For weeks, it appeared the Republican Party was headed for imminent civil war. Eminent Republicans disavowed their own presidential nominee, Senators and Representatives seesawed, there were the #NeverTrumpers and the #RepublicanwomenforHillary. It seemed all but certain that Donald Trump would cause a split within the GOP and start his own party (and media empire) after inevitably losing the election.
But after Trump's stunning victory the shoe is suddenly on the other foot. Since the election, angry progressive millennial have taken to the streets in several cities to protest Trump's victory, carrying their favorite anti-Trump signs and chanting 'Not my President', in defiance of that one cardinal rule without which democracy cannot function: that the losing side must accept defeat and acknowledge the mandate of the side that prevailed.
Meanwhile, in California there is talk of secession. Yes, secession. Apparently it is no longer the exclusive go-to implausible option of deeply conservative Americans howling at the liberal course of the country, now progressives, too, have begun dreaming about their own Shangri-La, where life is communal, organic and morally superior.
For progressive millennials it was quite the year. First they were energized by an angry white Senator from Vermont who made European-style socialism cool again, talking about the need for a political revolution, of fixing a rigged economy, making education and health care free for everybody and doubling the minimum wage.
Then they were zapped by the ugly reality of party politics, learning the hard way that support and favors typically don't go to the outlier who wants to shake up system, but to the candidate who will defend the status quo, who has rubbed elbows with the establishment and knows what they want to hear.
But in a time where many are fed up with a gridlocked Washington that is more attuned to corporate America than the will of the people, running the consummate Washington insider against a populist outsider who wanted to fix Washington and bring back jobs, turned out to be a political blunder of epic proportions.