We now know what Donald Trump's legacy will be. Glen Pearson writes:
Only a week ago, commentators were saying that he might be the worst president in American history. Now there is no doubt. The endless footage of riots in and around the Capitol building put a sudden end to what had become a political and democratic tragedy.
That all this was occurring while a pandemic raged through the country, receiving scant attention from the occupant of the Oval Office, is a failure of major proportions. That millions had lost their health coverage in the Trump era was of little significance to him. And his endless fascination with Wall Street over Main Street while millions of citizens were without work was a kind of political blindness that was beginning to shake the country.
Trump was never concerned about the conditions of his nation's citizens:
He enjoyed focusing on the hundreds of conservative judges he had appointed, including three to the Supreme Court. The fact that the stock market continued to surge despite COVID seemed to convince him that he was a genius in economics. But the joblessness, growing poverty, decline of cities, historic losses for small and medium-sized businesses, and the overcrowding of public health systems couldn’t hold his attention.
Trump’s four years, already highly controversial, have now ended in a fashion destined to denigrate his name and diminish any influence in the future. A legacy is defined as “something long-lasting from an event or process.” In Donald Trump’s case it was both – a process of four years of a mild kind of dystopia that was, in the end, eclipsed by one event that sealed his fate. Conservatives are neither idiots nor fools, despite the actions of some of their more extreme elements. The Trump-instigated riots of last week have proved too much for the sound conservative mind and have run counter to loyalty to the country.
He was always focused on himself -- to the detriment of everyone else. What happened last week was the inevitable result of one man's monumental ignorance and an insane need for approval.
Image: CNBC.com
