With all the hub-bub about Friday’s Presidential Inauguration; about who is going to be there or who is not, I want to say I will not be going. Of course my reason may not be the same as others who are not going.

I’m looking forward to the $200 million dollar event. That’s the estimated cost. One-half goes for security and I am hopeful that the “peaceful transition of power” that our United States has impressed the entire world with will be just that. Peaceful.

That’s not a given. The election of Donald Trump was a surprise and upset many an applecart. In the past, once election day was over, the country settled down and accepted the winner whether he (since we have yet to elect a woman) was your cup of tea or not. That has not been the case with the election of Mr. Trump.

I’ll be honest. The continued contention and controversy surrounding Trump by those who did not want him to win has been disappointing.

I have voted in every presidential election since 1968; that’s 13 elections. I seldom considered the party, but always the person. I have voted Democrat and Republican. I’ve won some and lost some, but when it was over, I accepted the winner as The President, whether I liked him or not. That attitude continues with the election of Donald Trump.

Some say that he is illegitimate. I don’t use the word often, but I “hate” that characterization.

Some say he did not win the popular vote. That has never been the barometer for winning the presidency. We have always had an Electoral College and 2016 was no different. By the way, one state (California) provided more than the margin for Clinton’s popular vote edge.

Many of the people who say that Trump is illegitimate point to the interference of a foreign country in our electoral process. I am not naïve and have paid attention to both sides of the argument. To me the evidence is not strong enough to use such a negative word like “illegitimate.”

This is just my opinion, but I think the loss for the Democrat candidate is much simpler. First of all, I think she took some states for granted. You’ve heard this, but she lost Wisconsin and never visited the state for the entire campaign. That’s not the fault of another nation, just a misjudgment.

Secondly, she never made clear a reason to vote “for” her. She seemed to focus on the negative aspect of her opponent.

Plus, she had the unfortunate timing of following a President who had served two terms and the people seemed to want a change. That has been the norm for our presidential elections for a long time. Whether that’s good or bad, I don’t know, but, obviously, the country did not want to continue under a Democrat administration.

On the other hand, Trump seemed to have the energy to campaign everywhere and all the time. He had a great, positive slogan “Make America Great Again.” Think what you want about a slogan, but, even as his opponents sneered, it fit well on a hat!

Talk about emails, private servers, and hacking all you want, but the majority of Americans don’t really care about any of those. Just like we do most everything, we vote with our emotions. We vote for those people who connect with us. It’s simple whether you like it or not. Trump connected better than Hillary.

And now, he’s the President. It’s in everyone’s best interest to have a successful presidency.