I'm not sure how to feel today. Relief, that's the easy one. The monster is gone, for now.
He's promised to return, but if the courts catch up with him, maybe not so much. But maybe he will. He's dodged so many court dates that it boggles the mind.
But the biggest legacy he's left behind is by far the worst: The dismantling of decent government. He appointed Cabinet members who were dead set against the purpose of the departments, and set about ruining them. Four years wasn't quite enough. But they created horrible damage.
The federal courts are now filled with far more right-leaning judges. This probably would have happened with any other Republican president and Senate, too, but the qualifications for some of them were not much better than hailing someone off the street in a decent-looking suit.
I'm not in favor of big government, either. But the country is a big place. And profit-making cannot make up for decent decision-making paid for by taxes. There should be a balance, and 45 disrupted that balance.
Too, the devastation caused by racists, even before the insurrection, leaves a nasty scar. They haven't lost their sense of entitlement. And where did Stephen Miller go? Where did that little weasel hide?
Consider, also, the closeness of the election. Biden's victory should have been a slam dunk. It was a squeaker. It encouraged the stonewalling that 45 created which led to the rioting at the Capitol.
It encouraged extremism and the cultishness to enhance QAnon, the nonsensical group that promotes ridiculous conspiracies. A significant number of them were at the Capitol on January 6. They really thought that 45 would save babies from being eaten. If they ever were. If he ever cared.
Someone who studies extremist websites said, on MSNBC yesterday, that 56 percent of Republicans buy into QAnon to some extent. 56. More than half. "These people have, without realizing it," wrote Charles Yu in Harpers Magazine, "become immigrants. They have left America, set off for a land of make-believe. They are in the thrall of a mythical narrative. To them I want to pose two questions: Why does your new land appeal to you? And what was it about reality that made you want to escape?"
I'm probably with you: I'd like to pull away and forget all this. But they came too close to taking over the process of electing the president, the last, silly formality remaining, but necessary to seal the decision. Would it be ridiculous to legally forego with that final process?
No, but it would have to take a constitutional amendment, because that process is specifically spelled out within it, even though it has outlived its necessity. That's 2/3 of both houses of Congress and 3/4 of the state legislatures.
Mike Pence saved us. The insurrectionists wanted to kill him. We now need a firewall to prevent that. But if 160 House Republicans are too scared of the people they represent to get wise and halt this, we will have this problem once again. And that was too scary by half.
Meanwhile, we dangle at the precipice between restoring democracy and a fallback autocratic, oligarchic alternative. It won't be overnight that we re-establish truth and provable fact as the basis upon which to make judgments about leaders and their decision-making. Yet, science, i.e. recognition of climate change, is all about that, and we know the resistance that it has run up against. But agreement on that would mean much less reliance on fossil fuels, the support of the corporations creating which are the lifeblood of the Republican Party, so there's that.
But at least the current government isn't saying that media are making up things or that it isn't important enough anyhow--"fake news"-- that the government is allowed its own version of that, or "alternative facts," and that media are the "enemy of the people." That isn't a bad place to start again.
Biden has to redo and undo executive orders to negate the damaging ones that 45 signed. But reliance upon that was also based on the 60-rule in the U.S. Senate, where it takes 60 Senators to end debate and prevent filibusters. Without it, all legislation is potentially frozen in place. Democracy can't work if Congress renders itself helpless. The presidency has acquired far too much power since the turn of the century. Someone has just shown us that. We should accept and abide by the lesson.
Shall the Democrats do away with the Senate filibuster? It would make things easier, but only for the moment. When the tables would be turned, Republicans could hustle through all kinds of damage. But for now, Democrats can create a decent economic bailout while the administration musters all its energy toward tamping down the virus.
Whatever happens, the opposite will be eventually visited upon those who chortle now. But that encourages taking what you can when you can get it, forgetting whatever bad feelings you conjure tomorrow. Nobody wants to be anywhere there's measurable anger for a measurable time. It discourages statesmanship.
Compromise won't merely reappear now that Mr. Polarization is not on the scene. His attitudes merely accelerated what was already going on. Someone must apply the brakes. Someone has to stop people from automatically going to their respective corners. Otherwise, oblivion awaits. Joe Biden could do that, but he might also offend his base. Tough spot. Glad I'm not in his shoes.
Be well. Be careful. Wear a mask. One day closer to a vaccine. With some luck, I'll see you down the road.
Mister Mark
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