On Wednesday January 20 comes the inauguration of Joe Biden, 46th president of the United States of America.
Though it has to be muted by tight security, it should inaugurate a brighter era. Biden is a conciliator. His inaugural address will be an appeal for national unity, after a time of roaring divisiveness.
And his first ten days will be a “flurry of executive orders” that will start to do good. Rescue the race to stave off environmental disaster, by bringing the US back to the Paris climate agreement. Reduce the danger of nuclear war, by bringing the US back into the Iran nuclear deal. Bring down the horrendous rate of American deaths from Covid-19, worst in the world, by speeding delivery of vaccines. End the racist bans on refugees from infernos like Syria.
Biden is opposed to the ancient evil of the death penalty, will not continue his predecessor’s savage last-moment spate of executions, but may not expend political capital early on by abolishing the federal death penalty.
Bipartisan support is what Biden deserves, and it is what is patriotic. All depends on the balance between the humane majority (Democrat and Republican) and the force of delusional conspiracy theories.
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This weblog maintains its right to be about astronomy or anything under the sun. Some astronomy will follow shortly.
Half of the country cannot be written off as fools, racists, and nogoodniks—as the Left does. Even here in too liberal for its own good NYC, I have met many supporters of Trump who are NOT those things. The Democrats and other so called Progressives have telegraphed their contempt for people quite a bit as they have gained control of the Democratic Party, and have forgotten its Twentieth Century role as a blue collar ethnic urbam/small town businbessman’s / exurban small holder’s party (The FDR coalition, if you will) This “progressive”, so called ” Liberal ” elite which is , post 1968 , the driving force in the party, has pretty tossewd all other constituencies under teh proverbial bus. CONSIDER THAT MANY VOTERS IN MICHIGAN AND WISCONSIN WHO VOTED FOR OBAMA IN 2008 nd 2012 MUST HAVE VOTED FOR TRUMP IN 2016. Common denominator between Trump and Obama? One word. Change. Be i tresting to see if they voted for Biden—or if Biden got other voters who didn’t vote in 2016. The higher turnout might indicate the latter—in which case MAGA is still here.
Accomplishments, Trump had a few hundred plus 200 more, so 600 is the score. FYI. https://www.whitehouse.gov/trump-administration-accomplishments/ You can check them out and you’ll be surprised, surely.
In 1992 Democrat Bill Clinton fought a tough campaign against President George H. W. Bush. Clinton won, so Bush was a one-term president. When Clinton went into the oval office after his inauguration as president on January 20, 1993, he found this letter on the desk:
Dear Bill,
When I walked into this office just now I felt the same sense of wonder and respect that I felt four years ago. I know you will feel that, too.
I wish you great happiness here. I never felt the loneliness some Presidents have described. There will be very tough times, made even more difficult by criticism you may not think is fair. I’m not a very good one to give advice; but just don’t let the critics discourage you or push you off course.
You will be our President when you read this note. I wish you well. I wish your family well.
Your success now is our country’s success. I am rooting hard for you.
Good luck—
George
That is the quality called magnanimity. “Great spirit.” I’m not sure how rare it is. It can be constructive. It might be that magnanimity toward the fallen Trump by refraining from pressing impeachment to a trial would be a wiser way to put him in his place and prevent him from being seen as a martyr.
And a martyr Trump will be if the Dems continue on their current course.
Generously offering your support to an opponent who beat you in a fair election is an honorable tradition in a democracy. Giving a pass to a defeated president who incited an attempted violent coup that killed five people in our nation’s capitol would set a very different and very dangerous precedent. The senate needs to conduct the trial with great seriousness, focusing solely on the single article of impeachment and resisting any impulse to settle other political scores. If Trump walks away from this without the gravest possible consequences, his boast that he could murder a stranger in the middle of Fifth Avenue and get away with it will have been proven true.