ON THE EVE OF A NEW PRESIDENT, A NATION DIVIDED

Special to EL Rrun-Rrun

With just a bit over 50 days before the inauguration of the next president of the United States January 20, in the midst of a raging pandemic that has killed more than a quarter of a million of our fellow citizens, and a polarized nation, the ship of state can only be said to be floundering.

The din from the demagogues on both sides of the political divide are drowning out the counsel of moderation from the center, the inevitable home ground of past majorities in U.S. elections.

The republic will survive, as it always has, but its moral standing and national character in the world has taken a hit because of the latest tenant at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Will this nation ever achieve the international standard it once held? 

When Trump claimed that he was the best president in history, including the likes of Abraham Lincoln, Washington, FDR, Kennedy, etc., he was not just engaging in demagoguery, but also indirectly criticizing all his predecessors before the world. Our national life became a horrid reality show and he basked in slinging mud from the bully pulpit of the presidency. He demeaned every citizen of this country with his braggadocio.

To what end? When more than 80 million Americans voted against him (or for his opponent Biden) and he ended up losing the popular vote by nearly seven million (73,923,495), how can anyone not agree that it was a resounding rejection of his candidacy? More than that, it was a rejection of all the divisive rhetoric and weasel wording of this presidency. It was a rejection of the "alternative facts" Trumpites claimed when putting a spin on everything, notably their failures.

Trump would go on the stump and claim that administration had done the most "incredible," "outstanding," "beautiful" (you pick a flowery adjective) work on COVID-19 as the USA lost more people to the virus and had a higher infection rate than any country in the rest of the industrialized world.

And he launched a civil war between his militias of deplorables (armed and chanting "Jews will not replace us") on something as simple as a face covering to protect them against the virus even though his scientific COVID-19 team and the CDC recommended their use and begged him to stop holding superspreader mass gatherings during his campaign.

It didn't matter to him. 

What mattered was winning the game, and if not winning, then trying to steal it from the voters, something that he accused Biden and the Democrats of doing.

Black was white, the bottom became the top, and reality was fudged to complete the myopic vision of a blind man leading the lemmings over the cliff. 

Putting things right will not be easy for the incoming administration, and there will be a constant sniping from the Trump adherents who will continue nipping on the heels of the Biden Team. But no one ever said governing was easy.  

And making things right while a Republican Senate settles on a policy of obstruction and harassment will make it even harder. Hopefully, cooler heads on both sides will temper the national debate and internecine warfare can be slowed down to a dialogue for the good of all of us.