Daily Times

From where I write this essay, the White House, the official residence of the US presidents, is less than twenty miles away, and that is where the current president Donald Trumphas been largely sequesteredsince the November 3^rdelections. He has even shelved his plans to go to his palatial estate, Mar-a-Lago, in Florida to celebrate the traditional Thanksgiving holiday. In the election, he was decisively defeated by now president-elect Joe Bidenwho secured,as of this writing,306 electoral votes as opposed to 232 received by President Trump. A minimum of 270 electoral votes are required for winning the election. Also, Joe Biden received almost six million more popular votes than did Donald Trump.

Trump has so far refused to acknowledge his defeat, blaming it on fraud and election irregularities for which there is no evidence. TheUS presidential elections follow an archaic, byzantine system that was put in placemore than two centuries ago. It assigns acertain number of votes to be cast in the presidential elections, to each of the fifty states, looselybased on population; however,the system favors smaller states with fewer people, such as Wyoming (550,000) over large states such as California (40 million) and New York (19.45 million), giving them more votes than justified by their population.

The opinion polls for months hadbeen predicting that the Democratic Party and itspresidential candidate, former vice president Joe Biden, will win with a big margin, capturing new seats in the Congress and gaining a majority in the Senate. However, most of these forecasts turned out to be incorrect, as they did in the 2016.Although Biden did win the presidential election with a clear majority, the Democratic Party lost seats in the Congress, though still retaining a majority. In the Senate, the Republicans so far hold a majority; however, the outcome of two seats in the state of Georgia, where arunoff election will be held onJanuary 5, 2021, will decide which party commands a majority.

Many political observers in Washington lament that President Trump should have shown magnanimity and accepted his defeat with grace and class, thus saving his place in history.

The 2020 election was hard fought. President Trump during his four-year term has pursued anarrow, rightwingpopulist agenda that exacerbated the polarization and division of the nation across ethnic, religious, and racial lines.Among the first actionshe took as president was banning  the admission of people from Muslim majority countries. Pursuing his America-First agenda, he pulled America out of the World Health Organization, Paris Climate Accord and abandoned the nuclear dealwith Iran,so painstaking negotiated by the Obama administration. He cut off all aid to thePalestinians and instituted a highly partisan policy against them. His power is rooted in millions of American, mostly working-class whites, without a college degree, who are fiercely devoted and loyal to him. Some among them are Evangelical Christians and white supremist, unhappy that the character and cultural, religious visage of the country is undergoing a change not to their liking. The resentment against the growing influence ofethnic minorities, immigrants and liberal elites has been simmering for a while, but Trump has infused them a new life and momentum.

Policy issues aside, the refusal of Trump and his acolytes to accept the outcome of a fair and transparent election bears sinister implications for the democratic foundation of the country. Sincethe second President John Adams peacefully transferred power on March 4, 1801,to Thomas Jefferson, this tradition has been unfailingly honored. However, for the first time, efforts arebeing mounted to subvert the results of the election by a bevyof Trump lawyers, headed by former Mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani.  A number of frivolouslawsuits alleging improprieties in the conduct or counting of votes, without any evidence, have been thrown out by the courts.The country’s judiciary, irrespective of their political affiliations, has set a shining example of integrity, impartiality, andreiforced belief in the supremacy of law.

Attempts are ongoing, using the powers of presidency, to persuade or intimidate Republicans state representatives, who are involved in overseeing the fairness of the elections, to throw out the legally cast votes in favor of Biden, declare the elections invalid, and nominate instead new unelected delegates committed to vote for Trump. However, these desperate maneuvers, bordering on illegal, are unlikely to succeed. Their ostensible purpose is to delay and create a sense of chaos andsow doubt in the mind of Trump supporters about the validity of the election and the legitimacy of the Biden’s presidency.

A period of transition of almost three months long is provided to enable the incoming president to prepare for the takeover. Normally, he or she is offered funds, office space and access to all security information by the outgoing administration. However, theseresources have been denied to president-elect Biden, forcing him to make public appeals for raise funds to support his transition. Many political observers in Washingtonlament that President Trump should have shownmagnanimity and accepted his defeat with grace and class, thus saving his place in history.

This country iscurrently going through a rough time. It is being ravaged by Covid-19, which is out of control. Over12.3  millionpeople have had the disease and over 257, 000 have died of it. The hospitals are coping with this pandemic with great difficulty and some are already out of beds to admit new patients. The doctors, nurses, and other staff, many of whom have been victims of the disease themselves, are exhaustedand emotionally drained. The state Governors are struggling to cope andhave had to adopt draconian measures to combat the virus. Many towns and cities have beenplaced under lockdown, while manyschools and colleges are conducting online classesonly. Unfortunately, there is no leadership at the federal level. President Trump has largely divorced himself from the governing process and is consumed with his endeavors to prolong his presidency.

Besides mortality and morbidity, the explosive proliferation ofthe virus has generated other serious challenges. Millions of Americans have become unemployed, as businesses, restaurants, hotels, and airlines have laid off employees. Thousands ofAmericans are shown by the news media standing in line forhours waiting for food donations supported by churches and other charities.  Unless the Congress passes a Covid-19 aid package, many morewill lose unemployment benefits by Christmas time and will face starvation.

The likely availability in the near future of at least two highly effective vaccines is like a ray of sunshine in the dark. Finally, America has weatheredmanycrisesin the past,and I feel sure ultimately it will summon the will and resources to overcome the latest troubles.

The writer is a former assistant professor Harvard Medical School and a retired health scientist administrator, US National Institutes of Health.