The Tribune

With CHARLIE HARPER

Fool me once, shame on you.

Fool me twice, shame on me.

That sums up America’s great 2020 election about as well as anything.

Virtually everyone in both the Republican and Democratic parties made this election about Donald Trump, including most especially the President himself.

It looks like a majority of voters felt sufficiently fooled by the charismatic TV showman that they opted out of the chance for four more years of this President’s particular brand of leadership.

Trump wound up running on a record of amazing economic prosperity that everyone cared about and that was then sabotaged by COVID-19 and his reprehensible, irresponsible response to an ongoing, massive public health crisis.

He could also have run on a record of some notable foreign policy achievements. He brought an end to America’s 72-year record of sanctimonious hypocrisy that fooled no one, least of all the Arabs, in the Middle East.

Virtually from the moment the independent Jewish state of Israel was established in 1948, the US has been that nation’s main protector and benefactor. American administrations have usually tried to adopt a superficially even-handed approach to the combustible Middle East, to better the chances of some kind of lasting peace settlement.

Trump stopped pretending. If his policy eventually leads to a workable peace in that troubled region, good for him.

Trump reset the course of global relations with China, which was overdue. It is easy to quibble with both his strategy and tactics, but a reset is underway, and perhaps it is irreversible.

A US President normally cannot succeed by touting foreign policy successes because most Americans, still isolationist at their core, don’t care all that much about foreign policy, except that they don’t like foreign aid “giveaways” and they have come to sensibly dislike foreign wars without any clear purpose or clear path to victory. Trump understood this very well.

So Trump didn’t run on his foreign policy. He ran instead on resentment and grievance and lies.

And the country, turning out in record-breaking numbers, said “No mas”.

It was exciting at first. Then, for four days, it wasn’t. The whole thing just seemed do drag on and on. Of the major news networks, only Fox News, of all people, called Arizona for Biden. It turned out that Fox’s call, shown on big TV screens to a largely unmasked crowd of the President’s admirers at the White House, infuriated him.

The other networks hesitated, perhaps for good reason, as Trump was closing his Arizona deficit gap as the week wound down.

But it took all the networks day after agonizing day to call states like Pennsylvania and Nevada, where Biden had taken the lead and that had only votes left to count from urban and near suburban areas clearly going for Biden by three or four -to-one margins.

It really didn’t seem like anyone was eager to call this election, until CNN finally on Saturday morning gave the challenger the 20 electoral votes from Pennsylvania that sealed the deal. Some began to wonder if they were flinching at the prospect of an angry, petulant tweet or more from the defeated resident of the White House.

Anyhow, to coin another phrase, it’s now all over but the shouting, and the bleating, griping, sour grapes, lying, lawsuit filing and generally petulant sore loser behaviour Trump promised and is certainly delivering.

In the nation’s capital and elsewhere in most of the eastern US outside Florida - which was punished with yet another hurricane deluge - there has literally been no cloud in the blue skies since the election was called for Biden. Is this a coincidence? Some say it might be a divine sign.

What was unmistakable in the aftermath of this unique election was the collective sigh of relief from all corners of the US. So many had begun for the first time to harbour doubts as to the resilience of a nation whose ideals and special status had been largely taken for granted for generations. The 2020 election was an affirmation of American ideals, albeit one too narrow for many.

And as the days passed after the election was called for Biden, Trump became largely silent except for tweeting. He remained as ever the petulant spoiled child and object of scorn for most of the “mainstream” media, who could now add “loser” to their catalogue of epithets for Trump.

But over 71 million voters supported this self-absorbed habitual liar. And what’s more, history is likely to record that he would have coasted to triumphant re-election but for the onset of the coronavirus and his disastrous mishandling of the pandemic and evident disregard for its awesome human death toll.

In fact, some observers already feel that except for COVID-19 and its ominous reality, the Democrats would have never even been able to unite behind any candidate, and certainly would not have fallen into line in such uncharacteristically disciplined fashion as they did behind Joe Biden, who had finished dismally out of the running in pre-COVID Democratic primary elections in Iowa and New Hampshire.

Given Trump’s uncharacteristic sullen silence after the election’s outcome had become clear, speculation rose about what he might do next. Some felt that if he chose to remain in the public eye, he could certainly continue to manipulate the media to do so. A few suggested he could launch his own media empire, playing the starring role himself. Oprah did it, after all.

Consider the possibilities: Trump could barnstorm the country, televising future rallies as live, reality TV events. Or he could command huge fees as a convention speaker. He could be a supremely well-paid pundit on TV, railing against his many bogey men and women. He could be basking in imperial treatment as he appeared in support of Republican office seekers still loyal to him.

South Carolina senator Lindsay Graham, after winning re-election against a talented black Democratic challenger who broke several fundraising records, has been publicly urging Trump to remain in the political forefront ahead of a renewed White House challenge four years hence.

But it’s still early days after the election. It will be fascinating to see what prominent Republican elected officials are saying in a couple of weeks or months after the furore has subsided.

But there is another potential outcome for the President. An ex-President Trump could find himself in the dock and facing a prison stretch. New York’s Attorney General and the chief prosecutor in New York City both continue to pursue legal action against the President and members of his family.

Even if he pardons himself and such an unprecedented act were judged to be legal, it would only indemnify him against federal charges. Still, his actually serving jail time seems pretty unlikely at this point.

It’s a shame America doesn’t have the political tradition of an impartial Commission of Inquiry to invoke in the coming months. If ever there were a situation that begged for such an investigation, it is the seamy residue of four years of obliterated boundaries between an American President and the traditional comity and service to the nation expected of the country’s loftiest position.

FINAL CURTAINS

In a time of momentous transition, it seems fitting to recall two entertainment giants recently deceased.

Sean Connery died in Nassau at the age of 90. Long a resident of Lyford Cay, this iconic Oscar-winning Scottish actor is best remembered as the first James Bond, but won his Oscar for a supporting role in The Untouchables. There were many other outstanding and memorable film roles.

Connery lived in The Bahamas for decades, and his Bond films often featured scenes shot in the country. Knighted by Queen Elizabeth II despite his ardent and outspoken Scottish nationalism, Connery brought a positive notoriety to his adopted land.

Bottom line: This world-renowned celebrity could have lived anywhere he chose. He chose to make his home here.

Alex Trebek passed Sunday at the age of 80. This Canadian-born game show host helmed the enduringly popular Jeopardy on TV around dinner time for decades. Were you addicted to it?

Trebek will certainly be missed.