A lot was made of our commander-in-show holding up a Bible, a little over a week ago, with the St. John’s Episcopal Church as a backdrop. The orchestrated show of strength was preceded by shoving, tear-gassing, and strong-arm tactics of armed troops against peaceful protesters. Trump had been sheltered in the PEOC bunker, on the recommendation of the Secret Service, and bristled at being portrayed as fearful. So, he and his inner circle of advisers came up with his version of the ‘walk to Calvary’ as a show of courage.
That sort of display of pseudo-courage and inaction has been repeated many times during his presidency. If you remember he accused legislators of fearing the National Rifle Association leadership after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting. Republican Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania was touting his expanded background checks legislation, but it did not raise the minimum age above 18 to purchase a semi-automatic weapon. When asked by Mr. Trump if his proposed bill raised the age requirement, Toomey told the President it did not. “You know why,” Trump said. “Because you’re afraid of the NRA.” Shortly thereafter, once the show was over, he [Trump] acquiesced to the NRA and nothing was done.
Following a meeting with presidents of black colleges and universities where he promised to sign an executive order for the continued funding of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), a move that has been a tradition since the Carter administration, Mr. Trump declared, “I saved HBCUs.” To pacifying the coal industry, and talk of restoring the steel industry, President Trump will don a coal miners hat, climb into the cab of a truck, or hold up a Bible for the performance, the show must go on.
As the COVID-19 pandemic reached meteoric heights, for a modern-day malady in the United States, the administration reached a point of paralysis. Mr. Trump has continued distancing himself from experts like Drs. Fauci and Birx, culminating in the complete embarrassment of recommending household disinfectants as a cure. Short of covering his eyes and shouting nanna-nanna-boo-boo; His final solution, pardon the extrapolation, is to allow multitudes of people of color, the poor, and frontline workers to take their lives into their own hands, after all, ‘what the hell do you have to lose?’ As a rule, I was taught the only thing worse than doing the wrong thing is doing nothing at all. The President has disproved that life lesson over and over, withdrawal from the Paris Climate accord, dissolution of the Iran Nuclear deal, meeting repeatedly with world despots, and abating the rule of law. It would have been better had he done nothing at all.
The President has been right about one thing, the way to quell violence and injustice is with dominance. The President of the United States has violently attacked minorities and women with unmatched verbal volatility. He has unjustifiably attacked the laws, traditions, and adherence to truth that have made America “ exceptional.” For almost two years I have called for young people to take to the streets as my generation did during the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War. I was told over and over that idea was fruitless. The domination of media attention forced by daily protest gives me hope.
We are seeing what ‘power to the people’ can do. The young, the middle-aged, and the Martin Gugino(s) are being maced, tear-gassed, and shoved into action. Together the people can bring down the curtain on this show.
Vote in 2020 for Change