You probably thought this day would never come. Therefore, as the son of a preacher man, I feel obliged to intone that familiar Psalm:
This is the day the lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.
(118:24)
Amen.
We made it. And this, despite what might have seemed like four years in purgatory. Because only that explains Donald Trump’s dystopian presidency, which ended with the worst pandemic in over 100 years and an insurrection the likes of which America had not seen since the Civil War.
In fact, Washington, D.C., remains garrisoned like a war zone, and reports abound about white supremacists (and “radicalized ordinary people”) planning to continue their insurrection. Therefore, you’d be forgiven for thinking that America is still in the midst of a civil war.
This, however, is not the commentary for all that. Instead, I refer you to the series I’ve written since “Insurrection Day” on January 6, most notably “WTF: Trump-Led Insurrection Against US Expanding to All 50 State Capitols…?” January 12, 2021.
But there’s no denying the apprehension that hovered over today’s ceremony. Because everyone had to be sweating bullets fearing that, at any moment, rogue National Guardsmen could open fire on Joe Biden, aping the infamous way security forces assassinated Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.
In other words, thanks to Trump inciting a ragtag bunch of white supremacists to attempt to thwart this inauguration, the Secret Service had to screen every soldier enlisted to protect it. This, to ensure that none was high on insurrection ideation, mainlined via Fox News and social media, that would mislead them to assassinate Biden. Thank God history did not repeat itself in this case.
America enjoyed 244 years of exercising the peaceful transfer of presidential power. Unfortunately, like so many other vaunted and enviable norms Trump destroyed over the past four years, he destroyed this one today too.
What’s more, FDR was wrong. Because the insurrection of January 6 was just the latest event in American history to teach us that all we have to fear is … ourselves.
And so thus teeters the State of the Union as Biden begins his first term.
President Biden pleaded for unity in his inaugural address to a divided nation. ‘This is our historic moment of crisis and challenge,’ he said on the Capitol steps, shortly after being sworn in as the nation’s 46th president. ‘And unity is the path forward. And we must meet this moment as the United States of America. If we do that, I guarantee you we will not fail.’
At an inauguration like no other, amid a raging pandemic, in a city that has become a fortress of fences, concrete barriers and security checkpoints, Biden vowed: ‘I will be a president for all Americans.’
(The Washington Post, January 20, 2021)
For what it’s worth, I thought this inaugural address rivaled Lincoln’s in its pathos, FDR’s in its pragmatism, and JFK and Reagan’s in its rhetoric. Arguably, it was arguably the best inaugural address any president has ever delivered. If you did not see it live, you would do well to YouTube it.
But it speaks volumes that this was the first inauguration that reflected a nation’s longing more for tradition than change. The irony, though, is that many of the policies Biden will implement to restore America’s fledgling democracy (from its flirtation with autocracy) are the very “Change” policies he and former President Barack Obama implemented during the eight years prior to Trump’s four-year interregnum.
Indeed, Biden telegraphed his intent to head straight from his inauguration ceremony to the Oval Office to begin a 10-day spree of signing executive orders. Their effect, he hopes, will be to do to Trump’s presidential legacy what Trump clearly hoped his executive orders would do to Obama’s.
The first set of [17] today pertain most notably to
- reversing Trump’s Muslim travel ban;
- rejoining the Paris climate accord and the WHO;
- restricting any further construction of Trump’s border wall;
- renegotiating the nuclear deal with Iran; and
- resuming America’s leadership as head of NATO.
Apropos of which, I wrote the following in the show notes to Episode 16 of my Talking iPINIONS podcast:
President Biden will need only four months to effectively repair all that Trump has broken in this respect over the past four years.
This, primarily because Trump was so arrogant and ignorant, he spent the past four years signing executive orders that he thought no previous president had, and no future president will have, the power to sign.
Anyway, Biden also declared his intent to use executive authority to federalize the fight against Covid-19. This will include expanding production, distribution, and injection of vaccines, halting housing evictions and foreclosures, and mandating wearing masks wherever the presidency gives him the authority to do so.
Obliquely, but no less significantly, Biden will surely use this occasion to arrange a photo of all members of the Presidents Club – reputedly the most exclusive club in the world. It is composed of the sitting US president and all living predecessors. Easily the most iconic of these photos is the one Barack Obama arranged after his inauguration in 2009. It features, in chronological order, Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Obama himself – all looking like a Polaroid version of Mount Rushmore.
But this one will only feature Clinton, George W., Obama, and Biden. Because George H.W. died in 2018, Carter is too ill to travel, and Trump, well, he was too petty-minded, thin-skinned, insecure, and gauche even to attend Biden’s inauguration. Instead, this craven narcissist attempted to steal Biden’s thunder by staging a military send-off this morning that was worthy of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un.
Of course, members of the military showed up and performed … because they had to. But it appears most civilians – including former White House staffers – who received invitations to his presidential farewell treated them like junk mail from a failed political campaign. As a result, we know he will lie about the size of this crowd at the send-off that ended his presidency, just as he lied about the size of the crowd at the inauguration that began it. Except that he won’t have a PR flak like Sean Spicer, let alone an enabling Twitter account, to help metastasize this big lie.
The Trumps then flew off to Florida without even showing the Bidens the traditional courtesies the Obamas showed them. Remember the extraordinary grace, under extreme racial duress, Barack and Michelle showed?
But just imagine the national outrage, among Republicans and Democrats, if the Obamas had snubbed the Trumps during their transition to the White House the way the Trumps have snubbed the Bidens. And, let’s face it, given the open and notorious way Trump hurled racist accusations and slurs at them for years, the Obamas had good reason to snub the Trumps.
Whatever the case, nobody can deny that, as the nation’s first couple, the Obamas had more class in their pinkies than the Trumps had in their entire bodies. Perversely, though, there’s precedence for believing that seeing such a classy Black couple in the White House triggered racist resentment even among “good” white folks. This, of course, would explain the election of an overt racist like Trump and the American carnage his presidency has wrought – complete with its own day of infamy on January 6, 2021.
The Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma, was known as the Black Wall Street. It was one of the most prosperous Black communities in the United States. But purportedly good white folks burned it to the ground in 1921 because, looking on, they not only envied but resented what they saw. I suspect similar feelings among whites explain much of the racism that prevailed during the Trump presidency.
And, lest we forget, more than 74 million Americans were perfectly happy to see him serve another four years … despite everything. This is why – ever since writing “WTF! President-elect Donald J. Trump?! America. What. Have. You. Done?” November 9, 2016 – I have maintained that his presidency says far more about America than him. No doubt this diabolical shyster has been an international laughingstock. But his supporters have been too blinded by racism and ignorance to see that he’s been playing them for suckers. And, alas, as the world looked on, the joke has been on all of us.
Oh, by the way, if “Be Best” Melania has you convinced that she’s his better half, her former best friend Stephanie Wolkoff would be all too happy to disabuse you of that impression. She, of course, is the fall gal who Melania famously threw under the bus. This, because she refused to use her position as key organizer of the 2017 presidential inauguration to cover up the trampy way the Trumps turned that inauguration into little more than a bribery bazaar.
Indeed, it would not surprise me if Melania is up to her neck in helping Trump end his presidency the way he began it; that is, by turning his presidential pardon power into a pay-to-play bribery scheme for crooks and cronies. Wolkoff insists that she is his enabler in chief who has been complicit in all of his high crimes and misdemeanors, deadpanning that
She is no different than her husband.
(60 Minutes Australia, September 20, 2020)
Perhaps more credibly, Abraham Lincoln famously said in an 1858 speech in Clinton, Illinois that
You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.
No doubt this is why, just as Trump is leaving the White House with the worst rating of any president in US history, Melania is leaving with the worst rating of any first lady.
Incidentally, it came as no surprise that Trump refused to arrange that customary photo with Obama and other living predecessors in the Oval Office after his inauguration. And he hardly endeared himself by repeatedly calling for Obama and former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary to be arrested throughout his presidency.
Trump seems determined to be the first to alienate his predecessors so much that they all shun him like the plague. Mind you, it would probably suit the congenitally insecure Trump well to complete his entire term without even a phone call, let alone personal contact, with any of them.
(“Trump’s First Year Ends with Government Shutdown,” The iPINIONS Journal, January 20, 2018)
Sure enough, this turned out to be the case. Now, given the treasonous way he has ended his presidency, I suspect he will remain forever persona non grata in the Presidents Club. Still, if any occasion should ever necessitate him being in their presence, I have no doubt they will all treat him like the proverbial skunk at a garden party – doing their best to hold nose without aid of hand.
Vice presidents get precious little media coverage but they get inaugurated on this day too. And I would surely be remiss not to hail today’s historic inauguration of Kamala Harris – not just as the first woman but as the first Black inaugurated to serve in this position.
Apropos of which, I feel obliged to share an abiding pet peeve. No doubt you’ve seen everyone in the media bending over backwards to avoid describing Kamala Harris as a Black woman. But here is what I wrote in my commentary “I Picked Biden-Harris 2020 in January 2019. Now It’s Official!” August 11, 2020:
_________
Harris describes herself as a ‘proud Black woman.’ Moreover, there’s no denying that, if she were just an ordinary BLM protester getting arrested for assaulting a police officer, no Caucasian, Indian, or Asian in America would be describing her as a Black Asian American or an anodyne woman of color. And surely nobody in India would be claiming her as one of their own. …
You need only query why the most famous bi-racial person in the world never identifies as Black and Caucasian. The reason, of course, is that Barack Obama knows that, from the days of slavery, whites have always treated bi-racial Americans as Black.
It has never mattered if that ‘Black’ looked as white as white can be. More to the point, those bi-racial Blacks had to toil as slaves and suffer the indignities of Jim Crow right alongside their darker brothers and sisters. And, thanks to Trump’s presidency, some whites are doing their damndest to recapture those halcyon days when just one drop of Black blood meant you were as Black as Black can be.
_________
Given that, can you think of any journalistic reason the media insist on calling Harris a woman of color? This, especially considering that none of them ever called Obama a man of color. I get the affected political correctness and crass political pandering behind it. But it’s still so irritating.
That said, reports abound about the UK being the destination for Biden’s first foreign trip. But all is not as it seems. For context is everything.
The tiny seaside resort of Carbis Bay in Cornwall has been chosen to be the venue of the G7 summit in June, with the village now expecting an influx of foreign visitors.
The incoming US president, Joe Biden, is among those expected to attend the three-day summer meeting, along with leaders of the other G7 nations – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the UK and Japan – and representatives from the European Union.
(The Guardian, January 16, 2021)
In other words, this has more to do with the UK’s dumb luck than any special relationship between it and the United States. After all, if it were Germany’s turn to host this G7 summit, I doubt the UK would be appearing anywhere on Biden’s agenda, let alone his itinerary, this year.
If Biden were making the UK his first bilateral state visit, I would be shocked and utterly dismayed. Because this would be nearly tantamount to Abraham Lincoln making a Southern rebel state his first trip outside Washington after the Civil War.
There’s a reason why Obama famously warned that, if Britain Brexits, it would be at the back of the line when it comes to negotiating bilateral trade agreements with the United States. Simply put, it would be a slap in the face to all EU allies for Biden to favor Britain with a state visit. Because Britain has done nearly as much to undermine global world order as Trump has done to undermine law and order in the United States.
Meanwhile, that refreshing sound of silence you’re hearing is talking heads on TV no longer cackling non-stop about the asinine things Trump is tweeting all day. And, really, hasn’t the reduction in overall stress in our daily lives been palpable because of this…?
I am loath to rain too much on Biden’s parade but I’d be remiss not to mention the complicity of the media in the flight and dystopian droppings of Trump’s black-swan presidency. Because, for the media, even the idle-minded conflicts that defined his presidency generated clicks, which generated ratings, which generated the revenues they all craved — journalism, and even the welfare of the country, be damned.
And it has been thus ever since Trump announced his presidential campaign in 2015 — when he infamously descended the escalator of his Trump Tower — like Don Lucifer into the Hell (or the American carnage) he could so clearly foresee.
After all, the media hordes that heeded his beck and call on that occasion showed him what little temptation it takes to get them to sacrifice their journalistic principles to gain the profit that covering his antics would bring. I have decried their bargain with this devil in many commentaries over the years but shall suffice to cite only one prescient and damning title, namely
- “Humping Trump Exposes News Anchormen as Worse than Used Car Salesmen,” May 2, 2016.
But just imagine Trump’s state of mind when he wakes up tomorrow. Because it will be depressing enough that nobody in the media will care what he has to say. But, given the karmic ban social media have placed on him, this former troller in chief won’t even be able to share his idle-minded thoughts with his imaginary friends on platforms like Twitter and Facebook. Hell, having outlived his usefulness, I suspect this idiot will find that even his love letters to dictators like Kim Jong-un will now be returned to sender.
And we all know that, unlike other presidents, Donald Trump was too narcissistic and myopic to see any value in man’s best friend. If he had, at least he could wake up tomorrow, take his dog for a walk, play fetch, and spend the rest of the day sharing tall tales with it about what a great president he was.
As things stand, I fear he will spend the rest of his days in the company of one set of lawyers trying to keep him out of bankruptcy, and another set trying to keep him out of jail.
Epilogue
As my headline indicates, I suspect history will record this day as more restoration than inauguration. As such, it will record the Trump presidency as nothing more than America going off the rails for four years before resuming the 8 to 12 (or 16) years of the Obama and Biden presidencies. But, given all the legal and financial woes that await him, I can think of no better epitaph for the Trump presidency than this from “NY Attorney General Dissolves the Trump ‘Charitable’ Foundation,” December 19, 2018:
The first man in history to rue the day he was ever elected president of the United States.
Of course, America is still a country divided against itself. Then again, it has been thus ever since facts on the ground were at such shuddering odds with its founding principles 244 years ago.
Its good fortune is that America has never had a president like Trump – who was simply hell-bent on stoking rather than mending its divisions. But God help America if it ever elects another one like him. Hence the existential imperative not only to impeach Trump but to ensure he can never hold any public office again. Never mind that I’m on record sharing my foreboding about hearing bells tolling for a disgraced president, and that the ringing was stemming more from John Donne than tinnitus.
In any case, like George Washington at the time of the American Revolution, Abraham Lincoln at the time of the American Civil War, and FDR at the time of World War II, America’s saving grace has always been having the right president for the moment. And, for so many political, even poetic reasons, God could not have created a man (or woman) more suited for this moment in US history than Joseph R. Biden.
Apropos of poetic, count me among the middle-aged men swooning over America’s 22-year old Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman. I gather few people knew her name, and even fewer her title, before she ascended the podium today as the youngest poet ever chosen to perform at a presidential inauguration. But I’m no fanboy come lately. Because my crush dates back to 2018, when she performed a Thanksgiving-Day poem on my favorite morning news program CBS This Morning.
No doubt many thought David Frost reading “The Gift Outright” for John F. Kennedy’s inauguration in 1961, or surely Maya Angelou reading “On the Pulse of Morning” for Bill Clinton’s in 1993, set a bar that no other poet could reach during our life time. Yet the whole world watched in awe as Amanda not only reached but soared over it with her reading of “The Hill We Climb” for Joe Biden’s today.
I don’t know about Frost, but I know Angelou was beaming all over in her grave with pride as she watched this young Black woman rise. And, mark my words, Amanda herself will be the woman most suited for the moment someday. But just imagine the nerves of the poet chosen to emulate her on the occasion of her inauguration as president of the United States.
Related commentaries:
impeached… presidents’ club… episode 16… Brexit… humping Trump… toxic brand Trump…