Where I Stand:

Trump’s big, beautiful gift to America

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Rich Pedroncelli / AP

Jackie Cisneros, center, waves an American flag as she and other members of California’s Electoral College celebrate the election of President-Elect John Biden as President in Sacramento, Calif., Monday, Dec. 14, 2020.

Sun, Dec 20, 2020 (2 a.m.)

Trump’s gift to American democracy. It’s huge!

This is about the time when the pundits examine Donald Trump’s presidency, just a few weeks away from the inauguration of the 46th president of the United States, Joe Biden.

These retrospectives of presidential administrations happen about every eight years — and sometimes after only four years, as in this case — but they do happen and they are worthy of our time. That is because every presidency yields some things that are good and some things that are not so good. Trump’s is no different.

Except that it is very different because there isn’t that much that has been accomplished during the past four years that would qualify as beneficial to the American people over the long term. There are, however, two very important things that I believe President Trump should get credit for getting done.

The first — and most immediate and, hopefully, lifesaving — is the vaccine rollouts for COVID-19. Yes, Operation Warp Speed seems to have worked in record time (not under budget, but who cares?). The world is witnessing as we speak the vaccinations being administered to front-line medical workers. Soon, others will fall in line to be given the doses that should save their lives, their neighbors’ lives and, yes, the American economy as we will soon be able to get back to work.

President Trump deserves credit for Operation Warp Speed.

Now, don’t get carried away just yet. His lack of leadership at the federal level comes with a large number of the 300,000 plus deaths due to the novel coronavirus on his hands. Not to mention the millions of COVID-related illnesses and multiple hundreds of billions of dollars of economic losses that didn’t have to be but for his failure to lead.

But, I digress. He gets credit for Operation Warp Speed.

But there is another gift — an even larger one than the vaccine, so it’s really huge — that the president has given to America.

And that is the gift of knowledge.

The United States of America and the 300-plus millions of Americans who claim citizenship of this incredible country (as well as a few billion people who have been closely watching around the world) have been given a civics lesson in American democracy that could never be learned from a book. Or, should I say, could only have been learned in real life.

In fact, I will bet it has been decades since the vast majority of our friends and neighbors have even picked up a book on American democracy, history, government or anything close to explaining the what, why, hows and wheres of this American experiment that started on July 4, 1776, or thereabouts.

Prior to Trump, if you asked your peers about Article I, or II or III of the Constitution you would be lucky to get a return gaze, and it would be more like a disbelieving stare just because of the question. The word “duh” comes to mind.

If you had asked your kids about the Separation of Powers doctrine, most of them would have given you that same stare — if, indeed they heard you the first time over the music blasting in their ears — and maybe some letters like “WTF” forming on their lips. Or on their phones!

And if you had asked the people who are supposed to know the answers — say your elected leaders in the Congress, or in the mayor’s office or your state legislature — about the Electoral College, they would most certainly have continued that same blank stare.

But not now and, hopefully, not ever again.

Thanks to President Donald Trump, every American who counts himself as such must now know that elections not only have consequences but should be conducted in a manner by the states that allows every citizen the opportunity to vote and have that vote counted.

Every citizen now knows that the Electoral College is not just some Ivy League school that Trump claimed to attend but a real institution commanded by the Constitution to cast votes every four years for the president. And without such a vote a whole big procedurally orchestrated mess would follow.

And most Americans now know that the Supreme Court of the United States, even though recently filled with Trump-branded acolytes, can actually fulfill its responsibilities. And that is protecting the Constitution of the United States.

Much to the chagrin of the growing lunatic and willfully ignorant fringe, the Supreme Court has done its job by turning down Trump’s mad-hatter dash to the doorstep of the court to get what he considered “his court” to invalidate the entire presidential election of 2020.

Justice prevailed as the justices — all of them — said nyet, no way and not ever to the attempted coup. At least I hope it meant not ever!

I caught myself last week watching the Electoral College electors on television cast what has always been symbolic votes for the president of the United States. Who does that?

And, yet, I am certain I was not alone because of the angst and concern and confusion and fear that Trump has instilled in our nation over his failure to win re-election. His refusal to accept the will of the voters and his overwhelming desire to maintain power has threatened every safeguard put up in the way of authoritarian leadership by our Founding Fathers.

The one major roadblock that the founders wrote into the Constitution — the balance of power among the three branches of government together with the personal oaths to preserve and protect that document and this government — looked like it was failing miserably after more than 230 years of working, messily but mightily.

But, the Constitution persevered. And we witnessed a few moments of bravery from some ordinary Americans who lived up their oaths rather than run from them even though they were, literally, being chased by the angry mobs.

I believe this country would have been far better served had our civics lesson been taught where it belongs — in the classrooms of America.



But because we have failed at least a couple of generations of Americans through budget cuts, lack of interest or whatever silly excuse we accepted at the time, civics wasn’t taught or, certainly, wasn’t learned. And in far too many cases, American civics wasn’t remembered by millions of people my age who should have known better.

Thanks to President Trump, though, our entire country learned the importance of civics and government. We learned the brilliance of our Founding Fathers and the Constitution they created. And we learned that no man, not even our president, should ever be above the law nor should we ever try to elevate him.

That gift of knowledge could come only from Donald Trump.

Thank you, sir, from a grateful nation.

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