As the youngest in my family with two brothers who sometimes saw me as spoiled, I took my share of derision when we were kids. If I whined about something or made a request that they deemed excessive, they would chant, "Let the baby have her bottle."
Their sing-song duet came back to me this week as Donald Trump reacted to the news of his coming defeat. Just as you might expect from a child, he tweeted in defiance on Saturday morning, "I WON THIS ELECTION BY A LOT!" Later that morning when the networks announced Joe Biden's victory, Trump declared, "The simple fact is this election is far from over."
No, the simple fact is that Donald Trump shouldn't get away with his baseless, immature charges of a stolen election. Until he produces evidence substantiating his claims, he should be called out repeatedly for lying. But as has been the case with his presidency, only a few--like Senators Mitt Romney and Pat Toomey, and former governor Chris Christie--have chastised Trump. The usual lackeys (Kevin McCarthy, Lindsey Graham, and Ted Cruz) have defended him, and the rest remain silent.
To remain silent is to become complicit, enabling Trump's reckless behavior. What are Republicans afraid of? They're like new parents who dance around their toddler's temper tantrums and don't know what to do.
Perhaps this has been the problem all along. We've had a big baby in the White House for four years, and instead of confronting his outrages, his colleagues and staff repeatedly gave up. They stuck a bottle in his mouth and in so doing, stuck it to all of us.
We kept hearing about the supposed "grownups in the room," like Rex Tillerson and John Kelly, but they never took meaningful action. The baby got his way no matter what.
It's time to throw away the bottle. Donald Trump lost the election. The grownups have arrived, and the baby must finally go to bed.
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