Can We Please Bring Back Damnatio Memoriae?
As the worst administration in at least modern and maybe all of American history is madly careening toward its end, and as we are hunkering down heading into probably the deadliest winter in a century, victim–in-chief Donald J Trump is still predictably screaming fraud and claiming he won the election. At this point even he must understand that he really did lose, but he is trying to figure out how to best turn a bad situation to his advantage and how to keep his cult base loyal to him (including donating tons of money!), even after leaving office. It is doubtful that he will ever publicly concede his loss, and I suspect the Biden team will need to sue to get access to transition funds and the necessary interfacing with government departments. Such a suit certainly should succeed, but who knows how long that and the possible appeals would take, while the critical transition process suffers from lack of access.
Fortunately so far all of Trump’s election related lawsuits have fallen apart or been dismissed, although they will probably just keep coming until the election results have been certified. It seems highly unlikely that any results will be overturned, especially with vampire-clown Rudy Giuliani now in charge, but we will all still breathe a huge sigh of relief after the critical state certifications are done!
Meanwhile, the crybaby-in-chief is predictably exacting his revenge by firing political appointees who have dared to contradict him, including Defense Secretary Esper and Christopher Krebs, the DHS head of election security who dared to publicly call this election the most secure in our history! The heads of the FBI and CIA are also reportedly on very thin ice. Trump is also pulling troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan against the advice of military leaders as well as senior Republican lawmakers, and even contemplated an unprovoked attack on an Iranian nuclear site, which would risk a major shooting war with Iran, the absolute height of recklessness! Fortunately he was talked out of that, including by vice-poodle Pence, at least for now! Who knows what other plans he may have or come up with to sabotage things in an effort to damage the incoming Biden administration. I wonder if he will toss a lit match in the Oval Office or take a dump on the floor on his way out the door. And while sulking and raging in the White House, he continues to pretend that the now exploding pandemic is just hyped background noise and that the vaccines that he is singlehandedly responsible for will arrive the day after tomorrow and magically fix everything overnight!
Trump’s shameful and destructive post election behavior has been pretty predictable. Unfortunately also predictable and every bit as shameful has been both the deafening silence and vocal support and enabling (at least in public) of Trump’s election denial and conspiracy theories by a large majority of Republican officials, including political whores like Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz, both of whom publicly excoriated candidate Trump in the 2016 election. It is pathetic to watch these grown men grovel and pander in fear of Trump and his rabid base, which is nothing new but is now potentially even more destructive to our image around the world and our own national security. I really hope that this looks as bad through the lens of history as it does at this moment, for both Trump and his party! Unfortunately, even in his political afterlife Trump will probably be a powerful malignant, divisive and destructive force in national politics. One can only hope that he will be indicted and convicted for something, and that the GOP will tear itself apart in the process of trying to move past him!!
If only we could bring back damnatio memoriae, the modern Latin term for the ancient practice of trying to erase the memory of disgraced emperors, kings or other important personages, usually after their death, although in this case after DT’s term! Sadly, not only is that impossible, but I am afraid that the corrosive effects of Trump and Trumpism on what is left of our democracy are likely to linger and to be in large part irreversible!
By the way, what is with his hair suddenly turning white??