The Incoming Lame-Duck President

These ten weeks between his election and his inauguration mark the peak, the culmination of Mr. Trump’s actual power. During this time he can hint or insinuate or promise or even announce his appointments of a certain few to positions of higher office. That done, on January 20 (barring any legislative shenanigans on January 6) he enters as the only newly elected President (another Gold Sticker in an already illustrious career of firsts) to be a lame duck from Day 1.

Senators, and other ambitious elected officials, you should begin to feel the over-heavy weight of his shoe lifting from your backs. Now is the moment to reclaim your own destiny. First of all, you’re already a Senator. Do you really think you need him any longer? Whether your ambition be for the celebrity of high office, for the lucre that high office might attract, for exercising power over others as he has done over you, or perhaps even just for the gratification of serving the public weal by protecting and defending the Constitution of the United States, what you will most enjoy, and most require to succeed, is Freedom. Freedom of thought, of opinion, of speech. Freedom to adhere to your own ethical core. Freedom from domination by and fear of another power-monger.
As Senator especially, but other office-holders also, the Constitution is your friend. If you haven’t already, you should read it. Article I is all about you (and your junior colleagues in the lower chamber). Time was when the measure of the Senator was how he stood up to the Executive. Independent, free, powerful. Ask Senator Grassley, who is senior enough to have met some of them–Arizona’s Barry Goldwater, for example. There are good tips in the other Articles, too, if you have an interest; but Article I is your baby.
As Senator you can pocket enough money, or improve the lives of enough voters in your State to win re-election without him. If you can’t stand Matt Gaetz; feel aggrieved that RFK, Jr., can just skate on his family name; or have actual concerns that other nuclear powers out there might wish us harm, you don’t have to hold your nose–thumb it! You already did it to Rick Scott for leadership, and didn’t that feel good! He’s not going to help you. Look around. He’s never helped anyone unless there was something in it for him.
He’s a lame duck. He’s got nowhere left to go except the golf course or prison. In four years’ time, assuming he makes it that long, he will be as old and doddering and on his way out as you all have noted Mr. President Biden to be now. If not, if he manages to extend his stay, you will have lost not only your Freedom, but more importantly your only true friend–the Constitution. And with that your honor, your self-respect, and all hope for any vestige of Liberty. For with the death of the Constitution the dissolution of the Union will have arrived; and, as John Jay foretold in The Federalist Paper #2, “America will have reason to exclaim, in the words of the poet: ‘Farewell! A long Farewell to all my Greatness!‘ “