Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
It was supposed to happen Friday the 13th, but Donald Trump is still not back in the White House.
Joseph Biden is still the president without the immediate threat of being toppled, and Trump is still just a citizen still engaged in the whining and name-calling that endeared him to up to 70 million voters in the November election.
Thank goodness 80 million of us voters decided we were fed up with the presumptions, the immaturity and incompetence of our 45th president.
Mike Lindell, the My Pillow guy, was as wrong in his prediction of Trump’s re-inauguration as every bearded wearer of sackcloth who has carried a sign that says, “The world will end tomorrow.”
Mike should return to marketing pillow stuffing as a place for resting heads, rather than as what should be inside them.
While we’re at it, maybe it’s time for conservatives to re-evaluate Trump as the heir to Ronald Reagan. Trump is more the failed heir of every ruler who dishonestly exploited the disenfranchised and claimed they were the Only One who could fix things. Look at the history of how dictators rise and you see undeniable parallels.
The infrastructure bill seems to be shaping up into a deal that will leave many on both sides grumbling, but that they will grudgingly accept as workable. In other words, a valid compromise.
It came from a recognition that the nation needs both improvements to infrastructure and the economic kick of jobs and production the strengthening of bridges, dams and power systems will produce, especially after the forced doldrums of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Now, if the pandemic also cooperates, the recovery should begin soon.
As many of 20 Republicans have shown themselves to be the heirs to Reagan by fighting for, and in the end gaining, some concessions that are sensible, at least to me, and make the infrastructure plan palatable.
Trump is stamping his feet about giving even an inch to Biden, who committed the most unforgivable crime of all time, beating Trump in 2020.
It seems that gradually, fewer congressional Republicans who had previously played along with Trump’s every whim despite knowing better, feel the need to continue their pandering.
Too many, however, still feel forced to hang on Trump’s every word.
That is why we may never know what really happened to bring about the Jan. 6 riots that nearly succeeded in disrupting the valid work of a democratic republic.
Trump easily could have meant for the demonstrators to raise hell, but legally. He would not have been the first to see fighting words inadvertently turn into real violence.
I would like to know how much planning came before the insurrection of Jan. 6, though, and to what extent Trump or his allies participated in planning the insurrection.
Even if we never find out, however, I am gratified to see Trump’s hold on the Republican Party gradually wearing away.
As a moderate Democrat, I see the need for two viable, opposing parties that live in reality to keep our democracy alive.
Steve Hansen writes for Clovis Media Inc. Contact him at: