I like to write shite. MAGA!

For the first time in a quite a while, the slippery serpent of the Silent Majority emerged from the depths of the lagoon to make its presence known in the American political waters.

It’s purpose for surfacing? To ensure that Donald J. Trump will be the 45th President of the United States. When taking into account the distinct experience gap between Trump and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, this decision is a clear mandate from the U.S. electorate.

After this week, the serpent will likely slip beneath the surface and return to the dark depths, quietly waiting for the next time its voice is needed. What happens between now and then is up to us.

So what happened? Hillary Clinton was supposed to have wrapped up this election by 10:00 PM Eastern Standard Time on November 8.

What happened was an election that represented exactly what the democratic process is supposed to embody: the voice of the people.

A new age has dawned in modern American politics.

It would be too simplistic to call it the “Internet Age,” because we’ve been living in the Internet Age since 2000. The Internet Age doesn’t accurately capture the phenomenon which we saw play out this election season. The term “Internet Age” is more emblematic of e-mailing, Uber, and cat videos.

This new age is a politically-savvy version of the Internet Age. It represents a maturation of the public’s use of the internet in conjunction with organizations such as WikiLeaks, who make it their mission to provide the public with information. Information which – in an ideal democratic republic – would be available around the clock to citizens.

Let’s call it the “Vigilance Age.”

Technology has broken down and dissolved the physical barriers that once lay between the private actions of public officials and the common citizens. Walls and distance can no longer insulate elected officials from the people who keep them in office.

A clear message has been sent to the D.C. establishment: clean up your act. Otherwise, we will find out. And we have no problem voting you out of office in lieu of an inexperienced candidate.

Whether or not FBI Director James Comey’s recent actions played a significant role in this election - which they most likely did - should be irrelevant. If a presidential candidate is even under threat of a criminal investigation by the FBI, that should be a troubling sign. Simply put, the American people told the Democratic Party “we’re not stupid.”

There is no denying that Trump made quite a number of questionable and objectionable comments during his campaign. Yet, the American electorate just made it clear that they care more about a government which works for them than they do about the aesthetics of their preferred political candidate.

No longer will voters passively sit back and allow established politicians to regurgitate canned talking points and politically correct feel-good messages and expect those platitudes to drag them across the 270-vote threshold. Voters will delve deeper and listen to the behind-the-scenes whispers of what exactly these public figures are up to when they are not politicking in front of television cameras.

Rightly or wrongly, Trump’s election is a sort of chemotherapy for American politics. There is no telling what the short-term ramifications will be, but the long-term effects will, hopefully, be positive.

Elected officials, and the individuals they appoint to government positions, are supposed to be beholden to the people they serve. That’s what Adams, Madison, and the other Founding Fathers intended when they emerged from Independence Hall in 1787. That’s what this election was about. It was about taking American politics away from the established elite and giving it back to the people.

The new question is: Can the American people – armed with unprecedented levels of information - handle this new and incredibly important responsibility?

Perhaps the silent serpent has found a new tool for exerting its influence.