It’s an obvious thing to say that 2020 was a shocker of a year, the pandemic of course being the primary cause. Frankly, it has been a hard year to find positives in, but here is one huge positive from 2020: Donald Trump lost the US Presidential election.
Sure he might still be in denial about that. Sure some of his supporters are too. And between them they won’t make life easy for incoming President Joe Biden when he takes over later this month.
But for all the negatives surrounding 2020, the demise of Trump is one hell of a positive to round out the year. America needed Trump to get booted out the way he did to help ensure 2021 became a year of recovery, notwithstanding how hard that will be.
Not that everyone agrees of course. Many people voted for Trump. Plenty of commentators also defended him. Some of them prematurely claimed victory on election night, unable to understand the US electoral system as the votes were coming in.
It’s not simply a case of pointing to the odd good thing Trump presided over during his presidency to try and justify his time in office, however. That sort of simplistic analysis is what you get from the conga line of apologists who defended Trump over the past four years.
He did some good, it would be hard not to as President for four years. But that’s not the issue. That’s not why it’s such a good thing that he’s about to be shown the door.
It’s the tone Trump set for America. The cultural erosion of decency and respect. The intolerance he stoked, the divisions he perpetuated. The hate he fostered.
The world’s superpower – in decline, yes, but that is what America still is – needed to reset after what Trump has done to the psyche of the nation.
While conservatives have been in thrall to Trump, his approach has been anything but conservative. He has eroded confidence in political and institutional pillars of American society: the congress, the courts and the media just for starters. And now Biden also needs to repair the reputation of the Presidency, both domestically and abroad. Because of the damage Trump has done.
Trump’s schtick is all about undermining others and aggrandising himself. We’ve seen that play out for years with his boosters in the media constantly finding justification in his actions. Or looking the other way when he tries to shame people.
Even now, as Trump continues to claim he was robbed at the election, his callow defenders only peel off one by one very slowly. Many continue to stand with the president, diminishing themselves in the process.
So with a new year ahead, be positive about one thing: Donald Trump will soon be gone. For that we can all look back extremely gratefully.
Peter van Onselen is a professor of politics and public policy at the University of Western Australia and Griffith University.
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