Blog#40- 9/1/20
THE POST-TRUMP WORLD
By Richard Davis
Many Americans harbor a mix of fear and superstition when it comes to talking about a world where Donald Trump is no longer president. Our worst fears were realized when he was elected in 2016 and it just didn’t seem possible that such a flawed human being could win an election. But it happened, and too many of us are living in fear of the possibility of another four years of misery.
It might be best for us to move past the fear and superstition and start to talk publicly about what a world without Trump would look like. Instead of listening to the back and forth accusations between Trump and Biden and having to swim in the cesspool that political debate is mired in, we can make an effort to change the discussion.
If a significant number of Americans and activist organizations start drawing a picture of a post-Trump world and if they are able to get that picture into the mainstream media between now and the November election, enough people might be persuaded to vote and help to make the world a better place.
If they know how the world will change without Trump it might just be what they need to make enough of a difference to turn this election into a landslide referendum against the most incompetent and corrupt president this country has ever had.
No more news headlines based on Tweets. We won’t have to live in fear of having our anxiety level ramped up or our minds polluted by would-be dictator rants. Major policy changes and personnel changes in the presidential administration will be carried out through a deliberative process that takes into consideration a number of viewpoints rather than just one.
Trump rarely consults with anyone when he makes major changes that affect the lives of millions of Americans and people throughout the world. That will end. We will have a president who respects the processes directed by and implied by the U.S. Constitution. Trump has ignored that document and that means that the transition to a dictatorship is in full swing. It must be stopped.
We will no longer have to ration our viewing of the news as much. Of course the world will still be a mostly unfair place and bad things will continue to happen, but at least we won’t be constantly embarrassed by the tone of official U.S. policy statements. That means that people might see more hope for change and that might result in more people feeling less helpless about the political process.
The U.S. will have a centralized response to the COVID 19 pandemic. It will not bring back the 186,000 Americans who have died but an organized effort, even at this late date, will cut down on the numbers of new cases and the death rate. We will be able to listen to public health experts who are not politically muzzled and free to state the facts. Science will not be ignored.
Racism and white supremacy will no longer be supported by the White House. No matter what policy course a President Biden sets it will not be one that fans the flames of racism. Biden will not legitimize violence against minorities. The hatred and racism rampant in this country will not magically go away, but that movement will lose a significant amount of energy. That alone is reason enough to try to visualize a world without Trump.
The militarization of law enforcement in this country will no longer be glorified. That means that law enforcement agencies will no longer be supported when they act like they are the pawns of a dictator who is intoxicated with power. We need the police because there will always be people who do bad things. We do not need to legitimize brutality in order to maintain law and order.
We can have a better world and we need to visualize that world in order to have hope.
