Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/12/22/biden-our-darkest-days-in-the-battle-against-covid-are-ahead-of-us-not-behind-us.html
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I can remember when statements of basic competence like this from a President-elect were not unusual.
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What gives?! No ranting, incoherent, made up words? No blaming everyone else for our problems? No Presidenting-is-difficult-I’m-taking-a-golf-break-see-ya!? Is this really what we have to look forward to?
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Now think of the millions of Americans (“Americans”) who are genuinely upset about that.
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It seems like United States will have an actual leader soon.
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Let’s hope this make him a proponent of a real universal healthcare system.
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Fixed those for ya, Joe.
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Strange how it’s more reassuring to hear a competent adult tell use “our darkest days are ahead of us” than it is to hear a fool repeatedly proclaim that the worst is all behind us.
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Not if you’re a Trump voter. All they are going to hear is that when things get worse, its obviously the libruls to blame, if only the election hadn’t been stolen Trump would have kept the good times rolling!
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And weirdly the surprising bit is hearing a president (elect) actually tell the truth. After the last four years, it’s downright discombobulating to have the president be honest and truthful, not just once, but over and over again. Everything’s gone topsy-turvy.
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"I think we ought to get on with our lives,” said Donald Trump on Wednesday, summing up his take on the complex problem of apparently Russian phishing attacks on multiple Democratic party groups during the 2016 election.
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So much has changed since the constitution was written down. We’ve updated the weapons and equipment that our military uses, we’ve changed how much people are fined for infractions, we’ve let people vote who didn’t used to…
But why do we wait 78 days between holding an Election, and that election taking force? It’s as if-for purposes of democracy- the jet age and the internet just haven’t happened, and horse and buggy traditions are still essential to keep certain constituents happy.
It’s almost as if the ballot box were a placebo button, and the real control panel lay elsewhere entirely…
It’s true that it doesn’t take a new POTUS weeks or months to get to D.C. anymore, but in other ways the transition process is more complicated than it has ever been because the Executive Branch is so much larger and more complicated than it was in colonial times. Think of how many people need to be recruited, vetted and brought up to speed on so many issues (including classified intelligence) at the same time.
Of course in this case the current guy isn’t exactly going out of his way to help that transition process move smoothly anyway, but allowing a couple months of overlap is not a bad idea in theory.
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The NPR politics podcast did a piece in that, and you’re exactly right. In fact, the transition teams apparently wish they had more time because there’s so much to do for a smooth transfer of power.
The complexity of this may be unique to the US because of how much of the federal government gets decapitated and replaced with each election. Every single department gets shaken up from the top down. I think most other countries just replace the prime minister (or equivalent) and a few other folks. Their equivalents of the FCC, FDA, State, Commerce, Interior, etc, all remain the same so it’s business as usual, just with different orders from above.
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In other countries, “shadow government” has no nefarious connotations, it’s merely what parties who arent in power, maintian while waiting to take power. Then when/if it’s ever their turn, they’re ready to go from day one.
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