Post Election Considerations (A bit long, but points being missed)
By law the administration of Donald John Trump will end officially on January 6, 2020 when the Electoral College presents its votes to Congress for Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr. as the 46thPresident of the United States. This also stamps Kamala Devi Harris for the next Vice President during Biden’s term. Now is the appropriate official time for concessions to be made following the constitutional process established for this democratic republic.
Those
who want to castigate President Trump and Republicans for not conceding or those
who want to squash the right to protest or assemble for their own cause miss
important constitutional lessons and rights given in this nation’s
formation. Just
as there has been some discomfort with the Trump Brigades fanning their
positions to MAGA (Make America Great Again) perceived by some as racist, the
demonstrations of the Black Lives Matter Protest which have been allowed and
sanctioned by others with the blessings of media and Democratic Party positions
are similarly seen. Everything done in the
search for freedom for individuals is inherently not
racist,
The
First Amendment to the United States Constitution was its most powerful designed
to prevent the government from making laws which regulate an establishment of
religion, or that would prohibit the free exercise of religion, or abridge the
freedom of speech, the freedom of the press, the freedom of assembly, or the
right to petition the government for redress of grievances. This is often
interpreted as a freedom of association giving individuals or a collection of
people to unite to collectively express, promote, pursue and defend their
ideas. The Declaration
of Independence says
that we not only have these rights but we also have the duty to alter or abolish
any government that does not secure our unalienable rights, including life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
It
would be a grievous error for the vile rhetoric hurdled at Republicans or those
who supported President Trump to be continued
for in so doing over 70 million USA voters are being disenfranchised. Many of the reasons for Trumps support are being
misread and in leaning on Obama operatives to fill his cabinet or re-embracing
those previously held positions, Biden is setting us up for further divisions
which put others in line to benefit from those rights which were established to
protect our citizens. Trump’s loss reflected in
large measure his inability to shut up when he had his point made and a colossal
failure of Republican messaging when they had the right issues but a wrong
inflection.
More
folks are unwittingly trying to second guess themselves raising the spectra of
possibilities that there may be a grain of truth to some of Trump’s misgivings
about the elections. There is no doubt that there were ballots which weren’t
counted with a distinct possibility that an occasional vote being illegal was
possible for a myriad of reasons. The question is whether there are enough such
votes to change the outcome of the election if awarded to either Trump or to
Biden. To change the course of the 2020 Presidential Election, incontrovertible
proof of election fraud must be offered and just saying it is so doesn’t make it
so. The case has been made for not calling the election before all votes are
counted. In the name of democracy, only certified votes by the electoral college
should constitute grounds for calling the presidential
election.
Now
that vaccines are on their way to quarters far and near, will the Trump
Administration get any credit for the full speed assault on Covid-19 whose
etiology was not his fault. If all that people say should have been done was
done, there is no certainty that this pandemic’s outcome would have been
different.
*
What
this election was about is whether there is hope for a brighter tomorrow and
neither candidate could promise that. One huge plausible problem for Republicans
and the President was underestimating Trump fatigue as demonstrated by the
number of Senate and Congressional victories the party still maintained amidst
the losses in key areas by the President. Part of the lesson was checks and
balances are still needed and the Republicans perceived job is to keep the
liberals in check. A Democrat error is in
emptying out members of Congress to fill Cabinet slots for Biden’s
Administrative Post. Those vacancies will be
aggressively pursued by Republicans with a more modulated stance on critical
issues to regain the House.
The
one question both camps continually avoid is a realistic view of where the money
is coming from for all the things which need to be done. Any attempt to expand
the personal payroll tax exemption proposed by President Trump should be voided
as this is the money used to pay out for Medicare and Social Security. As such
this defines the case for not expanding Medicare, we simply cannot afford
it. Raising taxes sounds cavalier in the Biden plan but still avoids giving the
unemployed some relief, stymies cost of living adjustments, allows illegals to
enter which increases the national burden for relief, promises more in health
care and education than is likely to be achieved, promises student loan
forgiveness which penalizes those who repaid this debt, and advocates following
public health advice which though important cannot tell how we feed and employ
this nation.
Minions
in the Trump brigades are now focusing on 2024; hoping for a reset without
asking if it is “real or Memorex”. It is hoped that Trump won’t run in 2024 for
as said of Biden, he will be too old. Though the dynamics of much of Washington,
DC’s federal bureaucracy was attacked, some major issues were not dealt with
which would have aided the “Cleaning of the Swamp.” The use of non-elected
family members who have not been vetted in official government roles should be
severely restricted from any candidate. Prosecution and clamping down on illegal
activities such as private emails for government business was not done and
occurred on this watch as well. The allowance of private ventures on public
lands or invasions of sacred Native American Apache burial grounds by Resolution
Copper should be suspended without open hearings not just on environmental
grounds, but for review of treaties and disrespect for the dead. A Representative Deb Haaland in the Department of
Interior may help there. The attempts at wealth redistribution will be front and
center with those over 55 seeing benefits attacked or likely
reduced.
Trump profoundly changed the judiciary to one where those who place the US Constitution uppermost filled the more than 200 vacant federal judicial slots. Missed in all the brouhaha was the impact of the US Space Force on Trump’s watch to take us bravely where we have not publicly been willing to go before. Given the disclosure of Naval Intelligence showing Unidentified Flying Objects, will honesty on Area 51, Project Blue Book, possible reengineering of future vehicles from secrets of space ever be disclosed? We must be ready to face the unknown as the coronavirus reveals.
We
need to develop new leaders vested in Keeping America Great harkening to a time
when G-d and Country were most important and the Pledge of Allegiance stood for
something inherent to this nation's ethos. Covenants made must be honored. A
different mantra should be Keep USA
Great Nation for we are the United
States of America for we should not simply be called
America which reflects all the nations of North and South America. We are part
of the universe which is unfolding on our watch.
Ada
M. Fisher, MD, MPH is a former Medical Director in a Fortune 500 company,
licensed teacher, retired physician, former county school board member, speaker,
author of Common Sense Conservative Prescriptions Good for What Ails Us Book 1
(available through Amazon. Com) and was the NC Republican National
Committeewoman (2008-2020).
