The Waning Days of Trump
FRED WERTHEIMER’S WEEKLY NOTE | November 19, 2020
“On January 20, 2021, Trump will be gone, and with him, his authoritarian attacks on the democracy and republic our Founders gave us. Good riddance.”
Donald Trump is continuing his baseless attacks on the presidential election he just lost badly, claiming – without providing a shred of evidence – that widespread voter fraud occurred.
He is preventing the orderly transition to a Biden presidency, firing Administration officials in acts of retaliation, and making foreign policy decisions that even his Republican enablers in Congress object to.
Trump is also completely ignoring the coronavirus raging throughout the country – a result that he has fostered through incompetence, ignorance, cruelty, and narcissistic self-interest.
Trump’s vicious attacks on the essence of our democracy, the sanctity of the vote, are without precedent. The attacks have been greatly exacerbated by the cowardly failure of almost all congressional Republicans to defend our election process and our democracy.
“The refusal of most Republicans to stand against President Trump’s unconscionable campaign to discredit a free election is one of the lowest points in the history of our republic — and a threat to democracy itself,” columnist E.J. Dionne wrote in The Washington Post on Wednesday.
But we cannot lose sight of what has been accomplished as the nation and the Biden Administration, beginning on January 20, 2021, move forward to deal with the difficult problems that lie ahead.
We have avoided a national catastrophe by ridding the nation of the worst president in its history and of the most dangerous threat to our constitutional system of representative government since the Civil War.
We have conducted an election during a national health crisis that went off remarkably well, due in large part to the heroic performance by election officials and volunteer election workers throughout the country.
Further, according to Trump Administration’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, “[T]he November 3rd election was the most secure in American history. … There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.” Christopher Krebs, the head of that agency, was promptly fired by Trump in retaliation for protecting the security of our elections, telling the truth, and contradicting Trump’s false claims.
On January 20, 2021, Trump will be gone, and with him, his authoritarian attacks on the democracy and republic our Founders gave us.
Good riddance.
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