Could we agree that any woman trying to lead the free world, who cried in prime time, would be run out of Dodge? I finally tuned into the Netflix series 'The Crown', and I assure you that the young queen Elizabeth will be steely and duty-driven -- keeping it together when her father dies. And that is exactly how the second episode ends, with Elizabeth burying her adoring love and grief for her dead father deep in her heart, now masked by royal obligations to her public and the entire British Empire.

Watching 'The Crown' knowing that the electoral college voted on Monday for Donald Trump as America's next president, I can't help thinking about Republican John Boehner's arrival as Speaker of the House. He wept through his 2010 60 Minutes interview, a reality that did not amuse me in the least, given the Republican agenda for America. In fact, those tears are typically called a charade when a damsel in distress turns on the floodgates.

Indeed when I wrote about Boehner's intentions to lead the charge against abortion and contraception rights in America, it was after after watching a chilling meeting with his chief of staff Mick Krieger accept one of those tiny plastic babies in perfect form meant to represent a six-week old fetus. In reality, those cells and molecules are a blob, and I don't mean to be disrespectful in any way. But it's another example of post-factual information. To me the meeting signalled the hell that poor women in America would go through as Republicans ripped away not only abortion rights but also access to contraception and general health care for women living all over America in impoverished communities. There is no satisfaction in saying that my instincts were correct.

Still, I agreed with Rachel Maddow after the '60 Minutes' tearsfest to spare the whip for incoming leader of the House of Representatives John Boehner -- because, after all, we are Smart Sensuality People with Heart.

A Tearful Goodbye

Like Boehner in 2010, sometimes we are all caught up in the symbolism of the moment. I cried, for example, watching the QE2 leave New York Harbor for the last time in October 2008, heading for Dubai via England. I hastened to the Hudson River from my lower Manhattan apartment that evening, my spirit wet not only with light rain but grave concerns about the plunging of our overheated Wall Street economy into financial disaster for countless Americans. Those massive Bush tax cuts for wealthy Americans -- the ones that will pale under those envisioned by the Trump administration -- did nothing to ignite the American economy. I'm speechless that Republicans not only continue to make the same 'ol arguments about the tax cuts and job creation, but that no reputable news person or pundit asks them why tax cuts failed to help the middle class the last time Congress passed them. On the subject of corporate tax reform, I support the need.

The QE2 did a nautical dance in Manhattan that night, as she made her final bow in the company of Cunard's new Queen Mary II, the fresh face of Cunard's cruise ships. My heart was heavy that this was somehow the end of an era unless this great ships' new life in Dubai was for real and not more boys club hype.

Despite all my best wishes for Elizabeth in her new life in Dubai, one of our favorite babes, lay in mothballs back in 2010, her makeover a victim of global financial madness and funny money. I regret to say, she remains in drydock today and in a state of profound neglect. While the American economy is generally strong, our national infrastructure is akin to that grand lady's.

As the country now faces a Trump administration committed to drastic and dramatic changes in the future of our country -- not that we don't have serious issues that require major attention -- this Boehner weeping episode on '60 Minutes' is front and center in my mind. From all I know, Trump has no heart and I've rarely heard him say a good word about what America does right -- or women like myself, who he and his supporters despise. Steve Bannon and Kellyanne Conway would like to put me in mothballs, too.

Sober Fact From Tearful Fiction

While I detest Donald Trump's testosterone-rich, tiny fingers arrogance, at least he doesn't channel a John Boehner -- crying about giving America’s kids a great education and improving the lives of America's poor -- when he had “voted against providing health insurance for children (many times), against student aid, against unemployment benefits, against equal pay, against food safety, against money for teachers, against raising the minimum wage, against tobacco education, mine safety, alternative energy, pollution control, whistle-blower protection, science and technology research. If he were making his decisions based on what government programs might help today’s schoolchildren reach their dreams, like the Kennedy- and Johnson-era programs that helped him, his voting record would be very different. It is a deep enough contradiction to make him weep for the future,” wrote the LA Times

Hearing Boehner weep saying that he made a success of himself “working every rotten job there was”, calling up the image of Republicans being God-loving hard workers, compared to the rest of us who seek government handouts, I got out the kleenex and began practicing my own version of a '60 Minutes' interview. Something tells me that Democratic minority leader Nancy Pelosi didn't weep either when she became Speaker of the House in 2008. She's another female with backbone.

So here goes -- Anne doing Boehner style in her own '60 Minutes' hypothetical interview back in 2010.

“I still cry when I hear America, the Beautiful”. (eyes glistening and welling up. Throat tightens, too.) “I worked from the time I was 12… not because … (small sob and pause) I was poor (longer sob) but because I didn’t want to be at home. (Tears really welling now.) . . I am proud (unable to speak) to say that I cleaned houses when I was 12 … (sorry, we need a five-minute break) … because even then I was an entrepreneur. I made $1 an hour for cleaning toilets, twice as much as $.50 for babysitting. (sob, sob, sob).
I worked over 30 hours a week all through high school, 13 days out of 14 … (sob, sob, sob, sob) … and I am proud to say (sob, sob, sob) that I never took a dime in unemployment insurance or welfare. (unable to continue)
Forgive me (sniffles only, backbone strengthening). Even though I made my own way in America, with no help from my parents or the federal government, I have a brain and a heart. And I am a realist who studies charts, numbers and financial documents like operating statements.
I also know the difference between drama girls and the brainiacs. Oh God, I hope I didn’t offend anybody. How did I do?”

In most modern marriages, a point is reached when the tears don’t work anymore. The crier is just that; a crier. So if it’s OK with you Republican dudes and dudettes, I insist on talking truth in Donald Trump's post-factual world.

Let's Keep Running the Numbers In Trump's Post-Factual World

Keep crying, I told Boehner back in 2010; it’s good for men to cry. But like Rachel Maddow, the Snake Charmers, aka smart women with big brains, got out the chalk board, running the real numbers in 2011 to this very day. Those numbers tell facts, not the fabled fiction of life in America as it could be, if only the government got out of our faces. This entrepreneur doesn't buy it.

Your America is no more, says Trump. In many ways he's right. I do share Boehner's tears on that critical subject, although he's now a Washington lobbyist and enjoying his golf game, after being run out of town by the Republican Freedom Caucus.

I pray that 'The Crown' will inspire me in some way, because I always did like a bit of British pageantry while rejecting their ruthless history of colonialism. The world is bloody complicated, I always say. And we about to watch one old-fashioned, QE2 program after another put into mothballs.

QE2 arriving in New York harbor in May 1969 on a maiden voyage that took her 4 days 16 hours and 35 minutes.

That magnificent ship made her maiden voyage in 1969, as President Lyndon Johnson's 'Great Society' programs took root in America. Built on the back of FDR's social programs like Social Security, Johnson's programs had dramatic impact on American life. We all agree that many government programs need reform. But we have been for decades in a battle for the heart and soul of America, and it's very probable that we can't agree on a joint vision forward.

My values are not those of Donald Trump, and I loathe the man. But he shouldn't be mistaken about Democratic women as progressive pussycats. In fact, we have nerves of steel as we face a tremendously difficult battle ahead. There will be no charm offensive from the Republicans; there will be no tears from House Speaker Paul Ryan. It's time for a battle royale in America, and like it or not, America is about to have one. ~ Anne

Related: Why Is Netflix's 'The Crown' About Queen Elizabeth II Relevant To Us Today?

New York Magazine weighed in on 'The Crown',

Elizabeth is a prime example of how we use notable people to talk about bigger cultural narratives in the modern era — the very length of her reign, at this point, gives her about as many years of material as the longest-running daytime soaps. And as a result of simply being a human in a human family, we have lots of grist for the narrative mill. Changing attitudes toward divorce and remarriage, toward formality, toward the media and notoriety, toward love and propriety: All of them are readily available plots about the world that we can find and examine and tear apart within the royal family. Even better, Elizabeth’s age now lets us examine who we are today against a previous generation’s paradigm of the world. She’s a living Forsyte Saga, and her visibility means that she’s not just your beloved grandmother who still has some mid-century opinions. She’s the Queen, so her perspective on the world, on what the U.K. is as a country, on nationhood and social mores, is still a living piece of the United Kingdom’s identity. But at the same time, she’s essentially just a beloved and occasionally amusing national mascot, in a hat and a pearl necklace.