As we welcome the start of this New Year, should we caution folks to be careful what they wish for?
This election year has been anxiously circled on calendars for the three years that President Donald Trump has been in office, even longer for those who feared his election.
People for and against Trump can't seem to wait for this opportunity to vote him back in or out of office, whichever way they're leaning.
For sure, 2020 promises to be one for the history books.
It is beginning with the impeachment of President Trump and will build to that much-awaited November general election, whether he's in it or not.
Most likely he will be, given the U.S. Senate's predisposition to acquit him of the two articles of impeachment the U.S. House of Representatives passed just before the holidays.
The first allegation is that he abused the power of his office when he enlisted a foreign government (Ukraine) to investigate his leading political rival for the 2020 election -- while withholding security funds the Congress had approved for that country's defense.
The second is that he obstructed Congress in its investigation of the matter.
There is much to be decided yet on the impeachment question, including whether there will be additional witnesses heard in Trump's Senate trial.
Americans may or may not see a proper trial of the president, which is why the House hasn't yet conveyed the articles of impeachment to the Senate.
Nonetheless, looking ahead, it isn't impossible that Trump could be removed from office, making way for a President Mike Pence.
It's just highly unlikely that even a handful of Republicans will join the minority Democrats to vote to remove Trump.
Even if they do, that won't necessarily preclude his seeking re-election.
All of that should play out early this year. What will follow will be what Americans anxious for the 2020 elections may regret.
If you thought the leadup to the 2016 election was bad, just wait for this year's campaigns. Trump has been practicing for three years at his heavily attended campaign rallies, honing insults and fabricating a wealth of attacks for the coming fight. And he'll reportedly have more money and better organization than he did in 2016.
As he did after the Mueller Report was issued, Trump will claim exoneration from any wrongdoing and turn his vitriol on those who investigated him.
That is the quintessential Trump.
From the beginning, this president has proven to be even worse than many expected him to be.
He still has his followers, including many here in Arkansas, but even some of them must question this man's morality and fitness for office.
Some even admit that his request of that election-related "favor" from Ukraine was wrong, just not necessarily impeachable. They will still tolerate his behavior.
Simply said, Americans made a mistake in electing Trump and this country is paying quite a price for it at home and in our foreign relations.
That's why, in many minds, the 2020 election stands as the bridge back to normalcy in the White House.
The sentiment is built on the thousands of lies that have come from this president's mouth, on the inexplicable lock he has on the once-sane Republican Party and on policies he has pushed that betray American values.
At the top of that heap is the cruel separation of immigrant families at the U.S. border with Mexico.
The concern is certainly not all about the president leaning on Ukraine for a political favor.
Protests against Trump abound. They began with his election in 2016 and continue to this day.
A lot of Americans have taken to the streets, most notably perhaps with the January 2017 women's marches in Washington, D.C., and elsewhere that drew millions of men, women and children.
Trump's election spurred what has been called the largest demonstration in American history, but that, too, was about much more -- equal pay, health care, reproductive rights, paid family leave and other so-called women's issues.
The marches aroused conviction for change and helped propel many of the candidacies that resulted in 2018's election of a Democratic majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Trump had been elected along with a Republican-majority Senate and House. But the balance of power shifted with the 2019 swearing in of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and a cadre of new Democrats.
There were natural clashes on policy as those Democrats sought to follow an agenda that went counter to Trump's and his increasingly faithful Republican followers. Those clashes were expected.
What was unexpected were the actions of a president and those around him that prompted the highly critical Mueller Report and, most recently, Trump's impeachment.
Just as we couldn't foresee those developments, we sure can't imagine what 2020 will deliver.
Commentary on 01/01/2020