Another Trump address further divides but will not conquer

As I watched Donald Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress, as I unconsciously tightened my stomach and the muscles in my neck and upper back, as I became increasingly nauseous, I suddenly realized that my body was responding in a way that by now is completely consistent and almost “normal” when I listen to this man.

Contrary to most other presidents of the United States who at least try to unify the disparate segments of the nation when they speak in this context, Donald Trump uses his platform, whether at campaign rallies or at formal ceremonies, to further divide and cast blame on his political opponents for all the problems we face.

While he attacked the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, last week in the Oval Office for “not having the cards” in the war against Russia, Trump continually, including in front of Congress, plays either the “tough guy mob boss card” by threatening opponents of his programs and policies, or he plays the “victim card” by claiming that his opponents, through the deep state, have weaponized governmental institutions against him.

He returned again to his enemies list, those he has stereotyped and accused of bringing evil upon the nation:

• “radical Islamists”;
• “radical liberals” and the entire Democratic (“Democrat”) party;
• raping, drug pushing, sex trafficking, gang bagging, mentally psychopathic “illegal aliens”;
• and “radical gender and transgender philosophy” in which men and boys are playing on girls and women’s teams and invading women’s locker rooms and restrooms.

In the Capitol spectator’s gallery, Trump invited and singled out the families of two young women who were killed by “illegal aliens.” Though their stories of loss and grief were very poignant, Trump used these families as props in his sorted narrative depicting virtually all undocumented non-citizens in the same shadow of deception, crime, and evil.

I was genuinely moved to tears after Trump introduced a 13-year-old boy who has been undergoing intensive brain cancer treatments. Trump told of the boy’s dream of one day serving as a police officer. Trump introduced the man standing next to the boy in the gallery who awarded him with a certificate as an intelligence officer. Hardly a dry eye was visible within the room when the boy gave the man a gracious hug.

This too, nonetheless, was hypocritical political theater. The same man who singled out this brave young boy is the same man – through his chainsaw slasher – who defunded and eliminated the United States Agency for International Development, an agency that fights cancer and infectious diseases globally.

The same man who singled out the brave young boy is the same man – through his chainsaw slasher – who has attempted to defund governmental subsidies to institutions conducting pediatric cancer research and treatment.

Of all those the president profiled in the gallery, I found him honoring the “courage” and “fortitude” of the mother of a transgender young person as the most insidious and dangerous.

Trump introduced this woman as a mother whose child was “indoctrinated” into “radical gender philosophy” in the school and who began using the pronouns “they and them” as gender identity markers. Trump cast this mother as the victim and represented the school in the perpetrator role of LGBTQI groomer thereby victimizing all the innocent students and parents.

In this way, Trump attempted to deprive agency and subjectivity in the young person’s emerging developmental gender identity. Throughout his political career, Trump has represented transgender people in the category of the dangerous and radical “woke” movement, which he loudly proclaimed in his Congressional address “is hereby dead,” as are all Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives and Critical Race Theory in the schools, the federal government, and the private sector.

Trump’s entire political shtick of “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) evokes a quote stated by historian Hasan Kwame Jeffries in his TED Talk, “Why We Must Confront the Painful Parts of US History, who claims that US history is often presented in the schools as a “whitewashed” version of the truth.

Jeffries claims that in the US, “we hate history, we love nostalgia. Nostalgia. We love stories about the past that make us feel comfortable about the present.”

The anti-woke anti-DEI movement gives the lovers of nostalgia over truth justification to revise history to their liking.

“Make America Great Again” conjures up images of a mythological white 1950s suburban landscape of beautifully appointed homes with manicured lawns, white picket fences, lovely healthy white children romping in the yards, mothers either cooking in tidy kitchens or being handed meals by the “colored” cooks, as the fatherly “bread winner” pulls into the driveway in his gleaming new model automobile.

If we look at the truth in our history, as Jeffries documents in his talk, we discover, for example, the genius of James Madison, the chief writer of the US Constitution, the Federalist Papers, and the Bill of Rights.

But we also learn that Madison “owned” approximately 100 enslaved Africans. We know, also, that George Washington “owned” between 250 and 600 enslaved people; Thomas Jefferson between 200 and 600; and James Monroe, 75. All but two of our first 10 presidents, John Adams and John Quincey Adams, “owned” enslaved people.

Jeffries talked about touring Madison’s famous mansion “Montpelier” where he stood in the very room where one of the primary leaders of the new nation wrote his famous documents including the Bill of Right that he and the other “founder” did not extend to those they enslaved.

The Montpelier tour guide took Jeffries from Madison’s office into the basement and showed him the small handprints of enslaved children who formulated the bricks that served as the foundation of Madison’s regal home.

And this is the metaphor for our nation. The bodies, the hands, arms, legs, the very souls of the marginalized, the disposed, the enslaved, the exploited, the “huddled masses yearning to breathe free” have always been the builders, the creators, the constructors of the foundations and pillars of the United States of America.

Trump and his MAGA crowd has perpetually attempted to demonize and dehumanize these creators by revising our history. Instead of scapegoating and further marginalizing entire groups of people, Trump lost a fabulous opportunity to highlight the fact that the very room where he spoke, the very rotunda under which he was inaugurated as the 47^th president of the United States, and the very balcony on which he was inaugurated as the 45^th president was built by enslaved Africans.

Enslaved people were involved in virtually every aspect of constructing the Capitol, which began in 1793. They also built the White House, the residence of this president and every since John Adams.

Rather than giving a shout out to an unaccepting and intolerant mother of a transgender or non-binary young person, he could have honored, for example, Philip Reid, an enslaved African American who ironically cast the 19-foot 6-inch Statue of Freedom in bronze atop the Capitol from a plaster model by Thomas Crawford.

The US Congress, in 2012, finally acknowledged and honored the enslaved artisans of the Capitol building with a marker.

As opposed to Donald Trump’s march as Divider-In-Chief and historical whitewasher, the more we know the true, often “hard” history along with the good, we as a nation will finally comprehend the full legacy of our past as a way of moving forever forward.

We cannot expect Donald Trump to lead the way as this country’s temporary “leader.”