We Met The Enemy And He Is Us
To me, there is one supreme truth to be gained from this election. It is a truth I hope we would learn , and I think a lot of people will hope we would learn, but it is far from clear that anyone will learn.
We are finishing with a president* who took the country off the rails for four years, broke every norm of political and even sometimes decent human being behavior during that time, literally lied and cheated his way through a period when he represented the United States of America as it's face to the world, was put on trial in the senate for very credible charges of bribery and corruption , failed to do his duty to lead the way in a national response to a deadly pandemic , and separated hundreds of children from their parents , permanently, --- all of this just scratching the surface of his bad behavior and incompetence in office. And yet, MORE people voted for him after all this than voted for him before it. To say THIS is an issue is a great understatement. But you don't have to take it from me.
Veteran conservative commentator William Krystol
In 2016, 46 percent of the American people voted for Donald Trump. They were willing to take a gamble on an outsider, a businessman, a celebrity, against an unpopular Hillary Clinton. They could also tell themselves there would be constraints on his behavior, from his own party, and from Congress.
Now, after four years of seeing Donald Trump govern with results that are, I think, pretty horrifying, and faced with the choice of giving him a second term—in which he would assuredly be less constrained—the American people rewarded President Trump with an increased share of the overall vote. Having seen him in office, almost half the country wanted to give him four more years.
I don’t see any way to gild this lily.
To some very real degree, as Pogo famously said, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”
https://thebulwark.com/the-day-after/
If we , as a nation sugarcoat the fact that 67 million people were ready and willing and sometimes even enthusiastic to give power again to someone of Trump's obvious low character, morals, ethics and intelligence, we will relive the travesty over and over.
Yes, maybe the democrats need to recalibrate their message to appeal more to "the white working class" , but much more urgently, we need to see the rejection of Trumpism.
I wish I could say I feel hopeful.
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I can understand why looking at what has happened to the USA in the past 4 years is probably acceptable to so many American citizens, but I have to say that looking at it from outside the USA, and without the myopia of being American, one sees a chaotic disaster. In fact, I am very concerned about what Trump is going to do over the next 2 1/2 months, without any restraint by his Republican Senate or Republican SCOTUS.
Some republicans have turned against hime-- a few even openluy supporting Biden. (And then there's the Lincoln Project-- they are republicans who are unhappy with trump' sinsanity).
But not enough.
Yes, he still has 2 1/2 months to further damage the USA, and its reputation abroad.
Let's see if the Republican controlled Senate supports the damage he's bound to try to do during his lame duck time.
I've seen this coming ever since Fox came along and validated ignorance, stupidity and hate.
Looking at other articles here today, I see that Trump supporters would rather express their ignorance and their cult adherence to Trump than correct it.