By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com
I suppose you could say that Donald Trump’s tortured exit from the political stage is what many of us thought might occur.
No, I am not saying folks would have predicted each excruciating step by step. However, Trump’s non-political background never prepared him for the kind of defeat he would suffer on Election Day 2020 and he was ill-prepared to accept the fate that others had handed him.
He came of age and entered the business world on the back of a multimillion-dollar stake his rich father bequeathed him. He formed his own company. Trump called his own shots. He took no guff from those who worked for him. He sought no favor from those with whom he worked. Nor did Trump — by his own admission — seek forgiveness for any mistakes he made along the way.
His entire adult life was geared toward a single goal: self enrichment and aggrandizement. Trump’s ego would not allow him to think of others, nor to invest any of the wealth he acquired in the communities that gave it to him.
Then, after lying his way to fame and fortune, he decided to seek the first and only public office ever in his life: the presidency. Wouldn’t you know it? The reality TV celebrity won!
Now he’s been tossed out. The public for whom he worked and to whom he was responsible has given him the heave-ho. Hit the road, Donald, and don’t let the door hit you in your ample a** on the way out of the White House.
Donald Trump’s petulance has been mind-blowing. The dangerous game of denigration is frightening in the extreme as he rants and riffs on alleged corruption in an electoral system he took an oath to defend and protect has been astonishing in the extreme.
Does any of this, at its deepest level, surprise anyone? If it does, it certainly shouldn’t be a surprise.
He soon will be replaced by a man who has spent his adult life in public service. Joe Biden isn’t the perfect man to be elected president. However, the president-elect — given what we have endured for the past four years — is damn close to the ideal antidote to the selfishness, the narcissism, the corruption and the grifting we have seen from Donald Trump and those closest to him.
Dare I say, too: Some of us saw it — or something like it — coming a long time ago.