On Nov. 13, President Joe Biden welcomed President-elect Donald Trump to the White House. They shook hands, smiled, laughed, and if you didn’t know better, you’d think America worked — smooth transition of power and all.
What a great country.
It was reassuring — again, if you didn’t know better.
We like presidents, ex- and current, kibitzing with each other after an election.
“Politics is tough,” Trump said at the meeting, “and it’s many cases, not a very nice world. But it is a nice world today and I appreciate very much a transition that’s so smooth, it’ll be as smooth as you can get. And I very much appreciate that, Joe.”
But of course we do know better.
Thirty-five minutes later, Trump nominated Florida Republican Matt Gaetz to be attorney general.
Comity is so overrated.
Besides, it was only respectful because Trump had won. Had he lost, his supporters would be storming the Capitol. But since Kamala Harris lost, her supporters are moving from Twitter/X to Bluesky. Also good to remember that four years ago, then-President Trump didn’t offer to meet then-President-elect Biden.
Democrats bring protocol to a putsch.
Back in 2020, Trump wrote Biden, though, as outgoing presidents are wont to do.
“The president wrote a very generous letter,” Biden said of it, “but because it was private, I won’t talk about it until I talk to him.”
(Notice: Biden called Trump “The president,” while Trump called Biden “Joe.”)
After the 2016 election, Barack Obama wrote Trump …
“First, we’ve both been blessed, in different ways, with great good fortune … It’s up to us to do everything we can (to) build more ladders of success for every child and family that’s willing to work hard … It’s up to us, through action and example, to sustain the international order that’s expanded steadily since the end of the Cold War, and upon which our own wealth and safety depend. Third, we are just temporary occupants of this office. That makes us guardians of those democratic institutions and traditions — like rule of law, separation of powers, equal protection and civil liberties — that our forebears fought and bled for. Regardless of the push and pull of daily politics, it’s up to us to leave those instruments of our democracy at least as strong as we found them.”
“It [the letter] was long,” Trump commented. “It was complex. It was thoughtful ... And it took time to do it, and I appreciated it.”
Leave it to Trump to complain about the length.
Obama later said he didn’t think Trump was an ideologue but “pragmatic” and such pragmatism could “serve him well as long as he has good people around him.”
Damn, did he miss that by a dozen cabinet appointments. Obama said at the same news conference, “Our Democracy is not a speed boat. It’s an ocean liner.”
Thing is, when speed boats crash, they don’t change history or make quite the mess as when ocean liners run aground, or implode, sold for scrap, or allow Elon Musk to sit in the bridge.
In 1980, after Jimmy Carter lost to Ronald Reagan, he told the nation, “The people of the United States have made their choice and, of course, I accept their decision—but not with the same enthusiasm that I accepted the decision four years ago.”
In 2000, after the Supreme Court — and let’s call it what it was — gave the election to George W. Bush, Al Gore said that the ”partisan rancor must now be put aside” — and, this was the key part — “I accept the finality of the outcome, which will be ratified next Monday in the Electoral College. Tonight, for the sake of our unity as a people and the strength of our democracy, I offer my concession.”
Those were the days, huh?
In 2024, we allowed ourselves to believe vice presidential candidates mattered, political conventions mattered, the number of yard signs on lawns mattered, long lines of early voters mattered debate, performances mattered.
What mattered was narrative, even when that narrative was ugly and indefensible.
Mike Tyson, 58, was the sentimental favorite in his fight with Jake Paul, 27.
One is a convicted rapist; one has millions of TikTok followers.
And our hearts were with Tyson?
To paraphrase The West Wing’s Rob Ritchie, “America, boy, I don’t know.”
Think of all the presidential elections (and all the losers) since 1968: Humphrey (’68), McGovern (’72), Ford (’76), Carter (’80), Mondale (’84), Dukakis (’88), George H. W. Bush (’92), Dole (’96), Gore (’00), Kerry (’04), McCain (08), Romney (’12), Clinton (’16), and, in a way, both Harris and Biden (’24). They all handled themselves, their grief, and their loss with a certain dignity. Only one guy, the current president-elect in ’20, handled himself like Joey Zasa in Godfather Part III, after being passed over.
We rewarded that guy.
Speaking of The Godfather, in Part II, in a pivotal moment about an investment in their future, Hyman Roth tells Michael Corleone, “I’m going in to take a nap — when I wake, if the money’s on the table, I’ll know I have a partner. If it’s not, I’ll know I don’t.”
Many Americans woke on Nov. 6 — not so much from a nap as much as from a recurring nightmare they’ve been having since 2016 — and knew, once again, they didn’t.
If I had to guess, Trump’s done writing letters.
Barry Friedman is an essayist, political columnist, petroleum geology reporter — quit laughing — and comedian living in Tulsa, Okla. His latest book, “Jack Sh*t, Volume 2: Wait For The Movie. It’s In Color” is the follow-up to “Jack Sh*t: Volume One: Voluptuous Bagels and other Concerns of Jack Friedman.” He is also author of “Road Comic,” “Funny You Should Mention It,” “Four Days and a Year Later,” “The Joke Was On Me,” and a novel, “Jacob Fishman’s Marriages.” See barrysfriedman.com and friedmanoftheplains.com.
From The Progressive Populist, December 15, 2024
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