Big, empty promises only go so far. As we shed 2020 and welcome 2021, America operates on a shifted landscape in unknown territory. Will we “Build Back Better,” or will we continue to collapse?
Last night, the outgoing President Trump announced on his Twitter account that “good news” regarding the relief bill was coming. In reality, he signed the bill he was initially well aware of but then decided to object to. Pundits and journalists rushed to bang out the verdict that “Trump lost”, that “Trump got nothing”, which only further showcases the low standard of journalism obsessed to hit Trump by any means and for any reason necessary while missing the main point.
The fact is, Trump did not lose anything– the American people did. They are the ones who are only getting $600 or, that is, $1800 (initial check was $1200) for the whole of the pandemic. Cheering about the defeat of Trump before Pelosi and McConnel or putting the spin on how Pelosi and McConnel won is absurd. This was not about them, it was and continues to be about the American people.
Writers of history, the power players of the political influence bubble, are desperate to court the new administration as they are equally desperate not to give Trump any credit and, instead, proclaim him an ultimate loser. The problem with Trump, though, is that win or lose, he does not have a political antenna, and despite his own and his constituency’s popular opinion, he does not read well the mood of the nation. If he did, $2000 stimulus checks would be put across the line before the election and before the agreement on the bill had been reached. Trump shoots from an empty gun as he continues to make big statements and empty promises.
Trump lost the election. That’s the fact of 2020. He had the right to pursue his legal claims, but they arrived nowhere. That was the best defense of the independent legal system in America and how democracy defends itself. In the court of law, all politics get thrown out of the window in the lack of evidence.
It will be hard to watch the actions of the Republican Congress on January 6, 2020, when some vote and some refuse to vote to overturn the election. It may also be a hard lesson learned for Trump when he sees how the political survivors flush down the drain a president who lost the election.
The Way We Were
Last night, Matt Gaetz announced that he is not going back to the old Republican party. ‘This is Donald Trump’s party,’ he wrote in capital letters with an exclamation mark.
This is a fascinating political development to watch, especially the ratio and the way the Republican party will split going forward. Trump got a taste of the biggest power in the world, he knows what his base wants, and he will split the party the way he sees fit so his children can walk in his path to the Oval Office. The Trump family wants to be a dynasty, and Ivanka and Don Jr will likely run in 2024.
As for President Trump, he won’t run. He will just play with the idea to keep the suspense, so he can tell himself that he still has a game to influence the news cycle. But the news cycle is moving on, and the pundits, once loyal to Trump, are eying a new transit into Biden’s orbit. Although Biden won’t stay in the office for long, he will be the one-term president at the best odds.
2020
As 2020 is coming to a close, despite the pandemic, it was not a bad year overall. America is moving on with a new president and with a big lesson learned, hopefully, never to repeat the same mistakes, and in truth, both parties were vicious to each other in the way they went after each other. Trump made lots of enemies, but if there was something that is his trademark is that he has a special talent to make friends into enemies. That was his biggest mistake that cost him the presidency and earned him the greatest opposition from Never Trumpers at the Republican party. But that’s how Trump rolls. The price he paid was his own doing.
2021
With just a few days that separate the old and the new, no big change is coming. A vaccine is on its way to get rid of the pandemic, but we may be as long into spring before the tide turns. Economies are hit hard and businesses are closed, for example, retail business in the UK under Tier 4 cant open, and no money is secured to offset the loss of revenue.
The American economy is on a ventilator, literally, with the Treasury printing money into the collapsed system. Pretending to be better than it is, the real estate market is keeping prices high in DC and even in NYC, which everyone I know abandoned, the rents are still keeping the high price. They may have been slightly reduced, but even though people don’t have jobs from which to pay rents, bills, mortgages, the prices are artificially kept afloat.
I am not sure where to go from here. The nature of everything we know changed. I am afraid that it will take a bit longer than New Year before we get our heads above the water.