Goodbye 2020

 

While 2020 has proven to be one of the most disappointing years of my lifetime, it has revealed that my academic training has served me well. I was able to find historical connections for what I believe are the biggest issues of this year. 

It has been a year of tremendous lows. I frequently feel like the essence of America has been broken. We remain a powerful nation, but no longer a unified one. And while I cannot place all of the blame on Donald Trump, he is leading the parade. Under his watch our distrust of the systems of governance, the rule of law (police and the courts), and even our neighbors has increased. 

China knew about COVID in 2019 and American intelligence informed the White House before the end of the year. We entered 2020 with few cases but with the knowledge of a powerful virus. Yet, well into March, the Trump administration downplayed its potency. The president gambled his re-election and fate on the economy when it was obvious that the virus could sink it all.

COVID has played a major role in the weakening of the American Dream and America’s place in the world.  The numbers are staggering, with 300,000+ dead and tens of millions infected. America leads the world in both categories and in many states hospitals are filled to capacity. Additionally millions are out of work and many businesses are collapsing. We are supposed to be better than this, and yet here we are. This pandemic has literally touched every aspect of our ways of life revealing tremendous failures in countless situations. COVID has established a “new normal” in terms of work, leisure, education, personal and professional relationships, entertainment, health care, and ultimately death. This "new normal" is destroying the old order and may make it impossible for us to restore our legacies. Nationally, we underestimated the power of the virus. Only when it touched someone we knew and it rendered them helpless or worse did we stop calling it a hoax. The tragedy is that a large segment of the nation still refuses to see the truth and continues to see wearing a mask as a political issue. Our actions give comfort to our foes and fears to our allies. Trump's America wanted to close its borders. Now nations are closing their borders to us. 

We may be looking at the end of the American Century. Democracy is fragile and it cannot withstand another person ripping apart its institutions and ethics. If Donald Trump is working for a foreign power it will not be a surprise. Piece by piece his behavior is destroying the nation. He has increased congressional stagnation and political stalemates. His last minute placement of people in cabinet positions and offices is sabotaging the incoming government.

However, we should have expected Trump to be an agent of chaos. His refusal to support the pledge during the 2016 Republican primaries should have illustrated that he would not agreed to a peaceful departure from power if he lost in 2020. Even after the Electoral College vote, he is still contesting that there was a fraudulent election with no proof. 

To their credit, the American people did see this as the greatest presidential election of their lifetimes, and they rose to the challenge. In the face of the pandemic, they voted in record numbers.  However, I did not expect that mainstream politicians would be so easily tempted to alter the will of the people or interfere in the peaceful transfer of power. 

We are literally days from a Cold Civil War becoming a live war.  Weekends feature armed men and women protesting for and against the president and his policies. Days ago in several cities, the protestors attacked police and shot at each other. This is becoming a familiar scene that started shortly after the death of George Floyd. President Trump's mishandling of that situation and his continued silence on the killings of African American men and women contributed to his loss in the general election. That compounded with his mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic made it nearly impossible for him to win re-election. Yet, the use of the single issue almost enabled the president to squeak out a victory. The fact that more people voted in this election than in any other in American history, and President Trump only lost by 7 million votes is astonishing. 

But let's be honest - President Trump's entire presidency has been a constant contradiction. Outside of his fabrications and exaggerations of the truth, Donald Trump remains an elitist. He has never supported the common man and has always made overtures to business executives and tycoons. His administration has always been a "pay to play" operation. Yet, the liberal press has struggled to "sell" this connection to the larger public. They have often failed to clarify points when it came to the Trumps and this made it too easy to promote "fake news" and "alternate facts." Trump used race and racism to his advantage and played on the fears of the un-informed and mis-informed. AON, Newsmax, Fox News, and the New York Post maintained a viable Trump image that has sustained the crusade through the failed election. Donald Trump will probably remain relevant throughout the Biden presidency.

The exact details were incorrect, but the polls were right in 2016 and 2020. Donald Trump never commanded more than 47% of the public. He was never going to win re-election without changing his strategy. While he gained new supporters, some defected to Biden. His hype and luster faded due to unemployment and lack of attention when supplies were not available in stores. New Trump voters emerged out of fear and due to single issues. However, Trump taught some key lessons. Promoting fear worked! Large numbers of formerly liberal whites are afraid of the Cold Civil War being a race war. They decided they need the police to save them. Blue Lives Matter suddenly became a rallying cry to counter Black Lives Matter. Yet the two have nothing to do with each other. But if the president is suggesting that BLM is a terrorist organization, people will listen. It is not a surprise that the purchase of firearms has increased. Promoting corruption also worked. Hunter Biden and the rest of the Biden family have been featured as corrupt figures benefitting from the work of the "Big Guy". The president who is functioning like a Don calls his challenger a Don and the voters have to decide who is lying and who is telling the truth. Promoting anger equally worked. Trump supporters are so mad that they are blindly protesting in the streets and buying MAGA gear made in China and donating to "We Build the Wall" which has misused funds and to Trump PACs that claim to challenge election results while lining Trump's pockets.

Joe Biden's victory was really more of an anti-Trump coalition vote than support for the moderate democrat. Yet Biden's win highlights the fact that President Trump was one of the worst presidents in modern history. The real tragedy is that Biden did not win by a numerical landslide. For the first time in generations there are no prominent national leaders. That our reliance on strong leaders, was the glue that forged an image of national unity, even when we were in our darkest moments. As a result, the world looked to the United States for leadership.  Unfortunately, that is no longer the case. 

It's really simple: Donald Trump has poisoned the well, and Joe Biden may not be able to clean it up. Democracy may have been saved but its enemies now have the blueprint to do more damage in the future. The tools of our enemies of are us. Just provide mis-information to Americans and they will kill each other and self-destruct. They will let Trojan horses in and they will accept fake gods. There are limited controls on social media. While President Trump was critical of Tick Tock and Facebook, Twitter allowed him to spew lies and hate for four years. Censorship really came at the last moments of his presidency. And the censorship of the president did not stop racist, sexist and vile language or conspiracy theories to flourish in daily conversation. QAnon might as well be real. People who support "Q" ran for public office and "Q" supporters elected one of their own.

2020 has been a terrible year. Many of our favorite stores, restaurants and businesses are declaring bankruptcy. People are out of work and only provisions in the CARES Act are stopping them from being evicted and possibly homeless. It is hard to see a light at the end of this tunnel. 

Will 2021 be better? In the beginning, probably not. We will probably have another wave of COVID infections and deaths from the end of the year holidays, and there will probably be some problems with the vaccines. We have to hope that Congress provides additional relief to the nation and that President Trump doesn't cause any problems and leaves office on January 20th. Americans have to pray for reconciliation and peace as we begin a new year. Everyone needs to put down their arms and bump elbows.

Instead of fighting in the streets we need to look forward to the day when we can hug it out again! When sports can be played with crowds and kids can have real graduations. When schools and eateries function indoors and we can see people smile. America can have its "reboot" but it can only happen when we believe in each other. I want to be optimistic. I want to believe that 2021 will be the start of something good. But in order for that to happen we need to say goodbye to 2020. 

So long 2020. Get lost and don't come back! And hey, take COVID-19 and Donald Trump with you!