Shortly after Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States, I wrote him a letter wishing him success and expressing concern but hope that he appreciated the burden of stewardship for the office he now held. He did not respond to my letter but he did spend eight years answering my concern. Near the end of his second term, I wrote President Obama again and thanked him for the manner in which he had served, the role model he had become for Americans in general and future Presidents in particular, and the respect and honor he had shown for the office and our democracy. The Obama Presidency had certainly not been a perfect administration but it was a powerful demonstration of stewardship and preservation of the better traditions in the journey to a more perfect union.
That all came to an abrupt halt when Donald Trump uttered the words of the Presidential oath to “... preserve, protect, and defend” the Constitution of the United States with no understanding of or appreciation for the meaning or importance of those words. I had no confidence that Trump had ever even read the Constitution, and I did not write him a letter. In hindsight, I probably should have — not that it would have done any good. For four horrific years we have watched Trump do his dead level best to destroy the traditions and guardrails that the institutions of our society and government provide. It is deeply ironic that this was all done under a banner of making America great again. We have seen the wreckage which results from the actions of a President that cares only about the power of the office and cares nothing for the office itself.
I am struck this morning by the fact that Joe Biden will be sworn in as the 46th President almost 48 years to the day after taking that same oath as a young United States Senator. That could be viewed as a bad idea, and I know it is by half or more of America. At the risk of seeming naive, I choose to believe that those decades spent in Washington, as well as the experience of the last four years, have given Joe Biden an appreciation for the better traditions associated with the office of the Presidency and the fragility of our democracy.
Perhaps the best examples of the importance of that familiarity and experience are the contrasts of this morning's events. Donald Trump left Washington without attending the inauguration ceremony but only after speaking to a sparse group at Joint Andrews Base that consisted mostly of Trump's family, a few White House staffers (who probably had to go there to pick up their last paychecks), and the military men and women who were ordered to be present (an order to smile while seeing him off that was Trump's last act as Commander in Chief). There were no representatives of our government present (not even the Vice President) because they were all attending a church service with President-Elect Biden and Vice President-Elect Harris. A couple of hours later, the split screen images were also dramatically different. On one side was Trump, as a former president, in Florida at Mar-A-Lago and probably already on the golf course (without the nuclear codes and without his former companion, Lindsey Graham, who was at the Capitol for the inauguration). On the other side, the image was the newest member of the President's Club on the dais with all of the other living members of that Club (Republican and Democrats) except 96-year old Jimmy Carter who was unable to attend due to the pandemic and health issues and Donald Trump who has not been invited to join the Club and probably won't be and who has no interest in being a member or part of it.
I believe President Joe Biden will represent a return to sanity and normalcy but is very cognizant of the fact that some aspects of normal are good and others should never again be part of the new normal. I probably don't need to write him a letter, but I probably will anyway.
Onward and upward! We shall see ...
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