"YOU'RE FIRED!"

This is the most important election of our lifetime (I'm sure you've heard before). But, this actually is for a number of very important reasons; COVID-19 Pandemic, extraordinarily high unemployment, an overwhelming need for Criminal Justice Reform, Immigration Reform, Healthcare Crisis, Educational disparities just to name a few. And, it all points to the ineptitude of one man, a man that in the words of President-Elect, Joe Biden, "will go down in history as the most irresponsible president in U.S. History." A man, who who has more blood on his hands because of the quarter of a million deaths and over 12million corona virus cases that lie squarely at his feet. A man who in the middle of a racial uprising sparked by the deaths of Ahmad Arbery, George Floyd, Brianna Taylor and many, many other blacks at the hands of the police, used a swat team to tear gas a massive group of protestors in Black Lives Matter Plaza for a photo op in front of a church. A man who is brazenly and unapologetically waging a war on our Democracy by seeking to overturn and to change the election results of millions of Americans who voted unequivocally to relieve him of his presidential duties. An election; by the way, that more Americans voted in than any other in U.S History. A fact that lends itself to the argument we put forth earlier in this post, of this being the most important election in U.S History. There is no better evidence that over 150 million Americans exercising their civic duty, whether it was with voting by absentee ballot and mailing their votes in, or whether they voted early at many of the satellite voting locations set up 30 days prior to Election Day, or those who decided to cast their vote in-person on Election Day. These were all "legal" votes that were casts for two campaigns that they believed wholeheartedly would either lead our country in a different direction or to continue in the direction we are headed; good or bad. "The most important election of our lifetime..." Evidently, millions of Americans agreed, because according to the latest election results, vote totals for the popular vote for President Elect-Joe Biden are at 79,582,813 (51.1%) to President Trump's 73,787.961 (47.2%) and 306 Electoral votes to Trump's 232. The margin of President-Elect's Biden's victory continues to widen as states across the country finish up their counting and move into certifying their states votes. Margins continue to widen even as Trump continues his diabolical and very "un-American" plan to overtime the most important election of our lifetime.

And, the brazenness and boldness with which this president is publicly decrying the election results and falsely claiming election fraud is indeed appalling. Never have we've seen this type of behavior from the occupant of the highest office in the country, this is truly unprecedented. And, maybe because this is so unprecedented is why many of us are sort of watching in utter shock and disbelief. Not just because it is unfolding right before our very eyes, but that we don't see any other notable Republicans on the other side of the aisle publicly rebuking this president. We don't even seen anyone from within the inner-circles of the Trump Administration even publicly recognizing the results of the election. They all seemed to be dead set on undermining this election by pursuing the unfounded and baseless claims that the president is spewing all over social media. I must admit that I have probably watched more CNN this election cycle than even when Pres. Obama was elected the 1st African American President in U.S History. This is like watching a train derail in slow motion, you know what is going to happen, but you can't seem to look away. One thing; at least, with Trump you don't know what he's going to do next. Just when you think he's gone as far as he could go, he seems to go a little bit further. In fact, it seems like his entire presidency has been one big experiment on literally "how far I can go." And, to this point, we would be remiss if we didn't mention Trump's co-conspirators, and no I'm not talking about the Trump White House, but I'm talking about the spineless, smarmy Republican lemmings who have allowed this president to run rough shot in this country. Spineless Republicans who've stood by and allowed this president to do and say just about whatever he wants without any public rebuke, or without any opposition to his narcissistic agenda. They have contributed to the attempted demise of our democracy, and we still have yet to hear from the Mitch McConnell's or Lindsay Graham's publicly congratulate the newly elected President Joe Biden and Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris. In fact, in public they are still referring to President-Elect Joe Biden and Vice President -Elect Kamala Harris by their former titles. As if not saying it publicly makes it more untrue, and the more that it is not said the least likely it is to become a reality. One of the more disturbing remarks coming from the current Secretary of State Mike Pompei; when asked what did he have to say about the plans for a peaceful transfer of power to the a new administration, he said, "we are currently preparing for a 2nd Trump Administration." Really?!?

I, like many of you are watching these antics with disbelief. We can't believe that grown adults would be acting this childish and strangely adolescent, especially at a time when we are in need of real leadership. In a weird way, the more adolescent and childish this president acts, the less he looks like the leader the country needed him to be. And, the more it solidifies the vote of the people that this president is trying to publicly suppress. The questions that many people are pondering in the midst of all of this, is how bad is Trump going to make this transition into a new Biden Administration on January 20th? How many more people are going to die of the Coranavirus, because of the unpreparedness of this administration? How many more new cases will infiltrate this country before Jan 20th, because of the unnerving silence of this narcissistic and egomaniacal president? The unknown is what is so disturbing about all of this, because even though we know what the president is doing and is trying to do to our democracy. We just don't know how far he's going to go, and how this movie is going to ultimately end. We know that it is officially ends on Jan 20th with the inauguration of President-Elect Joe Biden, and Vice-President-Elect Kamala Harris, but we don't know how it's going to end. Will Trump have conceded by then and accepted the election results and decided to participate in the inauguration as the outgoing administration welcoming the new administration. OR, will he opt out of participating all together and instead barricade himself in the White House refusing to leave, because he still believes he is the President of the United States? We just don't know how this movie is going to end. Although, Trump throughout his entire reelection campaign eluded to the possibility of some type of apocalyptic aftermath of him not being president. That somehow the country could not survive if he wasn't the president. How moronic!

But unfortunately this is the reality that we as Americans are faced with as we approach the end of the Trump Administration and the beginning of the Biden Administration. We just don't know what we don't know. The questions is, does Trump even know? It doesn't seem like he does, it seems like he's grasping at straws as lawsuit after lawsuit are either dismissed or dropped, because of lack of evidence for the baseless claims of voter fraud in states like Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia and Pennsylvania. In fact, yet another lawsuit was filed by the Trump Administration and ultimately dismissed on grounds of lack of evidence of voter fraud in the state of Pennsylvania. Here's what the Federal Judge who presided over the case had to say. U.S. Middle District Judge Matthew Brann said, "Plaintiffs ask this Court to disenfranchise almost seven million votes...This court has not been able to find any case where the plaintiff has sought such a drastic remedy in the contest of an election, in terms of the sheer volume of votes asked to be invalidated." He went on to say, "One might expect that when seeking such a startling outcome, a plaintiff would come formidably armed with compelling legal arguments and factual proof of rampant corruption, such that this court would have no option but to regrettably grant the proposed injunction relief despite the impact it would have on such a large group of citizens." But, this lawsuit, like many of the dozens of other Trump lawsuits, showed not one shred of evidence proving that any of their baseless claims of voter fraud were indeed true. Upon seeing this news on twitter, I tweeted, 'Now we know why Trump appointed more Federal Judges to the bench than any other President in U.S. History. I guess he was expecting a little quid pro quo...but it didn't work!

The audacity of this president to hold our democracy hostage. What gives him the right to believe and think that this country rises and sets at the behest of his ego. But, again I don't blame him entirely for this, I blame the Republican Party who; in the words of Ricky Ricardo; famous TV husband of Lucy (Lucille Ball), [Republicans] "... you've got some splaining to do." And they do, they are supposed to be the party of family values and high morals, but they have been surprisingly complicit in this president's tangent on voter fraud. And, what is even more surprising is the Conservative Evangelicals, who erroneously align religion with their political beliefs; as if God is Republican or Democrat, join with this Trump in his political theatre. To watch Evangelicals like Kenneth Copeland and Paula White openly deny and even reject the results of this election. Trying to use their positions as preachers and evangelists to convince their followers that they have some divine advantage over everyone else when they "profit-lie" and declare that Trump will win the election. I even ran across a post from a friend who is also a pastor; who wanted to share his election choice and why he made this choice to his Facebook friends and followers. Of course, his choice was Trump and he asserted that God instructed him to vote for Trump because it was aligned with his will for this country. He cited as evidence of his choice, that Democrats were using witches to put a curse on the Trump Administration so they wouldn't win his reelection bid. Citing that because Democrats would use witchcraft as a means to defeat Trump is a clear indication that they are wrong for this country. But, what about all of the prevailing evidence that Trump has submitted continuing to prove his political ineptitude. From locking up immigrant children in cages after separating them from their immigrant parents to equivocating between White Supremacists and the people they oppressed, saying "there are good people on both sides." He is proven time and time again that he doesn't have a moral compass nor does he posses the basic human decency this office demands. And, yet we find pastors, preachers and evangelists still trying to defend this president as some type of vessel from God. This a blasphemous perspective of Christianity; to use God as a weapon to somehow influence people to vote from their side of the aisle instead of the other. What a sad commentary of our times.

Check out the After-Election Episode of the Thinking Out Loud Radio Show Podcast

But, unfortunately this is where we are. Never before have we seen a time so polarizing and politicized. We are in the middle of a public health crisis and a global pandemic and in this country it really boils down to what side of the aisle you stand on, on whether you you will be treated with respect and decency and afforded the treatment you so deserve. It really does seem like Republicans have lost sight of what President-Elect Biden has called 'the soul of America." And, is it not that he is the savior that our nation is in desperate need of, but he definitely possess the experience, the political acumen as well as a basic human decency that has been absent from this office for some 4yrs now. It is true you don't miss it until it's gone, but never have we had such a selfish, defiant and divisive President in the White House in our nation's history. Even those who we might consider our worst U.S Presidents, Richard Nixon, George H.W. Bush, George W, Bush, just to name a few, even they seemed to have a moral compass that constrained them and kept them from their worse selves. Not this President, he unabashedly and unashamedly looks out for the three most important people in his life, me, myself and I. But, I have good news, in spite of this president narcissistic ways, in spite of his massive ego that won't allow to him to see past himself and see the millions of Americans that are hurting because of this global pandemic, in spite of his attempt to undermine the very democracy of this country of which he took an oath of office to protect; the people have spoken. Almost 80 million Americans voted for a president that will take our country in a different direction. 80 million American voted for a president that will fight for them just like he would for himself and his own family. Almost 80 million Americans voted for a president that cares about the health and well-being of every American whether they voted for him or not. Almost 80 million Americans voted for a president that has a moral compass and a capacity for compassion and care that we've come to expect from the leader of the free world. Almost 80 million Americans voted for a president that will serve this country would dignity and humility; a president that will restore its standing around the world as a place where all men are free and welcome to live in peace and harmony. 80 million Americans voted in unison and on one accord to not only select a new president that will govern this country's future affairs, but to send a message to the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, in words that I'm absolutely certain and unequivocally positive you've heard and probably even said before Mr. Trump, YOU'RE FIRED!

Your thoughts?