LINCOLN’S PROPHECY
It may be time to remind the reader of Lincoln’s admonition that no enemy from without will destroy us: “At what point, then, is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.”
FIRST AMENDMENT
Let’s start by sending Thumper a reminder of the First Amendment:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
No doubt one of three scenarios applies here: he has never read it; he has never understood it; or he willfully chooses to ignore its self-evident meaning and is about to interpret it in some new and wholly indefensible manner.
A president acting truly presidential respects, encourages, and defends a free press. It is, indeed, morally and legally incumbent upon him, from the very nature of the oath he took, to protect and defend the Constitution. A new incoming president does not threaten, intimidate, or ridicule a free press, neither its publications nor its journalists.
THE FORK IN THE ROAD
Thumper is coming to a fork in the road: one path leads towards authoritarian arbitrariness and the other to democratic freedom. We shall be watching whether Thumper understands his choices when he comes to this fork in the road and carefully note which way he chooses to go.
As the bard wrote so long ago “The past is prologue”. From the new president, one gets the uneasy feeling that “the future is catastrophe.” By the way, Mr. President, the word you sought in one of your inane tweets is spelled unprecedented (not “unpresidented”). I suppose Noah Webster should be glad he’s dead; otherwise he might be called before the Trump Inquisition to explain how he (not Trump) confused these two words when compiling his famous dictionary!
Some of us are old enough to remember that George Bush II was quite poor with English; are you, sir, trying to prove that you are superior to him in matters of functional illiteracy? This is a tall order–I doubt that you can best him although I admit you are off to a good start!
Look at how Trump speaks and writes: note all the extremely short sentences, repetition of self-congratulatory phrases, and inanely simplistic vocabulary that Thumper depends upon when speaking extemporaneously (not reading prepared remarks written by his ghost scribes). Has he no education, no culture? Is he incapable of serious political thought?
SPEECHES PAST AND PRESENT
Compare speeches of former presidents with the “pronouncements” of Thumper: think of Jefferson, Lincoln, and Kennedy–the difference is absolutely shocking! Jefferson wrote:
“No experiment can be more interesting than that we are now trying, and which we trust will end in establishing the fact, that man may be governed by reason and truth. Our first object should therefore be, to leave open to him all the avenues to truth. The most effectual hitherto found, is the freedom of the press. It is, therefore, the first shut up by those who fear the investigation of their actions.”
Americans today still read the speeches of Jefferson, Lincoln, and Kennedy and marvel at their insight and wisdom. Jefferson believed that a free press was the cornerstone of our democracy. Lincoln’s writings comprise ten volumes of closely reasoned thoughts about democratic principles, expressed with wit and wisdom. John Fitzgerald Kennedy was a Pulitzer-Prize winning author who took for his theme in Profiles in Courage elected leaders who sacrificed their careers by standing firm on matters of conscience and principle.
We are witnessing a catastrophic decline in the ability of a president to express his views intelligently and profoundly! What shall we inherit from Trump: a volume of tweets? Is that how far the intellectual heritage of the presidency is to be degraded during the next four years? (assuming he lasts that long which is by no means a given: if and when he implodes, he shall fall fast and far).
THE ELECTION
Thumper claims he won the election by a landslide. In fact, he lost the popular count by nearly three million votes. In the new see-saw battle between farce and tragedy represented by his “unusual” presidency, this claim falls on the hysterically funny side rather than on the ludicrously dark and ominous side. Both sides of His Majesty’s Mental State are extremely worrisome but I for one believe we need to recognize humor and give it its due when we see it; there will be precious little of it in the days to come. Laugh while you can!
A REMINDER OF FACTS TRUMP WOULD RATHER IGNORE
Trump did not win the popular vote. He “won” the election through the machinations of an archaic undemocratic structure known (inappropriately) as The Electoral College.
He did not win a majority of the votes of the American people. In a democracy, what is more important than respecting a majority vote? No wonder this fact rankles him so and gets under his skin. In an earlier era, this is the equivalent of an emperor being told he is not a God. Thumper cannot stand the fact that he did not win the popular vote—and he is so immature and so unstable that he is willing to make up the most outlandish assertions to deny it!
I am aware that during the coming months there will be a fair degree of polarization from both sides which will affect what people say and do, but consider for a moment this sobering fact: a Congressional committee headed by a member of Thumper’s own party has declined to investigate such an allegation further. The chairperson stated matter-of-factly there is no evidence of such widespread voter fraud: from his own party!
