Bahbah: Lessons We Should Take from the Outgoing Trump Administration
By: Bishara A. Bahbah/Arab America Featured Columnist
Today is a great day in American history. We are celebrating a monumental victory for American democracy and a triumph of good over evil. The now dejected President Trump became the first president in U.S. history to be impeached twice by the House of Representatives. He is the fourth U.S. president in history not to attend his successor’s inauguration. Today marks the end of one of the most divisive and, possibly, the worst presidential tenure in U.S. history. Simultaneously, we are witnessing the inauguration of a level-headed, experienced, and caring U.S. president, Joseph R. Biden, Jr.
It is baffling to me that as many 74 million people chose to vote for Trump in the November 2020 election. Are all these people Trump mini-me’s? Do they all condone his actions and his unabashed assault on the constitution of the United States and its most sacred institutions? I sincerely hope not. Trump’s presidency strained and tested the resiliency of the American people’s commitment to the rule of law and to human decency.
Instead of dwelling on the injudicious, appalling, and reckless actions of the now former President Trump, as well as his venomous and spiteful words that he uttered or tweeted as president, I will focus in this article on the most valuable lessons that Americans should learn from Trump’s reprehensible presidency.
Lesson One: Amend the U.S. presidential electoral system
The current system is backward, outdated, and has served its initial purpose of giving the smaller states a larger voice in the U.S. presidential elections. The electoral college system no longer befits the 21st century. A democracy like the United States needs a one person one vote system to elect a president. We should not have a system where a candidate who garners the largest number of national votes loses the presidency because of a now antiquated and archaic presidential electoral college system.
I am fully aware that many experts and concerned citizens before me have called for a fundamental and sweeping amendment to this outdated electoral system. I recognize that such an amendment will be arduous, painstaking, and could take years to get implemented. Nevertheless, Trump has proven that the time is now to make the necessary push to amend this presidential electoral system and move on to the 21st century.
Lesson Two: Heal the racial divide and social injustice
Stoking racial tensions for political gain is unbefitting anyone, let alone, a U.S. president. Even though “hate crimes” are illegal, hate speech should not be defended as “freedom of speech.” You do not scream fire in a crowded movie theater, cause a stampede, and then be absolved. This is what President Trump did during his tenure.
Unfortunately, most everyone around him, including Republican members of the Senate and the House of Representatives were afraid of his fiery temper. It would have been most likely useless to even remind him that we are past the eras of slavery, segregation, female disenfranchisement, ethnic, and religious targeting.
A president should be held to a higher standard than anyone else in the country. He or she must be confronted at the earliest signs that he appears to be engaging in continuous unethical or immoral behavior.
This country should perhaps consider creating a High Commission of Ethical & Moral Standards made up of past U.S. presidents and selected members of the U.S. Supreme Court to immediately confront and call out the unethical and immoral behavior of a sitting U.S. president. Although this power is now vested in the House of Representatives, sadly partisan politics has become so prevalent that it has paralyzed our legislative branch of government.
I am confident that President Biden has the moral fortitude to heal the racial tensions, protect the underdog, and call out those who deepen the racial, social, ethnic, and religious social divide.
Lesson Three: A President cannot lie
The Fact Checker’s database noted that it took President Trump 827 days to top 10,000 false and misleading claims. However, by July 13, just 440 days later, the president crossed the 20,000 mark – an average of 23 claims a day over a 14-month period, which included the events leading up to Trump’s impeachment trial, the worldwide pandemic and the eruption of protests over the deal of George Floyd in police custody.
This is a baffling number of misstatements or lies for anyone, let alone the president of the United States. Any president should be called out when issuing misleading statements or caught lying. What kind of an example are we setting for our children if a president lies as much as Trump and yet, millions of people ended up voting for him during his failed election bid?
Lesson Four: Democrats and Republicans need to work together
President-elect Biden said after the Senatorial runoff elections in Georgia that “Georgia’s voters delivered a resounding message … they want action on the crises we face, and they want it right now.” They sent a clear message to the entire country that Americans need to “move together,” and “to work with people in both parties – at the federal, state, and local levels – to get things done for our nation.”
Lesson Five: Rally behind our democratic institutions
No one should be silent when the constitution of the United States and American liberties come under attack. The article of impeachment, which was passed on January 13, for an unprecedented second time, charged that Trump “gravely endangered the security of the United States and its institutions of Government.” Trump promoted false election fraud claims, sought to illegally manufacture a different election outcome, and invited his supporters to attend the January 6th rally in Washington and instructed them to assault the U.S. Capitol building while senators and congressmembers were executing their duty to certify the winner of the U.S. presidential elections.
Lesson Six: Repair the damage to the United States’ image and standing in the international community
Trump alienated allies, embraced dictators, withdrew from international organizations, and destabilized several hot spots around the world. Trump attacked European allies, the NATO alliance, offended African nations, and engaged in a sickening show to seduce North Korea’s dictator.
To pick another example, he declared an all-out war against the Palestinian people – a people whose country was robbed from them and who live under the longest military occupation in modern times. Trump wanted to impose unjust peace terms, and a thoroughly pro-Israel agreement on the Palestinians. Because they refused to bend to his wishes, he assaulted them. He recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, moved the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, ceased all aid to the Palestinians, and declared that Israel’s illegal settlements were not against international law. To the delight of Israel’s cunning and elusive prime minister, he kept showering Israel with serious political “gifts” while ignoring the long-held positions of all previous U.S. administrations. He actively encouraged Israel to continue its disregard of international law and multiple UN Security Council resolutions that the United States had voted for or allowed to pass in the UN Security Council.
U.S. standing among allies reached a very low point. In the last days of Trump’s presidency, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, for example, had to abruptly cancel his Europe trip after Luxembourg’s foreign minister and top European officials declined to meet with him. That was a blow to U.S. diplomacy, its image, and its standing in the world. The snub by the Europeans was unprecedented between the United States and its closest allies.
Lesson Seven: No one should be above the law
To circumvent the U.S. Senate, which was controlled by his Republican allies, he appointed senior Cabinet members and senior U.S. officials in an “acting” capacity for extended periods of time deemed illegal by U.S. courts. In some cases, the courts ruled that Trump appointees were lacking the legal authority to perform their jobs. Unfortunately, congressional Republicans refused to challenge his actions and thus, they became Trump enablers in breaking the law.
Trump issued 207 Executive Orders between 2017 and 2021 – a number that exceeds any of those orders issued by his predecessors in any four-year period. Executive Orders “state mandatory requirements for the Executive Branch and have the effect of law. They are issued in relation to a law passed by Congress based on powers granted to the President in the Constitution and must be consistent with those authorities.” Many of Trump’s most controversial Executive Orders, such as his anti-immigration policies and policies that targeted Muslims, were challenged in courts which deemed them to be illegal.
Lesson Eight: Americans need to learn from their mistakes
Americans expressed their overwhelming disapproval of Trump by a margin of 60 percent, in a poll released on January 11, 2021. Still, 71 percent of Republican voters approved of his performance in office in the same poll. This calls for serious soul searching among Republicans to distinguish between right and wrong no matter who the president might be. Unfortunately, Trump’s bigotry poisoned the Republican party. The party needs to come to grips with the fact that even after his temper tantrum following his election defeat, a majority of Republicans still stood by him. That is not loyalty. That is stupidity that could lead to the demise of a venerable pillar of American democracy – The Republican Party.
It is sad to read what one senior Trump official was quoted, while describing the activity around Trump in his last few weeks in office. The official said that the senior staff who opted not to resign after the attack on the Capital, were engaged in a prolonged act of “babysitting” a “violent toddler” hoping to avert Trump from triggering any more history-making disasters.
President Biden has the unfortunate and challenging task of repairing a broken but not a defeated republic. The challenges before him are mind boggling given all the damage that Trump has precipitated. I, on the other hand, believe that Biden and his team will be up to the challenge. Arab-American leaders also endorsed Biden during the summer of 2020.
Biden and his team will work hard to heal the pain of the country and the divisions that ripped it apart. They will restore the country to its former glory world influence. Fortunately, the country elected a highly experienced president – Biden – who has integrity and is genuinely concerned about the future of the United States. Americans elected someone who will be all the people’s president and not the president of its fringes.
God Bless the United States of America.
Click here for Biden’s inaugural address.
Prof. Bishara Bahbah was the editor-in-chief of the Jerusalem based “Al-Fajr” newspaper between 1983-84. He was a member of the Palestinian delegation to the Peace Talks on Arms Control and Regional Security. He taught at Harvard and was the associate director of its Kennedy School’s Institute for Social and Economic Policy in the Middle East.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Arab America.
The reproduction of this article is permissible with proper credit to Arab America and the author.
Check out Arab America’s blog here!