The first thing I want to establish is that I am one of those who shared in the global exhalation that transpired when it became evident that Trump would have to change addresses on January 20, 2020. This was a “You ain’t got to go home, but you have to get up outta here” moment. I am also celebrating the election of Senator Kamala Harris as the first Black, South Asian woman to the position of Vice President of the United States. It is essential substantively and symbolically. Little girls and boys will benefit from growing up seeing women in the most powerful positions. Despite this momentous news, I still have some serious concerns and would like to share one of them with you. I believe we cannot turn a blind eye to the damage done to our country and the people responsible for that damage.
Somehow, miraculously, in my time on this earth, I have learned that more often than not, if I analyzed a series of options and made my best, most conscientious effort in making a decision, I would wind up being fair, just, and effective. Sometimes that meant addressing existing problems and obstacles before implementation of plans. Frankly, I am very concerned about President-Elect Biden’s desire to be The Healer-In-Chief and his framing of the current social and political environment that exists. I watched Biden’s speech on Saturday evening, and there were parts of his remarks that kept nagging at me. At some point, they began to haunt me. I was getting the impression that Biden was willing to sweep everything from the past five years under the bridge to broker a fruitless détente that would block meaningful progress and disillusion over 75 plus million voters.
Justice must take place before reparation or reconciliation is remotely possible. Truth must be pursued before healing can occur, and those responsible for the past five years should not be shielded from the consequences of their roles in creating this national nightmare. A reformed Department of Justice and Congressional Oversight Committees must be empowered to investigate criminality and corruption. That would be critical in determining whether our democracy will prevail.
I am not proposing that this be the initial or sole focus of the new Biden Administration, but the laws, customs, and norms that have been established over centuries are the foundation of our democracy, and now we have seen what happens when a President and an administration raises a middle finger to them. During the Obama Administration, one of my disappointments was that none of the people responsible for the Great Recession or Iraq personally paid the price for their criminality and or malfeasance. A much more skilled President than Trump would have probably pulled this off and hijacked another term.
President-Elect Biden has shown himself to be an amenable, compassionate human being and problem solver (the antithesis of Donald Trump), but if he is going to have any chance at being a transformative President, he will have to, in his own words, “have a backbone like a ramrod” and resist the urge to forgive the catastrophic, destructive decisions of the past four years. This has nothing to do with revenge, as tempting as that sounds, but it has more to do with preserving the right to claim we are still pursuing a “more perfect union.”
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