Written by George Foulsham (editor for The Sacramento Bee):
Putting aside the impeachments and terrorist attack on the Capitol for a moment, when you think about the past four years, what’s the first thing that comes to your mind?
Is it the lies? An avalanche of more than 30,000 untruths, false and misleading claims. Is it when he used a sharpie to alter a weather map to cover his ass because his office mishandled hurricane preparedness? He’s not just a liar, he’s an ignorant liar — the most dangerous kind.
Is it how he empowered right-wing news media? Not just empowered them, he let them rule — until they (briefly) stopped licking his boots. Can you imagine Barack Obama calling Wolf Blitzer and asking him what he should do about the budget? Would you let Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity make important policy decisions for your country? He did.
Is it how he insulted heroes? Remember the Gold Star family? Or when he called John McCain a loser? Or how he refused to lower the flag to half-staff after McCain died until the outcry forced his hand?
Is it when he gave the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Rush Limbaugh, Jim Jordan and Devin Nunes? (Never cared for Bill Belichick, but god love him for declining the medal.) Was Roger Stone not available?
Is it how he divided us? How he let "only the best" people like Stephen Miller build a wall between us and every other country, especially neighbors Canada and Mexico? First it was the Muslim ban, then came Mexico. I will never forget standing in line behind a woman wearing a hijab at the Bomb Shelter, a collection of restaurants at UCLA, in 2017. It was when we were starting to get a sense of how this administration would handle immigration. “Are you OK?” I asked her. She turned around and stared at me as if she wasn’t quite sure why I had spoken to her. “With what’s going on right now,” I added. “Oh,” she said. “Well, it hasn’t been easy, but I’m going to get through it.” I just shook my head and said, “On behalf of many of us in this country, I’m sorry for what you’re experiencing.” She smiled and thanked me.
Is it how he still hasn’t condemned what white supremacists did in Charlottesville? Is it because he’s the reason Charlottesville happened? Oh, he didn’t cause racism. In many ways, we haven’t made any progress at all in the past 200 years. But there’s no denying that he’s the reason the KKK, the Proud Boys and the others crawled out of their racist dens.
Is it when he pardoned Joe Arpaio?
Is it how he fired James Comey, and Sally Yates, and one Cabinet member after another, until he was left with nothing but sycophants — like Bill Barr, who lied about the Mueller Report, simply to please his boss?
Is it how he has refused to acknowledge racial injustice, even after George Floyd was murdered by Minneapolis police?
Is it when he blamed immigration for the mass shooting in El Paso, my hometown?
Is it how he has bulldozed environmental rules and regulations, or when he came to California and laughed at scientists when told that climate change will only make things worse as our state was burning?
Is it how he treated the news media? Is it how he insulted CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times, Washington Post and other legitimate news journalists who dared to disagree with him, or ask the tough questions? Fake news, my ass.
Is it the “phenomenal” health care plan he promised to deliver? Time’s running out on that one.
Or is it how he downplayed and politicized the White House response to the worst crisis of my lifetime, the coronavirus? More than 388,000 Americans are now dead. Not all of those deaths are attributable to Trump, but there’s no denying that he screwed up the government’s handling of this pandemic, and that will be surely be a significant part of his legacy.
This presidency has taken a toll on everybody — some of us more than others. This man awakened something in me that I didn’t even know was there — red-hot rage at what has happened, disbelief that so many supported his agenda, and disappointment that some people I know still do. It’s also given me a new appreciation for the fragility of democracy, and a determination to make sure it survives. After what happened last week at The Capitol, that’s going to be a very difficult task.
Now — and I think I speak for most of my friends here on FB — get the hell out of our house, and out of our lives.
Written by George Foulsham (editor for The Sacrame... (
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