To the editor:

As those of us living in this blue island in a sea of red start to recover from the deep depression and abject fear occasioned by the events of Nov. 8, we have started to cast about for any silver lining at the edge of the cloud.

It is entirely possible that Donald Trump is not really a manic but only played one on television in order to get votes.

Donald Trump has promised many things, and maybe, just maybe, instead of getting a big, beautiful wall, deportation squads, a trade war, nuclear proliferation and 20 million people losing their health insurance, we’ll get infrastructure repair, modernization of the military, strengthening of social security, and nice tax cut. Of course that will blow up the deficit, but that’s a small price to pay, and Republicans always do that anyway. And deficit spending really can stimulate the economy.

So there is always hope, if just a little. But, in the best case, we still have to live with the realization that half the country voted for a man who did a really good impersonation of a manic.