There’s a story floating around that Trump is going to boycott the ceremony on Inauguration Day, and instead fly down to Florida (his last free Air Force One trip) and hold a big rally to kick off his 2024 campaign. Boy, do I hope the story is true. In fact, I think I’ll contact the Tik Tok kids and tell them to send Trump a couple of million emails pledging their support for his 2024 run.

              If Trump actually goes ahead and pretends that he will try to get re-elected in 2024, what he’ll actually accomplish is to wreck the Republican Party for the next 8 – 10 years. Not such a bad idea. I believe in the two-party system, but as far as I’m concerned, the two parties should represent Socialism on the one hand, Social Democracy on the other.

              I’m sorry Bernie, but Socialism doesn’t mean a cheaper medical plan. It also doesn’t mean free college tuition. It means that private property no longer exists – we all share equally in all material things.

              Of course, you’re not about to end up with Socialism in a country where so many people have done so well, materially speaking, over the last two hundred years. Fine. Let’s move towards real social democracy instead. The Socialists can be like the Liberal Party used to be in New York – reminding us that there’s something out there which is better than what we have.

              What has the GOP given us over the last 50 years? From the sainted Ronald Reagan we got a massive tax cut for the rich, and a pullout of the Marines from Lebanon that sparked the appearance of Hezbollah. George Herbert Walker Bush didn’t do so bad because he only had four years to screw things up. His son, on the other hand, sent 200,000 American kids into Iraq even though he didn’t know the difference between the Shiites and Sunnis who are still fighting a civil war.

              Don’t get me wrong. The Democrats haven’t for the most part been my cup of tea. Kennedy and then Johnson committed the single worst, most horrific policy decision of all time – the war in Viet Nam. It wasn’t the first time (read: Korea) the Democrats started a useless war that Republicans had to end.

              As for Clinton, he was so trailer park that he even tried to steal the White House silverware when he left town. And for all his talk about a rational foreign policy, we had more American troops stationed outside the country when Obama left office than when he first arrived in D.C.

              Be that as it may, I’m still going to vote blue every chance I get for one reason and one reason only, namely that the Democrats believe in equality and the Republicans don’t. Yea, yea, some of the GOP bunch occasionally give lip service to the Bill of Rights, but the one right they seem most interested in promoting is the right to walk around with a gun.

              I happen to walk around with a gun from time to time as well. But the fact that I live in the first state which legalized gay marriage is a lot more important to me than whether I take along my Glock 17 when I go to Starbucks for a latte later today.

              Trump will fly off from the South Lawn in one of those Marine helicopters that will take him to Andrews Air Force base. That night he’ll no doubt post a video on Twitter showing all his adoring supporters standing (unmasked) in front of the newly refurbished Rose Garden and wishing him goodbye.

              There’s an old Stephen Foster song with lyrics which went, ‘Massa’s in de cold, cold ground an’ de darkies is cryin.’ Remember that? Langston Hughes reminded us that the ‘darkies’ were crying not out of sorrow, but out of joy.

              And that’s exactly what’s going to happen to Trump after Joe and Kammie are sworn in on January 20, 2021. The Republicans will begin looking for a candidate to represent their party in 2024.

              Anyone want to give me the short odds that it won’t be a worn-out blowhard named Donald Trump?