It is Monday, December 14th. I check Twitter as a part of my morning catching up. Today there is a tweet from President Donald Trump: “People working in the White House should receive the vaccine somewhat later in the program, unless specifically necessary. I have asked that this adjustment be made. I am not scheduled to take the vaccine, but look forward to doing so at the appropriate time. Thank you!”
After reading this to my wife, she was quick to say, “Doesn’t sound like the President wrote it”. The tweets content was presidential; the reaction from my wife was why Trump lost.
In the last month we have been burdened with claims and counterclaims about the election results. My wife’s reaction betrayed the answer. The President didn’t win because he asked millions of people to travel, for them, “a road too far”.
America’s strength, at least in part, results from people on the Right and Left of the political spectrum rejecting “hard”—whether rhetoric from the President or Left wing foolishness insisting that the police be defunded.
Now let me take a minute to make my Left of Center friends (yes friends) unhappy. President Trump will leave an interesting legacy even as his manic efforts to evade the results of the election will tarnish it.
The most important court, the U.S. Supreme Court, order in this post-election flurry of lawsuits underscored a fact: his appointees rejected the President, 18 State Attorney’s General and 126 members of Congress who asked it to overturn the election results.
The President’s Supreme Court nominations were scrutinized and stigmatized by Democrats in the U.S. Senate. I was encouraged by their answers, which emphasized the crucial separation of government powers. Basically they said we will not legislate from the judicial bench. And certainly they said with their recent votes, we will not intervene in the State’s exercise of their constitutional authority.
All three jurists are young and now enjoy a lifetime job.
And when it came to China, the Middle East and North Korea, Trump looked at past failures and current imperatives and reversed course. The heavily invested foreign policy establishment howled. Trump paid no attention. While successes or failure in foreign policy rarely submit to scorecard math, at least some of his critics (President-Elect Biden, for example) have given him begrudging credit.
In a month America will have a new President. Perhaps President Trump will give President-Elect Biden some measure of courtesy. He should recall the courtesy extended by President Obama even though Trump insisted that he was not born in the United States and was therefore an illegitimate President.
Several decades ago I was given one of my favorite visual expressions of political will. It is a poster showing a resolute image of Winston Churchill pointing his forefinger at all that looked on, exclaiming: “Deserve Victory”. 2020’s victory came from American citizens, who whether Right or Left of Center, rejected hard rhetoric and hard turns. Biden won while many Republicans unseated incumbent Democrats—the Center held, deserved victory.
When Ulysses Grant ran for President in 1868, following the Civil War and the destructive presidency of Andrew Johnson, he campaigned from his front porch in Galena, Illinois. His campaign slogan: “Let Us Have Peace”. Biden, who critics said, campaigned from his basement in Wilmington, Delaware, had a similar message and won. The furious should keep this lesson in mind. Peace, in our complex society, is most often found in the Center.
Al Sikes is the former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission under George H.W. Bush. Al recently published Culture Leads Leaders Follow published by Koehler Books.
Barbara Denton says
You can say Biden won until the cows come home. That does not make it so. Trump was a victim of election thievery and most Americans know this. There will be no unification in this Country until laws are passed to prevent this from ever happening again. We need voter I.D., absolutely no mail in voting except absentee ballots which are verified and post marked prior to election day. No vote harvesting, no machine counting running votes over electronic lines around the world, no early voting, voting only on election day with employers by law having to allow employees time off to vote. The Democrats warned us they were going to steal the election and we went right ahead and let them do it. This is a national disgrace and Republicans are just as guilty as they let it happen before there eyes and did noting to stop it.
Editor says
Fact check: After numerous legal claims by the Trump campaign regarding the 2020 presidential election, none have been successful, including the conservative majority decision from the Supreme Court.
Richard Marks says
Al,
Thanks for the clarity making note of why Joe Biden was selected by the majority of voting citizens. I, for one, hope that center will hold, still believing there is viable path between those extreme positions from either Party. I look forward to hearing comments from others that are relevant, unlike the one from Ms. Denton that seems to have completely missed the point of your article.
Bob Parker says
Mr. Sikes, Let’s not rush to judgement on the performance of the trump-appointed members of the Federal Judiciary and Supreme Court. The decisions regarding our recent elections were akin to hitting slow-pitch softballs. The Constitutional questions involved were clear, and the briefs arguing the case reportedly juvenile. Everyone should hold judgement for when they must decide on thornier questions addressing abortion, worker, immigration, and voting rights. We have already seen how Gorsuch and Kavanaugh feel about Gerrymandering. It would not be inappropriate to say that the jury is still out.