2025 Inauguration Thoughts
So, I just watched Donald Trump's inauguration as the 60th president. It was quite scary, though in a different way compared to the first time. Now, for full context, this isn't about right and left politics. As a matter of fact, before I say anything else, I need to mention that I think those divides need to be torn down because people are not in one camp or the other. They're usually a blend of these things, perhaps with a particular lean, but mostly a blend.
Those divides might be useful for statistical purposes—to determine if a country is more progressive or more conservative, sure. But on an individual level, they're just terrible. Listening to this inauguration and the toxic rhetoric coming from this man was terrifying. He's still talking about how Biden's administration stole the election. Four years later, he still can't accept that he lost. Somehow, that particular election was rigged, but not the two that he won, which seems pretty unlikely.
And then there was his behavior—acting like a vindictive schoolyard bully, saying things like, "Can you see Biden doing this?" as he signed a slew of executive orders to pardon people who had physically assaulted others during the January 6th riots—riots that he incited four years ago. As crazy as it is that he has been elected president again, I don't think all of his policies are terrible. Some of them, particularly his foreign policy, are very disruptive and could probably lead to meaningful changes around the world.
As I said, this isn't about politics—at least not politics in the way most people talk about them. I don't want to talk in terms of left and right. I don't care about that. I'm fine with a "conservative" leader in office. But someone as divisive as Trump, someone who enforces these boundaries around large swaths of the American public, I just can't see that being a good thing. He's very dangerous. So, in four years' time, when he has to concede power—or perhaps gets in for a third term—I'm genuinely scared to see the direction that republic is heading. It seems to be falling into an oligarchy, where the elites rule over everybody else and revel in it.
There seems to be a lot of politically uneducated people in that country. How can they just be okay with the blatant, pathetic, non-reflective rhetoric that Trump spouts? Place him next to someone like Biden, and you can clearly see that Biden wasn't much better in certain aspects. He wasn't a great president by any measure. But place Trump next to someone like Obama, and the difference becomes glaringly obvious. Obama's way of speaking, his ability to address people, and his competence in maintaining order—even if he was just another politician telling some lies and some truths—made him far more qualified to lead. He represented a semblance of protection for the Constitution and the principles America was built on.
Donald Trump does not do that. He protects himself. He comes before the Constitution. He comes before the American people.
I guess it's only a matter of time before we see the emergence of a new world superpower. Or perhaps the superpower of Trumpists and Trumpism. Maybe I'll get deported to the U.S. to be stoned to death for writing this post. Until then, good luck.