If he does continue on, he won't be the first. Barack Obama was the first. Generally, in our country, once a President leaves office, he stays out of the limelight except for big events.
Obama just kept going - the refusal to allow Bush to help with the initial stages of the Great Recession and the surveillance of Trump (which was really kind of a nasty thing to do), then labeling him a Russian puppet for four years when he never had much of any correspondence with anyone there. He was called racist and sexist over immigration and employment. It never ended.
Personally, I didn't think Trump had any ties to Russia simply because he graduated high school the same year as my father - 1964. That 1963-1964 year was tragic in that we lost a President in a horrible way. Why would someone collude with a country that hurt us so bad that year especially when their leader wants "Mother Russia" to return to Communism? That would be like saying I colluded with al-Qaeda. I graduated in 1993 - the year the World Trade Center was first bombed (1500 people injured with smoke inhalation and nobody died!). Hell no, terrorism is demented.
I completely missed it. I was working and had purposely turned the television off. I heard President Trump at the rally on my phone and turned everything off when he said they were going to the Capitol. I honestly thought he was going over there with him. I only found out about it when I received a Breaking News email at work that something had happened.
President Trump knows there is a two term (eight year) max. That's it - he knows it; we know it. To vote somebody out simply because one didn't like his tweets and demeanor is a bit lightweight to be honest. He accomplished more in four years than most do in eight, and the man had a proverbial arm tied around his back by our own Government who feared he would never leave office and were intimidated by him. He actually made our Congress look really bad (performance-wise) with all he was able to accomplish.
To our Europeans, this was a VERY ugly election made worse by the Corona. Part of me wants to throw in the phrase "Chinese bioterrorism", but it's a side note, because it did have an impact. The right felt that the Government had been after Trump this whole time and people felt like this was a fraudulent election to get him out of office - motive and opportunity.
Basically, in six states that led to Wednesday's contested election (which has happened three times since 2000 - my state was the target in January 2005!), rules of varying degrees rules were changed in the election and the legality of those changes was in question because the Governors apparently made the changes (just like the lockdown orders!) when it was supposed to be the legislatures under them.
Focus was put on mail-in ballots because people were afraid of catching the Corona at the voting booth. Well, the mail-in "absentee" ballots are supposed to require a registration of some kind, usually picture ID and signature match. That was removed in some states. Other states apparently just sent out ballots without the requirements at all, which is not good because people who are not supposed to vote might be getting ballots. There were cases where a person went to the polling booth and were told they already voted, when they didn't! So...….far more mail in ballots than normal and all kinds of problems are possible. Very different than other elections.
Then, there was the deadline for receiving ballots - generally Election Day 8pm is the deadline for all ballots (first Tuesday in November). One state pushed theirs to Friday - three days later - at the last minute. Another state apparently told there workers to backdate the ballots. If they were received on Wednesday, make them look like Tuesday as if they made it on time. Then, there was the "cured ballot" issue where a ballot is disqualified and another one issued if a mistake is made (this actually happened to me in my first election). There was something off about that.
Then, there was the counting. The six states simultaneously shut down counting and workers were told to go home (normally counting does not stop). Apparently, boxes of ballots appeared in a few of the six states and ballots were still counting....and returning workers caught it going on. Workers putting the same ballot in multiple times, monitors being kicked out to applause. The tabulation machines flipping votes, miscalculating or being hacked. Financial ties of the machines. etc.
…..and then they tell Trump that questions were raised too late, judges didn't want to hear anything. He actually said in the spring that mailin voting would be ripe for fraud, but he was dismissed or worse be blamed for interfering in the election.
All of that - and I made the decision to vote in person anyway. I didn't get the Corona. They sanitized all the time! There was no problem! Uh, do I have anxiety?
The rally was for support of the President when they felt like he wasn't being heard at all. The event was announced ahead of time, which means anyone can join in.
So to CloudMaker's point - they didn't feel it was a fair election and it was meant just to get rid of the President for someone who didn't campaign all that much who had a 47-year history of politics.
The whole election process this time was an embarrassment and nobody wanted to admit it - the left simply because they "won" and the right thinking every election is perfect. Well, this one wasn't no matter how you slice it.
The mob thing in Congress - it's happened before, but is rare. Uncalled for, but definitely not the President's fault. When I heard him speak before it, I thought he was going to be there with him. There were nefarious people in that mob - actual Trump supporters just wanted the law to be followed. I feel really bed for the people who lost their lives, but it's a political stunt to blame it on the President. People have their own will. Trump wanted peace. That guy in the SPeaker of the House's office was completely inappropriate. You gotta have respect for the office.
But you can feel the tension in these latest posts on our side of the pond - it's an unsettling feeling. Anxiety + Corona = a MESS.
I am going to remove the post, but it's a bit more into what we were dealing with on top of the lockdowns and health issues.
**On a happier note, my mother receives the first vaccine today. She is the only blood parent I have left and she is 73.