REFLECTIONS ON THE OFFICE OF PRESIDENT FOLLOWING TRUMP

As President-elect Joe Biden formally begins work on future policy and direction for the United States, incumbent Donald Trump continues to release statement after statement declaring the election that has led to his defeat as fraudulent and illegitimate – a perspective nobody worldwide seems to agree with, except of course his ever-faithful base.

As video after video of ballot burnings are debunked, and more and more images are shared of hollering conservatives crowding ballot-counting facilities, demanding entry into rooms already full of Republican witnesses, one cannot help but clutch their head in dread thinking about just how much one man has deteriorated our view of the country at large.

Four years of scandal, often of a size unprecedented, has occupied every minute of a politically-conscious American psyche.

When one thinks of Richard Nixon, one inevitably thinks of the Watergate Conspiracy, just as quickly as one thinks of the Lewinsky affair when Bill Clinton is brought up.

Just what are we going to point to, specifically, when Trump’s political legacy is being discussed?

If one really wanted to, a stream of consciousness the length of the country itself would spill out as a recounting of the innumerable, mind-numbing controversies in which the 45th president has found himself embroiled: The “Access Hollywood” tape, the coronavirus mortalities, the Stormy Daniels revelation, the 2018-19 government shutdown over a federal refusal to fund his infamous border wall (the longest shutdown in history), etc…

With Biden’s now-confirmed victory, popular discourse has included many statements from citizens along the lines of, “Finally, other countries will take us seriously again!” It is no secret just how much disdain other governments have developed these last years from so much exposure to an American incompetency – so great, that it’s scary.

Joe Biden will never be a perfect president: There is nobody on any part of the political spectrum that believes that now, or ever will. But his taking of a seat previously filled by Donald J. Trump must truly be an instant ego-boost, his knowing that literally everyone centrist-to-leftist breathed a sigh of relief heavy as stones last week.

What has been commonly (for good reason or otherwise) seen as a role as burdening as it was admirable – the commander-in-chief title – rolls eyes now, more than ever before. It is evident now that there is nothing inherently respectable about the presidency.

Whether this view changes depending on the actions that are taken by a specific president depends on the person, but Trump has done nothing but prove how easy it is for us to dismiss and despise an office undeniably resistant to consequences.

Every American was raised to understand the presidency as a truly noble responsibility, only something to aspire to if one is honestly in it for the people’s best interest. Soon-to-be former President Trump has only further proved that in truth, all you need to gain the office is a lot of money, and a provocative character.

It’s a reality, fair enough, though slightly depressing.

Perhaps it is for the best that more and more of the nation’s populace begins to see the presidency without the divine-flourishing and waving flags.

If only it hadn’t taken a Trump administration to make it so.