By law, the administration of Donald John Trump will end officially on January 20, 2020 when Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr. is sworn in as the 46th President of the United States. This also stamps Kamala Devi Harris for the next Vice President during Biden's term. Now is the appropriate official time for concessions to be made following the constitutional process established for this democratic republic.
Those who want to castigate President Trump and Republicans for not conceding or those who want to squash the right to protest or assemble for their own cause miss important constitutional lessons and rights given in this nation's formation.
Just as there has been some discomfort with the Trump Brigades fanning their positions to MAGA (Make America Great Again) perceived by some as racist, the demonstrations of the Black Lives Matter Protest which have been allowed and sanctioned by others with the blessings of media and Democratic Party positions are similarly seen. Everything done in the search for freedom for individuals is inherently not racist.
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution was designed to prevent the government from making laws which regulate an establishment of religion, or that would prohibit the free exercise of religion, or abridge the freedom of speech, the freedom of the press, the freedom of assembly, or the right to petition the government for redress of grievances.
This is often interpreted as a freedom of association, giving individuals or a collection of people, to unite to collectively express, promote, pursue and defend their ideas. The Declaration of Independence says that we not only have these rights, but we also have the duty to alter or abolish any government that does not secure our unalienable rights, including life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
It would be a grievous error for the vile rhetoric hurled at Republicans or those who supported President Trump to be continued, for in so doing over 70 million American voters are being disenfranchised. Many of the reasons for Trump's support are being misread, and in leaning on Obama operatives to fill his Cabinet or re-embracing those previously held positions, Biden is setting us up for further divisions which put others in line to benefit from those rights which were established to protect our citizens.
Trump's loss reflected in large measure his inability to shut up when he had made his point and a colossal failure of Republican messaging when they had the right issues but a wrong inflection.
More folks are unwittingly trying to second-guess themselves raising the specter of possibilities that there may be a grain of truth to some of Trump's misgivings about the elections. There is no doubt that there were ballots which weren't counted with a distinct possibility that an occasional vote being illegal was possible for a myriad of reasons.
The question is whether there are enough such votes to change the outcome of the election if awarded to either Trump or to Biden. To change the course of the 2020 presidential election, incontrovertible proof of election fraud must be offered, and just saying it is so doesn't make it so.
The case has been made for not calling the election before all votes are counted. In the name of democracy, only certified votes by the electoral college should constitute grounds for calling the presidential election.
Now that vaccines are on their way to quarters far and near, will the Trump administration get any credit for the full speed assault on COVID-19 whose etiology was not his fault. If all that people say should have been done was done, there is no certainty that this pandemic's outcome would have been different.
A Brighter Tomorrow?
What this election was about is whether there is hope for a brighter tomorrow, and neither candidate could promise that. One huge plausible problem for Republicans and the president was underestimating Trump fatigue as demonstrated by the number of Senate and Congressional victories the party still maintained amid the losses in key areas by the president.
Part of the lesson was that checks and balances are still needed, and the Republicans' perceived job is to keep the liberals in check. An error being committed by the Democrats: emptying out members of Congress to fill Cabinet slots for Biden's administrative posts. Those vacancies will be aggressively pursued by Republicans with a more modulated stance on critical issues to regain the House.
The one question both camps continually avoid is a realistic view of where the money is coming from for all the things that need to be done. Any attempt to expand the personal payroll tax exemption proposed by President Trump should be voided as this is the money used to pay out for Medicare and Social Security.
As such, this defines the case for not expanding Medicare; we simply cannot afford it. Raising taxes sounds cavalier in the Biden plan, but still avoids giving the unemployed some relief, stymies cost-of -living adjustments; allows illegal immigrants to enter, which increases the national burden for relief; promises more in health care and education than is likely to be achieved; promises student loan forgiveness, which penalizes those who repaid this debt; and advocates following public health advice, which though important cannot tell how we feed and employ this nation.
Minions in the Trump brigades are now focusing on 2024, hoping for a reset without asking if it is "real or Memorex." It is hoped that Trump won't run in 2024 for as said of Biden, he will be too old.
Though the dynamics of much of Washington, D.C.'s federal bureaucracy was attacked, some major issues were not dealt with which would have aided the "Cleaning of the Swamp."
The use of non-elected family members who have not been vetted in official government roles should be severely restricted from any candidate. Prosecution and clamping down on illegal activities such as private emails for government business was not done and occurred on this watch as well.
The allowance of private ventures on public lands or invasions of sacred Native American Apache burial grounds by Resolution Copper should be suspended without open hearings, not just on environmental grounds, but for review of treaties and disrespect for the dead. A Rep. Deb Haaland in the Department of Interior may help there.
The attempts at wealth redistribution will be front and center, with those over 55 seeing benefits attacked or likely reduced.
Trump profoundly changed the judiciary to one where those who place the U.S. Constitution uppermost filled the vacant judicial slots. Missed in all the brouhaha was the impact of the U.S. Space Force on Trump's watch to take us bravely where we have not publicly been willing to go before.
Given the disclosure of Naval Intelligence showing Unidentified Flying Objects, will honesty on Area 51, Project Blue Book, possible reengineering of future vehicles from secrets of space ever be disclosed?
We need to develop new leaders vested in Keeping America Great, harkening to a time when G-d and Country were most important and the Pledge of Allegiance stood for something inherent to this nation's ethos.
Covenants made must be honored. A different mantra should be Keep USA a Great Nation for we are the United States of America for we should not be called simply America, which reflects all the nations of North and South America. We are part of the universe, which is unfolding on our watch.
Ada M. Fisher, MD, MPH is a former Medical Director in a Fortune 500 company, licensed teacher, retired physician, former county school board member, speaker, author of Common Sense Conservative Prescriptions Good for What Ails Us Book 1 (available through Amazon. Com) and was the NC Republican National Committeewoman (2008-2020).