FAILED PRESIDENT INCITES INSURGENTS: Threatens Egalitarian Rule

 By Mildred Robertson

The 45^th President has experienced a year filled with failure. He failed to repeal Obamacare. He failed to build his wall. He failed to win re-election, losing to Joe Biden in a crushing campaign that mirrored the numbers by which Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in 2016. His efforts to have courts across the nation reverse his defeat have been utterly futile; including his petition to the Supreme Court. His party lost the two contested seats to the Senate which resulted in an historic shift of power in Congress from the Republicans to the Democrats. Following all this failure, he has finally experienced success. He has successfully incited his followers to riot, attacking our democracy and desecrating the halls of the United States Capital…“the People’s House.”  

Trump led an insurrection of thousands of misled devotees that he himself referred to as a “wild rally.” He and his acolytes ravaged our democracy and trampled our most sacred right to government “for the people, by the people.” This drove of insurgents breached the walls of our Capital Building, wandered the halls, and trashed the Chamber, leaving America bruised and battered; and apparently subject to little or no rule of law. Trump himself instructed this mob to march to the Capitol and fight to stop the certification of Joe Biden as the duly elected president of the United States.

It was with great turpitude that we witnessed the halls of the people’s house with tear gas billowing through the Rotunda; congress members crouched under their desks and armed capital police barricading the Chamber doors. Trump and his Republican cronies have muddied our image on the world stage, and have all but brought this nation to its knees.

With malice and forethought, the 45^th president of the United States suborned sedition in order to overturn election results hailed as the most secure in this nation’s history. He released a mob of thugs on our congress in the midst of their certification of the 2020 election results submitted to confirm votes cast in states across the union.

All that being said…what next? What do we do with a malicious and possibly mentally unstable president still wielding the reigns of power? The next 10 to 12 twelve days are perhaps the most perilous this country has faced since 911 when the twin towers fell.  He has already shown us that he will stop at nothing to hold on to power. We know that he will do anything to avoid the appearance of being a loser. He has let us know that he values neither this nation nor his followers whom he gleefully sent on a fool’s errand that resulted in death, destruction, and legal jeopardy for thousands. So what must we do in the final days of this caustic presidency?

Our options are few, and none are simple. It would be wonderful were Mike Pence and the senior cabinet to acknowledge that our nation is in jeopardy and invoke the 25^th Amendment. Unfortunately, Pence and senior staff seem to have as little strength or integrity as the president himself, so it is unlikely that they will embark upon this path. Congress can impeach him again and eliminate him as a future threat to the union, but that would require the cooperation of a Republican Party that has failed to hold this president to account for numerous illegal, immoral, and perhaps treasonous acts over the past 4 years. While Trump has clearly crossed the line for many in his party, a huge number of them are still held hostage in a destructive death cycle as he attempts to hold on to the favored status of white males in American politics and society at large.

The American public is desperate for a solution. We are thirsty for reasoned leadership, political dignity, the rule of law, and most of all the assurance that a steady hand holds the helm of our nation’s future. We are days away from the moment when we will move from a rudderless nation casting about at sea to one with a common cause directing us toward a shared destiny in keeping with the vision of the Founding Fathers.

There is, however, no assurance that we will arrive at our destination intact; or for that matter, at all. In the storied words of Founding Father Patrick Henry, “Now is the time for all good men (and women) to come to the aid of their country.” All Americans must lay aside our petty differences and focus on maintaining our democracy, flawed though it may be. While our nation has often fallen far short of the lofty goals to which we subscribe, we nevertheless are the preeminent democracy established in the world to date. We cannot let this evil, petty man and his acolytes destroy that legacy. 

All great societies fall, but now is not our time! Will we rise up to the lofty aspirations of our forefathers, or will we let this tiny man with his outsized ambition make us another of his colossal failures?

The answer to that question remains to be seen.