American Individualism Is Its Greatest Strength But
October 16, 2020
Capitol Insurrection Demands More Than Accountability
January 16, 2021
Please do not click your browser or curse me out. But Donald Trump has been good for America IF we look at what has happened during his presidency. I am not talking about any temporary gains in the stock market, any temporary decreases in the unemployment numbers, or any of the tax breaks he extended to wealthy individuals and large corporations.
Rather I am looking at how he has exposed, in undeniable proportion, all the things that need fixing in America if we are willing to be factual, honest, and truthful about what has happened during his time on the public political stage, beginning when he first launched his candidacy for President of the United States. Trump has attacked and disrespected some of this nation’s most sacred laws, institutions, and traditions.
I realize that millions of my fellow Americans have refused to see the lies, misrepresentations, and divisive words and actions that have characterized the Trump presidency. Or, if they have seen them, they certainly have chosen to overlook them. But what about those Americans who have been clear headed and sober-minded but have chosen to remain silent? Donald Trump has been good for America IF we bother to pause and look honestly at what he has exposed about this country that we must fix, if we want a better future for this nation.
Just think about it. Most of us have always known that racism still exists in this country. But did we know how deeply it still runs? Didn’t you think more real progress had been made? Trump created the environment that gave license to the white supremacy groups and their believers to show their hatred unabashedly at every opportunity, all across America. He created the atmosphere that perpetuated more police violence against blacks in full view. It should be clear to all of us that, we have a longer way to go to bring about racial equality, racial harmony, and racial healing.
Donald Trump Has Been Good For America IF.
Photo Credit: YayaErnst
Just think about it. Many, if not most, of us have thought we led the world in cyber technology and cyber security. But under Trump’s presidency, we have had the greatest breaches and invasions of our cyber firewalls. Trump’s continual undermining of the nation’s security agencies gave license to Russia and other enemies to invade our cyber armor at will. Donald Trump has been good for America IF this will bring about the necessary steps to shore up the weaknesses in our technological infrastructure.
Just think about it. The leadership of the Republican Party supported Trump, his policies and behavior either outright or tacitly for the last four years. The growing hate speech from Trump against American institutions that culminated into the attempted insurrection at the nation’s Capitol should be a wakeup call.
These are just a few of the blatant examples of what the Trump presidency has meant for America.
Donald Trump has been good for America IF we look at all the bad, the weaknesses, he has exposed and if we muster the collective will and collective courage to do something about them.
3 Comments
Can’t wait for a society where as Dr. King hoped we would be judged on the content of our character, not externals. Note that it was President Obama’s Caucasian grandparents who gave him his start, Time to focus on what we can’t see and find a way to be blind to all preference. Whether you are George Washington Carver or Thomas Edison, we should care more about the work than the externals. The collaboration to get COVID vaccines out there has shown us what we can do together.
I agree. Donald J. Trump has been very good for America. We are living in the age of disclosure. God is bringing the hidden things to the surface.
I suppose agreeing with you would be the easy way out. I’m not going to do that. The ills and deficiencies that were laid bare with Donald Trump’s reign of terror were things known only too well by most of us here in America. The foundation documents for the creation of this social experiment we call America were written with the clear intent to preserve ‘the peculiar institution’ because most of the Founding Fathers were rich Southern slaveholders whose fortunes were based upon their ownership of slaves. And the social offspring of these original slave-holding families determined that the treasonous act of taking up arms against their government was their only recourse to preserve their economic advantages of extracting wealth from the sweat of the Black man’s brow. And when the Civil War was lost, in an act of brotherly love and reconciliation President Lincoln allowed the Southerners to go home to their fields and families. The former Southern political power structure has always understood the need to advance the tiresome trope of the Black slave’s inferiority. During Reconstruction with the aid of the Federal Government President Rutherford B. Hayes removed the Federal troops out of the South in exchange for the Southern Democrats’ vote to give him the Presidency. And the Southern politicians proceeded to install Jim Crow Laws in the South to once again subjugate the Black population and to keep them disenfranchised. So American history is replete with examples of political and economic abuse of Black people. But the South is not unique in its exploitation of Blacks. When Blacks moved to Northern states seeking better lives they met with the same climate of economic abuse. They were only allowed to live in specific areas of cities; they were only allowed to work in jobs that most Whites considered too dangerous or too dirty or too menial. When Barack Obama became President it became not only a political shock but a psychological one as well. Mitch McConnell as Senate Majority Leader vowed to make Obama a one term president. With that pronouncement war was declared on President Obama and his administration. Why? Because he was a Democrat? No. Because he was a lawyer? No. Because he went to Harvard? No. But because he was Black. That was back in 2008. A little over twelve years ago. But Donald Trump has always been a charlatan and he introduced into the American political bloodstream the notion that President Obama was born in Kenya. A clear attempt to disqualify him as a legitimate President. Trump to me is a symbol of white privilege and racism passed down from his father and other like minded white people.
But Trump is a gift for creating alternative realities and for tapping into the darker impulses in human nature. When Donald Trump presented himself as combative and crass and unconventional, there were lots of people out there who identified with him. He was able to do what most demagogues are good at and that is tapping into the grievances of angry people. And when white privilege is wedded to grievances against Blacks, Latinos, and other people of color, then you have a perfect storm of political abuse. The people who voted for Trump were voting against Obama, a Black man. Because every time they saw Hillary Clinton they saw Obama. And when Trump began his presidency, he encouraged xenophobia and tribalism and gave cover to latent white supremacists and other white hate groups. And Trump’s economy was merely an extension of Obama’s economic boom. But Trump took credit for it because he could. But it was another lie in a long string of lies. The biggest lie of all is the lie that America did not know about the health disparity between white people and people of color. The covid-19 pandemic merely prevented America from ignoring the health and economic disparities that have existed for centuries. People with preexisting conditions were especially vulnerable to the ravages of the covid-19 virus. Because of the historical reality of Black and Brown people working in low-wage jobs in meat packing plants and nursing homes and grocery stores, these people were considered essential workers; but more importantly they could not afford to stop working even when they got sick. So they died in much larger numbers than their white counterparts in more high paying jobs who worked from home. So Donald Trump’s four year term was nothing more than an exercise in incompetence. But this incompetence existed not in a vacuum but with the support and the tacit imprimatur of the billionaires and the cognoscenti. The Ivy League Congressmen whose ambitions supplanted any oath of allegiance to the American people. Their Faustian bargain gave them sufficient belief that if they remained silent they can tap into ‘the political base’ of cult-like followers that Trump as pied piper had in his fold. So the ills and problems that are wrong with America mostly have to do with racism and race. And these problems and ills have been known for years. What has been lacking has been the willingness to acknowledge the existence of systemic racism and the political will to actually do something about it. But like any other virus, racism and white supremacy will mutate into some other virulent form and continue to plague us. It was Black people and Brown people who elected Joe Biden as President. So it will be his turn to set forth policies that will bring America closer to correcting some of the chronic problems most white people have been conveniently able to either deny or ignore. But if history tells us anything, it is that each time the government sets up policies to correct some inequity existing among minorities, there will be a predictable tsunami that will push against whatever progress is made in an attempt to wash it away.