.
Most Ukrainians appeared to support Hillary Clinton. Ukrainian Democrats are to be congratulated for their efforts. I pray that their talented leadership – I’m thinking primarily of Ulana Mazurkevich and Marta Farion – will not fade. We need a loyal opposition and the Democratic Party needs mending after its devastating loss. I am confident that the Ukrainian Caucus in Congress will also step into the vacuum and continue the good fight.
This brings me to Europe and Ukraine. NATO has been surviving on our dime for decades. That was fine during the Cold War, but an adjustment is long overdue. It’s time for Europe to take care of its own defense needs. The same holds for Ukraine, which, like Europe, has neglected its armed forces for decades. As we now know, Ukraine’s elite leaders have accumulated an abundance of riches, enjoying an opulent lifestyle far above that of the average Ukrainian. It’s time for them to get off the gravy train and begin fighting for their nation. Yes, Ukraine is their nation. Enough wailing about “poor Ukraine.” What Ukraine needs now is some “tough love.”
So what now? We’ve been here before. One side wins, the other loses. That’s politics. With few exceptions in the past, Ukrainian Democrats and Ukrainian Republicans have come together to work for our common causes. We’ve moved on. I believe this will happen again.
President-elect Trump needs us too. As Peggy Noonan pointed out in her November 12 Wall Street Journal column, “A Trump administration will be populated by three kinds of people: loyalists, opportunists and patriots… It is the patriots who matter, many of whom kept away from Mr. Trump in the past. They are needed now. They have heft, wisdom, experience and insight.” Ukrainians Americans have always been patriots. Let’s remember that the United States is our country!
Michael Hnatyshyn has a great idea. Instead of carping about “how Trump is a Russian lover or useful idiot,” he writes, why not contact your congressman, the next secretary of state and others in the new administration and tell them about your concerns regarding Russia. A suggestion from me: emphasize how Russia’s behavior is a danger to the United States and the free world, not just Ukraine.
Will Donald Trump be a good president? Lesia assures me he will. I believe her. She’s been right all along.
It’s been a wonderful year. The GOP controls the White House and Congress, and the Chicago Cubs won the World Series for the first time since 1908. God is good!