Donald Trump’s victory two weeks ago weighs heavily on the minds many just as we prepare for the holiday when we’re supposed to be thankful for the blessings of the  past year.

The election of a new president is usually a time of renewal and excitement as the country celebrates the selection of a new leader, but his election left some unsure, at best, and many more outright fearful of what the new president and Congress could do to affect the lives of millions in the United States and around the world.
Donald Trump promised during his campaign to deport millions of undocumented immigrants, ban Muslims, cut funding for Planned Parenthood, repeal Obamacare, and to “bomb the s**t” out of ISIS, and bring back waterboarding in the fight against terrorism.
Trump has also pledged to appoint a conservative judge to the Supreme Court that could tip the balance of the court on many important issues before the Court, including potentially overturning Roe v. Wade, same-sex marriage, and enforcement of Obama’s deferred deportation orders.
And Trump’s hiring of people known for their connections to alt-right groups, climate change skeptics, and anti-choice advocates leads many to fear dramatic reversals in many of the policies that have been passed in recent years.
One policy championed by President Obama that has impacted the health and welfare over 20 million people, including millions of Latinos, is the Affordable Care Act, known casually as Obamacare. Many working families, especially in California, have been able to enjoy the benefits of health care that they had never been able to afford in the past.
The Republican-led Congress has voted more than 49 times to defund Obamacare, but they have never articulated any clear plan to solve the immediate healthcare needs of millions. Trump is now promised to repeal Obamacare in his first 100 days in office and replace it with a “wonderful” system, whatever that means.
For women, Trump’s opposition to Planned  Parenthood could now deliver on the many threats from Congressional Republicans to defund the organization that provides health care services to millions of women. Republicans’ opposition is rooted in their opposition to abortion, even though those services account for less than 2 percent of Planned Parenthood’s entire scope of women’s health services, including breast and cervical cancer screening, STD testing, and family planning counseling and contraception methods.
For immigrants, of course, Trump’s pledge to deport undocumented ones, ban Muslim ones, and institute “sever vetting” for Syrian ones, has left millions in fear of deportation squads, internet camps, and unfair  discrimination based on their skin color or religion.
The silver lining of Trump’s election, if there is one, may be that he has already begun to soften on some of his most controversial of his campaign pledges, giving some hope that his aggressive political positions may have been overstated to win Republican votes.
In recent days, Trump has already floated the idea that gay marriage has already been decided, that Hillary Clinton should not be prosecuted (as he promised to do during the second Presidential debate), and to focus the deportations first on undocumented immigrants that have already been convicted of a crime.
Trump, who for many years advocated much more liberal views than those he now espouses, may have played the role of a much more conservative Republican than he actually is just to get elected.
And now that he won largely without the support of the majority of the leaders in Congress, Trump may be free to govern as he sees fit, disconnected from the usual political positions of the party he now leads.
For liberals, Democrats, progressives, and intellectuals that opposed Trump and now fear his reign, their concerns may be overstated. Sure, their candidate lost (for some it was Bernie Sanders) but the boogieman they see in Trump may not end up being as scary as they dread.
In reality, just about any of the other 15 Republicans that ran for their Party’s nomination against Trump would have been worse for liberal issues. Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, and Mike Huckabee would have been more opposed to these issues and more committed to end them than Trump.
So, as we gather for dinner with our families this week to give thanks for what we have, we can take solace in the fact that things could have been worse for many people we care about, even if that thought still doesn’t calm their fears.
In the end, we should be thankful our country has recovered from a devastating recession, we have not suffered another major terrorist attack, and our overall economy has improved the lives of many.
We can still be hopeful that the future is bright, and our best days are still ahead.
Happy Thanksgiving and God Bless.