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| Monday, January 20, 2025 |
After four years of chaos and grotesquerie, that wasn't asking too much, was it? It didn't seem like it at the time.
So, we sat back and watched, relieved, as Joe Biden did what Democrats have done for decades: clean up after a good-for-nothing, incompetent Republican administration.
Joe did such a good job of it, in fact, that we forgot how bad the Trump years really were. And how they ended.
Now, in a rational world, there's no way a man as small, stupid, and malignant as Donald Trump could become president of "the greatest country on Earth" in the first place. Certainly not after being confirmed a rapist, a felon, and the traitorous leader of a violent rebellion against his own country.
America, after all, is better than that, is it not?
Spoiler: It is not. Because somehow the thing we now do best is forget.
In this case, we forgot we live in a wildly irrational world. A world that has passively watched Trump commit crime after crime in broad daylight. Knowing he would do the exact same things again—and worse—if given the chance.
Biden knew it, too. And yet he allowed Zombie Trump to rise from the political grave to continue his reign of (t)error.
In fairness, Joe had a few non-trivial matters to attend to, like rebuilding a COVID-wracked economy, turning the temperature down on runaway climate change, and shoring up America's criminally neglected infrastructure. To his credit, those initiatives were remarkable successes—which a more self-aware nation would've rewarded with another term in office. Pity.
That work, all of it, will now be undone at a breathtaking pace.
We're about to watch Trump swear on a Bible to support and defend the constitution, "so help me god," while an administration staffed by sex offenders, drunks, and Russian assets takes up the work of the Kremlin.
Simultaneously, we'll apparently be waging a war of one kind or another with Canada, Mexico, Panama, and Denmark.
If you think Trump will bring down inflation and bring prosperity to non-billionaires, you may want to have a contingency plan in mind. If you think the LA fires are horrific, get ready for them to be the new abnormal. If you don't believe Trump's threats to withhold funding for devastated states and communities...well, I don't know what to say other than "good luck."
“We have an obligation to give hate no safe harbor and to stand up to the greatest sin of all—the abuse of power.”
With all due respect, Joe, it's a little late for that.
And while we appreciate the many historic accomplishments of your administration...the one that history will remember most is the one that didn't get done.
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"And so it goes." — Linda Ellerbee
