If there has ever been a president who knows how to extend the pain – including his own pain – better than Donald Trump, then I would like to see who that president was. Trump’s four years in the Oval Office was painfully embarrassing and set the country back decades in so many respects. He added over $5 trillion to the national debt, which was just under $20 trillion when he took over, after decades of growth. The nation has not been this polarized possibly since the Civil War, and as if to prove the point, there is talk that some states (red states that generally support Trump) might want to pursue secession. Perhaps Trump set the country back almost all the way back to 1861, which was the last time that states discussed outright secession. No president received so much worldwide condemnation for so many actions and sentiments as Trump has, and that is really saying something. He only managed to allow people to forget one embarrassing mishap after another, or one outrage after another, by producing fresh new ones on a virtually daily basis. Indeed, with all of that taken into consideration, these four years did indeed feel like a band-aid being ripped all too slowly over a fresh wound.
Through it all, Trump’s loyal supporters seemed to outright take joy in it all. Here was Trump owning the libtards. This was their version of “winning,” and they could claim that he came through on this promise.
Now, they are the ones feeling the pain of the band-aid being ripped so slowly, accentuating all of the pain. Because after all of the nonsense that their man pulled off, a record number of voters tuned out to specifically vote Trump out of office. I say that, because that is the general feeling. It was not so much excitement or buzz about Joe Biden, as it was genuine fatigue of Trump, and his style in the White House, dominating the headlines on a daily basis with a fresh slate of bad news virtually every single day. In all, over 81 million people came out and voted for the other guy, and it felt like that would have been the case no matter who the other guy would have been, frankly.
To be sure, the race was closer than it should have been. But Biden clearly won. Another way of putting that, one that admittedly feels more satisfying, is that Trump lost. He lost beyond a shadow of a doubt, at least to any reasonable individual assessing the election.
Indeed, it was satisfying to finally, finally see Trump, the seemingly luckiest man in the world on many levels, finally be humbled and see defeat and failure. But it was only too predictable that he would refuse to concede the election results, which clearly showed that he lost. And it was also only too predictable that his supporters would see things his way, and would believe that he somehow got screwed and won the popular vote. The paradox of them making this claim while also whining that there were so many haters out there who never gave him a chance never seemed to occur to them. If so many people hated Trump, why would it be so surprising that a record number of people would specifically vote against their guy?
Yes, the election was closer than it should have been, and indeed, it should not have been so close. But let’s also be real here: it was not that close. This election was more a referendum on Trump and his style of presidency and governance, and most of the voters – comfortably over 51 percent, a solid majority – voted to make sure Trump and his cronies leave the White House. Trump, by contrast, received less than 47 percent of the popular vote. Biden won the popular vote by over seven million, and he won the Electoral College by a margin of 306 to 232, and all of that looks quite convincing. Indeed, it was.
But in certain key swing states, the election really was quite close. Trump lost, but not as resoundingly as he should have lost by. Frankly, he should have lost by tens of millions of votes after all of the nonsense that he pulled. He should have lost a vast majority of states, instead of winning 25, or half. He should have lost by, at the very least, double digits, in terms of the popular vote, and probably by more than 20 percent. The fact that he did not is quite alarming.
Still, it was not so close that there was any kind of serious argument that Trump actually won. It was clear that he lost, and the only ones who could not accept that, other than Trump and his massive ego, are his most die-hard and, frankly, brainwashed supporters. There has been one challenge after another by Trump and his lawyers, who dropped out one after the other, until it was just Rudy Giuliani, who embarrassed himself time and time again shamelessly.
As Joe Biden made clear - and he was right to make it clear, it is important for those most passionate Trump fans to hear it - there was no recourse that was denied to Trump. He pursued every legal challenge, and failed in this pursuit one time after another. That is what I mean by suggesting that it was like slowly peeling off the band-aid, and feeling every hair ripped out, and every sensitive nerve from the wound being pulled up with the band-aid. Trump's ego must never have taken as many hits as it did in the past few weeks, as he not only lost the election - which took many days to become clear beyond a shadow of a doubt - but then lost each challenge, one after the other. In a sense, he lost this election over and over and over again. He lost the actual election, lost each challenge and recount for the battleground states, and lost the court challenges, one after the other. There were literally no successes on his end, he just kept losing and losing and losing, over and over again.
Some "winning," eh?
Unfortunately, Trump also made the country lose. In fact, the country lost a hell of a lot during his entire presidency. It lost much of the remaining respect that the world had for the country. Maybe Trump fans were not bothered by concerns regarding the xenophobia and hatred that Trump championed and actively promoted, but the rest of the world had problems with it. The United States lost traditional allies, as numerous European leaders declared, just hours after meeting with Trump, that they could no longer consider the United States as a reliable partner. The United States lost it’s standing as an unquestionably advanced society after the debacle in it’s coronavirus mishandling, particularly on the presidential level, as Trump was too inconsistent, flipping from seemingly taking it very seriously at times, to downplaying it’s significance and going against science on other occasions. Speaking of going against science, Trump not only was detrimental to efforts to combat climate change and promote a clean environment, but he actively censored any mention of it, which can certainly be considered an attack on free speech. His attacks on a free press also seemed very much like they were attacks on free speech, and his claiming that they were “enemies of the people” was chilling, echoing some of the most brutal dictators in the past.
In fact, there are just so many ways that the United States lost under President Trump. Too many ways, in fact, to mention here. But we saw unparalleled levels of corruption, of incompetence, arrogance, and entitlement. We saw a man who acted like a spoiled child, lashing out at anyone and everyone who displeased him in any way, more often than not with ridiculous, immature rants via his trademark tweets.
Now, he has lost. The electoral college is lost, but he nevertheless continues his baseless claims of massive voter fraud. He challenged and challenged the election results that showed that he lost in every way that he could. One after the other, these efforts failed. Yet, he keeps going, despite the vast majority of people recognizing that maybe, for the good of the country, it was time to move on, to accept reality, concede, and begin a peaceful transition.
Trump, however, never seemed to care what was best for the country. With Trump, it is always about Trump. His MAGAlomania knows no limits, and he has repeatedly shown a willingness to take the country down with him if he should be compromised, or fall politically. That is what is happening now. Trump lost, and he is trying to take the country down with him. Already, some high-ranking Republicans have entertained the idea of seceding from the union, because they cannot accept that Trump lost.
Imagine that. There is now open discussion of numerous states possibly seceding, because they want to remain loyal to Trump so much. The country could literally be broken apart, and of course, the possibility of a civil war, should that happen, is not impossible to imagine. After all, it has happened before.
But all of that for King Con Don, and his Cult 45? They seem to think that he is worth tearing the country apart. Hell, they seem willing to dismantle those parts of our democracy, including free and fair elections, just to keep him in power, perhaps give him what he already stated that he was interested in, which is being president for life. Really? Do you really think that he is worth it? Because a clear and undeniable majority of Americans clearly do not. Feel that he is That was made clear in November, when Trump lost the election, decisively. The country does not want another four years of dealing with Trump, of continuing all that we have lost under him. Yet, he and his supporters want to keep going, want to keep undermining democracy and fair elections, because they cannot accept that Trump lost. So now, the country is losing it’s reputation for being able to have free and fair elections. Even on his way out, Trump seems willing to undermine anything and everything that made this country at all exceptional, or admirable, because when it comes to Trump, it always has to be about what Trump wants, and his temper tantrums when he does not get his way.
Are we winning yet?
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