Just when you have lost all interest in America’s president Trump, he finds something more ugly, more tawdry with which to entertain you. There seem to be none of the deadly sins of pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, anger or sloth that do not entice and enthrall him.
Is this man’s pride so great that he can abuse the memory of Abraham Lincoln? How dare he use the Lincoln Memorial as a set for his virtual rally? In the time of the novel coronavirus, he invited the disgusting Fox News organization into the place wherein sits the figure of a great man—a man who has inspired generations of Americans.
Not that Fox News and Donald trump are not of the same ilk. Fox News glorifies Trump. Trump is Fox News—bad news. They hit bottom together as sleaze interviews sleaze. Even the magnificence of the setting could not help.
It was an open invitation for Trump to brag. He wants to tell his followers of his triumphs, his triumphs over imaginary foes—in the Congress and the news media. He wants to spread his paranoia and his braggadocio and his lies.
It was not so many years ago that the wife and I drove to Washington in late May to enjoy the city as though we were tourists. I remember getting off the tour bus to stand at the bottom of the steps up to the Lincoln Memorial. It was a quiet moment to honour Lincoln.
In all the times I had been in the District of Columbia on business or a speaking engagement, I had never seen any of its monuments close up. Washington is a city of monuments to the great and not so great of American politics. Yet, whether major or minor players on the political scene, each, in their way, leaves their legacy. I seriously wonder how future historians will explain Donald Trump.
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Copyright 2020 © Peter Lowry
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