9.28.17: Philadelphia – (Politics): The uncontrollable man-child occupying the Oval Office wants you to believe many things about him, mainly that he’s smart, a consummate deal-maker, rich and a patriot. His patriotism, now more than ever, has come to define his on-screen persona and brands. ‘Make America Great Again’ – the slogan that, among many Whites, conjured up nostalgia for the glory-days of Jim Crow and helped propel him to the presidency – seems to be the tagline most associated with U.S. President Donald J. Trump. Whereas, when he was a reality television star, it was ‘You’re Fired!’
In his current battle with the N.F.L over player’s kneeling during the national anthem – an action started by Mr. Colin Kaepernick to protest the treatment of African-Americans by police – Mr. Trump once again type-casted himself as a purveyor of patriotism. But as the aforementioned verb alludes, Mr. Trump is playing a character. The real Mr. Trump is a not a patriot. In fact, by definition, and in the context of Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election, Mr. Trump appears to be a traitor.
Can it be anymore ironic that there exist today, in America, a President who is indifferent to election inference by a foreign government but spends his spare time lecturing others on patriotism? Mr. Trump is beyond a hypocrite. He’s a bizarre agglomeration of deceit, misconduct, falsehoods, self-righteousness, ignorance, bigotry and ineptitude.
The president doesn’t understand patriotism. If he did, he would be outraged at Russia, or, going by his rationale, whomever was aiming to influence our election, including an assuming fat guy in his basement. Mr. Trump undermines his intelligence agencies; roots for the failure of American businesses, like The New York Times; and can’t be unequivocal in his denouncing of white supremacists. No patriot is he, but rather a demagogue who appears to have more love of self than country.
When Mr. Trump maligns football players who protest on the field for being anti-American, he’s projecting his transgression onto them. The 45th president of the United States can stand for every national anthem henceforth, but it’ll make his agenda no less a betrayer of American values and he no less of a defiler of sacred political norms and spaces.
The president can say whatever he likes about patriotism; he, too, has First Amendment rights. But we, the people, should assert our right to ignore him. For on the issue of patriotism, Mr. Trump ranks a level below novice; he offers no credible opinion on the subject, only bluster and soundbites; he can’t, and shouldn’t, be taken seriously.
Our country was violated in the most egregious of ways, and all the president offers in response is a shrug and pathetic conspiracy theories that dispute the consensus from America’s intelligence agencies. A real patriot, which Mr. Trump could only dream of being, would have been unrelenting in their pursuit of the bad actors, instead of unrelenting in their flattery of them. It’s been said that those bad actors will return, and when they do, the president will likely then, as he is now, be preoccupied by a childish squabble.
And it’s not that Mr. Trump is incapable of being a true patriot, he’d just rather play a bad one on T.V.
Thanks for reading! Until next time, I’m Flood the Drummer® and I’m Drumming for Justice!™
Photos courtesy of the author.
Interesting piece.