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WHEN WE LOST OUR GREATNESS

There are two things I want to write about today that, at first glance, seem incongruous.

One is the 13th anniversary of the murder of 26 children and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Eleven days before Christmas, a person who had just slain his mother went to the school and fired an automatic weapon at 6- and 7-year-olds and the adults responsible for them.

The other is the wanton sinking of Venezuelan fishing boats in the Caribbean Sea by the United States military. So far, as of Wednesday afternoon, the death toll is 87 people, with some still missing. 

Trump and his lush Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, claim the boats are carrying fentanyl to the United States – which is damn near impossible given the fact that these boats would have to refuel multiple times to make it the closest U.S. port. And the seizing of a tanker Wednesday could escalate the crisis further.

So here’s what they have in common:

Dehumanization.

Self-indulgence.

Bloodlust.

Cowardice.

And the dismantling of the idea that this nation is a great beacon of freedom, opportunity and fairness.

Dehumanization: I’m sorry that even the start of the piece contributes to that.

When we think of Sandy Hook and the Caribbean, we see numbers. Numbers that can be seen as either a lot of people or just a microfragment of the world’s population.

That’s not what they are.

They’re lives. They’re a woman who dedicated her life to educating children. They’re a fisherman looking to catch some tuna to feed his family. They’re a little girl who loves science and might have been on track to cure a form of cancer.

They’ve been reduced to victims. They will not get old or prosperous or fall in love. They will stay who they were.

And they leave families to grieve. To ask why. To feel guilt for something they didn’t control. To feel the loss forever – anyone who thinks a grieving mother, father, child or spouse ever actually “gets over it” is a moron.

So why are these good people – young or grown – gone?

Self-indulgence.

This idea that an individual should be able to have whatever weapon he (and it’s mostly he) wants so he can hear the bang bang, smell the sulfur and feel the groovy recoil. That it’s a right established in the Constitution that they walk around with these mass murder machines at any time and use them when they perceive a threat.

And, as much as it sickens me to repeat this, the flip comments of the NRA goon after Sandy Hook was that the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. 

As if the people who do the shooting don’t perceive themselves as good guys. As if a good guy with a gun has actually stopped any mass murders in the 13 years since.

In Venezuela, the self-indulgence is the idea that American taxpayers have given their dollars for weaponry that’s just sitting there. If you’ve ascended to the power to use it, why not? It’s not your money. But they’re your toys. 

And if you want to show toughness, show what a real man you are, wiping out fishing boats without due process or warning isn’t any different that killing monsters in a video game.

Bloodlust. Proving your manhood by killing people. 

There are people who think that, if you showed the mangled bodies of children massacred in an elementary school, it would stop such shootings. 

BS. All it would do is give the gunmen aspirations. Could the next one do a better job of wreaking revenge for who knows what.

If you don’t indulge your bloodlust directly, you tell people you control to kill people. How members of the U.S. military, with a history of integrity and ethics, can honorably live the rest of their lives after what’s happened in the Caribbean is an exercise in either self-delusion or murder.

Or cowardice. When Hegseth faces judgment for what he’s done, he’ll say he didn’t pull the trigger. That he was acting in America’s best interest. That he was following the instructions of his commander-in-chief.

He will be the one arguing – in a federal courthouse or before an international tribunal – that the soldiers pressing the missile launcher had free will. This after he tried to court-martial Mark Kelly for saying soldiers are obligated to follow illegal orders.

The gunman at Sandy Hook took the easy way out. He killed himself when he heard the police coming. He faced no judgment from any human. If you believe in God, maybe he faces some consequences in the afterlife – if you don’t, he got away with it. 

He won’t be reading this screed or any other condemnation. The book is closed on his miserable existence. 

That brings me to my last point. American greatness.

You and I were raised to believe this is the greatest nation on earth. It wasn’t that far-fetched. We cured diseases, put men on the moon, created jazz, baseball and Oreo cookies. We went without a king or queen for 248 years, helped rescue the world from fascism, made English as universal a language as there is on this planet.

Yes, we enslaved Black people for hundreds of years. Yes, we stole land from people who were here first. And yes, we treated women like property. But we aspired to be better and, over time, we’ve been getting there. There was a long way to go, but it felt doable. In order to form a “more perfect union.” That “more” is essential.

But we’ve decided that this is too much. Too many decided that being great is about throwing your weight around, looking like a tough guy, scaring instead of loving. Me first instead of all of us together.

There is nothing incongruous about Sandy Hook and the effort to drag us into a war against Venezuela. It’s the same weakness, meanness, pettiness, self-interest that has plagued our country for way too much of our lives.

Our elected representatives did nothing – absolutely nothing – to try to prevent future Sandy Hooks. Our current representatives are doing nothing – absolutely nothing – to stop the loss of innocent Venezuelans and American soldiers.

How can a nation this small of heart, this self-consumed, this disregarding of humanity claim greatness? That’s what you and I need to overcome to get us back to what we think we should be.

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IN SERVICE

If I had wanted to make a ton of money is this life, I would have a different career than journalism.

But journalism was, to my mind, the best way to make change in the world and serve people. An informed public is who we’re supposed to trust to make decisions in a democracy – my goal was to do that in a fair way to enable the best outcome.

I write this because today seems like a banner day for the “greed is good” mantra that Michael Douglas’ character preached in “Wall Street.”

Because there are people who don’t do what they do strictly to enrich themselves. They do it to serve their community. To advance humanity. Out of love for their country.

I’m talking, in particular, who sign up to work for the federal government or who choose to join our armed forces.

Yes, these people are trying to make a living. But if they wanted wealth, they picked the wrong “Let’s Make a Deal” curtain. And, until 2025, they probably were OK with that.

So let’s start with the thousands of federal employees who knew they were spending their final day on the job Tuesday.

They voluntarily resigned or retired in order to salvage some compensation after the Elon Musk barbarians ransacked the government in the first weeks of Trump’s second term.

Government work always seems to be diminished by popular culture – and especially by politicians, mostly (but not always) on the right.

They’re pointy-headed bureaucrats. Pencil pushers. Bean counters. Meddling. Power mad. Self-important. Job seekers. The scariest words in the English language are “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”

Did I miss anything?

In the face of that, in the face of hearing how the work is unnecessary and a nuisance to society, these people choose to do it anyway. Fine tune weather forecasts. Inspect alfalfa sprouts. Monitor car emissions. Negotiate aid for countries trying to develop an economy. Clean out the portapotties at Yellowstone.

Prosecute insurrectionists.

They do it because they love America, even if way too much of America doesn’t love them. They do it because the Constitution that they’ve sworn an oath to uphold is what actually makes America great – not high-powered weapons or inflated stock prices or some egomaniac with orange makeup.

The government’s carrot to getting the best workers possible, people who need to pass a test to get their job, was job security and structured pay tiers. None of this Six Sigma crap that requires layoffs every so often to cull perceived inadequacy, People did difficult work without commissars whipping them into some task.

With experience comes expertise. The kind of people who stay calm in a crisis. The kind of people who lead younger workers by example.

The cranks who want a government so small they can drown it in a bathtub have the money to pay for what they need, or lawyers who can get them what they need. Greed is good for them. The less government infringes on greed, the better.

They – and people they’ve misled through their control of exploitive media – are thrilled to see this exodus of competence. The more government doesn’t work, the more they can say government doesn’t work. It feeds itself. The greedy get more. The targets get hurt. The people they mislead get angrier.

—

Then there are the people who still had a job until the stroke of midnight Tuesday (Reminder: Midnight is the last moment of the prior day. 12:00:01 is the next day).

That’s when the government shut down because the Republican president and Congress couldn’t pass a budget.

If you think the Democrats are shutting down the government, you’re an idiot. There’s a simple formula for this – let’s see if even MAGA types can figure it out.

The Republicans need Democratic votes to pass a budget because they don’t have enough votes in the Senate to do so. In a democracy, if you don’t have the votes, you negotiate. Republicans believe negotiating means you accede to our demands and then we demand more.

That might not work this time.

Whatever the situation, the people paying the price aren’t the independently wealthy members of Congress. No, no, no.

It’s the people still in the employ of the federal government. And they either get furloughed – sent home without pay – or have to work even though they don’t get paid, which last I looked is something akin to slavery.

Either way, people who want to help their fellow Americans are helpless in a Republican shutdown. The people who campaign complaining about government doesn’t want make sure they’re right.

—

Finally, we have the spectacle of Tuesday’s gathering of generals and commanders in Virginia at the behest of Hegseth and Trump, two walking and talking arguments for birth control.

Hegseth, the noted ubriacone, talked about violating rules of engagement and creating a warrior class that looks like his manifestation of those little green soldiers in “Toy Story.” Trump basically told them that they’re going to be fighting a war in such battlegrounds as Times Square, the Loop, Fisherman’s Wharf and Beverly Hills – against people who might very well be their parents, their siblings, their best friends from high school.

Stereotypes depict military leaders as excited by the prospect of battle. The truth is much different.

Talk to your friends or acquaintances who have chosen to serve their country instead of scramble for a buck. Who have led men and women into battle and seen them die on a battlefield. Who have made hard decisions and pledged an oath to defend the Constitution against enemies foreign and domestic.

Those generals didn’t tough it out in a military career to satisfy their urge to yell, or to wear uncomfortable outfits weighed down with medals and ribbons – what they call “fruit salad.”

The only light of that farce in Virginia was in the silence. The complete non-response of the military leaders to what Hegseth and Trump thought was going to be their red meat. The pained and angered expressions of people who take their oath seriously and understand that American people are never our enemies.

—

Because they, like the government workers, pledged themselves to serve and protect us. There’s something incredibly noble about people who believe in this country’s governmental institutions and traditions, and who think that making them work is their duty.

People like Trump and Hegseth don’t get that. People who believe this country’s CEOs and financiers are the real heroes of society don’t get that. They think greed drives this country.

There are times when it has. This may be one of them. But that is not the hallmark of a great nation. It’s the hallmark of tinpot dictators and weak cowards.

Thank goodness for those generals. Thank goodness for the people who work in what some people deride as the bureaucracy. Thank goodness for the diplomats and inspectors and park rangers and, in a personal tribute, the lawyers who forsook riches because they have scruples.

We need to make this country safe for real patriots again. Until then, best wishes – and stay strong.

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POWER OF THE PURSE

Those mouse ears you bought the kids at Disney World funded a concentration camp.

The Tesla charger you used to refuel your plug-in vehicle paid the salary of a DOGE dope.

Your flipflop order on Prime Day Two bought a truffle cream canapé at an overwrought wedding in Venice last month.

The president is an addled megalomaniac, Congress bows to his will and the Supreme Court accedes to it all. News media, corporations and universities cave to his BS lawsuits like sandcastles in a tsunami.

Americans disgusted by this point in our history (hand raised!) feel powerless to stop what’s happening.

We’re not. At least not now.

We might not be able to 86 the sycophants who approved the ridiculous Trump spending plan until next November.

But we can show our disgust and make this nonsense hurt them a little bit with the power of our wallets.

We need to spend money. To buy food, services, goods, vacations.

How we spend it makes a difference. We don’t need to give it to people, organizations and places that spit in the face of our values.

A friend calls this “casting your dollar vote.” When he said it, he referred to an awful soap commercial we watched in his dorm room. The ad was so bad he swore never to buy that brand of soap.

It no longer exists.

I doubt it was just my friend’s disgust that sank the brand. But other people might have drawn the same conclusion – why should I buy a bar of soap made by people who think THAT ad is clever?

That isn’t always going to happen. But you can inflict economic pain on people who find contentment in inflicting real pain on real people.

Florida is a prime example.

Its malevolent dumpling of a governor brags about cooperating with the American Gestapo, ICE, in building “housing” in the Everglades. It’s a facility meant for the people being rounded up from the streets, without any form of due process or respect.

They call it Alligator Alcatraz. That’s a misnomer. In Alcatraz, prisoners were men convicted of crimes by a jury of their peers. There isn’t a jury verdict in the lot here, which makes this a concentration camp.

And they sell merchandise for it and chuckle at the idea that any potential escapees face death from predatory wildlife.

Why, why, why, why would a family of decent people like yours spend a penny of your money in a place like that? Especially in a place that generates a whole lotta income from vacationers like you.

In the summer, it’s a no-brainer. What with the hurricanes, tornadoes, miserable heat and almost hourly thunderstorms, why would anyone want to suffer through Florida?

But, when winter comes, there are places to go that aren’t run by Hothouse Hitler wannabes.

Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands are part of the United States. So are California and Hawaii. You can leave the country, too, and feel better about it for not supporting evil.

——

Every time you look online this week, somebody or something is mentioning that it’s Prime Week at Amazon.

But you’re also seeing that the sales this year aren’t particularly good. I’ve seen the word “stink” used.

I wouldn’t know. I’ve quit Prime.

Jeff Bezos saw Lex Luthor in a Superman comic and decided he found a role model. He gutted the Washington Post’s independence and donated money to the MAGA cause.

And he flaunted his wealth. Sending Katy Perry on a joyride to space. Ordering up a $500 million superyacht with a helipad aboard.

And, of course, his recent $50 million wedding in Venice.

Why should you pay for that?

To be fair, it’s hard to wean yourself from Amazon. You need something somewhat urgently at the cheapest price. You know you can get it tomorrow. That’s tough to walk away from.

It seems a lot tougher to live in an oligarchy.

While vacationing in Mystic, Connecticut, this week, I visited Bank Street Books and did my part to keep their business going.

Could I have gotten the book I bought for less on Amazon? I don’t know. I don’t care.

The same applies to Elon Musk. I’ve been off X since he took over Twitter. Not interested in what he does with Space X. And when I rent an electric car in September, I’ll make certain I charge it somewhere unaffiliated with Tesla.

And then there’s the companies that support Trump overtly or tacitly.

Take Target. Once the darling of people who believed chic could be affordable, the company turned its back on one of its largest customer groups – black people. It roiled Back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives because MAGA types squawked and Trump growled.

Black ministers understood the power they held in their wallets. They organized an open-ended boycott of Target that has severely pared company sales.

And here’s the thing: there’s no guarantee Target will ever get those customers back. Instead of admitting its mistake, it’s trying to muddle through. People can find other places to shop or make do if they think giving their money to people who don’t respect them is a bad idea.

Earlier this year, I wondered about my orthopedist. His mug is plastered or digitized on billboards throughout New Jersey.

Just for my information, I went into the Federal Election Commission’s data base of 2024 campaign contributors. And – surprise! – this doctor donated at least $30,000 to various incarnations of the Trump campaign.

He’s now my former orthopedist. I feel awful that any portion of that $30,000 came from me – even if it was through my Medicare account.

Don’t feel like this. Before you spend money on things that are important to you, think about who’s getting that money.

There are companies determined to keep DEI initiatives and not cooperating with ICE goons.

There are companies run by men and women not just unafraid of a changing society, but willing to embrace it.

You don’t have to shop at Home Depot or Wal-Mart. You don’t need a MyPillow.

And you don’t have to go to Texas or Florida, where diversity and equity are ridiculed and met with a 21st century concentration camp.

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DRY UP

Did you know there’s a whole array of coffee mugs on sale that purport to be holders of “liberal tears?”

I write this because I’m still hearing from friends and reading social media posts about how terrible life will be following last week’s election debacle.

With every transition announcement from Trump, every absolutely despicable person picked to help him run the country, there’s more caterwauling. More angst. More agitated talk about how this country is lost, how you don’t know how you’re going to make it to 2029 and how you need to think about the country to which you’re going to flee.

Stop it already.

Yeah, this sucks. A lot. All the horrible things we thought about prior to November 5 seem to be materializing. 

It might actually be worse – I didn’t have suspected pedophile and Botox frequent-sticker Matt Gaetz as an attorney general possibility. The biggest disappointment is that my imagination didn’t meet the moment.

But lamenting ain’t helpful. 

The most important reason is that one of the reasons some of these people voted to bring this felon back into our lives is, frankly, that he pisses us off. For some reason, their life gains meeting when they make people they don’t like angry.

I mean, I’ve always thought the rationale for being in politics was to get others to sign on to what you believe. In 1984, Ronald Reagan won a landslide re-election, carrying all but one state and Washington, D.C. One of his supporters, Rep. Jack Kemp, went on TV and said he wanted the administration to work to get D.C.’s support, too.

And the election mandate Trump claims isn’t close to Reagan’s.

If you put 1,000 people in a room and then divided that room into people who voted for him and people who didn’t, you probably wouldn’t be able to tell at a quick glance which side was which. In that room, as of now, 502 people would have voted for Trump, 498 would have voted for Kamala Harris or someone else.

So the idea should be to get more of those 498 people to support you, to make your agenda more popular.

That’s not their idea. They’re playing into the idea that their base is the only thing that matters. 

But they won because people weren’t happy with our side. I’m not sure that was justified, but it is what it is – and we have to fix it. That’s how democracy flourishes.

They’re doubling down on the crazy. Not to do best by the American people. But to piss off the people who don’t support them.

They want you upset. They want you scared. They want you in despair.

Don’t give them what they want.

First, keep in mind that we are enjoying the final 65 or so days of the Biden administration. One of the best presidencies in our lifetime, maybe in American history.

Enjoy the strongest economy in the world as we celebrate the 2024 holiday season. Gather with your friends and family. Play in the snow or find the warm sun and bask in it.

Agonizing over the Trump administration can start at noon EST on January 20, 2025. Until then, Trump’s just a convicted felon and 4-time bankruptee. Why waste the time leading up to it in pain?

Second, the 65 days will give you time to figure out how best to make Trump’s presidency as difficult for him as possible.

Donate to the groups that will be in the front lines of fighting him. My first choices are ProPublica, the public interest news organization, and the Brennan Center for Justice. Donate. Find out what they stand for. Find other groups working on issues close to your heart: gun violence, women’s bodily autonomy, protecting migrants, and so on.

Thirdly, don’t be miserable.

They want that. They want, as they say, to drink liberal tears. 

Keep them thirsty. Challenge them. Confront them. Do whatever you can to frustrate their worst impulses.

As I said, we’ll figure this out. We’re the good guys. Let them bask in their cruelty and pettiness.

The MAGA folks hate the expression “We’ve got this.” It implies a “we” that works for the common good.

Yup. 

We’ve got this.

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I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER

It was an incident after one of my happiest moments of 2024 – and it served as a warning that I didn’t see until now.

The New York Mets had just won the National League Division Series against the Philadelphia Phillies last month. Euphoric fans – including me – jammed the platform for the No. 7 train to Manhattan.

It originated at Main Street in Flushing and there were passengers aboard before the Citi Field stop. As joyous fans jammed the train, a young Hispanic man was standing by the opposite door.

He could tell the fans were happy, so he shouted “Let’s go Mets!” Which I thought was cute.

But for some reason that I’ve thought about since that moment, he shouted “Let’s go Donald Trump!”

Why the hell he would shout that-  at that moment – bewildered me. Not enough, however, to stop me from shouting back “Fuck Donald Trump!” – language I don’t use in public. (Although I suspect I’ll be using it more for awhile.)

What was going through his mind that he would shout his support of Trump in as unsuitable a moment as that?

Tonight, I found out. According to CNN’s exit polling, Latino men voted for Trump more than ever before – in some states, a majority of them voted for a guy who has belittled or diminished Hispanic Americans for decades. 

It’s amazing. He was first elected because of his racism toward Mexicans and Central Americans. And now some of those people are sending him back to the White House.

Why? 

Is it the phony toughness he projects? Like those wrestlers he admires and who seem to support him en masse. 

Were they suckered by “The Apprentice” into thinking that a guy who has claimed bankruptcy four times actually knows what it takes to make them more financially secure?

Can it be that they associate with his outlaw status? That they think he’s been railroaded they way some of them perceive themselves to be?

Do they, like some spoiled-brat white folks, believe there are people getting “free stuff” that they’re not getting- and either they want some, too, or no one should have whatever that stuff is?

And is the idea that a woman – and it doesn’t matter if she’s white or Black and South Asian – could be the most powerful person in the world so threatening and offensive to them that they’d put an incompetent male in the White House instead? Twice!

I’m angry and sad in a way I haven’t been in eight years. And what makes me most sad is seeing people voting against their own interest, taken in by a conman who is now going to avoid prison by claiming he’s above the law.

Or worse, that he is the law.

I do not pretend to understand why anyone sees a hero in Trump. There is nothing admirable or compassionate about him. He has no respect for people other than himself and anyone who can help enrich him.

It’s bewildering that anyone thinks the guy whose pathetic mishandling of the COVID crisis contributed to the inflation endured between 2021 and 2023 is the guy to bring down the price of eggs.

And because he respects tyrants, this is a moment of triumph from a diverse set of the world’s rogues – from Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinpeng to Benjamin Netanyahu and Viktor Orban.

I suppose the people who voted for Trump would say I’m being paternalistic – that they can look out for their own self-interest without my help. 

Kamala Harris ran as good a campaign as I’ve seen in my lifetime – and she will have nothing to show for it. I’m certain that a key factor in her defeat is that, well, she’s a she. And that she’s also a Black she and a South Asian she.

But the loser in a democratic election concedes. With the grace that Trump refused to give Joe Biden four years ago.

I just hope she doesn’t congratulate him. He doesn’t deserve it. Neither do the people who voted for him. 

As I said at a moment when some jerk zapped my joy of a Met win, “Fuck Donald Trump!”

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I’VE GOT ISSUES

This is, as you have heard more times that you ever wanted, the most consequential presidential election of our lifetime.

The consequences surpass those of the last presidential election in 2020. And, of course, that one had consequences exceeding the 2016 vote. Obviously, 2016 was more consequential than 2012 – which, now that I think about it, probably was the least consequential of the 21st century.

You get the idea.

The problem is that this, seriously, is a real test for our country. It’s about what kind of a nation we are – not what we imagine we are or wish we were. If we’re about governance and community, or grievance and dissolution.

Are we going able to look at ourselves on November 6 and shout hosannas about the beauty of democracy? Or are we going to decide that, yeah, this country is closed until further notice while we clean the place out?

Too much is written about this election already – and I’m somewhat sorry to add to the noise. The fact is I wanted to be more involved in this – I even signed up for a local congressional campaign.

But I admit I don’t have the patience to hear the other side on this. I’ve heard it already. 

I heard it in Citi Field one gray May afternoon when this couple – that was clearly, as my Dad used to say, in their cups – groused loudly about how all these people were getting free stuff thanks to “Clueless Joe” in the White House.

I see in signs on lawns around my neighborhood. “Democrats Support Iran,” “Democrats are Socialists,” “Trump Saved America.”

There are the shirts and signs that read something like “We like country music, the Lord’s Prayer, guns, the American flag and making liberals mad.” As if they like those things only because they hope it gets some people pissed.

I did text messages in 2020 and got the same sort of crap. 

Then there was whatever that was at Madison Square Garden yesterday. I don’t have to catalog the bigotry, the racism and the hatred spewed – you can read about if you haven’t already.

In fact, it took me to this point to tell you what I want to write about instead of that – and what I hope to write about in the run-up to Election Day.

Because, after thinking about it, I’ve got a theory about why this election is even close.

It has to do with a strategy that includes the venomfest that polluted midtown Manhattan. That display was not designed to convince anybody to vote for Donald Trump. 

It was designed to keep people talking about Donald Trump. Because when “Morning Joe” and “The View” and “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” are talking about Trump and the asininity around him, they are not talking about what Kamala Harris would do if she was elected.

That is the point.

Michelle Obama raised a great point in her speech in Kalamazoo, Michigan, on Saturday: Harris is held to a much higher standard that Trump. It’s unfair. Or as Van Jones said, she needs to be flawless, while he can be lawless.

And the fact is that she meets that higher standard. Consistently. Constantly. With passion, with intelligence, with empathy and with joy.

You won’t know that. That won’t be the zeitgeist. Because the cacophony of Trumpania is designed to make sure you don’t.

It explains why people think she’s not specific about what she would do as President. Because no one can hear what she has to say when the national conversation is about who maligned Puerto Rico or Hannibal Lecter or eating dogs in Ohio.

Before Trump came along, seeking the presidency was about a vision. Even if you disagreed with it – I’m a lifelong Democrat and have never contemplated voting for a Republican, but I know John McCain and Mitt Romney had some sort of idea about moving America toward the future.

Trump doesn’t give a damn. As long as he panders to his base, he’ll say anything. Do you think he really cares one way or another about abortion? Or even how to build a national economy?

As long as people support him for giving them tax breaks and eroding women’s rights, he’s fine.

So what I want to talk about the next few days is the future. The place we’re all going for at least some of the way.

Because Kamala Harris has tried to campaign on what she’d do as the 47th President of the United States. And Donald Trump doesn’t want her to do that.

So we’ll talk about a few things that require our attention: housing, elder care, transportation, immigration, America’s role in the world, education and our politics.

Now that’s the kind of discussion I can look forward to.

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IN CASE OF EMERGENCY, BREAK GLASS

For the past three nights, I’ve watched my TV set with jitters.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, I worried that my resurgent Mets would run afoul of the Yankees. I hate watching the Mets lose to the Yankees as much as I hate any scenario in sports – or anything else for that matter.

I needn’t have worried. The Mets bludgeoned the Yankees both nights. Mr. Met’s legions triumphed over the guys with the 27-rings shirts and the bandwagoners in pinstripe shirts with the name on the back.

So I hoped to go 3-for-3 last night watching the debate between President Biden and Donald Trump. Sure, I had the same sense of dread as the other two nights. But they turned out OK, so maybe the debate would too.

Uh, no. 

You could tell when he walked onto the stage that it was going to be bad. He looked like a befuddled old man trying to find a seat on a park bench. His gait was halting. His mouth formed a circle like the one in Munch’s “The Scream.”

He painfully reminded me of my father’s final years, when a vigorous, strong man was diminished.

I would trade both those Met wins for Biden holding his own. Alas, I can’t.

Since then, I’ve had three thoughts that, even though you didn’t ask, I’m going to share.

ONE: Within five minutes of the debate’s end, I sent a campaign contribution to the Biden-Harris campaign.

I wasn’t completely sure how I felt in the moment. But like many other Democrats, I think of Joe Biden as a hero. He took on Trump at a perilous moment in 2020 and, despite the mewling of Trump and his sycophants, beat him like a drum.

And Biden has delivered a remarkable presidency. Which leads to…

TWO: History has its eyes on you, as they sing in “Hamilton.” 

Much was made of the fact that Biden kept referring to the presidential historians who rate Trump the worst president ever. And, OK, maybe he shouldn’t have dwelled on that.

But in 2074, when late-century historians evaluate Biden’s presidency, they’ll see his legislative accomplishments, his focus on economic fairness, the quality of his staff, and the humanity and decency that comes naturally to him. And they’ll put him in the pantheon of greats – in the same line as Washington, Lincoln and FDR.

Unless…

THREE: History is written by the winners. If historians in 2074 have to be certified by the Stephen K. Bannon School of Historical Revision and Correction, Biden won’t come out so well. 

The 388 million Americans of that time will hear how Biden allowed 6 billion people to illegally cross the border. Because all 7 billion of them got put on Social Security and Medicare, those programs had to be canceled. And the 8 billion terrorists who came into the country were only foiled from their nefarious plans by the wisdom of Tsar Donald I.

Even among those remaining who remember democracy in the United States, they will blame Biden for allowing Trump to get back into the White House.

How Biden looked and sounded last night are one thing. It’s what he failed to do and mention that have me shaken. The effort to ban IVF and birth control. The threat to LGBTQ rights, including the same-sex marriages of people such as my daughter and her wife. The 2025 Project, a playbook for totalitarianism.

It might have been OK if Biden just had one bad night – as many Democratic leaders are calling it – against Nikki Haley or Marco Rubio or Mitt Romney. It’s another to have it against Donald Trump.

We’d be screwed if the soldiers invading Guadalcanal in 1942 and Normandy in 1944 had a bad day. That’s how you have to look at what happened with the president last night.

I don’t know how this is all going to play out. How would the Democrats nominate another candidate?Who would they nominate? Would they pick the next in line, an apparently very unpopular Kamala Harris, or come up with a fusion ticket of Democrats and Never Trump Republicans.

I’m as scared as you are. I think I’d feel better if Joe Biden came to the realization that people who are fond of him feel the same way.

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5 – T AND R ARE THE FIRST TWO LETTERS

My parents, especially my Mom, were big fans of the political dramas of the 1950s and ’60s.

“Advise & Consent,” “Seven Days in May,” “Fail Safe,” “The Manchurian Candidate” and “The Best Man” were all movies they either watched at the movies or when they came on TV.

But in this era of malevolent reality TV (unlike “Queen for a Day” and “This Is Your Life” in the ’50s), the show that unfolded on January 6, 2021 was a political drama that frightened the hell out of half the country.

A mob came to the United States Capitol to thwart the will of the American people, who had voted two months earlier to elect Joe Biden as President of the United States. It came perilously close to capturing some of its targets, including Vice President Mike Pence and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, both of whom would likely have been murdered had the thugs gotten their hands on them.

Five people died within two days of the attack, from causes ranging from a gunshot to a stress-induced heart attack. Four police officers, who were overwhelmed by the crowd, committed suicide shortly after.

The images of the attack were stunning: the mob smashing through the windows and doors, beating police officers with clubs, occupying the Senate chamber and destroying property.

But what would have bewildered anyone in 1954 – anyone at any time in American history, perhaps even the Civil War – was that the violence and chaos, the attempted coup, was triggered by the sitting president.

Maybe that’s a little overstated. The idea that a losing incumbent president would seek a violent return to power might have been buried in our minds’ recesses. It’s what happens in countries where the political institutions respect power more than government, might over civility.

It’s just that we never thought it could happen here. We believed Americans were better than that – that our tradition of peaceful transfer, George Washington’s great gift, was still strong in its third century.

Instead, it was as fragile as the ego of a conman.

Donald Trump probably didn’t expect to win the presidency. He’s always been looking for a buck, especially since he’s not particularly good at managing or keeping them. He probably figured there was a way to make big real estate licensing deals or sell crappy branded products by running.

But he won. He appealed to the anger of people who feel elites are ruining the country – forgetting the fact that he’s always claimed to be among the elitest (that’s not a typo) of them all. 

Trump claimed to be a great businessman, despite filing for bankruptcy multiple times. He claimed to be unbigoted, despite a family history of racism. He claimed to be the voice of those who’ve served in the military, despite calling them “suckers” and “losers” in private.

Winning the presidency probably multiplied the self-aggrandizing in his head. And it led to a disastrous term in office. Losing the respect of our allies. Dividing the nation over immigration and race. Kowtowing to dictators like Putin and Kim Jong-Un. And his crowning achievement, mismanaging the worst pandemic in our lifetime.

Trump and his henchman seeded the crowd on January 6, organizing the rally that started the chaos and making sure that opposition to them was weakened. He told his followers that “…if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”

And then they marched to the Capitol with their obscene flagpoles, their knives, their bear spray, their Mace. They literally and figuratively defecated on American democracy.

Brave men and women stopped them. What we owe the defenders of the Capitol on Jan. 6 can never be paid in full. 

Brave men and women continue to try to stop them. They’re prosecuting the participants and their record is spectacular. They’re the people in news organizations countering the stupidity with the truth. They’re lawmakers and officials, some of them spurned by their fellow Republicans, seeking to show what really happened and do whatever they can to prevent it from happening again.

But treason isn’t so easily put out. It has been 159 years since the South lost the Civil War – and some people still believe the Confederate flag is still something to revere. Trump is running again – and there are polls showing the possibility that this disgrace of a human being could win.

My parents didn’t live to see January 6. But I’m maudlin enough to think they and our other ancestors watched over us that day. Hopefully, they’ll continue to keep us safe from treason – whose first two letters are not the only thing in common with Trump.

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