“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”

The opening line of Charles Dickens’ 1859 novel “A Tale of Two Cities” bears an uncanny similarity to the situation existing in our own country today. According to a recent poll, and being reminded, after they blew the election forecasts, to take poll results with several grains of salt, 55 percent of Americans are concerned with the future of the country under a Donald Trump presidency. Forty-five percent are optimistic that the country will prosper under The Donald.

It can’t get much closer, or much further apart, depending on how you look at it.

As for yours truly, let’s just say that since Nov. 8, I have become an aficionado of crow – baked, broiled, boiled, fricasseed, barbequed, and pureed. Rest assured, it does not taste like chicken.

There comes a time when you have to move on, and I’m there, even if means admitting to some inconvenient facts. The primary inconvenience is that The Donald won the election and is the rightful president of these shredded United States. Down, fellow progressives! Yes, I know Hillary won the popular vote by something over 2.8 million votes, but there is another inconvenient fact to bear in mind.

One of the reasons the framers came up with the much maligned Electoral College was to handicap regional candidates in favor of candidates who could muster broader national support. As some analysts have posited, if with a bit of obfuscation, her 2.8 million vote plurality is entirely the result of a Clinton landslide victory in California. Take California out of the equation and Mr. Trump carried the rest of the country by a 1.4 million vote margin.

Bottom line, the Electoral College operated exactly how the framers intended it to operate, even if the result is a bitter pill to over half the country’s voters.

In a representative democracy, if your candidate comes up short, you suck it up and support the winner – until the next time. As the ever gracious First Lady Michelle Obama said of President-elect Trump, “If he succeeds, we all succeed.”

Indeed, all Americans should hope that our new president matures beyond merely being tweeter-in-chief. Time will tell.

However, support is not carte blanche.

Donald Trump did not run a traditional campaign. He reveled in his unconventionality and unpredictability. If a candidate successfully runs as an insurgent, there is a price to be paid.

As we transition to this new administration, there should be skepticism about attempts to get on board with, or “normalize,” our new president – to portray him as fitting within accepted presidential parameters and norms with which the media and public are comfortable. Candidate Trump aggressively promised to be a president unlike any of his predecessors. He should be taken at his word. And if, in fact, he intends to remake the office, fair but intense scrutiny should be the order of the day. The public has a right to expect that he adjust to the presidency, not that the presidency be adjusted to uniquely suit him. Presidents are transitory tenants of the office. The office itself belongs to the people.

There is nothing wrong intrinsically with breaking the mold, but it bears watching. As Ronald Reagan commented, ironically quoting a Russian proverb, “trust, but verify.” In this case, trust President Trump to act within the Constitution, and in the interests of the American people, but pay very close attention to what he says, and more importantly, to what he does. Just in case.

It is possible, especially with a compliant Congress, to gut the substance of America while maintaining its outer appearance.

It has happened elsewhere. There is no guarantee it couldn’t happen here.