Going Through The Looking Glass in Washington DC on July 4th
Lewis Carroll wrote Through the Looking Glass & What Alice Found There in 1871, a sequel to 1865's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Alice in Wonderland). He wrote of an alternative universe... where things were contrary to the real world... ...where things are not as they should be.
This year’s celebration of the Independence of the United States promises to be a high profile modern day testimonial to the current president’s perversion of truth, justice, and the rule of law.
The "Salute to America" will be a grandiose photo op-- a reflection of Donald Trump’s vanity, obsession with crowd sizes, craving for the spotlight, fondness for military hardware and dalliances with authoritarianism.
Traditions for the celebration have been upended; the location of the fireworks has been moved; there will be a heavy military presence, including tanks parked along the streets of Washington, and a presidential speech in front of a crowd where the choicest locations will be reserved for ticket holders.
When reporters asked the president whether he was intent on giving a July Fourth speech that unites all Americans, Trump indicated his willingness to use a partisan tone.
"What the Democrats plan is going to destroy the country and it is going to be horrible health care, horrible health care and everybody's taxes will go to 95%," he said.
Outrage over the hijacking of the July Fourth celebrations is welcomed in Trumpland as proof that the Dear Leader has once again ‘owned the libs’ in his quest to roll back history to a time when certain types knew their place in society and injustices were overlooked.
Stephan Collison at CNN calls it correctly:
Though many find Trump's showmanship distasteful, it's often rooted in a shrewd political hunch. Images of the commander-in-chief framed by the Stars and Stripes will go nicely in the campaign video library he is building to help his reelection.
And anyone who dissents -- including media organizations that are his favorite targets -- can be branded disrespectful of the troops and unpatriotic.
Here’s Jeff Greenfield at Politico:
...what Trump is doing is wreathing himself in the most potent symbols of American history—delivering a speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, site of the 1963 March on Washington, looking across at a landscape of monuments—without any appreciation for the history that made that whole landscape possible. Perhaps uniquely among American presidents, he sees himself without any connection to the American story, any link to presidents past, other than his manifest superiority to any of them.
Someone who can say of himself that he has been treated worse than any president in history—four of whom were assassinated—has an impressively unique understanding of his own role in the American story, to say the least. He has rarely if ever reached back to his predecessors to find any kind of meaningful historical connection, especially the kind that would reach across lines of party and ideology to find common national ground on a day like the Fourth. Kennedy often reached back to the first generation of American political leaders; Ronald Reagan quoted FDR and JFK in many of his addresses.
Trump prefers to think of himself as the lone, overarching figure who can bend history to his will. “I alone can fix it,” he said in his 2016 acceptance speech. Neither that speech, nor his inaugural, invoked the name of any past leader. He appears to believe that the American economy turned 180 degrees on the day of his inauguration, rather than moving on the same upward trajectory it had been on for the better part of a decade. Nor is he bound by the restraints that have guided his predecessors in understanding when partisan politics ought to give way to more unifying themes.
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Financing for the Salute to America is as murky as just about anything Donald Trump has ever done. VIP tickets are going to GOP ‘donors’. Additional fireworks are being “donated.” And you can bet there will be extra bookings at above market prices for guests at the Trump DC hotel property.
A couple of million dollars has been lifted from the National Park service, monies supposed to go towards helping with billions of dollars needed for deferred maintenance. Those funds were already $11 million short, thanks to the government shutdown earlier this year.
The military is saying it’s participation comes from funds already allocated for training purposes.
There has been military participation in DC parades in the past, though the context for such participation was highlighting battlefield victories and/or building national unity in the face of adversity.
Past presidents have attempted to use the holiday for political purposes. It didn’t go well.
In 1845, President James Polk staged a fireworks display that ended badly, as a dozen rockets were accidentally fired into the crowd, and two people were killed.
Supporters of President Richard Nixon staged Honor America Day in 1970 to counter national outrage over the Cambodian invasion and the Kent State University killings. As columnist Art Buchwald noted, “any professional politician knows that when the public sees Billy Graham, Bob Hope and Lawrence Welk on the platform, the Nixon Administration will be the only ones enjoying the fireworks.”
Yippies and hippies staged a marijuana smoke-in on the mall. Hundreds of radicals--some sans clothing---waded into the reflecting pool and chanted antiwar slogans. Police used tear gas on the protesters, the wind shifted, and panic ensued as rally attendees and demonstrators alike fled.
There are some small anti-Trump protests scheduled for the fourth, though many activists are staying away, hoping for inauguration sized crowds to deflate the presidential ego.
Code Pink is the only activist group that has asked for permits, and they have received permission to fly the “Baby Trump” blimp over the National Mall.
From the Washington Times:
“We see it as an image of Trump’s behavior, which is, as we all know, unpredictable and prone to tantrums about things that are really, really dangerous,” Code Pink co-director Ariel Gold told The Washington Post earlier this month when her group filed for the permit. “It’s a way of saying, we really need an adult in the White House.”
VoteVets and Rags of Honor Veterans plan to hand out USS John McCain T-shirts on the fourth, saying they are honoring the former Arizona Republican following Trump’s public attacks on the late senator.
The T-shirts feature the Navy destroyer with its nickname “Big Bad John.” The White House asked to have the ship moved out of the way during Trump’s visit to Japan last month.
Two days after the July Fourth event, some of the pro-Trump right’s most extreme groups (the Proud Boys men’s group and allies) will stage a ‘free speech’ rally in DC. A rival counter protest will likely facilitate the violence these sorts anticipate.
And, now, just to add to the madness...
https://twitter.com/JuliaDavisNews/status/1146050706165645312
https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1146436701302206464
https://twitter.com/kaitlancollins/status/1146435755130130432
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Look for my next column on Monday
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