Today, there will be two Americas. One will be marching in the streets of Washington for outgoing President Donald Trump.
"March for Trump" ads are already out, calling on Americans to be on the streets of the city for a "big protest". Red and blue buses are ready to ferry them to Trump land.
Another will be in Congress confirming President-elect Joe Biden as the 46th president. Call it the disUnited States. Yet, this is the nation which sent its troops to Iraq to see to it that an American-style government was set up there. Iraqis must be laughing all the way to the riverbanks of the Tigris and Euphrates.
Like charity, democracy must begin at home. Even then, what's good for America isn't necessarily good for the rest of the world. No country wants to be made into a land for opportunists and rogues. Not even America.
Trump's version of his nation is an especially dangerous one. An open letter published by 10 former defence secretaries in the Washington Post on Jan 3 explains why.
Trump is a very desperate man. He will do anything to overturn the election results, the most dangerous of which is getting the armed forces to stop a smooth transition on Jan 20.
Hence the letter by the former defence secretaries. Saying that "elections have occurred, recounts and audits have been conducted, and challenges have been addressed by the courts", they point out that "there's no role for the US military in determining the outcome of a US election". They are right.
But Trump is bent on turning the US into a Myanmar, if that is what it takes for him to continue as president. The length to which Trump will go to get what he wants was revealed by an audio recording published by the Washington Post, a day after the open letter saw print. In the hour-long phone conversation between Trump and Georgia's secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, the former is heard to push the latter "to find 11,780 votes", enough votes to overturn his defeat by Biden. Biden won the state by 11,779 votes.
Trump also speaks of "a big risk" if Raffensperger didn't do as he is told. Lucky for the governor, he had his general counsel with him. Both refused to budge to Trump's threats. By saying that "there is no way I lost Georgia", he has lost himself. Trump has too much of Georgia on his mind.
Interestingly, when Trump won the 2016 election against Hillary Clinton by 306 to 232 electoral votes, he called it a landslide win. How Biden's same margin win against Trump isn't one is a puzzle for the Republican Party to solve. Small wonder Democrats are calling for criminal investigations. While they are at it, they might as well begin at the start of Trump's presidency. He has left behind a trail of evidence that can keep the American courts busy for the duration of Biden's first term.
Trump is certainly a worry for America. And for the rest of the world. He has been so since becoming the president. But he is not the only one America should worry about.
There are at least 10 Republican senators who think and behave like him. There may be more as some are speaking of a split in the Grand Old Party as the vote in Congress to confirm Biden's win gets nearer.
The Republican Party is neither grand nor gallant after all.