Tag Archives: Trump

The Real Transfer of Power

Leadership & Continuity: The Peaceful Transition of Power | Eidson & Partners

There are two types of American president: the person you’d like to be; and the person you probably are.

Barack Obama was a president we’d like to be: young, eloquent, quick with a smile. Donald Trump was the president we probably are: aging, weight issues, quick to temper.

Physical and philosophical idiosyncrasies aside, the pattern tends to track historically, too. We wanted to be like Lincoln. We wanted to be like Kennedy. We wanted to be like Reagan.

The person we’d like to be.

Conversely, we probably were like Nixon. We probably were like George W. We thought we wanted to be like Clinton, but bitterly discovered that we probably already were.

The person we probably are.

It’s no mean feat, turning what you are into what you’d like to be. It’s easier to bitch about a problem than confront it. Victimization is a breeze. Aspiration is a bitch. Which is why the “transfer of power” is moving in fits and starts. It’s actually a transfer of mindsets.

And we’ve committed to change, like a New Year’s resolution to adopt a dog or join the armed services. In this case, commitment was in the form of 80 million-plus eviction notices for Trump. And like any deadbeat tenant, he and his roommates will trash the place before leaving.

That’s because Trump still represents 74 million-plus Americans who don’t feel like aspiration. Who knows? Donald Trump may have been the person they wanted to be.

And make no mistake: The reason Trump and his toadies are dragging their feet on change is because the people they represent are just as cold to it. Perhaps more so.

Regardless, the commitment to Biden is a tacit commitment to work: on COVID; on climate; on gender and race relations. All with a Senate that has a vested interest in proving to Americans the system is broken, rotted and irreparable.

And, regardless of party, is Biden not the type of grandparent we want to be? Active, still quick, forgiving, gentle. Don’t we want to be the genteel grandpa instead of the grimacing one?

5 Ways Biden Will Affect Your Finances As President – Forbes Advisor

But that’s the cost of transfer: sweat equity.

There are plenty of signs that 2021 is going to be a terrific year. Proud Boys and QAnon are out. A COVID vaccine and the word of science are in. Dreamer immigrants have a reason to dream again. American government looks more like America again.

It’s enough to make a body hopeful.

And who wouldn’t want to be that?

COVID-19: 2020’s Real Undecided Voter

To the surprise of absolutely no one, Donald Trump is being petulant in defeat. Who’d a thunk?!? But come on: If he graciously accepted loss and showed his conqueror the palace, wouldn’t you suspect something?

And the CornMush-In-Chief may still land a legal haymaker and steal the will of the people. There can be no argument: The man knows the art of the steal.

But should he find himself on the asphalt of Black Lives Matter Plaza Northwest in DC on January 21, 2021, he and historians looking for reasons can look for one: The time a bully picked the wrong kid to shove.

That kid was COVID-19, and it cost Donald Trump the election.

The president, a germaphobe who routinely shuns handshakes, made a profoundly cowardly move when he learned of the virus in February. Like the draft, he ducked and ran. Unlike the draft, money doesn’t get you out of a date with COVID.

Even then, the president played make-believe matador, taunting that he had taken its punch, found himself to be a superman, and urging mortals not to let it dominate their lives. Remember the great unmasking atop White House stairs? Sure, you could see he was still sucking wind from the gut punch, but it made great theater.

Covid-19 positive Donald Trump gets criticism after taking off mask in front of the White House | Trending News,The Indian Express

But when when he invited the virus to step outside the bar, the president learned why you don’t pull the mask off that ol’ Lone Ranger. Consider how COVID mopped the floor with Trump:

  • It may have literally killed off a portion of his base.

Consider his super-spreader events, on White House grounds and in stadiums nationwide. COVID’s death count is around a quarter-million. Statistically, at least half of those deaths include Republicans, presumably Trump Republicans. Perhaps much more than half.

Seven infected after 'Amy Coney Barrett superspreader event' at the White House | Daily Mail Online
  • COVID was the election issue.

Trump would even muse aloud that his re-election was in the bag before the “kung flu.” And his disdain for his own CDC left voters — particularly in the decimated MidWest — without consistent medical information. That’s as unsettling as pre-existing conditions.

Trump's Lethal Shell Game: Will Pre-Existing Conditions Coverage Vanish? - New Mobility
  • COVID is still Trump’s problem.

That Biden came out with a COVID plan the Monday after the race was called not only made Joe look presidential; it made Trump look impotent. If Pfizer’s claim is true, Biden could walk into the best circumstantial political timing since the Iranian hostages were released minutes after Reagan was sworn in.

Remembering the Iran Hostage Crisis – Dolphin Media

This isn’t to say that Trump, a political Houdini, couldn’t pull another escape while hanging upside down in a straight jacket. The man puts the easel in weasel. It’s an art form for the guy.

But as Fox Mulder liked to point out, the truth is out there. We know the popular vote, and its expanding gap. We have seen the beauty of democracy, and exercised it.

Meanwhile, COVID, the last undecided voter in America, decided where it stands on political symbolism. And you don’t spit into the wind.