Build a world in which Trump will not thrive
Donald Trump could hardly have done a worse job as president. He inherited a growing economy, a healthy population, and a country that had begun to heal race relations under a two-term black president. He is leaving office with the economy going into the second dip of a deep recession, after having failed to respond effectively to Covid-19. He has praised violent white supremacists, alienated all but small contingents of minorities, and inspired a seditious insurrection targeting The Capitol and the constitutionally mandated counting of electoral votes. He was only impeached twice. He gave cause for many more indictments.
Trump still has substantial support in the Republican Party, a significant portion of which supported his effort to overturn election results and even the January 6 rioting. Only 10 Republicans joined the Democrats in voting for his second impeachment. If we are to believe one of the Republicans, there was serious discussion among them of the validity of state legislatures availing themselves of the opportunity to change the popular vote outcomes and choose a state’s electors, regardless of claims of fraud. That possibility is left open by current laws and the constitution, but it is hard to imagine a more anti-democratic notion.
The Republican Party now finds itself weakened, split, and tied to a defeated president who won’t even extend the standard courtesies of a concession speech and attendance at his successor’s inauguration. Not that he would be welcomed, as President-elect Biden has made clear. Even the most moderate, mild-mannered, and bipartisan leaning politicians has his limits. Trump will instead no doubt try to steal the limelight with some stunt between now and noon on January 20. Pardons for his family, friends, rioters, himself? An attack on Iran? An appearance at a demonstration the day of Biden’s inauguration? Who knows: in this he is clever and malicious. He’ll find something.
Suspension of his Twitter account will handicap Trump a bit. I confess to mixed feelings about that. He unquestionably used it to incite violence, so Twitter should long ago have blocked him. The history of the last four years might have been far more salubrious had it done so. But limits on free speech have a way of expanding to people who are far less culpable. Belarusian President Lukashenko no doubt feels his democracy-advocating opponents should have their social media access cut off. How about Iran’s Supreme Leader, its President, and its Foreign Minister? I don’t like their regime and think they are guilty of massive human rights abuses, but are we going to cut off all foreign leaders who commit them?
Those issues are for another day. Today we can bask in the notion that Trump will soon be out of office, his Congressional supporters are in disarray, companies are cutting off contributions to those who voted against certifying the electoral results, and Trump’s base is sorely disappointed if not yet disillusioned. We can also relish the rise to power of a calm, empathetic, capable President Biden, who is busy appointing a diverse administration of serious people and developing plans for meeting the health and economic crises that besiege us.
Nothing is guaranteed. Trump will retreat and regroup, along with the bankrupt National Rifle Association, his hypocritical evangelical supporters, his sons and daughter-in-law, the soon to be disbarred Rudy Giuliani, and those Republicans more interested in regaining power than in standing for conservatives principles, which were largely anathema to Trump.
But on Martin Luther King Day, we can be thankful for all those–black, white, male and female, and everything in between–who voted for the kind of America that King wanted: “a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” If we build that kind of world, the likes of Trump will not thrive.
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