Eleven days.. Alex Yarde looks at the Trump Presidency, predictably the dumpster fire he expected it to be.
If you’ve never been, The Lincoln Memorial is as impressive as you imagine. Besides the colossal statue of the man himself, there are two Lincoln speeches enshrined therein.
In the South Chamber, The Gettysburg Address. It displayed the president’s strength and determination to see a successful conclusion to the American Civil War. Not only reuniting the nation, but finishing what our founders had started. That this nation must be one in which all were “…created equal” was the rule of law and of practice.
We still haven’t gotten there, and sadly, we took a step backward eleven days ago.
In the North Chamber is Lincoln’s March 4, 1865 Second Inaugural Address. This speech, delivered just one month before the conclusion of the War, creates the policy for reuniting the divided states. Lincoln’s willingness to show compassion to the southern people, “…with malice towards none; charity for all,” helped quell the hostility among northerners.
But Eleven days in, I ask you. Does the President Elects behavior show even the slightest glimmer of either the core concepts of equality or charity? Presidents should possess the capacity for both. Shouldn’t they?
There is a lesser known speech. “The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions”, known as the Lyceum Address based on the location of its giving. This speech is most relevant to where we find ourselves today. Eleven days into the Trump era.
The quote reads-
“Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant to step the ocean and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest, with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force take a drink from the Ohio or make a track on the Blue Ridge in a trial of a thousand years. At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer. If it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us; it cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide.”
It may seem hyperbolic, an overreach, but what have we seen to date since the President-Elect won the Electoral College?
Who has he sought out as his advisors?
What are the qualities of these men he has recruited?
What have his lieutenants had to say to our media? Immigrants?
He stood at Gettysburg. How has Trump, standing in the shadow and in the spirt of perhaps our greatest President reached out to heal a bitterly divided nation?
How has he demonstrated he understands hard earned lessons paid for in blood at that place?
The media seems determined to launder his image and forgive his foul campaign rhetoric. To normalize his malignant world views. Here’s a link of what he’s done in eleven days after the election. Do you still doubt he won’t carry through with his unveiled threats on mass deportations or Muslim Registrations? As President Lincoln warned, we have a gun to our collective heads and those of us left without suicidal tendencies need to ensure to put every impediment in the new administrations path we can muster until his reach inevitably out strips his grasp. Until his lack of hubirs catches up with him. Until his house of cards comes a tumblin’ down. Until a majority of Americans, like Dorthy Gale in The Wizard of Oz, rediscover the heart, brain and nerve they overlooked. And this awful medicine show huckster pulls steaks.
My blog “The Maquisard” is part of my small contribution. Inspired by both real (French) & fictional (Stat Trek) resistance movements. Dense scrub vegetation that makes you stumble or impedes progress. “Impede, Trip Up, Make Sport” is my motto.
We must resist. All of us who care. All of us who have “skin in the game”.
Think about this, it’s only been eleven days. Has he shown the slightest concern about the rise in violence perpetrated in his name? The vandalism of Adam Yauch Park that a Jewish friend who lives steps from commented, “When you think you’re in the bubble, but you’re not in the bubble”.
We can’t expect Trumps followers to hold him accountable. They justify every misstep, praise every blunder, await every tweet like mana from heaven. How can we count on them when the ship of state inevitably starts sinking and he blames it on “bad press”. They lack objectivity. Even the ones that believe they aren’t racist, sexist, homophobic pieces of garbage pushed the button for someone they knew was. And quite frankly, some aren’t the sharpest tools in the shed. (ProTip: A Starbucks boycott cuts revenue, it doesn’t increase sales) we need informed constituents not blind followers.
There is an important distinction between followers and constituents.
Followers are zealots. And zealotry is fueled primarily by ego and self delusion. The power flows one way, up to the autocrat. He isn’t a benevolent ruler. Donald Trump made a career of public humiliation, bragging and appealing to the lowest common denominator. Trump ominously bragged he could shoot someone in the middle of Fifth Ave. And not lose a single vote. Nothing I’ve witness since makes me doubt his sincerity in that statement or his followers willingness to forgive him anything.
Constituents imply there is an exchange, a symbiosis. The political leader enjoys support of the people in exchange for honest advocacy. It’s mutually sustaining. Once it’s not, if the political leader fails to produce results, constituents wisely move on to support another. That’s a healthier power exchange isn’t it?
This is not the relationship Trump supporters enjoy. But because it’s all about appeasing their leader they don’t require, nor demand much of their chosen champion. They feel angry, the country is “broken” and they want things “fixed”. And ironically turned to the person least likely to help them. The pejoratives and the typical targets Trump exploited to stoke White Rage won’t create a single job or educate a single child. Why they bow to his authority, such a proud “boot strap” culture capitulating to a city slicker with no practical experience other than counting his fathers money is beyond me. President Lyndon B. Johnson once said,
“If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.”
I’ve heard not all Trump voters share his beliefs. If you get cable, you get the whole package. Even the channels you don’t watch. It’s the equivalent of saying to all the groups he’s targeted- “I don’t hate you, I just don’t care about you.” You bear the responsibility of your choices, even if you don’t suffer primarily. But what happens if his embryonic Fascism reaches maturity? What happens once he has no use of you? You don’t think he’ll let the dogs loose on you just as easily as me? It’s Autocracy 101, cut the dead weight. And he has the best mentor in good old uncle Vladimir Putin.
The left bears responsibility as well, after all there wern’t the numbers for only the Angriest White Men to succeed alone in this hostile takeover of our Government. 70% of the total electorate was white, the only group Trump won decisively. Eleven days later here they sit vacillating between perpetual states of righteous indignation and crippling guilt, all while shedding a river of white tears on Facebook.
Liberals wanting desperately to get the whole unpleasant episode behind them rush to silence POC voices in shared spaces, puff out their chests with progressive bonafides as an inoculation to the anger and fear targeted groups justifiably feel. The rush to normalize the abnormal behavior condoned by this man and his minions I find offensive. Trying to convince targeted individuals that “We didn’t get our shit together to stop Trump, but look! We have safety pins you’ll be ok”! Is ludicrous in the extreme.
A writer I admire, Melina Popova, wrote an excellent piece entitled Dear Liberal Friends You Don’t Have The Tools To Fight Trump” -
“So forgive me, but your calls for unity are somewhat disingenuous. When it was time to unite to stop the fascist from being elected president you went and did your own thing. But now that the horse has bolted, suddenly you want those who will suffer most as a result to fall in line?”
Lincoln’s willingness to show compassion to the southern people, “…with malice towards none; charity for all,” helped quell northern hostility. He unified opposing sides using his intellect, compassion and mental toughness. Do you honestly think, with this country divided as it is like no time other than the Civil War that Donald Trump is the man to right the ship of state? Is he magnanimous in victory? Where’s his compassion? His mental toughness? His intellect?
What’s his track record? Past is prologue.-
“One of the things you should do in terms of success: If somebody hits you, you’ve got to hit ’em back five times harder than they ever thought possible,” he said in 2012. “You’ve got to get even. Get even. And the reason, the reason you do, is so important… The reason you do, you have to do it, because if they do that to you, you have to leave a telltale sign that they just can’t take advantage of you.”
Since to my knowledge hadn’t served in the military nor been in a physical altercation, I can only assume this is hypothetical on his part. Or metaphorical.
Today, he demanded an apology from the cast of HAMILTON for voicing concerns to Mike Pence for those they correctly feel are in his crosshairs. This is their statement in full-
We, sir, we are the diverse America, who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us, our planet, our children, our parents or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights. But we truly hope that this show has inspired you to uphold our American values and to work on behalf of all of us.
HOW DARE THEY!
Public officials get booed in public all he time. At least Pence had the sense to keep his mouth shut. Did Trump respond like an elder statesman or even a gentleman? Where is this “mental toughness” again? Is it possible your “Alpha Male” is really all bluster? The vulgar trappings of what weak men see as strength? Is this erratic behavior “Presidential”?
Only dictators strike back against what a reasonable adult would shrug off.
I’m a huge fan of Columbian literature, they created Magic Realism a literary genre in which realistic narrative and naturalistic technique are combined with surreal elements of dream or fantasy. This makes terrific novels but piss poor politics. I don’t live my life this way. I don’t have the luxury of wishful thinking. It’s been eleven days. Trumps embarrassments are only going to get worse. His non-stop impotent bluster and his violent, reactionary minions are Lincolns Lyceum Address made flesh.
The fall is coming from from within.
I’m a very practical person. A firm believer in Maya Angelou’s famous admonition, “When someone shows you who they truly are, believe them”.
I recommend reading this article entitled “What Do You Do About Trump? The Same Thing My Grandfather Did In 1930's Vienna” by Liel Lebovitz which in closing I’ll quote —
“So forgive me if these next four years I’m not inclined to be smart. When it comes to the task ahead, I’ve no interest in deep dives or shades of grey or mea culpas. Like my grandfather, I’m a simple Jew, and like him, I take danger at face value. When the levers of power are seized by the small hands of hateful men, you work hard, you stand with those who are most vulnerable, and you don’t give up until it’s morning again. The rest is commentary.”
