by Nomad
Well, somehow we survived it.Remember the night we thought the Trump presidency would be over no later than one year in? A person so unfit for office- as Trump unquestionably was- could not remain in power for longer than a year, we told ourselves.
And here we are, four years later, bruised and exhausted.
Our Nomadic Politics timer measuring each day, each minute until Trump was out of office clicked down painfully and slowly. Meanwhile, shock followed shock. Republican enablers in the Senate- with the power of impeachment- did nothing to stop him. His White House staff coddled him or was silenced by their own cowardice. His imbecilic, hate-filled followers believed every lie, no matter how transparent. All in all, thanks to Trump, our Republic has been given a major stress test.
The long difficult road to national recovery begins today. Once again, a Democratic president has been assigned to clean up the mess left by a Republican administration.
However, the challenges facing the incoming Biden administration have arguably never been greater for any president. Abe Lincoln entered office with a nation divided by broad ideological differences, with armed rebel insurgents willing to go to war to protect its right to secession. Franklin Roosevelt inherited a nation on the verge of economic collapse with a Congress and Supreme Court adamantly opposed to the president's desperately-needed rescue programs.
However, the challenges facing the incoming Biden administration have arguably never been greater for any president. Abe Lincoln entered office with a nation divided by broad ideological differences, with armed rebel insurgents willing to go to war to protect its right to secession. Franklin Roosevelt inherited a nation on the verge of economic collapse with a Congress and Supreme Court adamantly opposed to the president's desperately-needed rescue programs.
President Biden will have to deal with those two problems as well as the Covid-19 health crisis which has, at the time of his swearing-in, left at least 400,000 Americans dead. On top of that, President Biden will have to resolve Trump's vaccination fiasco, in order to get the country up and running again.
The damage left by the Trump administration is far-reaching and no doubt we are unaware of the precise extent. The damage we see is, as the saying goes, just the tip of the iceberg. An iceberg that very nearly sunk the ship of state.
Unity- something Biden has preached in the wake of that berg- seems like a quaint fantasy at this moment. At the very least, on this day, 20 January 2021, there is reason to be hopeful.
You can watch the inaugural ceremony live at the video link below. Feel free to share your thoughts as the day progresses.