Words failed me yesterday to write a polite and objective blog entry on the results of the US Elections. Let me re-phrase that – I was stunned beyond belief and rendered utterly speechless at the cowardly, dastardly and completely undignified behaviour of Donald Trump. He has single-handedly managed to strip the United States presidency of the dignity, statesmanship and honour that are the fundamental pillars of the office. His childish bullying, arrogant and unfounded claims that contradict the very essence of democracy on which the United States of America are built on have transformed the Trump Administration into the laughing stock of the world.
The basis of a democracy is participation, free will, exercising the right to vote, and allowing the established systems and institutions to function independently, in accordance to the constitution and the rule of law – not according to the whims, tantrums and political illiteracy of one man who thinks he can can run the country to the ground simply because he is a sore loser. So when you take an oath to serve and protect the country as commander-in-chief, you do so consciously, conscientiously, honourably, for the good of the people.
“It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
– Abraham Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address
The gross mismanagement of the COVID-19 aside, in addition to all the faulty leadership manifested in the events leading up to the US Elections 2020 that have divided the nation in the past four years, not to mention the disintegration of diplomatic ties and foreign policy, Donald Trump has single-handedly managed to shatter the credibility of the United States as an economic and political power on all fronts, domestically and internationally. All the hard work that the preceding 44 Presidents of the USA invested in building up the country over the past centuries into a world power and influential culture has crumbled in the less than four years. How and when the USA will ever recover from the Trump Administration is anyone’s guess, but it will always remain, ironically, a black spot in American history.
Let’s focus on the election process:
1. the standard bearer of the party is the will of the people, not the candidate themselves. They cannot claim the nomination on their own volition, there is a system of checks and balances, for a good reason.
2. The American election campaign, with all its mud-slinging and character defamation is the epitome of freedom of expression, and again, it is part of an established democratic process that offers everyone a common platform. Nobody owns this platform singlehandedly, nor can you claim a right to dictate which way people should think and speak.
3. Lastly, the voting process – is a right, not a privilege, and as such should be exercised, secured, and preserved. The individual voter cannot be dictated to vote one way or another. At the end, the triumph of democracy lies in the will of the people, and this is something that both the party and the candidate must bear in heart, soul and mind.
You cannot claim what is not yours to claim Mr. Trump. For every winner there is a loser, and what distinguishes a person in power from great leadership is the ability to recognise defeat and step aside to allow the other to shine, for the good of the people.
Like it or not, Donald Trump is still POTUS, with all the obligations and duties of the office, which he seems to have set aside for a magnified ambulance chase. Where, pray tell is the backbone of the commander-in-chief and the supposed leader of the free world? The shit has hit the fan Sir, and it is time to start mopping up, not moping around.
FrogDiva Thoughts 