January 20, 2021

 About 4 years ago, I wrote this......

So I got to watch some of the inauguration on Friday, we were able to catch President Trump's swearing in, and some of his speech. There were parts of the speech I liked and parts I thought he could have avoided.

       But more importantly, I always feel like Inauguration Day is one of the great days in America. I know there are plenty of Trump haters out there who thought this was the worst day of their lives, and his administration may turn out to be. But I'm always fascinated by the transfer of power, the graciousness of both parties (I know Michelle Obama grimaced and Trump took shots at Washington DC in his speech, but he also said the Obamas were "magnificent") and just the pageantry of it all. The music, the parades, I find it amazing. I know other countries have bloodless transfer of power, I still think we do it better than anyone.......

But as I prepare to watch Joe Biden become our nations 46th President, I do it knowing that this has not been a bloodless transfer. I watch as what is normally a day of celebration is now a day of tension. 

Washington DC is on lockdown. The crowds would have been smaller because of COVID-19. But now, because of the terrorist attack on the US Capitol, the only crowd in Washington will be National Guard troops. 

It’s the final shot, the final kick in the midsection from Donald Trump. 

Because of a nonsensical belief that the election was stolen from him, but mostly because he is a pea brained, soulless thin skinned crybaby, he has put a stain on what is usually our country’s day to shine. 

And I know what the Trumpsters are thinking, We’ll four years ago, you were saying “Not my President “ .

Maybe some people were, but I didn’t.

You know who else didn’t? Barack Obama. 

He welcomed President-elect Trump to the White House. He cooperated with the transition. Michele Obama gave Melania Trump a tour of the White House. 

He sat there and watched Trump get sworn in. Sat there and listened to Trump talk about American Carnage. 

(I consider 400,000 dead to be American Carnage, but I digress)

And before that, George W Bush welcomed Barack Obama, who had spent the previous two years saying everything the opposite of what Bush was saying. On January 20, 2009 that went out the door at least for one day. 

In fact, you have to go back to 1869, 152 years ago, to find the last time an outgoing President skipped town before the new President was sworn in. 

If there’s one thing Trump was good for, he forced us to go back to the history books. We saw things from this administration we hadn’t seen in decades. And most of it wasn’t good. 

Today should be all about new beginnings, fresh starts. And it will be. It just burns me up that because of one person’s pettiness, one person’s ungraciousness, one person’s utter incompetence, that it has to be celebrated differently. That we have to do so practically under martial law. 

A parting gift from the worst President if not in American history, then most definitely in my lifetime.