Is Trump Our Reflection?
I am a conservative. I wear labels that one would expect of a conservative — former military officer, business school graduate, and corporate executive. I have always labeled myself as a Republican. Yet, four years ago, I wrote a blog entitled, “Fear, Division, Hate, and the Need to Stop Donald Trump (https://bit.ly/39fQyll).” Sadly, the title would be even more appropriate today as it was in 2016 as fear, division, and hate is no longer a theoretical. Instead, it defines the state to which the United States has devolved.
Trump was never a calculated risk. He was a gamble. Sadly, when you gamble, the house usually wins. You lose. We, as a nation, gambled in the 2016 election. We are now losing.
The core reason for that loss is the very core of Trump’s support — fear. It is a fear that only a culture of hate can create. It is a fear that divides rather than unites. Fear. That clearly must be the one word on the back of his “Let’s Make America Great Again” calling card. And fear can never make America great again. But under Trump, Washington, DC is living in a McCarthy era fog of fear. Every decision, every debate, every debate has been mutated, sub-optimized due to this fear.
Looking back, I stand by every word that I wrote. I also have a confession to make. I bear guilt for my small part in getting Trump elected. Yes, I wrote blogs and discussed my opinion of the damage of a Trump Presidency. But I did not support Secretary Hillary Clinton. I voted for Governor John Kasich. I was complicit. That will not be the case in the 2020 election.
My thoughts now are clear. We have a broken human being with a dark soul as President. A President who when faced with a triple headed crisis of the coronavirus pandemic, historic levels of unemployment, and social disruption has shown us a complete lack of human emotion and connection to those suffering. You cannot lead without empathy.
He has embraced the opposite of empathy by attacking via Tweets, comments, and actions. The recent deployment of federal agents in confusing camouflage uniforms and unmarked vans brought me back to his infamous stunt on June 1st at the height of the Black Lives Matter protests. None of his actions as President were more symbolic than the forced dispersal of peaceful protestors for a Bible and Church photo op after declaring himself “the law and order” President. The raising of the Bible was a false declaration of sanctimony and strength. It was a blow to decency and the First Amendment.
Looking just at the Lafayette Park moment, we could be accelerating our path to a better place if he had declared himself the “social justice President,” had waited until the Secret Service determined it was safe to walk across park, symbolically knelt with protestors for a prayer, and then opened a national dialogue. But he did not. He could not. He is not that person.
He is also not a person capable of empathy for the over 145,000 Americans who have died from COVID19.
That deeply held belief in his character is incredibly dangerous for us because he is now — like any leader — fostering an organization and, unfortunately a nation, that reflects his values, his being, his soul. He is creating an organization that is defined by hate, division, and fear.
A leader is, after all, either chosen because she is a reflection of her organization or the organization will inevitably become a reflection of him. Therefore, the key question to focus on over the next four months is a simple one. Is Trump you? Is Trump us? Is he your reflection? Is he our reflection?
As a Christian, as a former military officer who swore to protect the Constitution, as a Reagan conservative, as the father of a three year old extreme preemie who bravely fights to catch-up to his peers, as the son of a dad who rejected the prejudice that surrounded him in the 1950s South, as the son-in-law of a police officer, as the husband of a working mom, but mostly, as an American, I know the answer for me is that he is not me.
I know that he is not us. And because he is not, he is turning our country into an aberration. He is ripping it apart. He is systematically — rapidly through executive actions and slowly through his behavior — redefining the United States into something different, something far less than great. We cannot allow it to happen.
I encourage — actually implore — everyone to to speak up and to vote Trump & his supporters out of office. And it is not enough to simply throw your vote away. You must take a stand — and vote for Joe Biden.
I am optimistic that in November we will collectively and unmistakably say, ‘he is not us’ and that we will — under a Biden White House — get back to our true work of delivering on the promise that “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all (people) are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”