Less than a week to go

One week from today we should have a better idea of who will be the next president of the United States. Will it be a rerun of 45? Or will Joe Biden and Kamala Harris be voted-in to take the reins of a divided country on the edge of despair, and awaiting winter months where Covid will still be dominating our lives? Of course there’s always the possibility of an election that some compare to the Bush v Gore race of 2000. That one was not decided — and then by the U.S. Supreme Court — until Dec. 9 of that year… And some still believe (I’m one of those) that election was stolen.

But even if Biden wins, how will Donald Trump react? Because we must not forget that the president, even if he loses, remains president until Jan. 20, 2021. And anything is possible with a Trump scorned by voters. As tense and unnerving these past almost four years have been politically, the prospect of a loose and losing Trump in the White House has the makings of pure chaos. 

I hope not. But I am preparing for the worst, while still hoping for the best.  

As for those who have yet to make up their minds for whom they will vote… Yes, there are some remaining. There was a moment in last week’s debate between Trump and Biden that should be enough to convince any sensible person. The president was asked by the moderator about the more than 500 children that remain in the United States who were brought here illegally by parents, or a parent, and who were separated at the border. Five hundred forty-five boys and girls, many under the age of 10, whose parents have been lost. Nobody knows where the mothers or fathers of these children are…

Trump’s answer to that question was the coldest, most inhumane response (of so many over four years) he has given during his term as president. Trump said: “They are so well taken care of. They are in facilities that were so clean.” Not one word of empathy.

I was flabbergasted when I heard that comment from Trump. Imagine a child, any child, torn from his or her mother’s arms at the border. A parent screaming; the child crying. Both not knowing what’s next… And the only answer Trump can think of is that the child is being taken care of in a clean facility! Are you kidding me? Actually, it was a very Trumpian answer: the implication being he or she is better here than where they came from. Also Trumpian is the fact that the parent is really not important. That son of a bitch (and yes, that’s what I call this president of the United States) has never been loved by a parent, of that I am sure. All that matters to him are material things and the gildings that come with it. A hug? I bet he’s never given one to any of his children… well, maybe Ivanka, but that’s fodder for psychologists to deal with.

My eyes water when I try to imagine what may go through a child’s mind when he/she is violently separated from a parent, not knowing what’s next and when it will see that parent again. And now the parent is lost; that child will never be the same. What of the mother or the father, or both, it’s enough to drive one crazy when you see a child taken from you — children as young as 4!

No child should experience what the Trump administration has put these children through. It’s a crime. And Trump and his people should pay a price for this, because it is a documented fact that it was part of a strategy to discourage immigrants from entering the U.S. It backfired, but the violent separation of families should be treated as torture and dealt with by the next administration.

All this to tell those who have yet to decide for whom to cast your vote: Are you kidding me? It’s not about Democrats or Republicans, it’s about common decency and what’s morally right.

A parting thought — about the Senate

Before I finish there’s talk of Democrats taking back the Senate in this election. It would give them control of the House, the Senate and the Executive branch. Some see it as good. I’m not sure.

If Democrats control the Senate, Bob Menendez, the pretend Cuban from New Jersey, will regain the chairmanship of the Foreign Relations Committee. And that, we know, would not be a good thing for Cuba and its people. Let us not forget that President Obama did not move on normalizing relations with Cuba until Democrats had lost the Senate. The reason? Menendez, as Foreign Relations committee head, blocked many such attempts by Obama. 

So I’m battling with this. It’s one of those cases which reminds me of the old idiom, “Be careful what you wish for.”