A Transfer of Power Unlike No Other

 

I’ve racked my brain at least a couple hundred times this week. I’ve tried in vain to seek out that time when a transfer of power was held any circumstances such as these. As we go about our day, there are scores of military personnel in Washing D.C. to see that the transfer of power from the out-going Donald Trump to the duly elected Joe Biden is completed. Trump, not to be unexpected, as opted to skip out of the inauguration and go golfing. Even after a sound defeat at the hands of FDR, President Hoover at least went to Roosevelt’s inauguration. And Hoover let the country sink into a national depression because he, being a small government minded Republican, opted not to make the needed investments that would have created jobs. Which is much like Trump, who opted to fiddle while America burned and descended into a chaotic state unlike, we’ve ever seen before.

I tried to picture John Kennedy’s inauguration. Kennedy took on the old guard in Richard Nixon and handed him a defeat. Much of Kennedy’s policies, such as equal civil rights, angered the many in the Southern states who viewed him as public enemy number one for what they felt was an attack on their traditional lifestyle. However, not even that inauguration was held under times as tense as these. We are living in a time that saw the Capitol Building assaulted and briefly seized by homegrown terrorist inspired by Trump, whom they view as their unquestioned winner and rightful president, even though he was defeated in the election. Those terrorists and that is the right term, even took to social media to brag about their exploits, and each and everyone of them claimed the same thing, they were on a mission at the behest of Donald J. Trump.

Thanks to the rhetoric from Trump and his sycophants like Matt Gatez and Ted Cruz, those minions are taking to what ever social media platform they can find and proclaim they are coming to disrupt the transfer of power. Though evidence clearly says otherwise, these people actually think there is a deep state that has deprived Trump from office.

If you pitched this to a movie executive, you’d get laughed out of the building. This sounds like a plot to a B-movie, it’s just too insane to be real. Alas, that’s where we are. Joe Biden will be sworn in as the next president of the United States while the military states guard against easily lead sheep who have vowed a bloody revolution. Another factor that doesn’t help is that Sean Hannitty and Tucker Carlson are willfully acting as Trump’s cheerleaders, happy to parrot Trump’s misinformation as they try to fend off conspiracy driven pseudo news networks like Newsmax and OAN to keep Fox News as Trump’s favorite media outlet.

I cannot gaze into a crystal ball and predict what this perfect storm is going to do. We’re pretty much as a place that has no historic paroral in American history. Never before has this nation experienced a president whom before leaving office, is doing everything he can in order to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the new administration. Not even Richard Nixon, in his most drunken fits of anger and rage, ever spewed the combination of anger and insanity Trump has. One could only imagine what damage he’d be doing as we speak, if he hadn’t been banned from Twitter. Trump losing his social media platform isn’t going to silence him. Trump is a man who has dined with the mafia. Trump is a man who showed admiration for Putin a man who either jailed his critics (like he did to the members of the band Pussy Riot) or flat had them murdered. He’s skillfully learned how to manipulate people and he’ll find away to keep doing that. Even if it means tearing the country asunder, because America as a free nation, is something Trump is willing to sacrifice in order to feed his ego. And that’s something we need to address before it’s too late.

Trump's war against Democracy

 

Somewhere, Aaron Burr, who was Thomas Jefferson’s Vice President, is smiling. If he could be here, he’d gaze upon the likes of Ted Cruz and he’d be proud. And that in itself is not something one should be braggadocios about. Aaron Burr slayed Alexander Hamilton in a duel, though dueling by 1804. Burr had been dropped by Thomas Jefferson on the ticket, so he opted to run for governor of New York. He lost to his opponent; an obscure candidate named Morgan Lewis. Burr claimed that his political rivals had staged an attempt to rig the election so the lesser-known Lewis would win. This led to an exchange of words between Hamilton and Burr, which led to the duel, which led to Burr Killing Hamilton, who missed shooting Burr on purpose. Burr himself would later stage a coupe against the United States, thought he’d be found not guilty, and he’d then flee the United States.

Which brings us to 2020. After losing the election, Donald Trump fulfilled a promise he had in 2015 when he was running against Hillary Clinton. That if he lost, it was because the election was rigged and he’d do whatever he could to delay the transfer of power. Trump was elected and proceeded to destroy America’s relationship with our allies, some of which stretched all the way back to when we were just coming out of British rule. Trump sided with Russian president Putin at every turn almost, even butting heads with the U.S. Intelligence Community when it was learned Russia was attempting a disinformation strategy to turn the 2020 election in favor of Trump.

Many Americans, tired to the dissention and racial divide Trump seemed almost orgasmic to see he created, elected Joe Biden. Trump instantly claimed fraud, despite there being zero evidence. Nothing, zip, zero, nada. Nothing to show any malfeasance regarding the election. Donald Trump lost. Instead of being a gracious loser, he’s instead turned his attention on doing what he can to remain in power, which includes convincing Republicans like Ted Cruz to demand the electors not seat Mr. Biden as president, and instead, declare the election null and void in a sense.

Let’s be clear, this is a war, declared by Trump, with his minions like Ron Johnson, Ted Cruz, Marsha Blackburn and Tommy Tuberville happily doing his bidding. It’s a war on democracy by a man who views himself as a czar. With Cruz and his cohorts willing to hold democracy hostage in order to ensure that Trump remains in power. Despite re-counts and investigations that have shown there was no widespread voter fraud, Trump and his band of devoted followers insist there was.

Trump in his last days in power is doing what he can to sow the seeds of distrust in the democratic process. In his last days in office, he’s doing more damage to the country than any terror cell overseas could even dream of doing. He’s attempting to tear the country asunder, and he’s using the myth of a rigged election to do it.

America has been through a lot, but this is a first. A sitting president who declared war on democracy simply because he lost the vote. He saddled himself with conspiracy fanatics like Lin Wood and Rudy Giuliani. He’s driven a wedge between people in this country that will be very hard to fix.

Then again, this is what despots do to remain in power. He’s taking a page out of the playbook of men like Fidel Castro. We are at a very dangerous juncture in this country, make no mistake about it. Joe Biden won the election fait and square. Trump’s attempts to subvert the election process laid forth by the founding fathers cannot succeed. Or the America you once knew would be relegated to the dust bin of history, and a brand new, unrecognizable country would be it its place.

I don’t think it can be explained any more bluntly than that.