By James E. Pogue NEW YORK – What’s particularly striking about the 2024 presidential election is the plethora of misinformation/disinformation that clouded voter’s minds. One would think that someone raised in the U.S. would be the epitome of an openminded, forward-thinking individual – one who fact-finds rather than gets spoon-fed via social media platforms.
That’s just not the American reality.
Sadly, a large swath of America chose to either believe in or ignore what happened four years ago when Donald J. Trump was president. Here’s a man (not a king), who actually stole classified documents and asked his loyal ‘buddy’ to get rid of them and hide them. Here’s a man who took the U.S. out of the Paris Agreement on climate change when the U.S. is an instrumental backer of this accord. Here’s a man whose very presence foments hate that turns into racist remarks, racist rants and here’s a man who incited an insurrection at the White House on January 6, 2020. Here is also a man who when states needed his help in a massive COVID pandemic, where people were dying right and left in the U.S. and abroad – said “It’s not my problem.” Trump actually said “Let the governors handle it.” Readers must be reminded that during the COVID pandemic under President Joe Biden, Biden sent each household $1,200 as COVID assistance. Trump never assisted those in need nor did he show up in any empathetic way for the families of those who were victims of violence.
Ladies and Gentlemen, that is NOT a man who should have ever been allowed to run again for the presidency if the laws of the American Constitution were being followed. It explicitly states in the 14th Amendment, why Donald J. Trump should not have been allowed to run for president based on his past actions which were nothing short of treasonous. The fact that former White House staff who worked for this man, attest to his foibles, his vengeful nature and his imbalanced approach to running the most influential democracy in the world, should have been enough for voters to wake up to the fact that they had it really good with President Joe Biden.
Trump has made no secret of wanting to tack on tariffs to Chinese exports coming into America but he forgot one thing: Consumers will be the ones to pay more for everything because of Trump’s shortsighted policies and the fact that a majority of products sold in the U.S. are still produced in China. Trump’s attitude is that he can just sweep into the White House and turn everything upside down when Biden spent four years turning everything right side up again after Trump’s first debacle in the Oval Office.
This is a tough reality that those voting in the red zone have very short memories about. No one individual, male or female, will ever ‘make America great again’ just by paying lip service to the MAGA slogan. Making anything great again, takes time, effort, infinite patience and a willingness to listen to the people of America with everyone having an opportunity to have a seat at the table.
That’s not what’s happening.
What’s happening is that Trump is guaranteeing that everyone he picks is a conservative with a decidedly conservative outlook but that is not representative of the America we live in right now. Times have changed and along with those times, lifestyles and rights have expanded which begs the question about whether the American Constitution should change along with the times. If Trump’s next four-year legacy is to be positive, then we need to stop the vitriol and hate that is being spewed out against the Black American population in the most recent hate messages sent to a number of Black Americans across the U.S. Just because the Republican party condemns such rhetoric doesn’t mean they don’t secretly agree with it.
The America that most decent law-abiding citizens want to live in, is one in which we accept our fellow Americans exactly as they are, whether they be of Chinese, Arabic, Palestinian, Indian, Pakistani, Hispanic or any other ethnic descent. What the Democrats stand for and what they always promote is equality and an egalitarian society. That has unfortunately, not been the legacy of previous Republican administrations but particularly the Trump administration. One would hope that Trump has learned something from his past and that going forward, that he and his advisors will try to do better on this front.
The operative phrase is ‘try to do better’ but this administration must do better, otherwise huge sectors of America will make it known, one way or the other, why the Republican way doesn’t work. We can’t go back to the dark ages which many fear may happen, but we can’t run amok either. Hopefully, this administration will learn to strike a happy balance between being seen and really seeing the American people for their wants, needs and aspirations.
Really being seen and a government that shows up for the people, by the people and of the people.
A fantasy?
Perhaps, but one thing we know for sure is that America cannot return to the previous Trumpian reality of four years ago. The fiasco included a White House press secretary who routinely lied to the press and advisors who couldn’t wait to share with the world via The New York Times, what was really going on behind closed doors. This Trump administration has got to and can do better than that if their heart not just their politics is in it for the American people. Meanwhile, Democratic governors are gearing up for what could be the legal onslaught of the century. Some of us will be on pins and needles, waiting to see what Trump does next.
