Monday, November 9, 2020

HOPE

I am breathing easier, this Monday morning, and my heart is lighter. I still have lingering fears about the state our democracy, with regrettably few Republicans following the example of Sen. Mitt Romney in offering their congratulations to the new president- and vice president-elect. The silence of these political hacks and hedge-betters serves to validate the conspiracy theories of a mass of Tr*mp supporters who are willing--eager, even--to believe that the election was stolen. 

They know better, these supposed leaders. This further evidence of their bad faith--if it were needed--is dispiriting, and bodes ill for the near-term future of the country. Should their intransigence this time be the echo of that when Obama was in office, the new president will be hard put to fulfill his campaign promise to reunite the country. He will be constrained to exercise his executive power for whatever he wishes to accomplish.

I take comfort in the knowledge that there will be a different, more experienced, more competent team working with him, dedicated not to the advancement of their own power or that of the president but to the needs and wishes of the American people. Gone will be the Attorney General who serves the whims of his apparent client-president; gone will be those other cabinet members, Mike Pompeo, Betsy DeVos, Wilbur Ross, Steve Mnuchin, so many of them with financial and ethical conflicts and personal agendas. And gone will be the spoiled, entitled Tr*mp clan, privileged by nepotism, who hold high offices, receive unearned salaries and are protected at the expense of the American people. Gone will be the poor, dour First Lady, so clearly, sadly, out of her depth in the position I suspect she never wanted to hold.

I do believe that Joe Biden will seek out and nominate the best and most qualified people he can find. I do believe they will act, with him, in the best interests of the country. I do believe they will be guided by facts, not fantasies; by science, not gut instincts; by the considered work of qualified public servants and intelligence officers, not by whims and personal interests. My hope is that their work will assure the people who were duped into idolizing the former president that competence, honesty, hard work and respect for decency and reason are what is needed for our recovery from the many crises that beset us.

3 comments:

Marie Smith said...

So far so good. The firing of the Defense Secretary who said no to Trump previously scares me though. The world looks on, holding its breath.

Linda said...

I'm not feeling as confident as I was now that Mitch has spoken out. All the chances the GOP has had to rid themselves of him and, once again, they caved.

Anonymous said...

Dear Peter, You have worked so diligently to express what so many of us have felt these last four years. Thank you!

We should never let down our guard and let this horror be invited into our lives again. We have won and here is the perspective I would like to put out there...

We are in the midst of real hope while watching this privileged child throw tantrums and firing those that support the truth about his pathological lying and cheating (continued unabated from his civilian corrupt business world).. His GOP support and base give us real cause for concern, but I really feel that they are actually an acute minority.

These fearful noisemakers supposedly number 70 million... That number is only 20% of the US population. Half of that 20% is the 10% comprised of people so far mentally removed from reality that their notions of life defy all logic (Reagon put not a few of them on the streets). They need serious help in dealing with their violence. Every nation has to deal with this 10% of their populations in their own way. I hope we will find a way quickly. That other 10% needs our help and to be embraced, engaged, talked to, educated, and given the respect they crave. A lot of this need may at lat be undertaken by the Biden administration, especially as it relates to financing education in a real way. I hope optimism can lead the way. The 80% of the US population that have been too quiet in the past will emerge and unite.... we are not alone at all, we are a vast majority. Clouds are lifting,

Ron