‘The reality is when Biden places one hand on the Catholic Bible and raises the other to take his oath, many Americans will be seething in frustration, if not anger…’
IN two days the United States will have a new President. And the world can heave a sigh of relief.
In accordance with the US Constitution, Joe Biden will take his oath of office at noon on January 20, thereby becoming the 46th President of the United States. It will be the culmination of what must have been the most tumultuous presidential campaign in US history, what with the incumbent (and eventual loser) early on casting doubt on the legitimacy of the process and later on making grand untruthful claims that it was he who had won “by a landslide.”
A claim, unfortunately for Donald Trump, that neither the State legislatures, the State electors, the state and Federal courts and not even his own Justice Department supported or affirmed.
That should be the end of the story, but unfortunately for the rest of America it isn’t. For many (if not most) of the 74 million Americans who voted for him believe in his claims to varying degrees, a belief that may spur the most zealous into taking action to “stop the steal.” Action like the January 6 siege of the US Capitol which could have taken a bloodier turn for the worse had some of the rabid Trumpists gotten into, say, the Senate chamber.
That siege may be the last siege to be committed on the US Capitol in a long time, but I am willing to bet that we will see replays of January 6 in other locations for as long as the crazy “alternative facts” of a Trump landslide win continue to be spread and continue to be believed in.
This only means that in two days, the sigh of relief that the world can heave may be one for onto a brief moment. And the change that Joe Biden is hoped to be bringing into the White House and into Washington DC may take longer to materialize than is wished. The reality is when Biden places one hand on the Catholic Bible and raises the other to take his oath, many Americans will be seething in frustration, if not anger, and that emotion will not go away in one, in seven, in 30 or even in a thousand days.
Up to yesterday I continue to engage folks on FB in a running argument about the state of politics in the US. Those who supported the losing side continue to cling to the belief that the Democrats and George Soros and baby killers conspired to rob Trump of the second term he deserved. They claim that an FBI report (which they say is so secret they cannot reveal it for security purposes) proves widespread fraud in the elections and the role of ANTIFA in the siege of the Capitol, claims which the FBI in published reports had debunked.
They claim that servers were confiscated in an Army base in Germany that proved the cheating. They also claim that the conspiracy to silence Trump included RINOs like Mike Pence and officials from the State of Georgia, and cowards like Justices of the US Supreme Court.
In fact, it now appears that everyone is part of the conspiracy to rob Trump of his landslide win. But not to worry; Rudy Giuliani will show them. (Or is it Sydney Powell?)
In two days America will get a chance at a restart. Whether it will be successful or not depends on so many factors, including (to a large extent) the ability of the Republican Party to leave Trump behind and heal. I know many have said that anyone who has bet against America has always ended up losing his shirt, but frankly, after four years of Trump and Trumpism I am now bearish on the prospects of an American Renaissance.
The wounds are too deep, the distrust too widespread and the intolerance too manifest in too many people.
But who knows?
Let’s see what happens in two days and the next thousand.
