The American people have elected former Vice President Joe Biden to be our next president — in effect telling President Trump: “You’re fired!”
Unless one or more of Trump's baseless sore-loser lawsuits prevails, we can expect Biden to replace Trump in the Oval Office on Jan. 20, sending Trump into political retirement and restoring stability, competence, integrity and honesty to the White House.
This will be a welcome development after four years of Trump’s chaotic and failed administration that has been like none in modern American history.
RICHARD FOWLER: AMERICANS ARE TIRED OF TRUMP’S LIES, INCOMPETENCE, IGNORANCE AND FAILURES
The four years of mismanagement, misinformation and misaligned government under Trump have been an American tragedy, bringing suffering to millions of Americans.
The greatest tragedy, of course, was the loss of more than 230,000 Americans to the coronavirus pandemic. Medical experts tell us that a majority of these deaths could have been avoided if Trump had acted swiftly to take effective action to protect the American people from the pandemic.
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Instead, Trump downplayed the seriousness of COVID-19, ridiculed people who wear masks, ignored the advice of the government’s top infectious diseases experts and attacked them, held super-spreader campaign rallies with thousands of people without masks or social distancing, wondered if we should inject ourselves with bleach (which could be fatal), and falsely told us the pandemic would miraculously end.
In memory of our fallen fellow citizens, President-elect Biden and Congress should agree on a new contract with America that cares for the vulnerable, sick and disadvantaged. And this contract should go beyond the pandemic crisis to uplift struggling students, working families, and overburdened single mothers — and end the open wounds of racial injustice.
Listing all of Trump's outrageous, unprecedented and terrible actions would take a book. In fact, you could fill a bookcase with books already written about his many failings.
To cite just two examples of how Trump offended voters in key swing states where he was defeated in the election:
In Arizona, Trump repeatedly insulted and attacked the late Republican Sen. John McCain, the 2008 GOP nominee for president. Absurdly, Trump falsely stated that McCain — a Navy pilot shot down over North Vietnam and then held as a prisoner of war and tortured for more than five years — wasn’t a war hero. Trump never served in the military, avoiding the Vietnam draft by claiming he had bone spurs.
In Wisconsin, Trump stoked the flames racial animus after police in Kenosha shot Jacob Blake — an unarmed Black man who was committing no crime — in the back and left him permanently paralyzed. When protests against this and other wrongful shootings of unarmed Black Americans sometimes turned violent, Trump paid little attention to the police misconduct that caused the protests and just kept demanding “law and order.” What about justice?
President-elect Biden is an experienced and talented leader who listens to experts, believes in science, tells the truth, and understands government.
But truth be told, many of Biden’s voters — who gave him the most votes for a presidential candidate in American history — cast ballots more in repudiation of Trump than in support of Biden. The election was a referendum on Trump’s four years of failed leadership.
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Trump has no one to blame but himself for his election defeat. He will never blame himself, of course. In his mind, he is “a very stable genius” who does everything absolutely perfectly. He blames his many failures on others and whines on a daily basis, claiming he is being unfairly attacked.
In fairness, Trump can claim credit for some accomplishments, including a low unemployment rate before the pandemic hit, criminal justice reform, and the extension of funding to Historically Black Colleges and Universities. But unfortunately for the American people, his achievements are far outweighed by his failures.
Trump’s defeat should serve as a warning to all those who seek to become president of the United States. They need to understand the weight, gravity and importance of the position. They need to understand their job is serving the American people, not steering millions of dollars from the government and special interests into their private businesses. They need to understand that the job of the president is to unite the American people, not to divide us and stir up hatred.
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Trump didn’t understand any of these things. And that’s why he was defeated in his reelection bid.
I don’t know how long Trump will keep up his court battles to overturn Joe Biden’s victory. We can only hope the former reality TV star throws in the towel soon and faces up to the reality that Joe Biden will soon be our next president. The new president deserves the support of all Americans as he works to repair the damage to our nation caused by Donald Trump.
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