George W. Bush congratulated Michael “Brownie” Brown and Barack Obama, disputedly, hugged N.J. Governor Chris Christie. My fear for the residents of the Texas Gulf Coast, over the next 90 hours, is that Donald Trump will be eating brownies and giving his smartphone a bear hug. The dire warnings for the people in the path of Hurricane Harvey have correctly dominated the news. In response, the President has stared at the sun, criticized Republican Senators; Tennessee’s Bob Corker, Arizona’s Jeff Flake, the news media, threatened a government shutdown and hosted a pep rally.
If the predicted devastation to human life and property comes anywhere close to fruition saying, “that’s too bad” as a rejoinder like he did for the ten American sailors lost at sea, would, unfortunately, be woefully predictable. I have friends who live in Houston, Texas and I am afraid for their safety. They have navigated devastating storms before but not with Donald Trump’s version of Captain Queeg at the helm. In the famed movie, The Caine Mutiny, starring Humphrey Bogart, Queeg demonstrated his indiscriminate judgment, “Since you've taken this course, the innocent will be punished with the guilty.”I feel as though America has been accused of stealing the strawberries and we are all being punished.
Will it take a Jose Ferrer like cross-examination for the Trump faithful to admit something is drastically wrong before the ship sinks? WH Chief of Staff General Kelly will try his best to wrangle the captain into some semblance of authoritarian stability to literally weather the storm, but for how long?
Inevitably someone will write or utter the phrase, ‘Donald Trump became President tonight’ because someone assigned the task of saving lives will bring credit to the Office. I wrote a few days ago about the misguided punditry falsifying his credibility on earlier occasions.
For the first time since January 20, 2017, I am openly rooting for this President. Not that I think he has somehow become wise or introspective but because the tragedy of his ego has the potential for heart-rending consequences to play out on live television. If you think the floating bodies in the 9th ward of New Orleans was a jolt to the collective psyche of America, imagine a repeat, sans the humility to right the ship.
Donald Trump has proven to be a racist, homophobic, xenophobic, misogynistic, ill-informed reactionary, but God help us, he is all we have got and my friends are counting on him. Harvey will blow over much like this Presidency but the lasting effects are what will determine the future course of millions both individually and nationally. At this writing, 12:32 pm EDT., the outer band of the rainfall has begun to fall off the coast of Texas. I am hoping the President is huddled down with the current director of FEMA, Brock Long. Long is one of the few appointees by Trump who is experienced, professional and had credibility entering the office. Maybe in a few days the phrase, ‘heckuva job Long’ will become as widely repeated as, “Brownie… you’re doing a heckuva job” hopefully for better reasons.
AMERICA IS WITH YOU TEXAS!