Americans rose Wednesday to understand that our fate lies now in the hands of Donald Trump and a Republican Party that will, come early 2017, control all three branches of our government.
Trump was not the people's pick. In fact, Democrat and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton won the country's popular vote. But Trump won in the country's Electoral College votes - and that's the determining factor.
Trump swept to victory with an improbable "flip" of five states that President Obama won in 2008 and 2012 - Iowa, Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. His win came after an ugly campaign in which he employed racist, xenophobic and misogynistic tweets and comments to court ordinary, reliable Republican voters - mostly men - who felt left behind in a changing global and technological economy.
Now on the morning and days later, we must hope he remains the president-elect Donald Trump who, early Wednesday morning, gave a cogent, gracious victory speech of hope and unity.
"Now it is time for America to bind the wounds of division. To all Republicans and Democrats and independents across this nation, I say it is time for us to come together as one united people," he said.
That was not the Donald Trump we've come to know. Nor was it the insulting Donald Trump who pulled off this stunning sleeper of a victory because, according to some of his supporters, pollsters couldn't truly measure his popularity "because nobody wanted to admit they were going to vote for him."
What does it mean that people would vote for someone they are ashamed to say they support?
The flippant answer would be that it means they are OK with insulting women, stiffing workers, denigrating African-Americans and Jews, or threatening Muslims and immigrants - as long as no one thinks they do it.
The flippant answer would be to ask what it says that the administration of Barack Obama will be followed by the birther-in-chief?
The flippant - and short - answer is it means we've elected a man who is a paragon of all bully cultures.
But by way of a better answer, let's broaden the discussion.
Many of us thought there were more Americans who believe in progress and equality than there were Americans who would vote for a candidate who makes racist, xenophobic, misogynistic and homophobic remarks.
We were wrong. We were wrong because that "other" America already felt betrayed, bullied and lessened - by life, and by the rest of us who still had hope.
We, the "rest of us" and that "other" America, have the same needs and longings - but we're talking past each other.
Too late we realize the anger of those ordinary, reliable white Republicans who found themselves lumped into our horror of Trump's white supremacist retweets and were labeled "half deplorables."
And too late perhaps they may realize the anger of women who are passed over again and again for promotion while the gropers and the leerers among us go play golf with our bosses.
Perhaps eventually they may understand the anguish and loss of Trayvon Martin's parents and the Cleveland family of 12-year-old Tamir Rice who was gunned down in two seconds by a rookie police officer as the child was playing in a park with a toy gun. Someday they might understand the sadness and anger of Gold Star families of all religions - not just one or two.
All of us have a right to be angry, but we need to talk about that anger - not blow up our country.
Those ordinary, reliable Republicans have a right to be mad that their jobs were replaced with robots and overseas trouble-shooting shops while a bunch of guys get rich on Capitol Hill and ignore the people who elected them. But that anger should be leveled at those guys - the ones who pass the laws and stay in Congress for just enough few terms to learn their way around then move on to K Street think tanks and lobbying firms.
We wanted "change with a capital C," but the American Brexit we imploded left all those guys in Congress right where they are. Now here we are in the morning after, and what we have left for all that anger - the mad of blue-collar workers, young professionals, women, minorities and anguished communities - is a new president whom we know is polarizing, divisive, manipulative and completely comfortable with lying.
We have a man we know has said he thinks America's wages are too high and we shouldn't have a minimum wage. A man who has said he would deport 11-plus million immigrants - even their children who were born here. A man who has threatened to abandon NATO allies, start a trade war with China, bomb Middle East countries, tear up an agreement to prevent Iran from building nuclear arms and dismantle the Paris agreement on climate change.
What we don't know about our new president are what taxes he's paid, what his financial conflicts might be with foreign governments like Russia, whether he can focus his erratic mind on complicated problems like the U.S. nuclear arsenal.
Now, since we have to take him at his word, let's hope the Donald Trump, who takes office in January, is the one who gave this gracious victory speech Wednesday:
"I pledge to every citizen of our land that I will be president for all of Americans. For those who have chosen not to support me in the past I'm reaching out to you for your guidance and your help so that we can work together and unify our great country."