Worries to Start 2021

It is 7 o’clock in the morning of the first day of the new year 2021. I have been awake for a few hours now just thinking of things and the prospects for the new year. I have to admit that I am somewhat unsettled and a little worried.

I perceive 2020 as the year in my lifetime which, by a considerable margin, has been the most catastrophic. This has not been so much for me personally but for generally the sad state of everything. Clearly, this is the result of the COVID 19 pandemic which continues to ravage the populations of most nations and with particular intensity on the United States of America. It is this American disaster that leads me to my concern.

All countries regardless of their system of government or economic health are struggling with the pandemic and to say that it has disrupted global prosperity would be a vast understatement. There has been a whole range of responses by countries of which some have been more successful than others trying to control the pandemic to be manageable by their health care systems. I find it very disturbing that as the richest, most influential and powerful nation on the earth the United States has had the least effective and entirely dysfunctional response to COVID 19. The health care systems in some states are overwhelmed and the number of cases continues to climb out of control. As concerning as this is, it is not what has me preoccupied this morning.

What I have been thinking about is that with the catastrophic public health outcomes of the pandemic, the effects on the political and democratic fabric of the American republic may be even more devastating. The USA was a country very much divided before COVID 19 with Republicans and Democrats drifting ideologically further apart for a number of years encouraged by the divisive rhetoric of their president. I am sure that future historians will wax eloquent on the failures of the current president to provide any leadership to deal with COVID 19 and how he is largely responsible for the complete mess his country is in right now. Tragically, his totally inadequate response to the pandemic has done nothing to unify the nation at a time when it was so important for Americans to join together to fight an enemy that continues to assail them all indiscriminately. The death toll now stands at over 345 thousand souls, by far the greatest of any country. His loss of the 2020 election is directly attributable to all of this.

In a sane world in which reality, facts, science, logic, rule of law, and long-held principles of decency are paramount, the result of the 2020 election was very clear. Joe Biden won! In the modern history of the USA, results that have been even more closely contested have been accepted and the will of the people acknowledged (the 2000 election had to be resolved with a ruling by the Supreme Court before it was accepted). Today, however, the current president, some 58 days after his defeat, refuses to acknowledge this fact even after all but one of over 60 court filings to overturn the results have been unsuccessful. Given his past performance, this is not a surprising stance for him to take. A man completely without shame, he has no respect for the will of the electorate or the law.

What is surprising for me has been the subdued acquiescence - the silence - of most Republicans throughout this process. Their acceptance of the lies and misinformation of the President is truly cowardly. Furthermore, there are a number of them who have so completely immersed themselves into the sewer of lies of this malevolent autocrat that they have openly declared that on January 6th they will vote against the acceptance in the House of Representatives of the count of the Electoral College of some States which are in favour of Joe Biden. Normally this is usually a ceremonial event and, other than the inauguration, is the final process of the election.

It is the Democrats who have a majority in the House.  Such a vote, even if all Republicans voted against acceptance, would not pass. It would however send a very strong message of just how many legislators have no regard for their legal system or the will of their people.

January 6th is but five days way. It is going to be an interesting day in Washington. Most pundits expect that there will be some drama orchestrated by Republicans but that in the end, Joe Biden will receive his final and official endorsement as President-Elect.

I, however, still remain worried knowing how bat-shit crazy things are these days.