Republican President Donald Trump is falling way behind in the polls, regarding the upcoming presidential election, against the Democrats’ soon-to-be nominee former Vice President Joe President. So, Trump looks like he’s grasping for straws by diverting attention away from his mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic by claiming the new Black Lives Matter movement against racism and police brutality is anti-American as it also demands that names of Confederate generals who fought against the Union in the Civil War have statues of them removed and their names removed from some things.
In President Trump’s speech at his Fourth of July celebration at Mount Rushmore this weekend, he barely mentioned the ongoing pandemic, yet hammered away at the racial issue and removal of statues. He called for those who “damage or deface statues” to suffer “a minimum of ten years in prison.”
IMO, Donald Trump has often told lying and sometimes stupid statements. For example, at the celebration he said of the carved faces in Mount Rushmore, “I am here as your president to proclaim, before the country and before the world, this monument will never be desecrated.” Well, to do that he would have to live as long as the USA exists and be its president all that time.
And I’d like to know how Mr. Trump is going to stop this from happening, according to the Bible, at the second coming of Christ–“a violent earthquake, such had not occurred since people were upon the earth, so violent was that earthquake,” so that “every island fled away, and no mountains were to be found” (Revelation 16.18, 20), which I assume includes Mount Rushmore that Trump said he loves.
Trump further proclaimed, “This left-wing cultural revolution is designed to overthrow the American Revolution.” What! What does the Black Lives Matter movement against racism and police brutality have to do with the American Revolution? And how does it overthrow that? And I don’t hear those advocates say anything about that war; rather, their grievance is about the reason the Civil War was fought–slavery of blacks. Trump said, “Their goal is to end America.” Not so! Most are just trying to clean up America.
Trump continued, “Our nation is witnessing a merciless campaign to wipe out our history, defame our heroes, erase our values, and indoctrinate our children.” Those heroes he referred to are mostly Confederate generals whose statues have existed throughout the South and whose names are on several of our military bases.
I did my ten weeks basic training in the U.S. Army at Fort Polk in Louisiana. It is named after Episcopal Bishop and Confederate General Leonidas Polk (1806-1864). He resigned his clerical position and joined the Confederate military. As the cousin of U.S. President James Polk, Leonidas fought against the Union in the American Civil War. Confederate President Jefferson Davis commissioned Leonidas Polk as a general even though he had little military experience. He was killed in action.
This weekend, President Trump criticized the only NASCAR driver, Bubba Watson, who had claimed that he discovered a noose hanging in his Talladega Superspeedway garage. It was investigated by the FBI, and they concluded it was “not an intentional, racist act.” Rather, it was a garage door pull rope that had been in place since last fall. But President Trump called the incident by his favorite word, “a hoax,” and demanded that Watson apologize to his NASCAR colleagues.
President Trump’s two strongest, Republican allies in the U.S. Senate are Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, with whom the president sometimes plays golf. Today, Lindsey Graham said that Bubba Watson’s immediate take on seeing the rope dangling like a noose was perfectly understandable and, “I don’t think Bubba Watson has anything to apologize for.”
Graham–who was born and has always lived in the Southern state of South Carolina, whereas Trump is from New York–also pushed back against the president regarding his demand to prevent people from removing Confederate icons such as statues due to this movement against racism. Graham said, “If you’re in business, the Confederate flag is not a good way to grow your business.” Mississippi, which I believe from experience has been the most racist of all the Southern states, just voted days ago in their legislature to remove the Confederate insignia from their state flag.
Donald Trump is a divider, not a uniter. That in itself makes him a lousy president of the United States of America. Jesus said, “If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand” (Mark 3.24 NRSV). Just over 150 years ago, the USA came close to not standing anymore when it fought the Civil War, which was mostly over slavery of blacks. Now, it looks like Trump wants us to fight it all over again.
Donald Trump’s motto during his presidential campaign and his presidency has been, “Make America Great Again.” I think he’s doing just the opposite. And now with this new twist about the Civil War, I believe Donald Trump is looking more like the president of the Confederacy than he is of the United States of America.
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