On the other side, one local diner, located across from the court house, changed its name to "Trump Café."  This was done shortly before the election and drew the interest of regional newscasts who found the sign and owners intriguing.  The name did not harm business, only strengthened it. The diner was host to the Trump election night victory party.  There was only one Hillary sign in the entire region that I saw.  A brave soul down the street, who is a retired Episcopal Priest and has a pony tail had it displayed.
     In our county at least %85 of the residents believed if Mrs. Clinton was elected she would take away our guns.  Probably %15 thought she would take away our Bibles.  The common consensus was that she was opposed to Christianity.  I was an election judge for the Democratic Party and often observed looks of shock that I was willing to identify myself with such a band.  The gun-toting GOP granny I worked with assured me that if Clinton won she would destroy the nation.  She was not speaking figuratively.  Her and the husband both carry loaded weapons around with them in the car and stage them in the home.  I replied at this information that she must have the open carry permit.  She quickly assured me that was not the case since she would never allow the government to register her gun.  (I since found out this is not the case in the open carry permit.)  She feared the next step was concealing the weapon.  I am sure she looked with distain upon someone like myself and her former Episcopal priest who were part of a movement to destroy her America.
     The local business leader who is still a Democratic party holdout shared some valuable insight in the results of the election.  He said that at least now we can see an ease to the conspiracy theories and open hostility to his political views.  The regional volatile fear of government was trending toward more than just rhetoric.  A policeman's wife assured me that the U.S. Marshals had tried to get local sheriff deputies to sign on that when time came to confiscate weapons, the deputies would be on board.  These law enforcement officials refused the Obama Administration's attempt citing Second Amendment Constitutional rights.  Of course the story is more myth and misunderstanding than historical fact.
     As my friend stated, now they own it all, Congress, Senate and Executive.  No longer will they be able to blame Hillary Clinton for increases in social unrest, healthcare, taxes and the fact that she caused Bill Buckner to allow the ball to pass between his legs and the Red Sox lost the  World Series.  No longer can many of them blame their anxieties and community problems on the Black President.
     Serving many years in a church as minister, I look back at having to deal with the rumors and fantasies many of my members held.  I recall an active family who served in many capacities in the fellowship.  I noted the husband lost interest in church and was noticeably unhappy and depressed.  His wife told me this all started from his listening to the radio station he followed.  In Houston, the local nearest media outlet, taxis carried signs that read, "Feel Depressed, Listen to Hannity and Limbaugh."  These two personalities as much as anyone played a major part in the shaping of reality as viewed by local residents.  To some, I assume, the fact that their minister or pastor was part of some conspiracy to destroy capitalism and banish God from the public square was troubling.
     I often found myself trying to put out fires regarding these issues.  One time I discovered some of my church leaders were reading a book claiming Hillary was involved in a secret lesbian plot with Janet Reno to destroy Christianity.  Our own local congressman adhered to some of these theories.  Another time a deacon was reading Rick Scarborough's book, Enough is Enough.  I borrowed his copy and you can see where I gleaned much of the resources for writing on this sight.  It fell into my lap from local media, church members and mailings.  I grew tired of going to local Baptist ministers conferences and trying to assure the fellows there they would not be jailed for refusing to preform a gay marriage.  The last thing I did was host a conference for pastors to support public education.  Believe it or not, that was considered controversial by a group filled with home schoolers and anti- government types.
     Obama's first election brought with it new fears.  I was disappointed in my senior citizen lay leaders who were solid people, but were convinced Obama wanted them to die off and refuse them their rightly earned Medicare.  The other church I served as pastor was in Mississippi.  If the congregating found out I voted for a Black President I could not have stayed there.  My life would probably would have been threatened in that day.
     My current Bible study class in my retirement church is another case in point.  There was a frenzied time of anguish just before the election.  There was a consensus that the election would be about rejecting or accepting God in the nation.  I overheard statements that if Hillary were elected a couple of the Amendments to the Constitution were done for.  I visited with one concerned member who was a retired businessman.  He expressed concerns about the nation.  I reminded him that I personally knew several small business people and all of them had made more money in the last eight years than ever before in their lives.  Still the fears existed.
     I recall the well documented stories like the one in Alabama.  Paper industry corporations convinced the local populace to vote down a tax proposal that would have eased the burden on the middle and lower class and forced the corporations to pay their fair share.  Media ads convinced voters there to vote against their own best interest, which was noteworthy.  Again this story was repeated by the event in the state of Kansas.  Wealthy suburban donors convinced the state's middle class to vote against their own best interest as recorded in Thomas Frank's, What's the Matter with Kansas.
     The fact that Betsy Devos  will become Secretary of Education does not seem to register with school officials I have spoken to.  Most do not have a clue to what is going on.  I guess we might remind ourselves the Religious Right placed Bill Bennet, an addicted gambler who stated public education is finished in America, as its Secretary.  Bill has come and gone, but public education still attracts over %85 of the nation's students.  Does the nation really understand that our Secretary of Education does not back the idea of the University of Alabama, Ohio State, Michigan, Oklahoma, and etc.?
     Fear might be unfounded, but it is still fear.  I trust things might get a little easier as my friend suggested because Trump has been elected.  To be honest, I did not long for the idea of trying to calm down local residents and church leaders about mostly unfounded suspicions.  Moses wrote in Genesis three that unfounded suspicions are often the roots of evil.  A legendary Baptist leader once said many Baptists cannot tell the difference between a fireman and an arsonists.  He was attempting to be a fireman.  I hope my fireman days will grow easier now.