This weekend Donald Trump
ignored implications of the disastrous U.S. government response to
COVID-19 pandemic, preferring instead to engage in a culture war.
Memorable Trump-related weekend action included …
- The White House is taking vigorous efforts to protect him from infection at rallies that contravene social distancing and masking guidelines, and that put even his own supporters at risk of getting sick.
- Trump found time to defend a statue former President Andrew Jackson, who retired to his slave plantation in 1837.
- He retweeted a video in which a supporter chanted "white power."
- He denied reports that he was briefed that Russia offered a bounty for the killings of US and UK soldiers by the Taliban.
- He lambasted his predecessor Barack Obama for his less prolific golf hobby, made two trips to his Virginia course, despite boasting that he canceled a weekend trip to his New Jersey resort to make sure "law and order is enforced" in Washington, DC.
(Stephen Collinson.
“As the pandemic rages, Trump indulges his obsessions.”
CNN. June 29, 2020.)
Make no mistake: a war is
raging – a battle of cultural beliefs. It is a struggle to define
values – a conflict which constitutes nothing short of a fight over
the meaning of America. In the hostile conflict, the war cuts across
moral and religious communities. Not since the Civil War has there
been such fundamental disagreement over basic assumptions about
truth, freedom, and our national identity.
Despite Trump's efforts
there has been a shift in the war. Many of Trump's culture war allies
are now defecting – NASCAR decided to ban the Confederate flag, and
the NFL apologized for punishing its athletes who knelt to protest
police brutality.
The most notable rift came
when military leaders, whom Trump likes to call " my generals,"
broke with him. Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley said they would not only
consider renaming military bases but also rejected Trump's threat to
use the U.S. military against protesters.
“Donald
Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite
the American people—does not even pretend to try. Instead, he tries
to divide us. We are witnessing the consequences of three years of
this deliberate effort.”
– General
Jim Mattis
Trump also faced
opposition from retired Marine Gen. Jim Mattis, his former defense
secretary, and several prominent military leaders who criticized his
decision to take a photo in front of St. John's Church following the
removal of protesters on June 1.
(Mara Liasson. “As
The Culture Wars Shift, President Trump Struggles To Adapt.”
NPR WOUB. June 20,
2020.)
Let's not forget how Trump
responded to the murder of George Floyd and subsequent protests in
Minnesota? In a pair of tweets, the president said the protesters
“are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd.”
“Any difficulty and we
will assume control, but when the looting starts, the shooting
starts,” Trump wrote in a tweet that was subsequently flagged by
Twitter for “glorifying violence.”
It was a threat apparently
coined by the late Walter Headley, the Miami police chief who vowed
to use violence against black protesters during 1967 protests. “We
don’t mind being accused of police brutality,” Headley said.
(Gabby Orr
and Laura Barron-Lopez. “Trump confronts a culture war of his own
making
as
election loom.” Politico. May 29, 2020.)
Oh, and we would be remiss
not to mention Trump's stand on masks and social distancing – a
battle he constantly wages in the culture war? Remember how he,
despite a surge in COVID-19 cases in the city of Tulsa, recommended
“people do what they want” when it came to wearing a mask at the
event – and even suggested it could be harmful to wear one.
President
Trump refuses to wear a mask in public appearances – including one
at a factory that produces masks – or in his office, despite a
recent outbreak among the White House staff. He evidently views not
wearing a mask as a particular vision of masculinity, arguing that
mask-wearing is a form of “political correctness.”
Zack
Beauchamp, a senior correspondent at Vox, explains …
“The war on masks is a
way of taking a public health crisis – a situation that demands
political unity and best practices in governance – and reshaping it
into a culture war competition. The question is not 'are we doing a
good job handling this' so much as 'whose team do you want to be on,
the namby-pamby liberals or the strong fearless conservatives?'”
(Zac, Beauchamp. “The
partisan culture war over masks.” Vox. May 13, 2020.)
So, what is Trump's
overall strategy in the culture war? As he did with his "Make
America Great Again" campaign slogan, Trump is invoking an
idealized past vision of an America free of political correctness –
a nation where white conservative values are dominant and where
diversity suffers. At the same time, he pushes the idea that the
virus is over to convince voters that a strong economy is on the way
back.
Donald Trump is a
misguided, narcissistic reactionary fighting a culture war under the
title of Making (White) America Great Again. He does what HE wants:
HE gets angry and lies online, and HE spawns conflicts just to
support HIS personal agendas. And, sadly, Republicans endorse HIS
offhand divisive reactions.
The Election of 2020 will
tell who won this cultural conflict. If Trump does win reelection,
the nation must suffer through four more years of his unforgiving
style, his inclinations and impulses, his priorities, his unfitness
for office, and his instinct for populist themes and reckless
language. Given four more years, Trump's antiquated conception of
America will cause irreparable divide for a nation desperately
seeking its true national identity.
“At a
time when Blue and Red America have split into two warring tribes
inhabiting two separate realities, and “debate” has been
redefined to evoke split-screen cable-news screamfests, this
ferocious politicization of everything might seem obvious and
unavoidable.
“But
it’s also dangerous. It’s as if the rowdy cultural slap-fight the
kids were having in the back seat has moved into the front,
threatening to swerve the national car off the road. Transforming
difficult analytical questions into knee-jerk emotional battlegrounds
will dramatically increase the danger that thoughtless short-term
choices will throw off our long-term national trajectory.”
– Michael
Grunwald, senior staff writer for Politico Magazine
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