With a rational and reasonable national plan, Trump is probably preparing for a second term in the White House, instead of soon looking out his window at moving vans.
His defeat makes him just the fifth incumbent president in 100 years to fail to win re-election to a second term – Herbert Hoover (1932), Gerald Ford (1976), Jimmy Carter (1980), George H.W. Bush (1992) and now Trump. Various other presidents have served truncated terms in that time; among them only the twice-elected Richard Nixon had to resign in disgrace.
Reportage in Vanity Fair magazine explains why Trump did not nationalize the pandemic response, leaving it instead to a patchwork of 50 responses from 50 states. He and senior advisor Jared Kushner, his son-in-law, simply didn’t think it was the federal government’s responsibility to deal with the virus.
That explains a lot. It doesn’t justify Trump’s abdication of presidential leadership in the face of the pandemic, but it does explain it. His refusal to lead leaves his presidential legacy as the proverbial “mixed bag” and puts him on a list with so many other presidents.
As someone who was in the newspaper business for three decades, I look at Trump’s continual attacks on the media as seriously damaging to the public interest. There is not “fake news” in the mainstream press – only news people don’t like to read.
Yes, I would agree that the media leans liberal, but it’s not a conspiracy. It’s just that many of the people in the media want to “fix things” or “make things better”, which is a liberal perspective. But they aren’t making things up.
Democrats, concerned with a pandemic that Trump dismissed, voted early or by mail in order to get counted in the 2020 election. There’s nothing fraudulent about that. Deep pockets and armies of lawyers have gotten Trump out of many situations over the years. This time, the vote totals say otherwise.
In a column that ran in the JournalNews on Feb. 4, 2017, just after the inauguration of President Trump, I concluded with the following paragraph: “(Trump) might be a terrific president. He might be a terrible president. Like so many before him, his legacy will probably revolve around how he responds to outside events that, try as he might, he has little or no control over.”
The virus and serious civil unrest were the unexpected one-two gut punch to the Trump presidency. Yet, in the wake of those events, the fact remains that even as a lot of people consider him a terrible president, many others consider him a terrific president. He’s really the poster president for a truism that dates to biblical times: One person’s steak is another’s poison.
Dirk Q. Allen is a former opinion page editor of the Hamilton JournalNews. He is a regular community contributor. Community contributors are people who frequently submit fact-based or personality driven articles.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Trump did great things, Charlotte Holland, Miamisburg
I am so upset and disappointed by Jonah Goldberg’s “To the end, Donald Trump’s presidency is all about him (Wednesday, Nov. 18).” Where has he been the last four years? I am a Christian so I am very aware of how he has protected and promoted Christians. What about the National Day of Prayer? Was that all about him? What about Israel? He recognized Jerusalem as their capital and moved our Embassy there as promised. Our economy was doing so well until COVID. He had brought jobs back from foreign countries. What about taxes? What about the fact he donates his pay to charities? What about the “Wall” to protect this country from illegals? He has promoted patriotism and love of country. I could go on. President Trump has accomplished much more for the good of this country while under the most evil attacks and hatred that has come against him continually. He is not a perfect man but I would never say it’s all about him.
Letters to the Editor are submitted reflections from readers of 150 words or less. Send letters to edletter@Coxinc.com. Please include a daytime phone number, your full name and the city in which you reside.
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