Is Donald Trump the worst president the United States has ever had? He's surely a strong contender, in my opinion. Some have already started to rank him, expectedly placing him as one of the worst. Something that I've learned over the last few years is that much of the norms, expectations, and values of the Office of the Presidency that we've taken for granted are only 50 years old. Prior to that, there were plenty of egregious examples of corruption, bribery, lying, and sabotage committed by the White House occupant in the many decades prior to Nixon.

But in the age of social media, 24-hour news networks, and the constant flood of information (and increasing disinformation), it's likely the case that no president has so flagrantly engaged in self-serving ways without a care or consideration of the symbolism his office holds. The tweets, the millions of our tax dollars spent enriching the Trump properties, the gross acts of cronyism, the utter display of incompetence at managing the most powerful political office in the world, and the inability of distancing himself from the most nefarious people. How can someone be so incapable of at least pretending to act like a unifying force?

A narcissist, perhaps.

Donald Trump represents the type of person I've always abhorred: a verbally abusive, manipulative, amateurish, extraordinarily selfish bully.

And how do I feel now that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are the president and vice-president-elect? You'd think I'd be elated and relieved. And I am. But I also feel like someone who's spent the last 4 years being punched in the stomach every day. And, while the punching is going to stop, the pain from the hits won't go away anytime soon. I feel battered and bruised, and the recovery will be slow-going.

Donald Trump wasn't routed. It wasn't a landslide election. Over 70 million Americans saw how he acted over the last 4 years, and decided they were either fine with it, or were hungry for more. More people voted for him this time than they did in 2016. These are the facts that I can't seem to shake. It confuses me; even terrorizes me. What were they fine with? What were they wanting more of?

• Foolishly short-term tax cuts that only work to increase the already-unsustainable income inequality that will inevitably lead to societal instability?
• Placating an increasingly radicalized and (hopefully) irrelevant “evangelical” base that looks nothing like the Jesus I learned of in the Bible?
• Growing right-wing, white-supremacist activities that have been enabled and empowered by his administration's rhetoric?
• Wholly absurd and extremely dangerous conspiracy theories peddled by his base, like the main one probably sourced from a disgusting loser that lives in the Phillippines?
• Unbelievable ineptitute and disregard with respect to leadership in quelling the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic?

How do I see a man that cares only about his own ill-gotten wealth (or indebtedness, to be more accurate) and power, and so little about the people who actually put so much of their faith in him? And how do his faithful supporters think he actually cares about them, especially when his speeches are so self-centered and narcissistic?

Enough of this. Time to focus on tomorrow.

Let me turn my attention towards the Democratic Party, the party that I have generally identified with except for the third-party vote I cast in 2012. The party has much to consider. Against expectations, the party did not gain control of state legislatures, did not maintain or gain seats in the house, and may not win power in the Senate. Ezra Klein put it starkly: “The Democrats won the Presidency, and lost Democracy.”

I am sympathetic to the notion that the party has gone too far with the virtual signaling, the “woke” policing, and the damage that has done to lose the swaths of America that has no connection with that type of cultural line-drawing. And no, I don't mean the legitimate, critical, and non-violent Black Lives Matter protests that highlight the real systemic injustices that black Americans have faced for centuries, and continue to face.

I think the Democratic Party's aims should be extremely focused on the following:

• Aggressively curbing climate change and re-joining the Paris Agreement
• Dramatically reversing income inequality by progressively taxing the ultra wealthy of their assets, increasing the corporate tax rate, and capital gains
• Investing trillions in infrastructure to reduce poverty, and re-tool the citizenry for a next-generation manufacturing and farming economy
• Crushing the abusive power of health insurance companies and increasing easy access to quality healthcare
• Investing trillions in public education, so America's education system becomes the envy of the world again
• Expanding voter rights, access to voting, and federally mandating Election Day to be a paid National Holiday.

Let's stop with the tone and culture policing. It's not helping. People care about whether they can comfortably eat well, sleep well with a roof over their heads, and know they can be healed when sick. Let's make that a reality for as many Americans as possible these next four years. Let's want our government to be a force for good again.

#2020election #donaldtrump #joebiden #kamalaharris #democraticparty