I was born during President Eisenhower's second term, and became aware of politics and who the president was during President Nixon's second term. Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan Bush, Clinton, Bush, and Obama were presidents who followed Nixon. Every one of them had their supporters and detractors, but not one of them was the focus of a cult of personality as Donnie One-Term has been. Of course during an election campaign partisan supporters could be quite passionate about their candidate, but once the election was over the occupant of the White House was something most Americans tended to not give much thought to. Sure, there were protests against policies, and concern about taxes and the war du jour, but I never got the impression that their supporters viewed Bush or Obama or Clinton as a national savior of some kind. In short, none of us really gave a shit about who the president was between elections.
The election of Donnie Two-Scoops in 2016 changed the rules of the game. His own rampant narcissism was embraced by his supporters. His insistence on one-way loyalty was cheered by his base. His parade of lies was explained away by his cheerleaders. Cadet Bone Spurs, unlike previous presidents, spent a lot of time publicly attacking his political opponents, painting them as 'enemies of the people', sometimes explicitly as treasonous or as traitors. This inspired many of his opponents to respond in kind, inciting his supports to attack his detractors. Folks, this was not normal.
Some things will never quite get back to normal, even though the Orange One has been defeated at the ballot box. But one thing that has gone back to normal is that the people who voted for the new president, don't give a shit about him, and don't care if he is mocked by the losing side. We care about his policies, we care about things that will affect us, we care about the issues that have long-term consequences. We don't see him as the American Savior. We don't see him as uniquely qualified, that "he alone can fix it", and we certainly don't see him as ordained by God to lead the nation. He's just the guy who got enough votes to get elected to do a tough job for the next four years.
Residual Trumpists haven't gotten the message.
The Trump loyalists spend their time mocking President Biden for irrelevancies, such as his stutter, a slip & fall on Air Force One steps, how his dogs are "un-presidential", continuing their program of "owning the libs" as if "the libs" cared. Biden voters aren't invested in Biden's personality the way Trump voters were tied to Trump's.
If he loses the next election, we won't be storming the Capitol.
