Only kings or potentates, dictators, and despots believe the propaganda of their own words. The worst of them, impose it by force and murder. King Salman, President Erdogan, Supreme Leader Khamenei, and President for life, (lest you risk being poisoned), Vladimir Putin have all declared themselves either supreme or believe they should be leaders for life. Fortunately, when the ex-patriots of English King George III, settled and declared their freedom in the new land of America, the forefathers were smart enough to abolish royal fiefdoms. Following the Revolution, allegedly George Washington was offered a position that would have afforded him the status of a monarch.

Sixty-five-year-old Colonel Lewis Nicola, in his written correspondence to Washington, believed that America would be better ruled by a representative government overseen by a ‘benevolent monarch.’ Washington's response, “I am much at a loss to conceive what part of my conduct could have given encouragement to an address which to me seems big with the greatest mischiefs that can befall my Country. If I am not deceived in the knowledge of myself, you could not have found a person to whom your schemes are more disagreeable.”

Washington agreed with the Founders, revisionist tyranny would be a mistake. American presidents have exercised their own despotic behavior, genocide, slavery, internment, and the caging and separation of children from their parents to name a few. Only one, Donald Trump, has asserted ‘…I alone can fix it.’ Since Mr. Trump began his systematic destruction of American institutions for his own ends, he has reportedly called military brass “dopes and babies.” We have video and written proof of his disrespect for all prisoners of war when he called the late Senator John McCain a loser for being captured. His repeated assertions that he is smarter than the generals, was punctuated by his first visit to the CIA building. During that visit, standing before the sacred wall of heroes, and days after calling the intelligence services Nazis, Trump told the gathering of CIA employees, “There is nobody that feels stronger about the intelligence community and the CIA than Donald Trump. I am so behind you. You're going to get so much backing.” Had that been the opening of Mr. Trump's address, and had he then acknowledged the stars mounted on the wall behind him each memorializing a fallen agent, he may have been, dare I say it…presidential.

Unfortunately, following the pattern of a would-be king…

Mr. Trump talked about his Inaugural crowd size and later tweeted about the standing ovation he had received. We have watched almost four years of braggadocio, ego-mania, and self-aggrandizing carnival-barking-gibberish wrapped in the guise of a real leader. I had hoped that no real crisis would hit America and we could survive this comedic interlude in the long and illustrious history of the presidency, and then COVID-19. Regrettably, the thing I had feared most from a would-be king, happened, ineptitude. His magical and mystical thinking in place of intelligent planning has cost America 188,000 lives, so far. Hopefully on November 3rd people will say of Joe Biden, long live the President.

Vote in 2020 for Change.