by Lynn Mandaville
I find I don’t write much any more, at least not for this publication.
I’ve had to think hard about why that is, and I find that I’m tired of being (mostly) the lone, regular voice of the liberal point of view, other than Basura and the editor, where it concerns the president, the administration, and the state of national affairs that I find so unfortunate.
Besides there being three regular, conservative columnists, commenters tend to be similar, sometimes extreme, supporters of their points of view.
So it feels boringly redundant to make the same points over and over without a hint of agreement from other liberals. (It has made me ponder why liberals tend to be reticent to speak up, to hide their lights under a bushel, as it were.)
Anyway, it’s all become the same old same old. I need to move on.
I think maybe some Republicans are feeling the same way.
Some in the GOP are expressing a little blowback to Trump’s endless carping about a rigged election and widespread voter fraud. Even my own governor, Doug Ducey, who has been a devout disciple of Trump, has firmly taken a stand to defend the election process in Arizona, which has conducted safe and above board mail-in elections since the ‘90s. (I’m sure you saw the clips aired on all the networks of Ducey sending a call from Trump to his voice mail while he was signing the election certification documents this week.)
I hear Republicans in Georgia are losing patience with the president, too.
The governor there, and their chief Elections Office, Gabriel Sterling, have certified Biden as the president-elect, and Sterling was quite adamant in a recent press briefing about the president giving up his lost cause to invalidate the results.
Yet some unthinking Republicans in Georgia are encouraging like-minded voters not to participate in the upcoming runoffs for both senators, reasoning that the runoffs will be just as rigged as the November election. Talk about cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face.
Well, it’s fine with me if they doom their candidates and push the Senate balance into the blue. It will make things simpler for President-Elect Biden to clear the decks for a new agenda.
The election is over, and just like I did when Trump won four years ago, others will have to accept that the democratic system works, whether we like the outcome or not. (And before some readers claim I never accepted Trump’s presidency, you’d better consult prior columns. I never claimed he wasn’t duly elected to office. I’ve just held that he has done the job less than poorly.)
Although I don’t pay much attention to election fraud hoopla, I do pay attention to the SARS-CoV-2 situation.
I’m very concerned that Trump, in his futile attempt to reverse his election loss, has simply put the pandemic out of his mind.
You see the same national numbers that I do each morning, and it makes me so sad that there is no unified strategy coming from the current White House. Even without being inaugurated, President-Elect Biden exhibits more in the way of a real plan and a consistent message for controlling COVID-19.
Biden certainly shows more compassion for the frighteningly increasing numbers of new cases and the literal piling up of the dead. (Five straight days of deaths nearing 3,000 per day, each day equal to or nearly the total of dead on 9/11.)
And lest you get it in your minds that I am a fanatical Biden supporter, I am withholding unqualified support until he’s been in office a while. Not that it matters, but Joe was not my first choice for the presidential candidate going into this election.
I had concerns not dissimilar from some of the commenters in this publication. I worried that he is too old and that the job might be too much of a strain for him.
But for the record, I am quite tired of the criticisms that he is somehow mentally unfit. Those who make that criticism do so without so much as a glance at the unstable behavior of the man they hold in such high esteem.
Who’s to say what mental fitness is any more? Is wholesale narcissism more a disqualifier to presidential office than stumbling over one’s words because of a tendency to stutter? Maybe we armchair psychiatrists and speech specialists should leave it to those with some education in the fields.
Many of the outrageous events and policies that occurred during Trump’s tenure have not been resolved. Each one has been left along the wayside to fester as the president has broached new and more disturbing ways to get our attention.
As he leaves office it will be up to the new administration to clean up the mountains of debris.
As for me, I’ll be glad to let Trump rant and rave his election fraud myth right up until inauguration day if it keeps him from doing any new harm to the country.
Hell, I’ll even agree that he brought back football if it means he’ll just fade away after January 20th. Beginning on January 21st we’ll have a new president, and a new administration, that we can evaluate and criticize to our hearts’ content.
Sure, the citizenry will remain in opposition about certain policies, and some of Trump’s reversals of Obama achievements will, again, be reversed. The divisions can’t be removed overnight. The lines between camps cannot be blurred with any speed.
It’s my suspicion, however, that there will be a dearth of drama and chaos as the Biden years settle in.
Mark Twain once said that faith is believing what you know isn’t true. The Trump folks believers in a religion to me. Somewhere in their brain, they know. Biden wasn’t my first choice either, but compared to the disaster of Trump, it was an easy vote. I see now that information, claimed lost, is now found, regarding contacts for the parents of the over 600 children separated from their parents in one of the many shameful policies during the term of Trump. His failure to meaningfully address the pandemic is shocking, too. His refusal to accept he lost the 2020 election, by something like 7,000,000 votes reminds me of his long adherence to the idea that his predecessor was not born in the US. His mental illnesses are on full display, yet his Trumpkins look the other way, and ignore his incompetence and corruption. Thank you, Lynn, for this fine piece.
Ms. Mandaville
A very fine thought provoking article. Isn’t it sad the American people had to choose the lesser of two evils in the last elections.
It maybe very possible the mental health of our Nation is in jeopardy.
Whom would ever thought some Michigan residents would gather at night, armed and protest the SOS personnel residence. All in the name of voter fraud…which to this day has no basis.
It’s no secret I’m conservative, but it is ridiculous to still claim you won the election. Get a grip, a percentage of your base finally had a way to show disapproval of certain actions. It was called the ballot box…and it didn’t have to be “stuffed “.
Not handling this Covid-19 in a responsible way may have been the downfall. It’s safe to say China is responsible and the reason this virus was allowed to “escape “is a moot point.
The efforts should be trying to save as many lives as possible, keep our economy going. What are we doing.. spending a month trying to prove voter fraud . While a simple little thing like wearing a mask to slow the spread is “tearing ” this Country apart. Much to the approval of those who let this virus “escape “.
There is no doubt the mental health of our citizens is at a critical point. We have neglected putting adequate funds into that area for years. Hopefully this changes in the future.
Except the fact there is a new President-elect. Let’s work on slowing the virus, if there are hundreds of thousands of dead people voting, let’s fix that problem. Keep an eye on the Enbridge Line 5 issue, the Nestle water consumption, what’s happening in the education system, the list goes on. Things more important than trying to prove you frauduently lost an election.
At least at the playground “Johnny ” took his ball and went home, putting an end to the game.
The end of Trump is the end of progress for the American people. The dementia patient Joe Biden will continue to decline as he enters office. The Democrat Party will continue their war against the American people… and not a damn thing will improve while they are in office except tearing the country apart.
You really think someone like Biden, a mental destruction waiting to happen, really got more votes than your God – Barry Obama and Hillary Clinton. You are excessively delusional. Please do yourself a favor and check yourself in at Pine Rest.
President Biden got more votes than Obama Hillary and your God Donald the LOSER Trump. pine rest had one room left I booked it for You. I think its right next to Rudy G.