The weary and tested among us felt the skitter of the susurrus in the early morning. Unlike two years ago, we didn’t stare vacantly into the nothing.

Him.
Again.
F***.

This susurrus brought the most dangerous of things. A possible lifting of dread, the merest reflection of a glimmer of hope. Its whisper derives from the collective disquiet of those who’ve recently benefited from the usurper summoning all manner of power. And it only happened because the inevitable consequence of the unqualified with a blunt hammer ripping their pocketbooks.

We’ve been kicked with entropy. No matter what progress is made, it can be wrenched from us and stained. Entropy in nature describes the inevitability of order to disorder. In information theory, it describes the amount of uncertainty or hidden information inside a system. People can be fickle, guided by enrichment, and distracted by the loudest and dumbest voice in the room.

We cannot easily slip comfortably back to assuming that the absence of visible snarls equates to kindness or benevolence. Chaos sits behind us, unseen, ready to justify all manner of things we label as heinous.

He who knocks once shall knock again. If we drop our guard, there will always be another “he.”

Those who would say, “It was another election, one among many, bearing no particular significance,” are wrong. The rise of an unqualified power monger gave similar license for people to put aside the veneer of civility and embrace the chaos. He brought frailty to the balance of power, and he did so willingly. Using the shield of adopted and false faith, he pushed the banner of infringement. His interests, his money, his power – all in a way that surpassed even the most brazen of predecessors. Erode the media, implode the infrastructure of government, vilify with intent to subvert, and cash in.

The danger was not his presence. It was the lack of systemic controls to hinder such a person. His most ardent supporters were not created by him; they were revealed. Those who stayed silent through benefit declared their allegiance toward economy over people resoundingly.

This election is largely a referendum on direction and economy.

But those who shake their heads in denial that it was also a rebuke of such men are attempting to deviate the narrative toward normalcy. Taking time to understand your complicity in his emergence and dominance will cost you a sliver of your humanity.

This was not normal, not even by the standard of a country once warring with itself over its existence.

The susurrus of yesterday might well swell to a crescendo of change. It might easily falter and evaporate, too, creating more apathy in some and cynicism in others.

Taken as a whole, this election was a “No.”

As strongly as you might continue to object, this election was either a way station on the road to democracy’s ongoing erosion, or a slap to those responsible to remind them what governance must look like.

Assuming we manage to extricate ourselves from the lunacy of this type of governance, he will be forever remembered as failure personified.

This election came away with orange-stained fingers, after having slapped its rebuke.