2 weeks Ago
The majority of people where we live do not approve of Donald J. Trump. That’s one reason it’s hard for us in southern Maine to take seriously the idea that Trump won any kind of a victory back in November, let alone a mandate.
Nationally, Trump won a narrow victory over Kamala Harris, beating the vice president by a mere 1.6%. Nor did Trump win a majority or any kind of mandate.
Edgar Allen Beem has been writing for Maine newspapers and magazines since the 1960s. From 2003 to 2023, he wrote a weekly opinion column in the Forecaster and then the Portland Phoenix, “The Universal Notebook.” He lives in Brunswick.
In Maine, Harris won with 52% of the vote. Here in the 1st District, she polled 59.8%.
In Brunswick, where I live, Harris won with 71% of our vote. And in Portland, Harris won with a whopping 80% of the vote. Harris lost because Democrats made a mess of replacing Biden with Kamala Harris.
Harris is a mixed race, and she is a woman. Republicans also did a terrific job of preying on the fears of white America. As far as what will happen now that Trump has been reelected, no doubt we will all have to put up with the chaos and injustice that festers around him.
Criminal insurrectionists have been freed. Incompetent sycophants have been put in positions of power. Hard-working public servants will be made to pay for trying to bring Trump to justice.
Trump will try to annex Greenland, Canada and the Panama Canal, maybe even the Suez Canal. And the worst elements of American society will be emboldened by Trump’s embrace of white nationalist ideologies. It will be awful, but somehow we will survive.
The good news, if we are lucky, is that we will probably only have to put up with Trump’s government by vendetta for a couple of years. If the second Trump administration is as hateful and hopeless as the first, Democrats may be able to neutralize his mania by taking back the House and the Senate in 2026. Then, too, there is a good chance that, for any number of reasons — health, legal problems, a twist of fate, his own failings as a human being — Donald Trump may not be able to finish his second term.
The ill will that many people feel toward Trump, who starts his second term with a near-record low approval rating, is often tempered by the fear that if something happens to him we will be saddled with JD Vance. But I don’t think we have to worry too much about President Vance. No one is afraid of JD Vance.
He has no real power. He would be a bad joke as president. In fact, unless Trump realizes that Elon Musk is already richer, more accomplished and more powerful than he is and sends his billionaire buddy packing, there’s a good chance that should Trump not be able to finish his term, we may have an unelected South African oligarch running Vance and, through him, the country.
Should Elon Musk become a MAGA puppet master, my prediction is that he will negotiate with China in order to get the United States’ massive debt to China reduced in exchange for dropping all Trump tariffs and lifting environmental regulations such that U.S. manufacturers can start producing everything and anything in China, the same way Mr.
“America First” Musk manufactures Teslas over there. If it takes longer than two years for Trump to lose favor or leave office, however, we may be in worse trouble than anyone imagines. And there is always the chance that Trump will refuse to leave office in 2028.
In that hellish light, President Vance starts to look pretty darn good. We invite you to add your comments. We encourage a thoughtful exchange of ideas and information on this website.
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