https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/04/opinions/trump-mount-rushmore-speech-monuments-rhetoric-dantonio/index.html
Breathe
easy, America. President Donald Trump's got this. A deadly pandemic is
tearing through the country, but the statues are going to be all right.
Trump swooped into the
heartland on Friday and delivered this news, along with a message of
rage at the foot of Mt. Rushmore in South Dakota. Ignoring the fact that
nearly 130,000 Americans have already died from Covid-19, with new
cases topping 50,000 a day, he stoked fears of an "angry mob" engaged in
"a merciless campaign to wipe out our history."
In an address that could be called "American Carnage II" for following
the emotional blueprint he laid out in his inaugural address, Trump
declared that federal officers would be dispatched to protect monuments
and statues wherever they were threatened.
Trump's 40-minute speech was a master
class in rhetorical deception. He lumped together the racists of the
Confederacy with the figures on Mt. Rushmore, insisting they are all
being reconsidered in the same way. Several elected officials have ordered the removal
of Confederate monuments in an effort to recognize the painful legacy
of slavery, while the debate over monuments of George Washington, Thomas
Jefferson and Theodore Roosevelt is more nuanced, given their positive
contributions to the nation. No sweeping effort is being made to remove
all of these monuments and to suggest one exists amounts to sounding a
false alarm.
In his speech,
Trump appeared to want to associate himself with the more admired
figures of the past; as he spoke of Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and
others, Trump sounded like a fifth-grader reading random pages of a
history book. There was Washington crossing the Delaware, Jefferson
dispatching Lewis and Clark and Roosevelt overseeing the construction of
the Panama Canal.
In the
simpleton's view of history offered by Trump, there is no room for the
slaves owned by Washington and Jefferson or for Roosevelt's white
supremacy. According to this perspective, sins and flaws must be denied;
otherwise the greats of history cannot be honored. This is, of course,
what a child might think upon learning that his or her parents are not
quite perfect. But with maturity, children, like citizens, can both
revere their heroes for their strengths and criticize them for their
failings -- and judge who, in the end, deserves to be on a pedestal.
It is childish to look at historical figures and to try and fit them into neat "Good" and "Bad" categories. If you look to disqualify any historical figure of importance the minute you find a shemetz of badness to him (badness being defined as going against 21st century social justice principles) there will be none left.
ReplyDeleteLook at George Washington. Yes, he owned slaves. He was also a vain prig. But he helped found the republic that would go on to bring wealth and freedom to much of the world. He was a complex figure and has to be appreciated as such but today it's "He owned slaves! Cancel him!"
Look at Roosevelt. From a Jewish perspective, he is a villain for his actions against us during the War. Imagine if he'd been president in 1947 at the time of the UN vote on Israel. But he also shepherded the US successfully through the Great Depression and helped the Allies defeat Hitler, y"sh. One could be a simpleton and cancel him for his crimes against us, sure.
It's the SJW left that has the simpleton's view of history, not Trump.
not childish at all to decide if a person is worthy of praise i.e. make a statue
ReplyDeleteof course it is important to identify the values of society. this has nothing to do with shemetz. a confederate was a traitor.