Trump unfit for office
American President Donald Trump — and one way or another, that title thankfully will soon no longer apply — will go down in infamy.
If any doubts were left about Trump’s place of dishonour in history for his stubborn refusal, accompanied by unsupported claims of massive cheating by his opponents, to accept he lost November’s presidential election, they were erased by what happened Wednesday in Washington, D.C.
It was an almost unimaginable scene: the president of the United States inciting a crowd of his diehard supporters to march to the U.S. Capitol and “fight like hell” to stop the certification of election results by Congress.
To call it the height of irresponsibility is a monumental understatement.
DISBELIEF AND HORROR
What followed is all on Trump. The world watched in disbelief and horror as a mob swept past security and stormed the U.S. government’s legislative centre of power, forcing lawmakers to flee and delaying, at least temporarily, the election’s certification. The mini-insurrection left five dead, including a police officer.
Many U.S. politicians, including former president George W. Bush, a Republican, painted the day’s disturbing events as ones you’d expect to see in sketchy democracies, not the self-styled worldwide model for democratic self-governance.
Even as Trump belatedly tried to backpedal afterward, his petulance — and delusions, whether real or feigned — continued. Alternately praising and condemning the patriots/rioters, he finally agreed to concede the election but refused to take part in Joe Biden’s upcoming inauguration, breaking a more than 150-year-old tradition.
But at this juncture, what’s one more point of shame?
There are countless lessons to be learned here, including inquiries into why Capitol security seemed unprepared and unable to protect U.S. lawmakers doing the people’s business, as well as uncomfortable questions about why security in place for Black Lives Matter protests outside these same buildings last summer was so much more robust.
And before Canadians become too smug about the travesty that occurred south of the border this week, let’s remember one thing. There are undercurrents — on the extreme left and right — that could, if left unchecked or incited by irresponsible politicians with their own agendas, easily also threaten democracy here or, for that matter, anywhere.