Democracy reaffirms itself once every four years. This year there is not only a changing of the presidential guard, there is a seismic shift in America’s consciousness taking place. Donald and Melania Trump boarded Air Force One with the lowest approval ratings of any president or first lady in the history of scientific polling. Melania offered none of the courtesies to Jill Biden that were offered to her, the traditional tea, the walk-through of the residence, introduction to staff, etc. These are not only courtesies, they are logistical practicalities, which aid and abet a seamless transition.

Even Trump himself praised the “tremendous” support that the Obamas provided. When it came his turn to carry on the tradition, he slunk away on Marine One, rather than meet with his successor beforehand and ride with him to the Inauguration. Instead, Mike Pence is there to lend some semblance of credence to GOP dignity, while Mitch McConnell accompanies Joe Biden to Catholic mass. Pence and McConnell know the first rule of politics which is that at some point the opposition party is going to be back in power and you deal with it. You don’t turn into a petulant child and run away to your pep rally and play a gay pickup song from the 80’s. At least Trump didn’t dance to YMCA this time, for that we are grateful.

During his remarks, Trump reiterated the theme of the past few days, “the best is yet to come” “we’re only just beginning” and he promised to be back soon “in some form.” Whatever that means. The words put me in mind of the movie Diary Of A Madman, where the horla, a discarnate monster who can enter peoples’ bodies and take over their will, wreaks havoc. This isn’t just literary fancy here, it made me wonder, who’s next to become infected with Trumpism? Obviously Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz took to making the kool-aide in their basements. They’re thoroughly inebriated with it.

In Charlie Sykes’ newsletter this morning, he came up with the perfect epitaph for Trump’s presidency. I share it with you here.

I woke today with a question. As we watch the ex-president jet off to sulking exile, I started to think: what scrap of poetry, song, or literature will mark his deplorable reign? What words of inspiration will future generations associate with this strange man who was, for a season, our president?

Walt Whitman immortalized Abraham Lincoln with “O Captain, My Captain.” FDR will forever be associated with “Happy Days Are Here Again.” At crucial moments in our national history, both Lincoln and Roosevelt cited Henry Wadsworth Longfellow:

Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State!

Sail on, O Union, strong and great!

Humanity with all its fears,

With all the hopes of future years,

Is hanging breathless on thy fate!

John Tyler (another genuinely deplorable president), is remembered for “Tippecanoe and Tyler Too” (although Tippecanoe died just 31 days into his term).

Bill Clinton was ushered into office by Maya Angelou:

But today, the Rock cries out to us, clearly, forcefully,
Come, you may stand upon my
Back and face your distant destiny,

At JFK’s inauguration, Robert Frost read:

Something we were withholding made us weak
Until we found out that it was ourselves

**

And Trump?

“The Snake.”

It’s probably the only poem he knows by heart.

Take me in, oh tender woman
Take me in, for heaven’s sake
Take me in oh tender woman”, sighed the snake Now she clutched him to her bosom, “You’re so beautiful,” she cried

“But if I hadn’t brought you in by now you might have died”
Now she stroked his pretty skin and then she kissed and held him tight
But instead of saying thanks, that snake gave her a vicious bite
… “I saved you,” cried that woman
“And you’ve bit me even, why?
You know your bite is poisonous and now I’m going to die”
“Oh shut up, silly woman,” said the reptile with a grin
You knew damn well I was a snake before you took me in …”

We knew he was a snake. 74 million people thought he was something else, something benevolent, something skilled and useful. That is the tragedy of American life today.

As I write, it is shortly after 8:00 a.m. Pacific time. Trump will be president for less than an hour. In less than a hour the “biscuit” that he carries in his pocket, the nuclear codes, will deactivate. That will be not just a literal termination of immense power but a metaphorical one as well. The star of a very bad man will emphatically set and the star of a decent, experienced man, who loves America, is rising.

I can’t wait for the hour to be up so that I can have a president again. And it will be a thrill to have a woman as vice president. This is truly a momentous and glorious day.

 

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25 COMMENTS

    • Me too. Over and over. I completely lost it during the national anthem when Lady Gaga turned and gestured to the American Flag waving up there as she sang “and our flag was still there” – after my rage at seeing those traitors having taken down The Colors and run up that Trump flag during the attack, and also having seen so many carrying that racist rag through the Capitol which is something the Confederacy never managed to do. That defiant “F you traitorous fascists” moment will stick with me forever. So will many others.

  1. Every time I watch the news, I tear up. What a wonderful and moving thing to see an empathetic, decent person after this long national nightmare.

  2. The last shriek on the retreat…treat it as such. And Trump wasn’t the snake. He was the frog while the Republican party was the scorpion.

  3. Ding Dong, the SOBitch is gone!

    How have I waited and feared for this day. Now we can all let out a great sigh of relief after almost losing our democracy.

    Glorious day!

  4. I’m at work, taking a break, and am so bummed I missed the inauguration.

    Anyway, I do feel that we need to stop thinking of those 74 million people who voted for Plump this last time as his supporters. I honestly feel a good many are afraid of the lies they’ve been told about liberals and the liberal agenda for decades. Most people I know don’t know the difference between true socialism and communism. We need to be as incessant and as effective in our messaging as the GOP has been. Let’s hope that in the next 4 years, people will experience how much better things get and begin to see the light!

  5. “In some form.” Allow me to suggest en forme de poire, since en forme d’orange was so godawful.

    OK, just kidding. What I’d really like to see is en forme de prisonnier.

  6. i’m getting frustrated that half my post have syntax errors when they don’t. Also got a message I already posted something and yet, it’s not here. What gives? I’m a monthly donor!!!

  7. Maybe Trump will be back some day in some form. And when that happens, I will worry about it and be there to fight it. But for today, currently 2 pm pacific, Joe Biden is sitting in the White House dismantling the things Trump has done. We will tear it all down, then build back better.

    • Maybe “we the people” DID save democracy by taking the house, now the executive office & squeaked out power in the senate, but remember what they’ve done. Trump & the party have killed 400,000 as a conservative estimate (since so little testing has been done), roughly the number of soliders lost in WW2. Yet, the man responsible for that, & an armed insurrection, flies out on Air Force One. As a veteran, i know if the infantry, or the russians had gotten their hands on Hitler, doubt if he’d been walking around, much less with pomp & circumstance. Justice? Right now it’s the biggest hypocrisy there is. Hey, i really admire Mr. Biden, but not every solider is willing to fight. I hope he realizes unity wasn’t given to germany immediately. They had to prove they were willing to go down a different road. I hope the republicans will. I have no empirical reason to believe it. As frump said a thousand times, we’ll see.

  8. Today I cried. I saw America in all its glory. The peace, the beauty, the kindness, the talent, the normalcy, the resolve and the quiet. I put my faith in the American people and it was not misplaced.
    I cried and cried and cried tears of joy.
    God bless humankind. ????

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