A
friend has said I no longer need to defend what I know, or apologize for what I
write may offend others sensibilities. I will tell you this. I have formed my
opinions by drawing on thousands of hours of research, hundreds of books read, and
analysis of current events drawn from multiple sources, thus creating a body of
knowledge in order to formulate theories in a socio-historical context. I spent
the better part of yesterday researching what transpired in Charlottesville,
and the President’s reaction and commentary to it.
This
is what I do know about Donald Trump. I know that his grandfather was born in
1869, and immigrated from Germany at the age of 16. His grandfather’s name was Frederich
Drumpf. He immediately anglicized his name to Frederick Trump. My immigrant
paternal great-grandfather did the same, ironically, about around the same
time.
I know that Donald
Trump was a major player in the United States Football League, owning the New
Jersey Generals along with Walter Duncan and Chuck Fairbanks, who also served
as head coach. I know he claimed to sign Herschel Walker. I know he did not.
Walter Duncan did.
I know he claimed
in a 2014 interview with Michael D’Antonio, to be “the best baseball player in
New York when I was young.” He was not. Granted, he was scouted while in high
school by the Boston Red Sox and the Philadelphia Phillies. However, Ken
Singleton and Ed Kranepool were also high school baseball players in New York
City during the same period. Both had pretty decent pro careers. Trump claims
to have eschewed a baseball career, instead wanting to go to college so he
could join in his father’s real estate empire. I think there may have been a concern
over his savage heel spurs that kept him from serving in the armed forces. A
little sarcasm never hurts to lighten the dark and somber mood that has
engulfed every American.
I
know that his casinos had to file for bankruptcy. I also know this is a very
difficult thing to do, unless of course you overspend. I know he is a real estate
success. But I also know at least 26 businesses with the “Trump” name have
failed. Some have been real estate ventures. Real estate can be a high risk/high
reward endeavor.
I know there have
been business successes outside of real estate. Well, two; “The Apprentice,”
and “Celebrity Apprentice.” Both are “reality” television programs. I know
Donald Trump can be entertaining. I have listened to his interviews on Howard
Stern over the years.
I know his books
have met with success. I have read “The Art of The Deal.” I guess the title is
channeling Sun Tzu, and his 5th century BC military treatise, “The
Art of War;” somehow equating dealing in real estate is similar to warfare.
That thinking belongs to those sports pundits who equate playing a football
game is also like warfare. I do not know how many people have died consummating
or losing out on a real estate deal. The same can be said for football game casualties.
What
I took away from this literary work is that Donald Trump firmly believes P.T.
Barnum was right. A quote attributed to Barnum, though no evidence to confirm
it states, “There’s a sucker born every minute.” I have heard an addendum “. .
. and two to take him.” You be the judge. I certainly don’t want to be accused
of telling any of you learned masses what to think. I’ll leave that up to the
media.
If you have
followed Donald Trump’s ascension in the political arena like I have since June
of 2015, I think you’ll agree Barnum’s credo has its place in this rise that
culminated in being elected to the highest political office one can attain in
this country. Along the way, I have read his rabble-rousing speeches. I have
read his vitriolic “tweets.” I have heard his offering to pay the legal fees of
his constituents if they were to physically assault those who opposed him. His
bombastic hubris was evident. The goal was to win the nomination at all costs,
regardless of the inaccuracies, misquotations, and hate-mongering needed to
sway the majority of the 70% of Americans who are ignorant and uninformed. I
believe, though I can’t prove it, the other 30% of the informed were split
between both parties, though the popular vote has indicated differently, regardless
of your stance on voter fraud, that’s not the point here.
While doing all
this listening and reading over the next 17 months I grew uncomfortable with
what was transpiring, and the lack of awareness by so many. Trump’s campaign
was masterful. It reminded me of a similar approach by someone during their
rise to power. Make the masses afraid, make them angry, offer them a solution irrespective
of how misdirected in terms of the greater good. It’s was all in the way you
say it.
I was reminded of a scene in the movie “The
King’s Speech.” The royal family is watching newsreel footage of Adolf Hitler
addressing a throng in German. A young future queen Elizabeth askes her father,
“Daddy, what is he saying?” Her father replies, “I don’t know, but he’s saying
it rather well,” or something to that effect. When Donald Trump won the
election, my discomfort grew to genuine concern. There was an historical
blueprint for what had occurred. Members of a conservative faction elected to
public office, seize the majority, get a man elected who reflected said
conservatism.
When the boldface
lies began I wrote them off to typical political grandeur. When the late night
or early morning tweets over nothingness started, I questioned our new
President’s mental stability. I bristled at his lack of reverence for the
office he occupied. I cringed at his inability use the English language, and
the lack of a vocabulary he stated he possessed. I was appalled that he
admitted to not reading books. I felt it laughable he received his information
from Fox News and Entertainment instead of the dozens of White House resources
available to him. I remained silent as my conservative friends insisted I give
him a chance. And with each passing day I saw this new President name
individuals to high ranking posts of departments their political stances were
in direct conflict. I have been of the mind that our political system has been
broken for over 16 years. And now I watched as it grew worse still. Hyperbole
was not going to fix it. If you yell louder, it doesn’t make it right.
These last few
days the President has said some things which are true, which is a pleasant
surprise for me given his track record. Donald Trump is right when he stated that we
should not attempt to rewrite our history. America has been on an
anti-confederacy bender of late. Most recently in Charlottesville a protest was
to take place to oppose the taking down of a statue of Robert E. Lee. Allan
West is correct that Lee graduated from West Point. He is correct stating that
Lee served the nation admirably in the Mexican War. But Allan West neglected to
mention that General Lee believed in states rights above the union of states.
Had the confederacy won, America would have been easy pickings for several
countries looking to impose their influence, Great Britain and Spain to name
two. If Lee was being honored for his service during The Mexican War, great.
But he wasn’t. He was honored for his service to the confederacy, as were the
100-plus statues that abound below the Mason-Dixon line. But this isn’t about
statues. And if you think it is, you’ve been living out of this country for the
last fifty years. Statues and other symbols representative of another era of
history are just the conduits for something much more ominous. It reared its
ugly head in the worst way in Charlottesville, and the president is laying
blame in an equally vile way.
Donald Trump is
right when he says that there were people in Charlottesville just to protest
the removal of this statue. However, there were also others there. Neo-Nazis
were there. White Supremacists, or Nationalists like they euphemistically like
to be called, were there. The Ku Klux Klan was there. Note, that while the
original KKK was based in the South, the revival in 1915 began in Indiana, the
home state of the current vice-president. Those poor folk that were just there
to protest the removal of a statue found themselves, rightly or not, aligning
with these hate groups. For this they should be vilified, not excused by the
President of the United (for now) States. Once they saw what was emerging they
should have gotten out of Dodge.
The President is
right when he states that not all in opposition to these hate groups were peacefully
assembled. This is not a Ghandi or Martin Luther King moment. Passivity’s ship
has sailed when it comes to dealing with Nazism. For a President to spread
blame, reference George Washington and Thomas Jefferson out of context to state
his case for preserving history, inquire as to whether not they had a permit, and
to not denounce the hate groups mentioned is appalling. And don’t tell me of
the semantical bullshit that was inferred is the same. I was hoping he’d say or
act . . . well, Presidential. Richard Nixon would have, whether he meant it or
not. Ronald Reagan would have. George H. W. Bush would have. Even George W.
Bush would have had the wherewithal to. Conservatives all. Not the current
President. By the way, I voted for all but Nixon and the current charlatan.
Just in case you thought I was seeing this from only one point of view.
The President said
he was waiting for all the “facts” before making a statement concerning
Charlottesville. This would be a first. Patience and thoughtful contemplation are not the current President’s forte if you haven’t been able to tell by what he
tweets. The President’s supporters have been quick to point to Lincoln was a
Republican, and the Democrats the architects of Jim Crow laws. Again, if you
are new to this planet, the planks for both parties platforms have changed
quite a bit over the last 150 years. An empty call for unity isn’t going to cut
it. Who in Washington will have the guts to tell Donald Trump he blew it this
time. Not the Neo-Nazis or the KKK,. They lauded him. Wrap your brain around
that.
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