Danehy: There’s much to look forward to in 2021 but not right away (other than getting rid of Trump)

With any luck at all, yesterday, Jan. 6, will turn out to be the crappiest day of 2021. I’m assuming that Mo(ron) Brooks and his fellow Alabaman, Tommy Tuberville (who says that the three branches of government are the House, the Senate and the Executive), humiliated themselves by making one last failed attempt to suck up to Loser Trump. When Tuberville was sworn in the other day, he immediately became the dumbest person in the Senate while remaining one of the 10 smartest people from Alabama.

In a couple weeks, Joe Biden will become President and the country can start moving forward. No-longer–important Donald Trump will correctly point out that the crowd at Biden’s inauguration is smaller than at Trump’s. But, even if pandemic protocols limit Biden’s crowd to a few hundred—socially distanced and masked—there will still be more minorities, college graduates and people NOT married to a close relative in 2021 than there had been in 2017.

One of my favorite indisputable facts is that, going all the way back to Harry Truman, IN EVERY CASE, the United States economy performs better when a Democrat is in the White House than it had under the preceding Republican administration and better than it will under the succeeding GOP administration. And it’s often much, much better.

For example, GDP and private-sector job growth were much higher (and unemployment was lower) under Bill Clinton than under the Bush who came before him and the one who followed. Believe it or not, all three of those indicators were better under Jimmy Carter than they had been under Gerald Ford or would be in Ronald Reagan’s first term. And President Obama blew George W. Bush out of the water and Obama’s numbers will end up being astronomically better than Trump’s.

Of course, people will say, “Well, if it hadn’t been for the pandemic, Trump’s would be better.” That might possibly be true (Obama’s and Trump’s numbers were actually neck-and-neck before COVID hit), but that’s like saying that were it not for the greatest natural disaster in American history (the 1900 hurricane), Galveston would still be the largest city in Texas. Following the Galveston hurricane that killed 8,000 people in one day, the Houston Ship Channel was created, taking shipping further inland. Houston is now the largest city in Texas and one of the largest in the entire country.

When it comes to history, what could have happened, DID happen. The simple truth is that America will have lost 4 million jobs during Trump’s presidency. By comparison, we gained 1 million jobs during George W. Bush’s eight years and 12 million during Obama’s two terms.

Now, only a dumbass like Kayleigh McEnany would ever try to claim that there is a strong causal relationship between a president and the economy. Some might argue that it’s mostly just luck, but if it is, that luck has held true for more than 70 years. And, considering the current state of the economy and the fact that there are now vaccines, there is a very-high likelihood that the pattern is going to continue to hold true. Joe Biden’s economy will be way better than Trump’s was.

I sincerely believe that 2021 is going to be a great year. We’re starting off badly, with all the COVID cases and deaths, and with COVIDiots still trying to equate selfish stupidity with bold individualism. Plus, Trump is still President.

But once the vaccine has been widely distributed and the disease has been tamped down, it’s going to be Party Time. The travel, entertainment and restaurant industries are going to explode. All that pent-up emotion is going to be turned into raging positivity. Sports will come back in the right season and with roaring crowds. There will be concerts and theatrical productions and fun runs. It may only be normal-ish, but it’ll be great.

Many Republican senators will re-discover the phrase “budget deficits” after pretending those didn’t exist over the past four years. But it’ll only take a couple of them to get on board for an infrastructure plan that will put Americans to work and give the economy a much-needed boost. Trump may continue to whine from the sidelines, but he’ll be reduced to a gnat that sometimes comes too close to one’s ear and makes an annoying sound. And there will be a lingering group of people who feel that something sinister is trying to steal away their God-given whiteness, but they’ll mostly be drowned out by all the good stuff that’s happening.

When the Arizona Legislature convenes, their first order of business will be keeping brain-dead Kelly Townsend out of the Capitol building. She refuses to wear a mask because most people who get COVID “don’t die from it.” Yeah, but all people who voluntarily get stupid tend to stay that way.

They’re going to try to figure out how to steal the money away from schools that Arizonans voted into law. That’s basically why all Republicans run for State office—to screw public schools. And Arizona’s Official State Embarrassment, Mark Finchem, will make a speech about how he “caught a mean case of autism” when he stopped in a Walgreen’s where they were giving COVID vaccinations.

As for our neck of the woods, Ally Miller is gone. It’s already a great year.

This article appears in Jan 7-13, 2021.