Posted on November 08, 2020

What a week, what an election.  Possibly the most important and, not surprisingly, the most anxiety-provoking election in our lifetime.  A huge voter turnout spoke to the widespread interest Americans had in choosing the next president and the many others running for public office.  It is a testament to our country that so many people voted, largely without issue.  And now that the people have spoken, and we have elected a new president, I, for one, am already eager to move to a new chapter in our nation’s history.  One without many of the players and issues plaguing the outgoing administration.

I will not miss Jared Kushner, Stephen Miller, Mike Pompeo, Bill Barr.  I won’t miss claims of ‘fake news,’ references to the “failing New York Times,” attacks on journalists, rambling ‘interviews’ on Fox News.  I won’t miss Fox & Friends, Hannity, Laura Ingraham and Tucker Carlson.  I won’t miss Kellyanne Conway and her attempts to create and sell “alternative facts.”  I won’t miss Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Kayleigh McEnany.  I won’t miss Melania, Ivanka, Donald Jr., Tiffany and Eric.  I really won’t miss Kimberly Guilfoyle.  I won’t miss the name-calling and the disrespect for those in uniform and those killed defending us.  I won’t miss the claim that tariffs are not paid by the American people.

I won’t miss references to leftist, Socialist-led cities and states.  I won’t miss lies about the “radical Left” burning down cities.  I won’t miss Antifa and “lawlessness” being equated with Democratic mayors and governors.  I won’t miss the president’s many dog whistles inciting violence and promoting racism.  I won’t miss the hostile suggestion that people of color will destroy the suburbs.  I won’t miss Mexicans being labeled “rapists and murderers.”  I won’t miss the defense of Confederate generals.  I won’t miss references to “sh*thole countries.”  I won’t miss the president urging members of the U.S. House of Representatives to “go back home.”

I won’t miss the lies, the thousands of bold-faced, often-repeated, easily-fact-checked lies.

I won’t miss Elisabeth DeVos.  I won’t miss Ben Carson.  I won’t miss Steven Mnuchin.  I won’t miss Michael Cohen or any of the other convicted felons in the administration.

I won’t miss super-spreader rallies filled with adoring fans rabidly calling for blood, whether it be to “Lock her up!,” “Lock ‘em all up!,” or “Fire Fauci!”  I won’t miss our leading pandemic expert, Dr. Fauci, being relegated to persona non exista while Dr. Scott Atlas takes the lead in accelerating the spread of the coronavirus throughout the country.  I won’t miss not having a plan to deal with COVID.  I won’t miss open hostility and weaponization of the wearing of a mask.  I won’t miss the outright rejection of science.

I won’t miss talk about The Wall.  I won’t miss the government onslaught against the environment.  I won’t miss references to “good people” being on both sides, where one side has Tiki torch-carrying anti-Semitic racists chanting “Jews will not replace us.”  I won’t miss outright seditious tweets from the president urging his followers to ‘Liberate Michigan.’  (‘Sedition,’ by the way, is conduct or speech inciting people to rebel against the authority of a state or monarch.)  I won’t miss the president urging the Proud Boys to “stand by.”

I won’t miss feeling like an enemy of the administration.  I won’t miss waking up each morning wondering what horrid thing had happened during the night that would embarrass me or make me create a list of which country to consider moving to.  (This was before U.S. citizens were banned from nearly all civilized countries concerned with the health of their citizenry, including Canada.)  I won’t miss claims that sweeping forests is how to prevent forest fires.  I won’t miss the lack of respect for political and social protest.

I won’t miss the weak, ineffectual and pathetic handwringing of Facebook and Twitter as they attempted to grapple with the difference between ‘free speech’ and the promulgation of repugnant innuendo, lies and vile conspiracy theories on their platform.  They should leave the easy spreading of falsehoods to Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, OAN and others.

Speaking of Twitter, you expelled Steve Bannon.  Why not Trump?

I won’t miss the spineless, amoral, blind Republican Party.  I won’t miss a Republican senator, when asked about something outlandish the president has tweeted, saying ‘I haven’t seen it’ and thinking we believe him or her.  I won’t miss their silence, their complicity.

I won’t miss the sense of powerlessness and hopelessness the president has caused in so many of us.

I won’t miss conspiracy theories.  I won’t miss the excuse that an audit is why his tax returns were never released.  I won’t miss the Trump organization making money off of the American taxpayers.  I won’t miss his love of dictators, or him floating the idea of being able to serve three terms or longer.  I won’t miss MAGA hats.  I won’t miss the words ‘hoax’ and ‘rigged.’  I won’t miss the press needing to use the expression ‘baseless claim’ repeatedly.  I won’t miss the unfounded notion that windmills kill birds and cause cancer.

I won’t miss Rudy Giuliani.  I won’t miss Mike Pence.  And I definitely won’t miss the president.

The clear majority of voters have spoken.  You’re all fired.

Sadly, it will get ugly before the smoke clears.  While Trump’s lawyers will attempt to undo the results of the election, there is every reason to anticipate that the administration will do all it can in the months remaining before they leave office – should they actually leave office, that is – to wreak havoc on the country and the environment.  Watch for a slew of executive orders, quiet behind-the-scenes decisions to continue the undoing of all things Obama – including the guarantee of coverage of pre-existing medical conditions – and, among other things, pardons of ex-administration convicted felons.  Watch for the administration to spend more money at Trump properties.  They’ll be active, to be sure, and many of those actions will not be in keeping with the traditions surrounding the peaceful, respectful transfer of power. Because their clock is ticking, this is their last chance, and they do not care about tradition, respect or honor.

What goes around comes around.  It’s our turn now.