For Trump, Leadership is a Clawed Hammer over a Hobbled Foe.
My God. China, Syria, Philippines, Russia, Turkey. All are lead by totalitarian dictators who are hammers. To them, everything looks like a nail. Trump sees nails too, nails everywhere. Things to hit. Things to pound. But these are not nails. These are people, children, parents, sisters, brothers, dear friends and they are hurting. They are angry, frustrated, sad beyond measure and they have a right to be. They have waited for days, years, lifetimes, for equality, for justice. As importantly, what they seek now are the very things everybody in this country desires, what everybody in the country seeks, actual equality, actual justice.
The President's response? Its an election year and its an opportunity. The President claims he sees weakness in Democratic governors who are unwilling to go out with batons, teargas, tanks and start cracking skulls. What the Presidents wants is "domination." Well, come here to Minneapolis and you can see all of that. You want teargas? Batons? Bullets? I guess its easier than doing the hard work that was the promise of our Constitutional founding fathers. The promise that has so clearly turned into the lie for so many. "We the People . . . " Yeah, force is the answer. That wrapped in a bow and a promise that this country is a beacon on a hill.
As this is an election year, we will all continue to hear about this odd notion called American exceptionalism. Somehow, we are the best. It is preordained. We are a beacon on a hill, a light for the rest of the world. And why? We are the best because ... we are the best. Okay, fine, let’s go with it. We are the best. If we truly are, doesn’t that mean that we are the best for all of us, not just a select few. This is what we all seek, right. Instead, we get staged photo ops where the President wraps his arms around the flag and kisses it. Which America might that be? It absolutely isn’t the America I see on 38th and Chicago in South Minneapolis where a cop murdered an unarmed, shackled African American man named George Floyd
Sadly it gets worse because with the worst violence in generations, the President's response is that of the totalitarian dictator. For him, leadership is a clawed hammer over a hobbled foe. No, Trump will follow his heroes, and aspire to their greatness. All hail Erdogan, Putin, and Assad. However, these are not nails Mr President, these are my countrymen and women. We are not hobbled. We may be on one knee but we will stand, we are standing. These are Americans and I can't breathe.