Now that it seems Joe Biden has secured enough votes in the Electoral College to win the presidency, Donald Trump enters the Lame Duck phase of his term, and this presents a golden opportunity to undermine the status quo like never before.
Mind you, I am not a fan of Trump, I never bought the "Trump is playing 4D chess" nonsense, and I don't believe he's some paragon of virtue in any respect. But that said, he is a showman, an entertainer, and an outsider of sorts in the political system. He hasn't made America great, but he can undo a lot of damage in the next few months.
He can still bring the troops home by Christmas, even though bureaucratic inertia and the logistical nightmare present formidable obstacles. If he seriously drew down the overseas presence of US forces and ended foreign occupations, he might have a solid claim as the greatest peace president of the past century. Time is running out, though.
He can end the alphabet soup agencies that shackle our lives with needless regulation. He could single-handedly neuter the IRS, ATF, NSA, DEA, and other deep state bureaucracies foisted upon us by decades of political Karens. I'm not holding my breath, of course.
He could start pardoning like there is no tomorrow, starting with Julian Assange, Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning, and Ross Ulbricht. He could take a stand on the nature of law and crime, condemn all victimless crime laws, and undo mass injustice at the stroke of a pen.
I have no confidence that he will do any of these things, of course. He's also steeped in the mythology of the State. He is a conservative of the worst sort: one who wants to conserve state power in the end, regardless of the sales pitch he puts on his changes. Still, we can always hope. Just don't bet on it.
