Columnists
The Long Wait
Gee willikers, that was the longest five days I have ever experienced. From Tuesday evening until Saturday mid-day, from the time the polls closed until the media called the race as won by Joe Biden, the wait was excruciating.
After I concluded on Tuesday at just before midnight that nothing was going to be decided that night, I very sensibly took myself to bed earlier than the three in the morning I had anticipated. Except that there was no conclusive result to be had the next morning. And I ended up getting next to no sleep as my mind raced through the dark thoughts of another four years of Donald Trump and his wrecking crew.
The same pattern repeated itself on Wednesday night: no results, no sleep. By Thursday, I was so tired I could barely follow the vote count, and by Friday I was so fed up with waiting I was only checking the vote count every half hour instead of every five minutes.
But then came the sweet relief of the Saturday mid-day announcement. There was spontaneous dancing in the streets of Philadelphia, Wilmington, Washington and New York. The acceptance speeches of Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris on Saturday evening put the icing on the cake.
The way the vote count progressed was remarkable. At one point in the Pennsylvania race, Mr. Trump enjoyed a 250,000 vote lead. How could Mr. Biden possibly overcome it? But he did. Other Trump leads disappeared in Georgia. And Wisconsin. And Michigan. The people advising Mr. Biden not to panic had done their research thoroughly.
There was some poetic justice at work here: Mr. Trump had trailed Hillary Clinton in the early returns in 2016. And while he managed to get more people to vote for him this time than when he ran in 2016, the fact is that he got over four million fewer votes than Mr. Biden. He lost, plain and simple. And the world knows it.
People are no longer cowed by his blather and his bluster. His power has all but evaporated, as former presidential contenders George Bush and Mitt Romney and world leaders such as Emmanuel Macron and Justin Trudeau have moved to congratulate Mr. Biden, thereby endorsing the validity of the election. It’s as if somebody stood up and said “Look—the Emperor is not wearing any clothes!” And then everyone acknowledges what had been apparent all along.
What surprises me is that Mr. Trump seems to have no interest in leaving a positive legacy, at least the type of legacy that rings noble like “nothing in this life became him like the leaving of it.” He has blocked his own high road out of office by telling his supporters there has been a massive fraud. How can he subsequently concede on the basis that, on reflection, maybe it was fair? He will instead be remembered as the Great Disrupter, the President who refused to accept the painful side of democracy and who had to be practically dragged kicking and screaming out of the White House by burly men in dark suits and sunglasses.
Then again, Mr. Trump displayed his breathtaking lack of self-awareness when he decided to run for president. He was suited neither by temperament nor by experience for the position. He ran for president to show the world he could win the job. His presidency, littered with victims of his impetuous and self-seeking nature, will go down in history as an unparalleled disaster. The only fraud in play here is the one perpetrated on the American people by Donald Trump in presenting himself as presidential material in the first place. And then persuading 70 million people to give him a second chance.
I don’t know what Mr. Trump will do in his spare time this winter after he spends his time defending the lawsuits that will be brought against him. However, I have a suggestion for him. Perhaps he and his entourage could form a travelling circus and move from city to city offering to address local problems in the same way they addressed national and international problems when they were running the presidency. That should give rise to some chills and thrills, so ticket sales would be strong.
To end on a somewhat brighter note, the election result means that columnists and cartoonists will have to work harder to earn a living once Mr. Trump is gone. There’s more poetic justice for you.
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