Donald Trump Is This Close To Being A One Term Loser

While there are various downsides in the margins, there are many more reasons to rejoice.

by Bob Cesca

WASHINGTON, DC -- As I write this, late in the day on November 4, Joe Biden is on the verge of becoming the 46th President of the United States. By the time you read this, it may already be done, even without a definitive call in Pennsylvania.

While there are various downsides in the margins, and I’ll get to those reasons presently, there are many more reasons to rejoice. First and foremost, the sinister reign of Donald Trump is coming to an end and, at long last, the hemorrhaging will be cauterized. Americans will once again be reminded that being presidential matters, that dignity, humility, and honor from our chief executive is how we do things here. 

From the moment the lockdowns began in March, we knew this was going to be a messy as hell election, with uncertainty and loads of authoritarian shenanigans from Trump -- after all, just prior to the pandemic, he was impeached and put on trial for attempting to cheat in this election. The psychological pain came on Election Night when we allowed our hopes for the outcome to supersede what the numbers were telling us. Consequently, when our immense desire for a landslide dwindled, we felt crushed.

Yet this is how most presidential elections of the past 20 years have gone -- by narrow margins with the vote count lasting well into the rest of the week beyond. It’s just as much a mistake for Democrats to expect Obama 2008-sized victories as it is for Republicans to expect Reagan 1984-sized victories. In today’s era of negative partisanship, voter suppression, and hyper-divisiveness, we can and should expect more wafer-thin margins like this, especially as we further refine the vote-by-mail process.

That being said, we shouldn’t crap all over this victory for Joe Biden. The last time an incumbent president was ousted was 28 years ago. The time before that was 40 years ago. One term presidents are the exception, not the rule, and yet it looks like Joe Biden has made Donald Trump yet another one term loser.

Think about it, though. After January 20, we won’t have to pay any attention to anything Trump says -- short of his court appearances in what’s sure to be a series of indictments potentially leading to fines, the shuttering of the Trump Organization, and possible prison terms. The Department of Justice will be stripped from Bill Barr’s slimy fingers and handed over to a true prosecutor who will take a hard look at all the cases Barr closed prematurely. The Department of Homeland Security will -- we hope -- shut down the internment camps for migrant children. Many of Trump’s most egregious executive orders will be reversed. The pandemic will once again be handed over to the experts, and perhaps by this time next year, America will be settling back into normalcy. And yes, Kamala Harris will be the first woman and the first woman of color to be the Vice President of the United States.

As I said, there’s much to celebrate.

Likewise, there’s a lot of hard work still to be done. Trumpism wasn’t humiliated out of existence as I had hoped and there will still be nearly 70 million Red Hats who’ve been given tacit permission to let their racism, laziness, sadism, irresponsibility, and ignorance fly freely. To change the minds of our fellow Americans is a long and arduous task, and some would argue it’s pointless. But perhaps leading by example will help to shave some of the sharp corners off this grotesque, deformed movement of brainwashed hate-addicts. Pinheads like Charlie Kirk, Don Junior, Candace Owens, Dan Bongino, and James O’Keefe aren’t going anywhere. But they’re dumb, and they can be outsmarted. Even if we do nothing, morons like these often end up like Sarah Palin, buried under their own gaffes and ridiculousness. Meanwhile, Jacob Wohl and Steve Bannon will be waiting for Trump to arrive in federal prison.

One reason why Trump was able to stop a Biden landslide is that he exploited the presidency to inject every conceivable lie and every actionable case of slander against Biden, his family, and the Democrats in general. In an age when Americans are deeply and disturbingly susceptible to manipulation by known con-men and propagandists, the Democratic Party needs to devise a way to overcome the obscene noise -- a way to make reason and responsibility desirably “American” characteristics again. That will take time. No one said the damage would be easy to fix, but it can be fixed. 

We need to use the aftermath of this crisis to unify around common values, values that will permanently marginalize the nuts and QAnon whackos. That means doing what we can to play nice inside the now-colossal Democratic tent. If we don’t, then it won’t be normal, benign Republicans winning more elections, it’ll be these bug-eyed maniacs and proto-Trumps rising again. It’s as if we’re in a fort fighting off hoards of White Walkers. As soon as there’s a weak link or an opening, they’ll strike and we’re back in the same situation -- or worse -- than the crisis we just narrowly escaped.

There’s much more to say about this, and I’m sure I will as the transition period works its way toward the inevitably socially-distanced inauguration. But, at least for now, with Joe Biden on the cusp of victory, you have my permission to get happy. Just for a little while, then it’s back to work. And the countdown to the end of Trump crisis will be underway.

Read Justin Rosario’s take on the election here:

Trump Is Going To Lose But The Fight's Not Over

Take some time. Work on soothing your frazzled nerves. Put yourself back together again. Then stand back up and get back to work. - by Justin Rosario

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