Trump takes office: Here’s my oath.
I come from a long line of progressives, union people, organizers, agitators, dedicated civil servants, liberals and dyed-in-the-wool Democrats. Politics has always been a passionate engagement in my family. This week is going to be a tough one for the values and freedoms we’ve always fought for — a tough week for democracy.
As I write this, I’m in Southeast Asia. One thing I think some Americans might miss is this week is not only about the rattled states and peoples of America, but it is also about the dream our nation represents for the world. We’ve become jaded about it over time, but that’s not the way it feels over here. I rode around Kuala Lumpur all day yesterday and on the radio they were playing Obama clips against different pop songs, a sort of retrospective of an American president in a musical montage of beats and grooves and lyrics I couldn’t understand, but I understood the sentiment well enough.
My social feeds fill with messages from folks I know around the world asking what is happening, how could Americans have taken this path, what’s in our global future? There’s a lot of sleepless night around the world. A lot of fear.
I grew up traveling the world with my diplomat father, but in those days my country stood for aspiration, not fear. I’m old enough, and romantic enough, that I still think the torch of liberty will never lose its light. No bully is big enough to take on Lady Liberty.
Our next president has criticized the Pope, denigrated women, handicapped people, put down allies, the parents of a fallen soldier, Meryl Streep, John Lewis, threatened to jail Hillary Clinton and gagged a free press, but he has yet to say a bad word about Vladimir Putin. I’m not going to ask you what that means because you know full well what it means.
When this man takes office, he will be the most despised president in our history. Not a year after he says the oath, but a second after he says the oath. You might say this does not bode well for democracy, but I beg to differ. This does not bode well for the man, nor his family, or brand. America will survive.
And I see something else coming this week as well.
In the last eight years, a small group of white American politicians who called themselves the Tea Party obstructed President Obama whenever they could. With a powerful propaganda feed on talk radio and cable news, they gained quite a lot of attention. And in the end, they managed to game the establishment and elect a minority president.
But this minority president faces quite a bit more than 40 congressmen, a dozen radio jocks, a horde of angry bloggers and trolls, and an Australian media magnate. The new president faces millions of Americans in the streets, a howling free press, hearings, lawsuits, investigations and worldwide disdain. No amount of lying, bullying, spin or fear mongering will save him. Democracy will win. The truth will prevail. It always does. And one day very soon he will hear the one phrase that will break him in half. #yourefired .
God bless America. I’ve never meant that more than I mean it today. We’ve led this fight for freedom and liberty for centuries, and we’re not stopping now. Good luck to all of us around this beautiful earth we share. In the meantime, tune into the radio in this Muslim nation I’m visiting, and dance to the words of the great President Obama. Never forget how beautiful it is to be alive and free.
