By Donald A. Collins | 20 January 2022
Church and State
After four years of lies and missteps and the loss of a functioning two party government, enough Americans awakened, amidst a world wide pandemic, to elect in November 2020 an honorable man as President by a substantial 7 million vote margin.
Biden, who like all his predecessors has observable flaws, but unlike Trump, he came humbly to the task of fixing his inherited mess on January 20th, a year ago.
Trump’s failure to attend Biden’s inauguration ceremony forecast his continuing plans to capture control of our national government legally or illegally.
Since his inauguration Biden’s accomplishments have been many, including providing substantial vaccines to US citizens and to the world to combat COVID and its variances Delta and suddenly Omicron! But there is a lot more work to do and his news conference on 1/19/22 he spoke clearly about the work ahead.
As Fareed Zakaria opined to Don Lemon on Tuesday January 18th, Biden’s most urgent task now must be bringing this latest variance and all the others under control. Many experts now see the long-term path forward involves learning to live with Omicron and other COVID variances without shutting down our whole system.
Trump’s efforts to mislead many Americans to not get vaccinated makes this task even more formidable.
That the US lags behind other high-income countries in percentage of people vaccinated can be read here.
The United States began 2021 as a leader in COVID-19 vaccinations, but has since fallen behind.
Here’s a look at how the U.S. can catch up: https://t.co/oYgaOC2Axr— Commonwealth Fund (@commonwealthfnd) December 18, 2021
All Biden’s efforts at governance have been greatly exacerbated by the behavior of his predecessor who claimed before and after 11/3/20 that the election would be and then was stolen.
Despite extensive and absolute proof that his big lie was untrue, Trump and his cronies plotted to inhibit the peaceful transfer of power by stopping the Electoral College vote count on January 6th with help from his up to then complete doxy VP Mike Pence.
Perhaps even before, although that information is now being fully investigated, as a parallel effort against that illegal effort failing, his carefully orchestrated 1/6/21 insurrection at the Capitol was seen by many as his practice attempt at insurrection if he loses again in 2024.
However, by then voting law changes in many key states may make Trump’s insurrection plan unnecessary. Scary!
As Biden struggles with a uniquely unfavorable political situation, his earlier passed legislation stands as positive, despite the balking of 2 Democrat Senators and the most disturbing fact that 100 percent of the Republican Senators voted against the vitally needed national voting rights bill!
Imagine, although Republican non governing in the best interests of Americans has been well established under Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, the Trump hammerlock on the anti-citizen behavior of these Senators frightens!
You can read of some of Biden’s governing impediments here:
1. His blocked legislative programs by his own party members.
2. Putin’s threatened invasion of Ukraine,
3. China and the Taiwan dispute
4. Multiple rabbit hole media lies which augment those of FOX news,
5. Blame for inflation, which despite its being well managed by the Fed.
6. Blame for the new variant when most deaths come from unvaccinated Trump supporters whose resistance may allow the rise of new variants.
Not surprisingly, as the Washington Post article you can read here, his popularity ratings have gone down.
Biden added 6.2M new jobs, something no other first-yr president in US history has ever done.
in WP article 43 paragraphs long abt Biden’s first year, **there’s no reference to the 6.2M jobs**
amazing stuff. https://t.co/DioZiByPPA
— Eric Boehlert (@EricBoehlert) January 19, 2022
As Republican legislatures in many states passed new legislation to inhibit minority voting, Trump’s chance for re-election and/or his continuing conspiracy for 2024 gets even clearer.
Hence the question hangs in the balance. How does 2024 turn out?
The initial test comes this year with the midterm elections. Will enough Americans of both parties and those people who describe themselves as “independents” (41%) realize that our democracy in on the line?
As an optimist, I can only hope that between now and November the soon to be released report from House Commission on the 1/6/21 insurrection shows adequate legal ties to Trump and others to permit indictments by Merrick Garland’s Department of Justice.
Is a civil war of violence ahead? Either way, failing to convict or not to convict Trump and his continuing assault on our democracy could precipitate violence beyond expectations.
Biden and all people of good will need to keep telling the truth about the lying and the corruption and regardless of the impediments put up by new Republican voting laws we need to vote this Fall for justice.
Former US Navy officer, banker and venture capitalist, Donald A. Collins, a free lance writer living in Washington, DC, has spent over 50 years working for women’s reproductive health as a board member and/or officer of numerous family planning organizations including Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Guttmacher Institute, Family Health International and Ipas. Yale under graduate, NYU MBA. He is the author of “From the Dissident Left: A Collection of Essays 2004-2013”, “Trump Becoming Macbeth: Will our democracy survive?”, “We Humans Overwhelm Our Earth: 11 or 2 Billion by 2100?” and “What Can Be Done Now to Save Habitable Life on Planet Earth?: Leaders Commit to Reduce Human Population”."What Can Be Done Now to Save Habitable Life on Planet Earth?": https://t.co/fHuh0CG6JD
"We Humans Overwhelm Our Earth: 11 or 2 Billion by 2100?": https://t.co/TA4j7cp1tE
"From the Dissident Left: A Collection of Essays 2004-2013": https://t.co/lkC2t3E1A9 pic.twitter.com/bQsL2mLBcO— Church and State (@ChurchAndStateN) November 1, 2021
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