Way back in 2004, just after he lost his second straight start against the New York Yankees, Red Sox pitching ace Pedro Martinez uttered a quote that perfectly captured a painful moment in New England sports history.

“They beat me,” Martinez said. “They’re that good right now. They’re that hot. I just tip my hat and call the Yankees my daddy.”

Early Wednesday morning, against almost all expectations, prognostications and, yes, hallucinations, President-elect Donald J. Trump became our daddy.

The Red Sox, of course, went on to win four straight from the Yankees in the American League Championship Series en route to their first World Series title in 86 years.

There will be no such reversal of Tuesday’s stunning presidential election. For the next four years, love him or despise him, Trump will sit atop the pinnacle of power over the free world.

Will he somehow unite us, as he promised in his victory speech?

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Or are the wounds from this campaign too raw, the divisions too deep, for the American electorate to move forward as one into a future as unplanned as it is unpredictable?

And where does this election for the ages leave Maine?

That last one is easy: We’re as divided as we’ve ever been.

Trump won big in the north and central regions, while Hillary Clinton won big along the southern coast and midcoast.

Democrat Chellie Pingree cruised to an easy re-election to Congress in the 1st District, while in the 2nd District, Republican Bruce Poliquin did the same.

Despite Democratic gains in both chambers, our Legislature remains divided between a Democratic-controlled House and a Republican-controlled Senate.

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We raised the state’s minimum wage and adopted ranked-choice voting. Yet at the same time, we voted no on mandatory background checks for private gun sales.

And we’re still too close to call on legalizing marijuana and raising taxes to increase school funding.

Wednesday afternoon, I asked a sleep-deprived Sen. Roger Katz, R-Augusta, for his thoughts on Tuesday’s vote and its impact on the deepening divide between the two Maines.

Why Katz?

Two reasons.

First, in an op-ed published in this newspaper back in August, he denounced Trump for “his cruel and bitter ideas” and declared him “not fit to be president.”

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Second, despite breaking ranks so publicly with his party on its presidential nominee, Katz just won re-election to his fourth Senate term with a whopping 77 percent of the vote – the highest majority for any contested Senate seat.

So what say Katz now about the man who just turned the press, the pollsters and the pundits on their collective ear?

“He is the president-elect and he is now my president,” Katz said. “But I am worried about the direction he may attempt to take us based on what he himself has said.”

Katz isn’t the only one.

Clinton, on her way to claiming three of Maine’s four electoral votes, won 76 percent of the vote in Portland to just 18 percent for Trump.

Thus it should come as no surprise that two young women planted themselves in the middle of Monument Square during Wednesday’s lunch hour with a large sign offering “Free Hugs” to anyone in need of a little consolation.

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Katz said Trump’s win strongly reminds him of Gov. Paul LePage’s first victory, in 2010.

In both cases, he noted, a male, Republican outsider known for his jagged edges ran against a female Democrat with a long record of public service. In both cases, the woman sought to become the first female elected to an executive office.

Like Hillary Clinton, former House Speaker Libby Mitchell did not benefit from her lengthy government resume. Rather, it became her biggest liability.

“Particularly in the last month or so, Trump’s most effective argument was that (Clinton) has been part of the establishment for 30 years. She can’t be a change agent,” Katz said. “And that was so reminiscent of Libby Mitchell’s run, why Libby couldn’t win. Not that she wasn’t a fine person, but she could not be a credible spokesperson for change because she has been there for so many years.”

Now, Maine waits to see if history repeats itself even further.

Will Trump follow in the footsteps of LePage, worshipped by his base and detested by many outside it as he makes headline after headline for all the wrong reasons?

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Or could Trump the bomb thrower suddenly morph into a saner, softer version of himself – no longer prone to the politics of outrage because he no longer needs to whip up his followers into an over-performing frenzy?

“I’m an eternal optimist,” Katz said gamely. “I’m optimistic he will understand that the job of running for office as an outsider, which he excelled in, is very different from the job of governing. We collectively will hope that he grows into that role.”

Closer to home lurks another worry: Might LePage, who boasts that he was Donald Trump before Donald Trump, take this election as a mandate to drive an even deeper wedge between the two Maines?

“Exactly,” Katz replied. “I’m afraid that might be exactly right.”

From where Katz sits, the current state of the body politic is no longer about political parties. While both the Republicans and Democrats, here in Maine and nationally, go through what he calls “an identity crisis,” Trump supporters clamor for refuge amid the cross-currents of globalization and other forces far beyond their control.

What Trump calls “this movement,” however repulsive it may sometimes look and sound, is at its core a demand by half of Maine, indeed half of America, that someone, anyone, speak for them for a change.

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Is Donald Trump that someone? Can he successfully govern as that someone?

We’ll see.

But as the two Maines reverberate from this election for the ages, what was once unthinkable is now a newly carved milestone in U.S. history.

Donald Trump, heaven help him, is here to stay.

He’s America’s daddy now.

Bill Nemitz can be contacted at:

bnemitz@pressherald.com


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