Once upon a time, in the great city known as Chicago, a black lawyer named Harold Washington was elected mayor. It was 1983, a time of major political and racial change for that city. Washington had beaten two strong Democratic Party stalwarts, Jane Byrne and Richard J. Daley, to win the nomination. Then he beat the token Republican.

After the polls closed and the counting began to show he would win, Washington and his aides joined supporters at a large hall for a celebration. I happened to be in Chicago on another story but tagged along with other reporters as they followed the new mayor and his gang. As he addressed the cheering crowd, I joined a group of his young aides who were patting themselves on the back for winning the race over Byrne and Daley, when one of them turned to face the joyous celebrants, glared at them, and said something like this: “Yeah, it’s great. We beat them. We won the election. Now comes the hard part. Now, we got to run this town.” That thought threw a wet blanket over the victory celebration as his top aides thought about the civic, geographical, racial and political battles on the horizon.

What is next for America? The dust is settling, and we will soon know the makeup of Congress and the executive branch. But for now, we are still feeling the aftershocks of the election. I bring up this anecdote as supporters of Grandpa Don and The Veep are in a semi-swivet. The whipped Democrats huddle behind closed doors asking one another how they went wrong. Didn’t it work the last time? Whose fault was it? We worked so hard and thought we had a chance. No one liked the other guy. Right? So how did we get hammered? Was it because we spent too much time catering to the fringe elements and neglected the ordinary people who got us here in the first place? Is that why the ordinary working class voters did the unthinkable and voted for the boss?

Grandpa Don’s gang is over the top too, as they jockey for big jobs and troll the losers with online comments that are both pro and profane. Some celebrate the victory over the elite, educated governing class with the one-fingered salute, the universal symbol of derision.

The national press corps is in a full-court swivet too as they try to understand the implications of the election and figure out what comes next. It is a new ball game for them and us, the taxpayers. Over the weekend we had no clue what Grandpa Don and his minions would do for an encore.

Sure, we have seen the blueprint (Project 2025) and have heard the speeches from Grandpa Don and his henchmen, so we know some things are on the front burner, things like rounding up a million or so undocumented aliens and sending them back home. That sounds like an impossible task that could cost billions and take years to accomplish.

There has been a lot of talk about imposing tariffs on imported goods to punish the Chinese for manufacturing America’s favorite things, from underwear to computers to golf clubs to solar panels. Will those tariffs be passed along to U.S. customers, hammering the same Americans it is supposed to protect? Watch what this does to our budgets.

Grandpa Don talked about fixing inflation. America hopes he succeeds. We know inflation hammered the family budget as groceries and other goods became a lot more expensive than they were a few years ago. We watched inflation send the price of a dozen eggs go from $2 something to $4 something, although a gallon of regular of gasoline seems to be about 50 cents cheaper than last year.

We all can see wars in Ukraine and the Holy Land ramping up. But, and it is a big but, Grandpa Don promised to bring peace to them all in a few days. The Ukrainians, the Russians, Hezbollah/Hamas, and Jerusalem are not as sure. I certainly hope so, but history tells us there have been battles in the Holy Land since and before Christ was a cub scout. The same goes for Ukraine, where, once upon a time, the Vikings ran slave markets in Kyiv.

Meanwhile, Grandpa Don and his minions pledged to solve all the ills of the world just as soon as they were given the keys to the White House. However, if they fail to deliver, we could be in for serious trouble.

Dear readers, we are now in a period of drastic change. Once again, I urge you to fasten your seat belts. It will be a bumpy ride. I wish Grandpa Don and his minions the best of luck.

I fear for the worst.