You know, looking at Trump, I am reminded of what Hitler once said when the allied troops were closing in in 1944. He said: “I don’t give up at five minutes before midnight. I give up at five minutes after midnight.”
Well, I guess Trump is in his last five minutes after the midnight hour, and yet, he is not giving up. What’s more, he has done the opposite of giving up by tightening up the grip of government.
He has recently ordered all his officials to refuse Biden and Harris all access to government offices, secure communications and classified briefings. He is digging his presidential heels and not giving even an inch away of the Oval Office estate.
Anyway, I hope he comes to his senses, (or reconcile with his continental ego), because it is said that “fish and visitors stink after three days". And as more than a week has passed since Biden secured the 270 electoral voters’ golden ticket, the stench coming out from the White House is gradually building up and it has breached international borders, with one of UK parliament members remarking, ”this is embarassing”.
It is therefore ironic that Trump most famous electoral promise is that he would build the wall and make Mexico pay for it. Now, in some twisted way, that promise has come true. He has indeed built for himself a wall of denial, and the American people are paying for it. It is called the price of democracy, and the cost is the people’s unity.
Alas, like Hitler, Trump takes the bunker mentality where he is holed up in his own fantasy bubble, with his most loyal officials (yet Hitler never really trusted them, even till his very end) huddling and praying together for a second coming (or term), or for a miraculous turn of the electoral battle (he is like an ostrich in the sand telling his closest associates that by summer, when the heat comes, it will all disappear, all go away).
And talking about prayer, the embarrassment extends to some quarters of the evangelical Christians in America.
Prosperity preacher Kenneth Copeland had recently let out a peel of maniacal laughter over the pulpit. He started with the president-elect’s name, but before he could finish calling Biden’s name in full, he convulsed into hysterical guffaw. Go look at it yourself, google it, and trust me, it’s spine chillingly weird.
(And I thought no one could top Trump’s spiritual adviser Paula White’s rambling “I hear a sound of victory” marathon prayer, rebuking the demonic confederacies for stealing the election from her religiously puerile leader).
The truth - it is said - will set you free, after knowing it of course. But, for Trump’s close-knit christian community, the truth seems to have a different (if not dangerous) impact. It appears to have locked them in, in their own wall of make-belief (and let’s be clear, I am talking only about the election results. God knows, there are other confounding bewilderment of the faith of late that is beyond my earthly comprehension).
In any event, here’s the bipartisan truth or reality. In today’s papers, the official word is out. A group of federal, state and local election officials have all issued a statement together. They declared flatly that “the election was the most secure in American history...there is no evidence that any voting systems were compromised.”
More specifically, this group that “issued the statement was the Elections Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council, which includes top officials from the cyber security agency, the US Election Assistance Commission and secretaries of state and state election directors from around the country.”
They added: “While we know there are many unfounded claims and opportunities for misinformation about the process of our elections, we can assure you we have the utmost confidence in the security and integrity of our elections, and you should, too. When you have questions, turn to election officials as trusted voices as they administer elections.”
With the above collective assurance in mind, Trump and his deluded family members are playing with fire. And let me derail here a little to call a spade a spade. For the past four years, the poor USA is anything but united. The racial, income, social and even religious divide have all increased, or deepened. You can’t possibly deny that.
Now, it’s your fundamental constitutional right to blame that on anyone or anything, or concoct up conspiracy theories about it. But like it or not, the reality doesn’t change, for the fish still rots at its head. In other words, the leadership has to take responsibility.
That is the first go-to response, or else, why bother with the once-every-4-year Election, or the 233-year-old Constitution, or her proud democratic heritage that Tocqueville couldn’t praise enough for contributing to, nurturing and facilitating the American Dream, right?
You see, when Trump was first elected in 2016, the Time’s Person of the Year was him, with this caption - “Donald Trump: The President of the Divided States of America”. Well, after 4 years, that has been the one consistent thing about his presidency.
And so, in my view, Trump has been playing with fire on issues of race, nationality, immigration, income and social inequalities, and now, he is lighting a match to America’s most sacred and sacrosanct institution, her democracy. For you lose that, you lose all credibility, and you lose the nation, that is, the unity of the country.
His supporters (that is, those supporting his call for election fraud) is not helping to douse the fire, they are in fact throwing kerosene on it. And that unwitting action can result in a horrific backfire for the nation as a whole.
Yes, it is said that without vision or hope the people perish. Yet, without unity, any vision/hope dies stillborn, and the people perish too.
As an earnest plea (from a foreigner), I know without a doubt you love him as a leader, and still believes that he’s God’s chosen one. But, unless there is conclusive evidence of electoral fraud, by all conscionable effort, you too ought to agree that Trump’s final 5 minutes after midnight is up too.
Mind you, leaders often draw their strength and resolve from their followers. They just don’t like to admit it. They are more comfortable with the illusion of sole command. You therefore have the power to make it right; if not in God’s name, at least in the name of democracy and the people’s unity - for your sons and daughters are at stake too.
Alas, history’s inflection points are made up of people of moral clarity and courage who stand for what is right, what is timeless, and this is the time to stand up to be counted, since the votes have already been counted. What’s more vital is that it is also time to stand united against your nation’s common foe - the destroyer of the people’s democratic will, hopes and dreams.
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