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America’s era of mediocrity is now in new hands

As President Joe Biden and his designer-wearing, multi-ethnic running mate Vice-President Kamala Harris took the oath of office under the protection of over 25,000 soldiers, U.S. networks kept reminding us that the troops were in the American capital as it was under threat of an attack by outgoing President Donald Trump’s hardline supporters.

Their fear was justified in view of the unprecedented attack on the U.S. Capitol with Trump supporters ransacking the building, sending members of congress and senators into hiding and resulting in the deaths of five people. But wasn’t the attack a taste of America’s own medicine?

Americans say they were shocked by what they saw as an attack on their seat of government, but perhaps this was a reminder to them that attacks on parliaments and Presidential palaces of democratically elected governments is nothing new for America. Except that such toppling of elected governments was done by America in foreign countries across the world. Who can forget the U.S.-backed bombing of President Salvador Allende’s Presidential house La Moneda in Santiago on 9/11 in 1973 by the Chilean Armed Forces? Not to forget the 1953 overthrow of Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh of Iran or the backing of coups in Vietnam and Cuba.

Other countries where America had a hand in overthrowing governments include Nicaragua, Bolivia, Brazil, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Haiti. In Africa, Patrice Lumumba of Congo and Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana stand as victims of such actions by America.

And then we have the carnage of Baghdad and Kabul to remind us of America’s imprint on the pain of the people who suffered for no fault of theirs.

Having said that, the United States has produced great statesmen who have carved the way of freedom of speech, scientific accomplishments and played a leading role in individual liberty and of course the “pursuit of happiness,” hitherto considered sinful, never to be declared as goal in life where sacrifice and suffering ensured eternal peace.

In our times the names of Roosevelt, JFK and Johnson resonate as men who aspired greatness for the people they served, not themselves. These were men who lifted the American spirit in both despair and hope, fought poverty and landed a man on the moon – even Reagan with his call “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall” or Nixon, reaching out to Chairman Mao for peace with China, had the future in mind.

Then came the era of selfishness, personal glory and mediocrity with borderline corruption when Bill Clinton lied, and his wife Hillary defended him. The man who came to end racial discrimination left us his “three strikes and you are out” policy that left countless Black Americans in prisons.

George Bush Jr. became the epitome of silliness and false bravado while Obama won a Nobel Prize just for being America’s first Black President notwithstanding his White mother. With him around, one had to be reminded “man can’t live by speech alone.”

The American slide into mediocrity was now visible and the last four years has shown how the ego of one man destroyed his chance of a second term. From suggesting bleach to fight COVID-19 to suggesting his supporters march towards the Capitol and stop the process of validating President-elect Joe Biden as the next President.

A self-inflicted wound will ensure that Donald Trump, despite his many accomplishments, will remain as a symbol of pettiness and arrogance who stood abandoned by his allies and could only call on the far-right to respond to his calls.
On Wednesday, Trump flew into the oblivion and in stepped the man he had referred to as “Sleepy Joe” to become America’s 46th President — the first to take the oath under the protection of troops.

In his opening address, President Biden invoked the memory of the Jan. 6 mob attack on Capitol Hill by declaring the day’s ceremony as a victory of democracy.
He preached “unity,” talked of this “winter of peril” and said Americans are “good people,” even as he and his party planned to decimate an already dead enemy by continuing the task of impeaching former President Trump.

We’ll have to wait until 2024 to see whether America’s slide into mediocre leaders beholden to billionaires and the Deep State ends or if it thrives.

Photo Credit : Getty Images

Email: tarek.fatah@gmail.com

Twitter: @TarekFatah

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