The nature of decency and the respect of power is on trial before a world stage.
Donald Trump is using the 2016 contest for the presidency of the United States as a branding tool to feed his ego. He has hired an avowed white supremacist news organization as part of his campaign team, thrown his now seemingly sequestered wife to the wolves by having her plagiarize a Michelle Obama speech and reduced the opinions of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to amateur status. By hiring Steve Bannon, of the questionable Breitbart News to the lofty position of Chief of Operation for his campaign, Mr. Trump has cornered the white hood market for future use.
He touted his wife’s intelligence and her questionable educational resume and threw her to the wolves of criticism during the Republican National Convention. By the way, where is Melania? Generally, wives and children are off limits to the coarse political discourse we are currently experiencing but he needed her for his brand, proving his ability to attract and satisfy beautiful women. He has famously stated, “I know more about ISIS than the generals.” He has courted wacky conspiracy theorist, like internet radio talker Alex Jones, who believes the Sandy Hook Elementary School Massacre was what Jones calls, “a false flag.” The children and parents were actors, he postulates, and part of a plot by the government to take away your guns. The thought of the President of the United States even granting that sort of idiocy even five minutes of time should be immediately disqualifying.
So the world is now watching what the citizens of America will do in November. Will we uphold the rich traditions of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Roosevelt and Obama or will we spit on hundreds of years of distinction, not perfection but distinction. Ronald Reagan who admittedly, in full disclosure, is not on my list of favorite Presidents [ As a Black man I hold him responsible for giving America the right to be openly bigoted again. The signal was starting his campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi, home of one of the worse racially motivated crimes in America’s history] called America a “shining city upon a hill.” Mr. Trump wants to reduce it to a gold plated symbol of opulence and intolerance. Hillary Clinton may not be a wild-haired demagogue thrashing about with incoherent policy and entertaining quips but I do trust the country in her infinitely more capable hands.
So all the people who say, “he represents me,” exactly what does that mean? Does he represent your lack of detailed information; does he represent your resentment of anyone whom you do not see in the mirror? Or is it simply some primal need to scream at the top of your lungs because you feel powerless? We are better than that people. America has committed some terrible atrocities, Native American genocide, capture and enslavement of my forefathers and using immigrants for cheap labor and profit. We have prospered despite it all. Washington spearheaded the freedom of the country. Jefferson set the rules of conduct, Lincoln took the first step in righting a great injustice; Roosevelt brought us from the brink of economic ruin and won a great war and Obama is the legacy of them all. Now is not the time to allow Donald Trump to demean the legacy of great men and the future of even greater men or maybe in November, a woman.
Vote 2016