It has been America’s shame. The past four years of the American presidency has shown the world a failure of democracy in the strongest country in the world. When you do not pay attention, when you do not care, you can get a president like Donald Trump.
It needs to be said that Donald Trump incited the vandals who attacked the Washington Capitol the other day. He did not lead them. They were but a leaderless rabble, revelling in the destruction and chaos they could cause. Only their hapless leader, hiding in the White House, knew to fear them. We should all be thankful that Donald Trump is no leader. Yes, he was the primary instigator but he has never shown the ability to lead.
Look at the pandemic as it cuts a broad swath through the heartland of the United States of America. Trump does not know what to do. He did not know to listen to the available experts. He did less than nothing. He led Americans in the direction of disease and death. He led in ignorance. He did not know that the best thing to do when you do not know what to do is to shut up.
It was his ability to understand what frustrated and annoyed his voters four years ago that we did not comprehend. He was surprised as the rest of us when his followers managed to win him the College of Electors and the presidency.
Trump feeds on ignorance. His rallies with his followers are lessons in demagoguery. His followers today will tell you that he helped expand the United States economy. Yes, he did, but only if you want to ignore the cost to the environment. You can knock down mountains in Appalachia for cheap and highly polluting coal. You can foolishly approve pipelines for pollution creating routes for bitumen to get where this tar sands product can do the most environmental damage. And you can only think you are making America great when all you are doing is pissing off your neighbours, your allies, your friends.
We will not miss Mr. Trump. We will not miss his bigotry. We will not miss a man who mistreats children. We will not miss a man who builds walls against his neighbours. We will not miss a man who treats his country’s enemies as friends and its friends as enemies.
I think there will be a collective sigh of relief when he leaves the Washington White House. He will no longer be able to abuse the power of the presidency.
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Copyright 2021 © Peter Lowry
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