While the results of the 2020 election seemed clear a few nights ago, I can’t express the elation and relief I felt today when the major news organizations called the election for the former Vice President, now President-Elect Joe Biden. I know it’s not official and it won’t be until January 6th, 2021 when the Electoral College votes are counted by the Congress, but it sure feels good to know it’s over.
There are all kinds of reasons I can point to on why I think Trump just had to go, but the main one for me was that he’s an autocrat. A dictator wannabe. Someone who bent the power of the US government to his will, to serve as his personal apparatus, and this is extremely dangerous to democracies. Read some of V-Dem’s report on autocracies around the world and you can see where the United States was heading under Trump. With his attacks on the free press, on peaceful protests by the citizenry, with a collaborative and cooperative media apparatus on FOX and talk radio, with a sheepish and boot licking GOP Senate, he was well on his way to changing the United States in the most fundamental of ways.
This isn’t about progressive vs. conservative policies or anything as mundane as all that. Trump was never a policy President. Just look at his legislative achievements. They’re almost non-existent. A massive tax cut for the wealthiest Americans and multi-national corporations. That’s about it. And he expected loyalty and donations to his campaign, as well as patronage at his businesses, in exchange. He fed the American people propaganda, and they ate it up. Mexico was never going to pay for a wall between their country and ours. It’s ludicrous on its face. He was never going to be able to put his political opponents in prison, although he sure as hell wanted to. He was never going to silence the New York Times, The Washington Post, or any of his other favorite media targets. But he could sure get his fans to despise them and more importantly, to distrust them.
As his original team of reasonably competent staff resigned, he never bothered to fill the positions with anyone other than loyalists. He maligned expertise and tried to take complete control of the messaging from every government agency. He wanted only to be President of Trump, Inc. and he tried to turn the United States into Trump, Inc. Fortunately for us all, he failed. He was soundly defeated and sent packing. As further evidence that it was not about policy or Republican ideas, Republicans did quite well as a whole in the 2020 election. There will always be a place for conservative, small government, low taxation political leaders. Trump paid those ideals lip service and gave the GOP their conservative judges and could pretend to be religious and anti-abortion to give the people what they wanted. But it was all transactional for him. I gave you this, what are you going to give me in return?
With the election of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, we can at least remove the specter of autocracy from the immediate future and refocus on establishing the normative actions of a representative democracy. Joe Biden has spent the better part of his life in government. He understands and respects the system and will work within it. He will have a lot on his plate, but unlike Trump who didn’t want anyone doing anything that wasn’t in his personal best interests, Biden will bring the best people he can find and put them in positions where they can do some good. The GOP Senate will still be an opposition party, but that’s okay. That’s how our system works. President Biden will likely be able to get Senator McConnell to move on some of the pending legislation that has come from the House. At least I hope he will. They’ve known each other a long time and should be able to make some deals and reach some compromises. In other words, we’ll return to the boring and sometimes ugly business of legislating.
I wish the President-Elect well and hope he can find the strength and courage to lead us out of the bitter and nasty partisan divide that Trump has exacerbated. I’m not optimistic, but I am relieved. Trump will never leave us alone, but his rage tweeting and TV viewing won’t have the same impact from his couch at Mar-A-Loco.
Joe's Blog 