--Proverbs 22:3
Tomorrow is Inauguration Day.
At 12:01 p.m., what seems -- at least in retrospect -- to have been a century of sane, rational government comes to an end. At times, it may have been misguided government -- but fairly rational government by sane men. Presided over by presidents who -- despite their personal weaknesses and quirks -- were able to guide the nation with reasonable care, without letting their personal peculiarities get too much in the way.
After noon tomorrow, I just don't know. Donald Trump has done nothing since his election to comfort me, to persuade me that his many weird moments during the campaign were nothing more than campaign strategy. He has continued speaking and acting no less weirdly in the weeks leading up to the present. He seems to be a man who judges all things in terms of his own personal satisfaction and his voracious need for attention and for approval.
Shall I be naïve or prudent?
The naïve side of my personality tells me that, once he swears the oath, Trump will be awed by his new responsibilities. That, although still self-centered, his self-centeredness will be made to work for the nation's good: that he will seek to burnish history's judgment on his career by acting the part of a wise leader, a compassionate soul, a man who seeks the maximum good for the greatest number of our citizens.
The prudent side of my personality tells me to hide myself, to flee for the hills (or for Canada). Or at the very least to lie low, to keep my mouth shut and my pen unused, to hunker down and ride out a perilous four years.
Which will it be? Along with the entire world, I await tomorrow's inauguration speech -- preparing to take note of both its language and its tone. And perhaps, more than with any other new president, to watch carefully the eyes and the body language of the man before the TV cameras.
As I remind all my friends -- only partly joking -- I live only one and a half hours from the Canadian border.
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