The media didn’t want it. Wall Street didn’t want it. Your professors didn’t want it. The President of the United States didn’t want it. But you wanted it. And you took it. Nov. 9 is a new day. A day when the rulers of this country, the ones that took us to war in Iraq, that destroyed our economy, that seeks to take away our sovereignty, liberty and destiny, was told, in no uncertain terms, that they were mortal. This was a blow into the hull of the establishment and the ship is now officially sinking.

This was do or die. For the right. For America. For the ideals and values upon which it was founded. And we won and we will continue to win. America will not become a country where a member of the president’s inner circle can commit blatant felonies and still assume high office. America will not become a country where politicians can demonstrate blatant disregard for rule of law. America will not become a country where makers can be subjugated by a conspiracy of takers.

At least, not yet. The price of liberty, after all, is constant vigilance and there is always another election.

There are things I do not like about Donald Trump, but today I do not care, and anybody who cares about truth, about justice, about the American way, should not care either. What we have now is the best of all feasible outcomes. There is nothing we could have done differently to improve our payoff.

Some of you on the right may think that this is for some reason the time to make apologies. To signal virtue for your peers, to assure them that their wolf-cries of racism, sexism, classism and countless other liberal snarl words do not necessarily apply to you. You may have some thought in your mind of “being the bigger person” or demonstrating humility in victory. But remember every condescending remark on campus about ignorant rednecks or being called a “basket of deplorables.” Were the situations reversed, would you expect such graciousness and courtesy?

Likewise, many of my fellow Libertarians may think that this is the time to switch sides, as we often tend to do, in an attempt to educate those without control of the state apparatus on the many ways that said apparatus can hurt. I say that this is not the time. We did our part for the last eight years, telling anybody who would listen about the dangers of expanding the power of the executive. Telling them that a government that can give you whatever you want can also take everything you have. That it is dangerous to assume that you will always be in power as you determine what power you will take.

But I challenge any Libertarian to tell me of one time that our friends on the left cared. Some lessons need to be learned the hard way and I, like many Americans, am tired of losing.

It’s time to start winning again and we’re off to a fantastic start.

Marcel Gautreau is the President of the Hofstra Students for Liberty

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