The Trump Presidency: this Generation’s Vietnam Moment
Trump May Unify Americans After All - Against Him
by Wayne D. King
Looking back, it was all just too easy . . .
We elected the first black president and the forces of darkness knew that they had to do something. They met, even as he was addressing the nation and calling for unity, and decided that they would oppose everything he did.
We elected the first black president and the forces of darkness knew that they had to do something. They met, even as he was addressing the nation and calling for unity, and decided that they would oppose everything he did.
Yet despite that in the four years of Barack Obama change came like a waterfall. In the course of two brief years twenty million Americans living without health insurance would join the ranks of the insured, another 10 million would benefit from its provisions with respect to pre-existing conditions. Unfortunately, the opportunity to bring another 20 million under the umbrella of coverage was lost to the compromise that relinquished the “Public Option”; but national health was in our sights. In the course of only a few years - beyond rescuing the world from a catastrophic recession - much more would be achieved: marriage equality, medical marijuana, the Dream Act, the Paris accord on Global climate change, Iran Nuclear agreement, and expanded rights for LGBTQ citizens.
In an historic blink of an eye we were again moving toward that beloved community Dr. King described.
In an historic blink of an eye we were again moving toward that beloved community Dr. King described.
But these things occurred in a nation still deeply divided and with the help of the opposition the nation remained divided throughout the presidency of Barack Obama. The changes so many of us embraced came despite those divisions.
Did we think this was just going to happen without an almost cataclysmic clash that began with the push back and then the emergence of a unifying fight? This is how Vietnam and Nixon at first divided and then united us. It began with mostly young people in the streets, opposing the war. They were met with opposition: hardhats beating up those kids in the streets. Waving flags and carrying Nixon signs. In the final gasp of another deeply divided time and after another paranoid national leader emerged, delivered to us at the hands of Sirhan Sirhan.
The divisions evolved into a national strike on college campuses across the country and then the killing of our kids at Kent State and Jackson State Universities. The deaths at Kent and Jackson State opened the floodgate for the “silent majority” . The middle class, shaken to their core at the lengths to which the Nixon administration would go to maintain its grasp on power, came flooding into the streets to join the kids, the hippies and the yippies demanding peace.
It did not end immediately but it brought down a President and ended a war.
The period after Vietnam and up to George W. Bush, though not without its turbulence, represents the longest period of national unity, peace, and economic prosperity in our nation’s history.
Historians will debate for one hundred years what happened to our nation that so sharpened our divisions at the beginning of the new millennium. The symptoms will be relatively easy to agree on, a new gilded age for the wealthy and a shrinking of the middle class; legislative changes that opened the doors for unethical behavior, the lionization of greed and avarice. The causes of this will be more difficult to agree upon and still harder to reverse.
My own view is that we have entered a fourth wave of human endeavor, a new industrial revolution that calls not for reversing existing trends but finding a new way to surf them, as we did during the second industrial revolution - in the period sandwiched between two great leaders named Roosevelt.
However, reaching a point where we can build a national consensus for moving forward will require that we first begin to bridge the divide that separates one American from another and that is where I began this brief analysis. With the opportunity wrapped in a crisis.
The divisions evolved into a national strike on college campuses across the country and then the killing of our kids at Kent State and Jackson State Universities. The deaths at Kent and Jackson State opened the floodgate for the “silent majority” . The middle class, shaken to their core at the lengths to which the Nixon administration would go to maintain its grasp on power, came flooding into the streets to join the kids, the hippies and the yippies demanding peace.
It did not end immediately but it brought down a President and ended a war.
The period after Vietnam and up to George W. Bush, though not without its turbulence, represents the longest period of national unity, peace, and economic prosperity in our nation’s history.
Historians will debate for one hundred years what happened to our nation that so sharpened our divisions at the beginning of the new millennium. The symptoms will be relatively easy to agree on, a new gilded age for the wealthy and a shrinking of the middle class; legislative changes that opened the doors for unethical behavior, the lionization of greed and avarice. The causes of this will be more difficult to agree upon and still harder to reverse.
My own view is that we have entered a fourth wave of human endeavor, a new industrial revolution that calls not for reversing existing trends but finding a new way to surf them, as we did during the second industrial revolution - in the period sandwiched between two great leaders named Roosevelt.
However, reaching a point where we can build a national consensus for moving forward will require that we first begin to bridge the divide that separates one American from another and that is where I began this brief analysis. With the opportunity wrapped in a crisis.
Looking back, even to the beginning of the Presidential Primary process, one can make the case that no candidate seemed capable of bridging that divide - given its root causes, though some may have been on the right track for the wrong reasons as I have previously speculated. The election of Donald Trump has, in many ways, simply hastened the day of reckoning.
Never before has an American President sought to deepen the divisions in our country; never before has a President been so out of touch with the truth; and never has a President been so boldly unconcerned and brashly unapologetic about it.
Already Americans are taking to the streets. They are not willing to relinquish American leadership on the critical issues of our time. They still believe that Democratic values hold out the best hope for change that is just, and sustainable. Young people, who have grown up in the era of Barack Obama are unwilling to allow the limits of racism, sexism and homophobia to be defined by Theocratic leaders. Americans alarmed by the pace of climate change are unwilling to allow China, an undemocratic regime that suppresses free science and free speech, to step into the void created by the Trump administration’s climate change deniers.
Never before has an American President sought to deepen the divisions in our country; never before has a President been so out of touch with the truth; and never has a President been so boldly unconcerned and brashly unapologetic about it.
Already Americans are taking to the streets. They are not willing to relinquish American leadership on the critical issues of our time. They still believe that Democratic values hold out the best hope for change that is just, and sustainable. Young people, who have grown up in the era of Barack Obama are unwilling to allow the limits of racism, sexism and homophobia to be defined by Theocratic leaders. Americans alarmed by the pace of climate change are unwilling to allow China, an undemocratic regime that suppresses free science and free speech, to step into the void created by the Trump administration’s climate change deniers.
Every American who has watched with pride as our national leadership has been demonstrated time and again during the last fifty years will ultimately not allow us to cede leadership on the world stage. Their protest signs may vary, but they all translate the same: “This is Not My America”.
The crowds are big, and growing. . . and, as they often say “The Whole World is Watching”.
But there is a notable void in the crowds. Donald Trump has the worst approval ratings of any president since those numbers were first recorded. Yet among Republicans his approval is among the highest ever recorded. 87% of Republicans still state that they approve of the President’s actions; despite the heroic efforts of Republicans like Senators John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and Susan Collins who have stood against the tide speaking out forcefully for Western values and Democratic principles.
How do we bridge this divide, particularly when the issues at stake are not just critically important but - in many cases - moral imperatives with little room for compromise that does not spell acquiescence?
The answer is we don’t try. We fight for what we believe but do so with grace and with open hearts. We wait for them, knowing that joining us represents a deeply disappointing revelation for many. They are not our enemies and we do not have a monopoly on truth.
We must stand and deliver. Above all we must be patient and humble. If there is one thing we have learned in the first thirty days of the Trump Presidency it is that when we think the President cannot possibly overreach any more than he already has - he will always find a way.
Already he has shown this with his travel ban and immigration actions which have surely peeled off many previous supporters. Just wait until they try to take healthcare away from 30 million Americans or begin to give polluters free reign or cause a trade war that raises the cost of everything from food to underwear.
Wait until middle class and working class whites realize they have been punked by a billionaire con artist who is far more interested in cutting taxes for his friends than raising the living standards of those who have seen no real income growth in almost two decades.
The crowds are big, and growing. . . and, as they often say “The Whole World is Watching”.
But there is a notable void in the crowds. Donald Trump has the worst approval ratings of any president since those numbers were first recorded. Yet among Republicans his approval is among the highest ever recorded. 87% of Republicans still state that they approve of the President’s actions; despite the heroic efforts of Republicans like Senators John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and Susan Collins who have stood against the tide speaking out forcefully for Western values and Democratic principles.
How do we bridge this divide, particularly when the issues at stake are not just critically important but - in many cases - moral imperatives with little room for compromise that does not spell acquiescence?
The answer is we don’t try. We fight for what we believe but do so with grace and with open hearts. We wait for them, knowing that joining us represents a deeply disappointing revelation for many. They are not our enemies and we do not have a monopoly on truth.
We must stand and deliver. Above all we must be patient and humble. If there is one thing we have learned in the first thirty days of the Trump Presidency it is that when we think the President cannot possibly overreach any more than he already has - he will always find a way.
Already he has shown this with his travel ban and immigration actions which have surely peeled off many previous supporters. Just wait until they try to take healthcare away from 30 million Americans or begin to give polluters free reign or cause a trade war that raises the cost of everything from food to underwear.
Wait until middle class and working class whites realize they have been punked by a billionaire con artist who is far more interested in cutting taxes for his friends than raising the living standards of those who have seen no real income growth in almost two decades.
Evidence that the Russian connection may lead to the demise of this administration is accumulating. Demonizing the media and banning the most powerful among them from media briefings at the White House is little more than a thinly veiled effort to discredit them in the wake of an ever-widening inquiry and at least three formal investigations by government agencies and the intelligence community.
It will not be long before disillusioned Trump voters will be joining our ranks.
Then it will be up to us to open our ranks and to welcome all these Americans home. Not only by making space for them but by making an effort to understand their hopes and dreams. By seeking new ways to renew the promise of a growing standard of living for all Americans; by making an effort to find common ground on even the thorniest of issues.
There is little chance that the skies will open and the sun will shine down on us as we sing kum-ba-yah but there’s a pretty good chance that 2020 will see a new President and, hopefully, a lot of Americans carrying signs that effectively say: This is My America.
Then it will be up to us to open our ranks and to welcome all these Americans home. Not only by making space for them but by making an effort to understand their hopes and dreams. By seeking new ways to renew the promise of a growing standard of living for all Americans; by making an effort to find common ground on even the thorniest of issues.
There is little chance that the skies will open and the sun will shine down on us as we sing kum-ba-yah but there’s a pretty good chance that 2020 will see a new President and, hopefully, a lot of Americans carrying signs that effectively say: This is My America.
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