EDITORIAL – The Trump presidency is dead; long live a return to decency
An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN. It’s official. Biden was sworn in as the 46th president of the United States today at an inaugural that went off with no hitches, certainly not of the type many feared.
On a chilly, windy day, Capitol Hill in Washington, DC was shuttered tight for the boiled-down version of what’s normally a big, festive occasion. Unlike the violence on January 6, today’s event was a clinic in avoiding chaos and keeping the peace.
COVID-19, of course, put a damper on the usual pomp and circumstance but everyone wore a mask and stayed reasonably distanced. Lady Gaga sang, so did Jennifer Lopez and Garth Brooks, and youth poet Amanda Gorman read an inaugural poem. Mike Pence was there. President Biden gave a good speech — not of the calibre of Kennedy or Lincoln — but an admirable call for truth (as opposed to “manufactured facts”), and an end to what he called the “uncivil war.”
And the significance of Kamala Harris becoming the first woman and first woman of colour to take the oath as vice president shouldn’t be under-estimated.
Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops and a retired newspaper editor. He is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a director on the Thompson-Nicola Regional District board. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
Trump is no longer president but he still has a following. The interesting thing will be if he forms his own party thereby splitting the republican party into two pieces — a disaster for the GOP. The republicans have learned too late the perils of supporting a rogue like Trump. But they get what they deserve.