Our president has done right by limiting himself to a one-term presidency; Trump doesn’t see that he should step aside too
By Michael O’Looney
Seeing President Joe Biden become increasingly frail over the past few months, I nevertheless hoped he still had the vitality, spirit, stamina and health to withstand the grueling ordeal of another presidential campaign.
I had been concerned as well that, even if he had a vision of the America he wanted to take us to, there were many of us who were just not listening. We wanted someone else, someone who could do what a leader is supposed to do: inspire us to become better Americans. As John Quincy Adams, another one-term president, once said, “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”
We baby boomers have had our day. We had Bill Clinton, then George W. Bush, Barack Obama, followed by Donald Trump and Biden. The time had come for Biden to remember the promise he made four years ago, to pass the reins of leadership on to someone else, someone with a new vision. In his decision to step aside, he managed to overcome the addiction to power the presidency imparts to those who hold the office. And to Biden’s credit, he was able to see that for the good of the country he would have to come to terms with Father Time and settle for being a one-term president.
Trump still does not recognize the fact he should do the same. If Trump were anyone else, with his resume, he couldn’t get a job as a volunteer in a soup kitchen — impeached twice, guilty of federal crimes and sexual improprieties, the incessant lying about a rigged election, the seditious role he played when his followers attacked the Capitol. And, lest we forget, withholding funds from Ukraine until its president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, could furnish him with anything that might impugn Biden in the 2020 election. I think that’s called extortion.
A leader must set an example that will inspire us to follow him. He also needs to protect us. Trump failed on both counts, endangering many of us when, after his bout with COVID, he stood on the back entrance to the White House and defiantly removed his mask. I wonder how many saw this gesture and followed his example. And later suffered and succumbed to the virus themselves.
When I think of our great leaders, it seems clear that Trump does not have “the right stuff.” As a leader, he can lead only half of the country. Because of Jan. 6, he left in his wake an unsettling memory that has poisoned the hearts of many Americans. Although his followers remain in denial about that day, many of us will never forget or forgive the ex-president whose inaction during the rampage on the Capitol conveyed to us his disdain for our flag, our history, our democracy. Trump cannot bring us together, end the division, teach us or inspire us to become better Americans. That day is long past.
If he wins in November, perhaps he will become the “dictator” he says he’d like to be. He says he was only kidding. Then again look what he did as president. He cultivated a Trumpian cult that would help him stay in power. He weaponized and partisanized the Department of Justice, the Supreme Court, used a national news network as his mouthpiece, and surrounded himself with cronies willing to break the law for him to consolidate his position of power (nine of whom are in jail).
Some of us object to this misuse or abuse of power. We had our fill of it. Perhaps the only thing worse than Trump returning to office would be for him to lose. Again. It’s unsettling to think what would happen then.
Michael O’Looney lives in Talent.
