Tuesday, February 11, 2025

Parting words to President Trump

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Rally in Rochester, Minn., in 2018 (Lorie Shaull/Flickr Creative Commons)

Mr President:

Although vote counts remain to be certified, a general consensus among the press is that the Electoral College will not vote in your favor and that your term will end on January 20, followed immediately by the inauguration of the country’s 46th president, Joe Biden. The election of a woman as vice president is historic in itself, and we take great pride as a nation that you usher in that achivement.

It falls upon me, therefore, to take this opportunity to wish you well and pray that you continue to serve the people of this country and the world in ways you may know better than any other person alive today.

I truly hope that as you transition to a life as a former president of this shining city on a hill, you find comfort in knowing that you have transformed the politics of the modern world’s original democracy—at least people’s perception of it: You have convinced them that the press is not to be trusted and that science is to be rejected. Although more than half the country believes that what you call “fact” is little more than a delusion and your behavior is something many parents have to explain to their kids, you have given a voice to people who have prospered during your term.

Those people will find ways to prosper individually under your successor as well, I’m sure. And those who understand how science works—by hypotheses followed by investigations and corroboration—will also find a way to persevere in their good work under new leadership in the White House.

You have transformed the Republican Party, and it is beyond the scope of this site (and my personal knowledge) to speculate on whether that is good or bad for Republicans who remain in office or for the country as a whole. But, your major accomplishments over the past four years, including a tax cut for wealthy individuals and for those building nice retirement accounts and definitive moves to bring peace to Israel and the Middle East, have inspired hope in a prosperous future.

Other moves, including your decision to pull out of the Paris climate accord, discredit the nation’s participation in NATO, and cut off the World Health Organization, were less beneficial, perhaps, but your actions were definitive, and politicians haven’t behaved that way in my memory.

Changes you brought about concerning our trade policies with China are also less certain to bring benefits to the US, which brings us to our conclusion: Your failures, including those in education that have reduced people’s confidence in the public schools and made it more difficult for college students to meet their financial obligations of paying for college, as well as your remarks about the Environmental Protection Agency and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have cast a dark shadow on your successes.

Yet for all you have done to make the people aware of the nation’s differences and its likenesses, its desires and its characteristics, its love and its hate, brothers and sisters all in a free world, I am truly grateful. If you had not been president, many people who feel unappreciated would have remained in their shells, unacknowledged for their inherent goodness, even if some of our uglier side was revealed.

It has been an honor, and I look forward to hearing good things from you in the future.

Paul Katulahttps://news.schoolsdo.org
Paul Katula is the executive editor of the Voxitatis Research Foundation, which publishes this blog. For more information, see the About page.

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