This is a series of opinion pieces on the Lao America response to post-elections 2016.  For Lao Americans, the results of this year’s presidential election in many ways didn’t come as a surprise. After all, since our diaspora began over four decades ago, we’ve seen that any number of unusual candidates can rise into public office, such as actors Ronald Reagan, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Clint Eastwood, or Jesse Ventura. A good study of civics obliges us to place faith in the electoral college system, designed to ensure small states have an equal vote as much as larger states to preserve the republic. This year the statistics show that a little over 46% of eligible voters did not do so, but Minnesota, at least, came out in higher voter turnout than the national average. We know that our local fellow Southeast Asian and API communities organized to get out the vote and to encourage our fellow Lao to be civically-engaged. For the next four years or so, the Republican party will now be in charge of all …