Yesterday was quite a day. First, Roger Ailes was forced out at Fox News because of the sexual harassment cases against him. It became too much even for Rupert Murdoch. Secondly, the NBA announced it was pulling the 2017 All-Star game in Charlotte, NC because of the anti-gay HB2 bill. And the courts have been striking down the Republican photo-ID bills.
But, the most headlines are all about Donald Trump accepting the Nomination of the Republican Party to be President of the United States and his acceptance speech. In his speech, he painted the gloomiest, darkest, most dreadful picture of our country I have ever heard in a political speech. It is hard to know where to begin critiquing it.
I think the best way to start is to quote Mike Murphy, a Republican strategist, who said “I didn’t know I was living in Gotham City and needed a billionaire caped crusader to rescue me.” Until last night, I don’t think anyone knew that either.
Of course, in his Trumpian fashion the truth was “stretched” during the speech. For example, crime is lower today than it has been for 40 years, not higher. That according to the FBI statistics. Secondly, during this administration, fewer police officers have been killed in the line of duty per year than under any other administration going back before Ronald Reagan according to FBI statistics.
But, its okay. After Donald Trump takes office “crime will come to an end”. He didn’t say it would “decline” he said t would “end”. Nice phrase. But, how is he going to eliminate crime? Didn’t say. Is he planning to back up police vans and empty out our inner cities? How is he going to know who is a criminal and who is not? Or, is he just going to assume that they are all criminals and “lock them up”.
He is “going to wipe Radical Islamist Terrorists” out “real fast”. Again how? Didn’t say. How do you know which Muslims are “radical Islamist terrorists” and which ones are not? Which means according to my logical mind to ensure that “all radical Islamist terrorists” are wiped out is to wipe out all Muslims. Is he planning to conduct a war of genocide against all Muslims in the world? Should be easy peasey there are only about 2 billion of them.
He says he is going to bring about the “biggest tax cuts” in history. Yet he pledges to build roads, bridges, railroads, airports, and a bunch of other infrastructure projects. How is he going to pay for all of these projects if he is going to reduce revenue? He is also going to “rebuild” our third-rate military. Again, how is he going to pay for that? Didn’t say.
In all fairness, Donald Trump gave the best example of how to string together 20 second bites over one hour and fourteen minutes. All we heard last night was the same 20 second bites he has uttered ever since he decided to run for President. There was no substance. There was no policy. There was nothing but 20 second sound bites.
He is definitely going to build his wall, but this time he left out the part on how Mexico will pay for it. That was an interesting omission. To me, he seemed to veer all around the place. His speech was incoherent at times and the pace was terrible. On top of that, he yelled through most of it.
It does not appear that any of the pundits noticed what I did. During each of his “breaks” to listen to the applause from his followers, he stepped back and posed almost exactly like Benito Mussolini. The only thing missing was the crossed arms. He jutted out his chin and gloomily and angrily stared out at the crowd. He even gestured like Mussolini while he was talking.
The part that was meant to tell us how he plans to “fix our country” sounded like another dictator in Germany at the same time Adolph Hitler. All we need to do is “trust me” he said over and over. He never talked about working with Congress to get his “agenda” done. He claimed he was going to do it all by himself “trust me”.
As a white man I definitely heard Donald Trump tell us white people that we are in danger from all these non-white, non-Christian people and he is going to save us from them. As a white man and veteran of this country, I totally reject that premise.
Many of the pundits are claiming that Trump echoed Richard Nixon last night. In some aspects that is true. But, Richard Nixon never espoused an authoritarian government for the U.S. Last night, Donald Trump used his acceptance speech to lay out why we need an authoritarian government and why he should be named dictator.
For the very first time in my 56 years of watching and following politics, I heard the nominee of one of our major political party’s come out and clearly state that democracy should be abandoned in our country. For the first time, I heard a nominee of a major political party lay out the reasons we need authoritarian rule in this country. That wasn’t the real scary part. The real scary part was all of those people in the convention center applauding his speech and agreeing with him.
If there was ever a time when white supremacy was on full display in our political conversation it was last night. It is time for Trump to put on his signs what he really means. “Make America White Again”!
Last night we were assured that Donald Trump is the second coming. Last night we were assured that if we blindly allow him total control of our country, we will love the end results. I am not “buying it”. I reject everything Donald Trump wants to make our country. Not only that, I reject the Republican Party for supporting this maniac to be our next President.
There is an old saying that “the company you keep speaks loudly about you.” Supporting Donald Trump says the Republican Party believes in his outlook and his plan for an authoritarian government. Keeping company with Donald Trump “speaks loudly about them.” Remember that come November 8.
And, the “shirts” keep marching along!
