We simply cannot take four more years of
this
America has paid dearly for taking a chance on Trump.
By S.
E. Cupp Oct 28, 2020, 1:35pm CDT
The last election in 2016 feels simultaneously like it was
yesterday and 100 years ago.
Weren’t we just here, a week out from a monumental election,
eying polls that told us Donald Trump was certain to lose?
But also, it’s hard to remember life so many years ago, before
Trump dominated the news cycle, social media and our collective psyches with
his non-stop, attention-seeking melodramas. It was a simpler time, before Joe
Biden was “sleepy,” before there were “s—hole countries,” before a man who
would be president boasted he could “grab ’em by the p—,” before journalists
were the “enemy of the people,” before war veterans were “losers” and
“suckers,” before science could be changed with a Sharpie.
It was also a time before COVID-19, when we were still going
places. Remember places? I miss them.
But as we look to the coming election and what the next four
years could bring with our vote for president, it’s important to take stock of
the last four years. And America has paid dearly for taking a chance on Trump.
In electing a reality show president, we predictably got one — a
person who was more interested in television ratings, gimmicks, stunts,
theatrics and fans than he was in putting in the hard and often messy work of
governing. Even when it came to his own policy promises — like building a wall
or replacing Obamacare — Trump couldn’t deliver, because neither could be
solved with rallies or photo-ops.
When his marketing gimmicks didn’t work to make Trump a
successful president, he tried coercion. Bullying Republicans who would defy
him into submission with threats of a primary, convincing his supporters to
obediently lap up nonsensical conspiracy theories about his opponents,
attempting to bribe a Ukrainian president to investigate Joe Biden’s son,
leaning on public officials at the Department of Justice, the FBI and other
agencies to treat him favorably, threatening to reject the election results,
smearing the media — none of it was because he was winning at presidenting, but
because he was failing at it.
Under Trump, we are measurably less safe. White supremacist
groups have been designated the top national security threat by the Department
of Homeland Security, thanks in no small part to his own rhetoric and policies.
Trump’s supporters would be quick to insist on some
“accomplishments.” He’s made three Supreme Court appointments, which, given the
circumstances of Antonin Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s passings, any
Republican could also have done. He also moved our embassy in Israel to
Jerusalem, they’d say — which may be a symbolic win, but has really only
practically impacted the 50 folks who work there.
Some Trump supporters might also say he’s protected their “way
of life,” a not-so-coy nod to his defense of white nationalism, his
anti-immigrant rhetoric, racism, misogyny and 1950s ideas of gender roles.
Sounding very much like a post-World War II ad in Good Housekeeping, Trump just
this week told suburban women in Michigan that he’s “getting your husbands back
to work.”
But any so-called accomplishments are far overshadowed by his
abject failures. Not only was he impeached, he’s presided over a pandemic that
has killed more than 225,000 Americans and is on track to kill upwards of
400,000 by next spring. Thanks to his early and continuing denial of the
virus’s severity, his lack of preparedness for this or any pandemic, his
refusal to accept science, his unwillingness to practice safety measures and
tell his supporters to do the same, and his utter disregard for the value of
human life, America leads the world in COVID-19 cases — a truly shameful
statistic.
He’s also likely to face serious criminal charges after he’s no
longer president, for any number of crimes ranging from tax fraud to
obstruction of justice to campaign finance violations. Not a winning way to start
one’s presidential biography.
Perhaps most objectionably, he’s also fleeced the American
public, his own voters, out of millions of dollars just to line his own
pockets.
A Washington Post report this week showed Trump has billed
taxpayers and his political supporters for $8.1 million in charges since taking
office. We’ve paid for everything from votive candles to golf carts to
decorative palm trees to breakfast buffets to glasses of water (yep) at his
properties.
All this while the United States hits record levels of debt; the
country’s debt is projected to be 102% of our GDP in fiscal year 2020, making
our debt greater than our economy. Trump’s profligate spending of taxpayer
money is nothing less than revolting.
All told, Trump’s presidency has been an unmitigated disaster.
Even if you supported him in 2016, he’s failed to deliver on most of his
promises, he’s failed to keep you healthy and safe, he’s turned you against
your neighbor and he’s done it all while stealing from you.
There might have been good intentions for 2016 and the Trump
experiment. But four years later the results are in and the record is clear:
corruption, greed, gaslighting, hate and incompetence.
We simply cannot afford four more years of this.
