Instead of exiting under a tsunami of violence and a flurry of lies, Donald Trump could have left office with a semblance of dignity.
In some alternate reality, maybe he did.
In a parallel universe, vibrating at a frequency just different enough to be invisible to us, President Trump quickly exhausted any legal remedies for contesting November’s election, as was his right. But once it became obvious no evidence of widespread fraud existed, he conceded with grace, commended his followers for damming a blue wave down the ballot, and maybe promised to return in four years.
He instructed his people to smooth the way for a new administration. Subsequently, he turned his full attention to the virus ravaging our nation and world.
This other Trump went to the American people and, with an eye roll, noted how guidance in the early days of the pandemic was contradictory and confusing. There was so much we didn’t know. However, he said masks — as imperfect as they are — are now endorsed by the vast majority of epidemiologists and other medical professionals to decrease viral transmission.
He then urged Americans to stop politicizing the practice and to embrace it for the duration. He put on a mask himself whenever he was in public.
Then, this counter-Trump in a different universe worked with Congress to come up with a second stimulus plan to address the economic peril of so many Americans. He instructed his people to collaborate with states to ensure the incredible gift of Operation Warp Speed — a vaccine far faster than many pundits predicted — would just as quickly find its way into the arms of Americans.
This parallel Trump is not so different from our own president in temperament. He still picks fights with the media. He still crows about his accomplishments — hundreds of judicial appointments across all levels, including three Supreme Court justices whose conservative leanings will impact the court for decades; the aforementioned Operation Warp Speed; and a resurgence of conservatism in America.
(Hey, just because many people don’t agree with these accomplishments — or that Trump has a right to take credit for some or all — doesn’t make them less valid.)
Yeah, people like the alternate-reality me would still criticize him, calling any about-face an example of too little, too late, especially when we look at the staggering loss of life under this president, much of it preventable if he had listened more to science and less to sycophants.
But at least it would have been something, a soothing coda to a four-year symphony of discord.
Instead, in this reality, President Trump has been obsessed with overturning the will of the people, amplifying conspiracy theories, pondering military intervention in the election, making the infamous phone call to Georgia’s secretary of state, and helping to thwart his own party’s chance to retain control of the Senate.
And, of course, needling his followers on Wednesday to march on the Capitol.
Subsequently, these deluded acolytes invaded the building, disrupted a completely ceremonial proceeding, forced legislators into hiding, and sacrificed their own, all of it initiated by Trump himself.
It’s hard to point to a definitive nadir of Trump’s presidency, as the man keeps finding creative ways to set the bar lower, but Wednesday has to be it.
In the end, this reality’s Trump has been revealed as the malignant narcissist so many of us feared, a petty grifter Mitch McConnell and many other Republicans hoped to control as a useful fool, but who came far closer to destroying democracy than anybody ever dreamed.
Trump may soon be gone, and if there were any justice in the system, his removal would come from a second impeachment and a final walk of shame following a conviction in the Senate.
Regardless, his fetid legacy will live on in the distrust of democracy he leaves behind, the undeserved pall of illegitimacy he casts on his successor, and the pain and suffering he did nothing to alleviate.
This is our reality, more’s the pity.
chris.schillig@yahoo.com
@cschillig on Twitter
This parallel Trump is not so different from our own president in temperament. He still picks fights with the media. He still crows about his accomplishments — hundreds of judicial appointments across all levels, including three Supreme Court justices whose conservative leanings will impact the court for decades; the aforementioned Operation Warp Speed; and a resurgence of conservatism in America.
(Hey, just because many people don’t agree with these accomplishments — or that Trump has a right to take credit for some or all — doesn’t make them less valid.)
Yeah, people like the alternate-reality me would still criticize him, calling any about-face an example of too little, too late, especially when we look at the staggering loss of life under this president, much of it preventable if he had listened more to science and less to sycophants.
But at least it would have been something, a soothing coda to a four-year symphony of discord.
Instead, in this reality, President Trump has been obsessed with overturning the will of the people, amplifying conspiracy theories, pondering military intervention in the election, making the infamous phone call to Georgia’s secretary of state, and helping to thwart his own party’s chance to retain control of the Senate.
And, of course, needling his followers on Wednesday to march on the Capitol.
Subsequently, these deluded acolytes invaded the building, disrupted a completely ceremonial proceeding, forced legislators into hiding, and sacrificed their own, all of it initiated by Trump himself.
It’s hard to point to a definitive nadir of Trump’s presidency, as the man keeps finding creative ways to set the bar lower, but Wednesday has to be it.
In the end, this reality’s Trump has been revealed as the malignant narcissist so many of us feared, a petty grifter Mitch McConnell and many other Republicans hoped to control as a useful fool, but who came far closer to destroying democracy than anybody ever dreamed.
Trump may soon be gone, and if there were any justice in the system, his removal would come from a second impeachment and a final walk of shame following a conviction in the Senate.
Regardless, his fetid legacy will live on in the distrust of democracy he leaves behind, the undeserved pall of illegitimacy he casts on his successor, and the pain and suffering he did nothing to alleviate.
This is our reality, more’s the pity.
chris.schillig@yahoo.com
@cschillig on Twitter
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