It was November 7th, 2016, and I still remember this day like yesterday. I woke up both my kids to inform them that Donald Trump will be our next President, and assured them that I was not joking. The first thing Veda, my daughter, who was 9-years-old at that time said after getting to her senses was "Oh my God, we are all going to die!". Over the course of elections, we contemplated the many ways Trump would bring destruction to our world. Varoon, who was 12 at the time conveyed his worst fears. He proclaimed that Trump would a nuclear war, cause widespread panic, deport millions of innocent immigrants, and the like. I tried to calm them down and assured them both that Trump’s campaign behavior was probably an act. I tried to allay their fears and emphasized my hope that Trump would select a good cabinet and respect the office he has been bestowed with. As I made these proclamations, I knew I was being deceitful to my innocent children.
I can’t believe it has been 4 years since this fateful day already, and the trauma and chaos have not let up for one minute since that day. Obama’s no-drama administration has been replaced by 24/7 chaos, emanating from Trump’s out of control tweetstorms. Presidential traditions, norms, and reverence have been ignored altogether and these have been supplanted by narcissistic petulance and unimaginable belligerent behavior by the executive branch. The unifying power and bully pulpit have been hollowed out and displaced by rudeness, crassness, and divisiveness.
America as a nation has been stronger to deal with the worst predilections and impulses of this incompetent executive in the Whitehouse. Over the years, I was comforted to find that there were checks and balances available at the state, local, and federal levels in legislative and judicial branches to provide the needed oversight when necessary from an unstable POTUS making wrong decisions.
COVID19 has, however, has created a different problem. While the legislative and judicial branches can enforce checks on bad decisions, they cannot force an incompetent executive branch to make good decisions. There is are no legal fights we can mount against a deceitful president that lies shamelessly while people are dying. There are no controls that can be enforced to enable responsible behavior on a 74-year-old petulant narcissist, who resides in the oval office. I am afraid that Veda's prediction has now come true -
Trump is killing us morally, he is destroying us emotionally, and worse - mortally injuring millions of our fellow Americans. He is doing so with weapons much more powerful than the nuclear weapons that destroyed the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki - through sowing chaos and spreading his weapons of mass deception.
The last four years have been a test of all our willpower as it tested every facet of our existence. Trump and his evil administration have inflicted damage to the moral stature of our great nation. In the four years, they moved our nation from the most respectable nation to a laughing stock of the world - only because of the buffoon representing us.
Our family became stronger over the last four years, we decided to use the tools at our disposal to prevent the mistakes of 2016. Varoon started his polititeen podcast and interviewed several state and local candidates over the last few months. I have been supporting by providing my voice, joining rallies, writing, and commit financial support to the campaigns.
I supported Joe Biden’s presidential nomination, even before he announced his interest in running for this job. In fact, I was hoping and praying for him to join the race in 2019. One of the reasons for this passion for Biden is his calming personality, powered by a true moral compass and founded on his core principles of compassion, empathy, and conscience. Biden’s integrity, complemented by Kamala’s strength is exactly the remedy we need for the last 4 years of Trump administration, which became synonymous with corruption and chaos.
Here’s to hope that take we will the country back to civility in 9 days from now. This will begin the process of making America Great, for real this time.