The End of An Error

Four years ago today, I penned a post titled “The Last Week of Obama’s Presidency.” In that post I reflected on the eight years of the Obama administration as it came to an end, his successes and his misses. I also discussed my admiration for then-President Barak Obama as a person. In particular, I commented on how President Obama never once gave in and reacted spitefully to republican-led attacks against him no matter how vile and personal.

I continue to admire former President Obama and his family. I cannot say the same about Twice Impeached Pres*dent trump. The nicest thing I can say about trump is that Wednesday will mark the end of an error in American History.

Four Years Ago

The 2016 election that handed leadership of our nation to trump left me feeling sick. The first thing I said after seeing projections of trump’s electoral college victory was apologize to Winnie for what her adopted country had just done. Since that election, I have never once seen or heard anything trump did that impressed me. I have never seen or heard anything that would cause me to think that there was any sliver of decency in Donald Trump or any of his children, or even his present wife.

Four years ago, our nation was generally respected by other decent nations. Yes, North Korea didn’t think much of us, and neither did a lot of people in the Middle East. President Putin of Russia and senior Russian leadership also didn’t think too highly of us. This was as it should have been. Our economy had somewhat recovered from the near global economic collapse bequeathed us by the former (Republican) President Bush. We had successfully weathered three near-miss pandemics (Swine flu, Ebola, and MERS), and had established a strong pandemic early-warning and preventive system. President Obama himself was considered one of the most admired men of the free world.

Today

Two weeks ago we witnessed at attack on our Capitol Building by thousands of people convinced that the 2020 election was somehow “stolen” from trump by a shadowy cartel of liberal conspirators that included the former president of Venezuela – who had died four years earlier. These thousands of people traveled from where ever the hell they came from to descend upon our nation’s Capitol, answering a call from trump to “defend his election.”

The plan seemed to be storm the Capitol building and take our elected officials hostage or lynch them. Then, force the (remaining) officials to change the election results so their man Donald Trump would remain President. Then these people all planned to return home to their jobs and resume their normal lives.

That storyline wouldn’t even make a good novel.

In other news, we’re currently in the midst of a 100-year pandemic with the United States poster child for how not to handle it. As of today, John Hopkins reporting data shows 397,650 Americans have died from this pandemic – about twenty percent of the global total.

Our economy has effectively collapsed. The only businesses doing well are major multi-nationals and internet-marketing companies. Small businesses that formed the backbone of local communities are effectively gone. Some may come back, someday. Many will not. As many as 35 million people in the U.S. could face eviction for non-payment of rent. More than 50 million Americans are be facing hunger, with their only source of food the local food bank. Public schools have descended into complete chaos with most school children as much as six months behind where they should be in their educational development.

Global Standing

America has become a pariah state over these past four years. North Korea is openly mocking us and parading around submarine-launched nuclear tipped missiles they didn’t have four years ago. Iran is resuming construction of nuclear facilities halted after President Obama had closed the deal on a nuclear arms treaty. A nuclear-arms treaty trump torn up on almost his first day in office. Our Secretary-of-State Mike Pompeo cancelled his final trip abroad last week as foreign leaders would not meet with him. Many of those same foreign leaders now call trump a “criminal.”

Our Future

I didn’t have any real feelings for President-elect Joe Biden either way during his years as Obama’s right-hand man. He seemed to be competent and loyal to our President, and all things considered did a good job as Vice-President. He has a painful life story and pulled through all of his personal losses. Biden is also the oldest man to ever be elected to President. He’s facing challenges on multiple fronts like no president ever.

Of course, our Republicans have shown us who they are, again, as they did during Obama’s administration. As of today (Republican) Mitch McConnell’s Senate has been in recess without even starting the process of confirming Biden’s picks for Cabinet secretaries. This is in direct contrast to the historical norm of the Senate confirming at least key nominees prior to Inauguration so the new President can get to work. Some trump officials, including key leaders at the Pentagon, have even refused to meet with Biden’s transition team.

There is increasing evidence some elected Republicans gave assistance to the insurrectionists storming the Capitol Building two weeks ago. If/when this proves to be true, it means President Biden has Republican opposition who literally supported kidnapping and murder of elected officials as means of keeping him out of office. The FBI is currently screening the 25,000 National Guard troops planned to guard the Inauguration Wednesday. They’re screening to verify these troops won’t turn on their own Commander-in-Chief.

My Commentary

I wish I could sound hopeful about our future. But I can’t. Four years ago I felt a sick dread of the future with trump in the White House. Event’s have proven I was correct to feel that dread. I still have that same feeling of dread for the next four years. The only good note is that the trump error will soon be behind us.