Don't Blow this Second Chance, Mr. President

I was glued to my television all day for President Trump’s second inaugural, from the time his motorcade left Blair House for the morning prayer service to the time he attended the last ball.  I adore the peaceful transfer of power and was happy to have it back.

The body language of the day was remarkable.  And sometimes body language is all we get.  Sometimes it is subtle – President Biden and Vice President Harris both with their legs crossed in the direction pointing away from President Trump as he spoke.  Sometimes it is fascinating – President Clinton’s expression as he marveled, almost as if he was watching a sociology experiment, at the things Trump was saying and the crowd’s reaction.  Sometimes it is obvious – Secretary Clinton’s disdainful laughs and headshaking.  But every time, body language is telling – Vice President Vance, Speaker Johnson, and Leader Scalise figuratively looking for a place to hide while President Trump rambled to the crowd in the overflow room after the address.

Unlike Vance, Johnson, and Scalise, I’m comfortable saying publicly that I’m a Republican who strongly dislikes Donald Trump.  But I’m rooting hard for him because as President George H.W. Bush so graciously wrote to the man who defeated him, President Clinton, “Your success now is our country’s success.  I am rooting hard for you.”  It’s hard to root for someone you find to be a small man, one with a bent toward autocracy, a too-casual understanding of the intricacies of policy, and an utter lack of appropriateness.  But here we are again and so I’ll try.

Many of President Trump’s supporters have spoken about their genuine belief that God spared him for a reason.  Many insiders have spoken about finding him to be a changed man, for the better.  I genuinely hope both are the case, because I passionately believe in both divine intervention and redemption.  America’s march toward a more perfect union relies on them.  And all of us as flawed human beings rely on them.

Seldom in life does the universe offer such an immediate and clear opportunity to make amends.  President Trump, by gift of fate and our electorate, has been given just that chance. Not a mandate - after all 50.2% of voters picked someone else - but rather an opportunity.  But one must decide what to do with an opportunity when it’s presented.  The President can choose to lead, unite, make good on useful promises around the costs of living and security, bypass any action on the things that keep our Democrat friends up at night, and show the history books that man can find his better angels.  Or he can divide, provoke, retaliate, govern without the requisite understanding of underlying policy or respect for institutions, and show history that a leopard is incapable of changing its spots.  Make no mistake, history, as it always does, will judge, even if some fellow Republicans refuse to.

A very large part of the presidency is ceremonial.  It represents who we are.  It can inspire and elevate. Think of what it would have meant for a divided nation, if after taking the oath of office for the second time, President Trump could have found the grace, humanity, humility, and patriotism to thank President Biden for being there, apologize to him for not extending the same courtesy four years earlier, and lay out his vision without eviscerating his predecessor’s service.  It would have said country before person, past behind us, onward.  Yes, I know.  I’m naive.  But President Trump is small.

Instead of inspiring, the President spent inauguration day setting a tone that frustrates many of us Republicans and scares many of our Democrat friends.  He continued to speak of a stolen election.  He had the temerity to call those who attacked our Capitol on January 6, hostages, while quite literally standing in front of a former hostage of Hamas and family members of others still in captivity in Gaza.  He mused on using his power to effectively extort a 50% ownership stake from Tiktok.  He mistook one of our NATO allies, Spain, for a BRICS nation and threatened to slap them with a 100% tariff.  And then as he so often does when speaking arrogantly out of the wrong end of his body said, “Do you know what a BRICS nation is? You’ll figure it out.”  Yes sir, I’m sure I’ll figure out that whole ingesting bleach thing too.  He then threw chum to the base, declaring two sexes and mandating all federal employees return to the office (a move that may actually cost taxpayers money).  And then before donning a tux and cutting cake, the leader of the party of law and order, pardoned the January 6th insurrectionists.

History has given you a second chance, Mr. President...please be careful what you do with it.