For four years the vast majority of the major print, online and broadcast media, politicians of both political parties and elements of his own administration have worked to prevent this president from advancing the agenda for which he was duly elected in a process that has been accepted for 232 years. This agenda represented the values, goals and practical considerations that millions of citizens of this country wanted to see advanced as policy and represented their vision of what our country should be and what actions we thought would keep us safe, prosperous and free. From the very first day, those listed above, along with a majority from the popular-culture industries – music, literature, sports and entertainment – have worked to prevent any advancement of this president’s goals and policy choices, instead tirelessly devoting their efforts, not to mention millions of dollars of private and taxpayer money, in thwarting him at every turn while desperately trying to find some reason to have him removed from office.

In the meantime, I, a registered Independent who has voted for Democrats, Republicans, Independents and Donald Trump, simply by virtue of one cast vote, have been called a racist, fascist, homophobic, intolerant, misanthropic, xenophobic, unintelligent, ignorant and worse, some of which I had to look up. Bullying, intimidation and fear have become part of daily life for many. People are afraid to voice their opinions publicly. They fear retaliation, they fear for their livelihoods, fear for their personal safety, fear public humiliation, fear being ostracized and ridiculed and labeled and branded with a modern-day “Scarlet Letter.”

Friendships have been dissolved, families torn apart, businesses negatively impacted if not utterly ruined and trust and faith in our government and the institutions among the media that are supposed to keep us informed have been destroyed because of this divide. I, personally, feel like the vote I cast four years ago after much attention to the race and careful deliberation over the candidates has to a significant degree been stolen.

I did not vote for Barrack Obama. I feared the direction he would take our country and was dubious about his trustworthiness and character, though I always saw him as ideologically honest and the type of person I could be friends with. After all, to quote Mr. Biden, “I mean, you got the first mainstream African American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that’s a storybook, man.” (Personally, I think he left out a few people and question why Biden felt it necessary to address Obama’s race at all, but that’s me.) But I respected the fact that he was elected by well-meaning people who simply believed things I didn’t, so I accepted his presidency and hoped for the best. I remembered him saying he intended to be president for all the people and though I’d heard that before I, for some reason, felt he really meant it. I was, of course, eventually proven wrong.

That the “progressives” of our country will tacitly condone a demonstrably biased media and its manipulation of the news; that they willingly ride the unbelievably powerful coattails of the social media and Silicon Valley giants – the richest among us – that used censorship and other forms of social manipulation to influence an American election; that they are content to sit idly by while elements from every branch of our government scheme and waste thousands of hours and millions (billions?) of dollars of our money in baseless and/or illegal investigations, desperate to maintain the status quo of their respective milk cows, is their business. That they choose to ignore the fact that Mr. Biden, who supported segregation and opposed integration of schools, has a long history of and has made more actual racist comments than Mr. Trump, that the credible allegations of inappropriate sexual behavior against him rival or exceed Mr. Trump’s, again, is their business. If they believe Mr. Biden, an entrenched member of an entrenched political class that desires above all else the perpetuation of its species and that finds its belief systems at the bottom of the latest poll, and if they believe supporting the malfeasance of the media and corporate giants above is “progressive,” that, too, is their business. And if they choose to ignore Trump’s accomplishments in our inner cities, in the Middle East, in prison reform (undoing that heinous, Biden-supported bill from the 1990s that Obama with both houses of Congress didn’t address), in making permanent funding for historically Black colleges, in forging new, more equitable trade agreements, etc., that also is their business. I wonder, though, why Van Jones, a Black man and top adviser to Mr. Obama, would “get beat up by liberals” when he recognizes some of this and actually credits Mr. Trump:

“Donald Trump – and I get beat up by liberals every time I say this, but I’m gonna keep saying it – he has done good stuff for the Black community,” Jones said on CNN, where he is a frequent contributor. “Opportunity zone stuff, Black college stuff. I worked with him on criminal justice stuff. I saw Donald Trump have African American people, formerly incarcerated, in the White House — embraced them, treated them well. There’s a side to Donald Trump that I think he does not get enough credit for.”

It’s never been about Trump the man, just like it’s not about Biden the man and wasn’t about Bill Clinton the sleazebag … I mean man, or Hillary Clinton the woman, or Barrack Obama the African-American man. It’s about a belief in what’s best for our country and its people and the world around us. The Democratic candidate and his supporters won this election by attacking Trump the man, by mischaracterizing him and his words and actions, by ignoring his accomplishments and by hiding the vulnerabilities of his opponent. And they had a lot of help. But it’s not winning on the truth and it’s not playing fair.

“Healing?” “Coming together?” C’mon, man!