It all began when the President of the United States, Donald Trump, also known as “the Donald,” decided to throw the proverbial turd in the punch-bowl, just as everyone in Washington, D.C., was getting ready to head home for the holidays.
Rather than keeping his word to sign the short-term funding bill that would keep all the lights on as they celebrated Christmas in good cheer with family and friends they held dear, the Donald decided it would be the perfect time to stand tall and extort Congress to pay for his very own vanity wall. So, naturally, he just sent them all a fat ole ransom demand instead. For a mere $5.7 billion, I'll let you keep the government running, he basically said.
It was sort of like a rotten Dr. Suess tale — only worse in every way. Everyone suffered, as the Donald's attempt at playing dictator just plain stunk up the Capitol more and more, while time wore on and the shutdown increasingly took it's toll. The president basically spent a month exposing himself for the utter buffoon he's always been, behind the facade of ghost-written books about deal-making and scripted TV fantasies. Never mind the handful of spectacular bankruptcies in between.
His brutish behavior and utter ineptness was on full display, while the nation watched on in a putrid blend of jaw-dropping disbelief and sickening horror.
Among the highlights was the prank the Donald played on Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, along with an entire Congressional delegation, in response to the speaker's formal letter regarding rescheduling the State of the Union Address. He also tarnished the office of the presidency with the staging of that bombastic presidential address to the nation, trying to gin up hysteria in support of declaring an emergency over a fabricated crisis to use for political leverage. The later will likely have the networks begin asking serious questions before agreeing to televise future presidents in primetime, simply upon request, ever again.
In the meantime, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was simply having none of it. She knew the stakes, realizing full well what would happen if Democrats gave even an inch in response to the Donald's outrageously overreaching demands. She never thought twice about simply saying “no” to a president who was spiraling out of control with this naked attempt clearly meant to bully Congress into submission.
The Donald made Christmas a difficult holiday season from many in 2018, but thanks largely to Speaker Pelosi's remarkable skill, fortitude and steely resolve, the government is once again fully open for business without having knuckled under to a deceitful and lazy, altogether boorish president. The struggle isn't over, but tables have turned. Trump still occupies the Oval Office with 2 years left on the lease, though it's finally been revealed that the emperor indeed does not have clothes. His mischief is certainly not over, not even close, but the curtain's been pulled back and now the Donald's mystique is just toast.
Yes, the Donald stole Christmas, but he met his match in Nancy Pelosi and the nation can breathe a sigh of relief at that.
Robert Wright
Watkins
