Inauguration and Insurrection

On Inauguration Day, when Brian Williams called him "President Biden" instead of "President-Elect Biden" for the first time, I nearly wept with joy. I was similarly close to tears during the singing of the National Anthem by Lady Gaga. As she got to the line "Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there," she turned to the flag waving behind her and gestured towards it as if acknowledging that two weeks ago, a mob of right-wing thugs stormed the very building where she was standing and attempted to take over our democratic government in the name of a huge, brazen lie. But the flag and our country as we know it was still there. 

We have replaced a drunken uncle (Trump) with a compassionate grandfather (Biden). Yes, I know Trump does not drink alcohol but he was drunk with power, pouring gasoline on our government after covering it with the dry tinder of Twitter and fake news. Then on the morning of Jan. 6 in front of the crowd he had called to Washington and stirred up in a frenzy, he struck the match of incitement and threw it on the pile. His demurs of innocence afterwards are disingenuous at best and downright evil at worst. "Oh I didn't know this match would start a fire. I'm not a scientist." Hours into the siege he made a video and said he loved the rioters and called them "special people." His daughter called them patriots on Twitter, but quickly took that post down. 

At first it appeared to those of us watching on TV that the rioters were no worse than a bunch of rowdy teenagers taking over their high school and throwing around papers on the principal's desk. Jimmy Kimmel made a joke that after breaking into the Capitol, they stayed within the velvet ropes and behaved like tourists. Early video and photos show these goons snapping photos of art and statues. But then more gruesome footage from journalists began to emerge. There were images of police officers being crushed in doorways with blood dripping from their mouths, mobs chanting "Hang Mike Pence," crazed wingnuts beating police with American flagstaffs, hockey sticks and crutches. If they had gained the interior just a few minutes earlier, they might have kidnapped, injured or even killed Congresspeople.

This was all stirred up by Trump's insane hunger to stay in power and not be labelled a loser by the ghost of his tyrannical father. It shows what an idiot Trump is. If he had just accepted his loss and conceded to Biden, he'd be in an excellent position to run again in 2024. Even with all his many misguided and inept actions as President including bungling the COVID crisis, he still would have enjoyed the support of the brainwashed GOP rank and file and emerged as the likely nominee. 

As it is, he will be branded throughout history as the first, and hopefully only, American president to be impeached twice. His "brand"--I hate that word, as if people were products--is now toxic and businesses, banks, and even his own Florida community treat him as a pariah. The trial in the Senate will go forward and he will probably not be convicted. There are not 17 Republican Senators willing to risk alienating the red-hat mob and vote their conscience. Only Romney, Sasse, Murkowski, and maybe Collins and Toomey are possibilities. I don't believe McConnell will vote to convict in spite of his leaked assertions he's glad the impeachment took place so that his party can be rid of Trump and McConnell can regain the Senate Majority Leadership in 2022. On the recent Sunday talk shows, Toomey, who is retiring at the end of his term, said Trump has disqualified himself for the GOP nomination for Prez. That's ridic. If he's not convicted and then forbidden to run for office again, of course he's going to pop up and try for a Grover Cleveland (the only prez to serve two non-consecutive terms.) He'll play the victim and his goofy followers will believe him. An astonishingly high number of ReTrumplicans STILL believe Biden's win was a fraud in spite of no evidence being ever produced.

William Belknap

As for the impeachment itself, just like the first one, it had to be done. There is a precedent for impeaching government officials after they leave office. Ulysses Grant's incredibly corrupt Secretary of War William Belknap resigned in tears before charges were brought against him, but they impeached him anyway. The Senate did not achieve the necessary two-thirds majority to convict and that is what will probably happen with Trump. But a message had to be sent that spreading lies about an election and then attempting and nearly succeeding in overturning one must not be tolerated. There has to be some consequences. To those who say "But he's already out of office. What's the big deal? Why waste time and money?," the answer is to stop such a man from running again and to warn future tyrants not to attempt a coup.

Now we are back to the normal push-pull of American politics. Trump went well beyond that. He wanted to tear down our democracy to set himself up as a despot. "Listen to what I say, ignore the liars in the media. No one can fix this broken country but me." The sad part is so many people were and are willing to listen and obey. 

I want to be fair. Not everything Trump did in office was horrible. He did pardon some people besides his cronies who actually deserved it. He did get some American political prisoners out of North Korea. He said say $2,000 payments were better than $600 (when it was too late for anything to be done about it). He did make Operation Warp Speed possible. But there was just too much else that was bad--ignoring COVID, subverting democracy, breaking treaties, alienating our allies, cosying up to dictators, encouraging racists and extremists, rolling back protections for our environment, caging children, building a useless wall, not getting Mexico to pay for it, attempting to get rid of Obamacare just because it was passed under Obama and having nothing to replace it, appointing right-wing judges, etc. etc. With no access to Twitter, Trump is diminished but not vanquished. Already misinformation on social media has decreased significantly. Some members of the Proud Boys and adherents of QAnon have been disillusioned when the supposed take-over failed to materialize on Jan. 20. Without their charismatic cult leader at the center, maybe the great madness will dissipate and we can return to relative normality. Let's hope so.