On Wednesday, May 8th, 2019 I published the following post asking President Trump to resign, and detailing a host of reasons why I thought he should do so.
https://wurdsfromtheburbs.blogspot.com/2019/05/dear-president-trump.html
Then, on Thursday, July 16th, 2020, I published the following post asking, once again, that Donald Trump resign from his office. (At that point, I did not believe he deserved the title of president, so I did not use it). One of the many reasons I mentioned for him to resign touched on what I anticipated would be his immature reaction to losing the election, and the damage his false narratives about how he lost might cause.
https://wurdsfromtheburbs.blogspot.com/2020/07/dear-mr-trump.html
So now, here we are on January 13th, 2021. The attack on Capitol Hill is one week past. Another vote for impeachment is hours away. Cracks in the GOP leadership of defending Trump above all have begun to develop. A majority of the American people place some blame on Trump for the seditious riot that will stain the reputation of our country for many years to come. Multiple cabinet members and staff have resigned from the Trump Administration, the sight of open rebellion in the halls of Congress being the final straw.
Yet, Trump fights on. After hiding out in the White House for a few days, he finally addressed the media yesterday and labelled the speech which immediately preceded the attack on the capitol "appropriate". Further, he said that many Americans were angry (true), and that impeachment would only make them angrier, (also true), but did not mention that his words about his "landslide" victory that was stolen were the root cause of the anger, and that his support for conspiracy theories, some which even convinced people to ignore their own eyes to believe that those rioters were anything but Trump supporters, is what continues to generate the anger of those millions of Americans who have replaced loyalty to America with loyalty to him.
When someone as conservative as Pat Toomey, Senator from my home state of Pennsylvania, declines to vote to object to the electors of his state, and actually calls for Trump to resign, it becomes painfully clear that the true believers (legislative members of Congress and everyday Americans) will never listen to facts, never seek the truth over far right conspiracy theories to justify the 2020 presidential loss, never direct their patriotism back to America and away from their leader, unless that leader tells them so.
At this point, it is not enough for Trump to resign, certainly not enough for him to be impeached whether convicted or not. It is the words of Donald Trump that has fed the fire of this anti-democracy mob, and it is only his words that could begin to douse that fire. And, even then, it will take many months of him denouncing violence and admitting defeat for the momentum of this rebellion to be slowed.
Perhaps that is the solace that Trump should take from his loss. That even though he will no longer be "the most powerful man on earth" after January 20th, he will still be one of the most influential men on earth, and that it is up to him to use that influence to protect American democracy, and advance the cause of healing and unity, or continue to measure his actions and words against the yardstick of his own ego.
Frankly, I have real doubts that Donald Trump would rather create a legacy of unity over chaos. You see, it takes real strength to create bridges between the diverse opinions of people. It is far easier to create division, which is how Trump built his power and his base of voters to begin with. It is more than ironic that a man who talks of strength and weakness, rarely treads a path which requires actual strength. Being a bully is far easier than someone who strives for peace and reconciliation.
There will be much debate in the coming months about how to handle a man who loves himself so much that he is willing to damage the country which provided him with the freedoms and opportunity to be elevated to such a position of power and influence. But more importantly, how do we engage with his devoted followers who have been brainwashed into believing that Donald Trump cares for anything other than himself. How do we bring these hard working, patriotic, misguided Americans back into the fold of our American democratic experiment?
Let's just hope that, while it is true that the environment that helped create Donald Trump did not just appear when he first began his run for the White House, it might also be true that by ignoring Trump, as it will be more possible once he is a private citizen, the veil will be removed from the eyes of more Americans every day, and it will be possible for President Biden to begin the slow process of unification, not to mention improving our approach to conquering a virus that will have claimed over 400,000 American lives by the end of this month.
Please, Mr Trump, resign from office, but then, even more importantly, admit your defeat. And, if that is not possible, then resign from American politics and political discourse. Build your legacy by subtraction, by retracting one falsehood at a time. Put America first, for once.
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