Lindy Mcdowell’s incisive look at the week just ended
THIS was the historic week in which the former President Donald Trump finally (although perhaps not permanently) stepped from the US political stage and passed on to that great golf course beneath Floridian skies.
Trump has gone (for now anyway). He’s taken his belongings. But left behind his shadow.
First among the many big tasks that now faces his replacement, Joe Biden, will be to try to unite the deeply divided American people. Ending what Mr Biden terms “this uncivil war”.
Joe will have his work cut out. But he got off to a good start. His swearing-in ceremony may have been Covid-curtailed — flags instead of people on the National Mall — but it was nonetheless a showstopper.
The eyes of the world were upon it. There were genuine concerns of violence. Fortunately, it passed off peacefully.
The Founding Fathers would doubtless be reassured to know that the nation’s anthem was in the capable vocal chords of a singer called Lady Gaga, previously famous for dressing in sirloin steak.
On this occasion Gaga opted for volume not veal. Her dress featured a skirt bigger — and redder — than the state of Georgia.
She fairly belted out the anthem, although not in that awful screechy way you get at Super Bowl finals.
J-LO sparkled in white. But the standout performer of the day
was 22-year-old Amanda Gorman and her vibrant poetry recital; a foil to all the formality with her beautiful, brimming youth.
The standout headgear was Garth Brooks’ Stetson — a hat as outsize as the departing President’s ego. Garth sang Amazing Grace. It wasn’t a day for boasting about having friends in low places.
And then Joe hit the ground running — not just with that little jog he does to show how very sprightly he still is. At 78.
From the World Health Organisation to the Paris climate accord,
he’s signalled that, on the global stage, he wants to make America mainstream again.
Trump, in fairness, deserves credit for some things he did — in the Middle East and with tentative outreach to North Korea. (South Korea has appealed to Biden to continue the latter.)
Maybe, though, the best thing he did was what he didn’t do. He didn’t lead America into mad wars in far-off lands.
Back home, his legacy is rancour, bitterness and a scary potential for armed conflict. But Donald Trump is not all of America’s problems. Over 74 million people voted for him. How does Biden deal with them?
Some commentators are now talking about “reprogramming”, which sounds a bit Beijing.
What does need reprogramming is America’s enduring and apparently increasing addiction to weaponry.
There are tens of millions of assault rifles in circulation. AK47S and the like.
Not just revolvers (which are scary enough), but heavy-duty armoury carried by people on both sides of the divide who now seem to believe in the right to bear missile launchers.
What do you even put on a gun licence application to argue the case for being allowed to carry an assault rifle?
Not all these gun-toters can be headcases (can they?), but watching news reports of militia members kitted out in full camo, marching down the street (sometimes walking backwards, guns raised in that very SWAT team sort of way), you do wonder how long the potential for bloody conflict can be contained.
Successive US administrations have kowtowed for so long to the National Rifle Association that American citizens are now as well tooled-up as its armed forces.
And, in this time of tension, therein lies the real danger.
In his final speech, Donald Trump vowed he’d be back. America’s problem isn’t just that he still hasn’t gone away.
It’s that neither have the guns.