Pride and fear and Trump
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
What are you proud of? That is the question Trump does not want asked of Americans, because he is afraid of their answers. He uses fear to silence those who shout why they are proud of who they are. "Say it loud, I'm black and I'm proud" scares him. Gay people could not have picked a more powerful name for June than "pride month." It says so much in so few words about so many.
Donald Trump is trying to cancel pride with fear. He wants to intimidate and frighten people into silence. That's what his attack on the Smithsonian is about. Every art teacher in this country should celebrate the fact that he is afraid of a show at the American Museum of Art in Washington D.C. called "The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture." Can you imagine something that validates your work more than having the president of the United States being so afraid of what you teach that he wants to shut it down? You could take your students to museums of art until you wear out the soles of their shoes, and you wouldn't be able to inspire them more than the idea that art is so powerful that it must be banned.
Trump is lashing out with his campaign of fear in multiple directions, taking on not only departments of his own government but universities, libraries, corporations, and now even law firms. He doesn't want anyone to have power except the people who look like him, and he doesn't believe anyone has a right to be proud of who they are unless they are white and male and wealthy. What else could be a source of pride but money for Trump and his ilk? It's what they measure their manhood by, and manhood of course is the only thing worth measuring.
The pride of others in the accomplishments of their ancestors disturbs Trump's way of measuring the universe. What is the sense of putting the history of slavery on display at the Museum of African American History when slaves were so clearly losers? In Trump's sphere, only American greatness is worth celebrating, and greatness is of course to be defined by him.
Trump's obsession with DEI has led to the removal from the Pentagon website of military history pages that celebrate Black recipients of the Medal of Honor and famous members of the Black community who served in the military like Jackie Robinson, the great Hall of Fame baseball player. At West Point, they have banned clubs for women and blacks and other minorities because they celebrate diversity and inclusion. Trump and Hegseth and other so-called conservatives say that diversity is not a source of the military's strength but rather a threat to its order and discipline and what they call "lethality," a word that I never heard used at West Point or in the army and certainly not by my father or grandfather, both of whom knew more than most about what it takes to fight a war.
Pride has its own interior logic, and that is what makes it threatening: its source cannot be controlled. You can be proud of anything -- your ancestry, your gender, your sexuality, your race, your ethnicity, the state you come from or the block on which you live, or your favorite sports team no matter if it is winning or losing. There was no such thing as gay pride until one summer night in 1969, there was. Why and where did it come from? It came from gay people in the streets of Greenwich Village who declared it into being. That is the power of pride. You make of pride what you will, you express pride the way you want. If that means eye shadow and wigs and heels, so be it. If it means tight jeans and white t-shirts and work boots, well, you can show your pride that way, too.
Trump wants to bring the big law firms to heel so they won't file lawsuits against him and what he wants to do with the government. But that's not all. He wants to break their will. He wants to take away the pride the lawyers have in where they work and what they do. He does it with fear. They are afraid he will take away their business and their clients and their prestige and their power. But that can only happen if they let it. People who go to work for Trump have their pride broken by their fear of him. Subtract the fear and keep the pride and Trump's equation of power doesn't compute.
Pride does not need justification. Pride belongs to you because it comes from within. You cannot take away the pride from someone who believes. That's why you see people walking around wearing the jerseys of quarterbacks who threw four interceptions and fumbled on the two-yard line allowing the other team to recover the ball and run 98 yards for the winning touchdown.
Pride derives its power from the human soul. Stand tall. Be not afraid. State your pride loudly so all can hear.
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Good writer...
That's one person's opinion.
Many, many more than one person's opinion.
Opinion nonetheless.
I still wonder where is the "Tea Party"? Where are the tea party no tyranny three corner hat brigades?
Where are the tea party Bush supporters who accepted a massive government EXPANSION with the addition of the Department of Homeland Security? How much did that COST!!??? No problem supporting Bush, Republicans, wars and government expansion.
The hypocrisy of embracing massive government expansion with Bush and crew then about face blaming Dems for everything.
Are they proud of Bush? Are they proud of supporting massive government expansion under Bush as they voted for him twice?
How can Republican tea party patriots embrace government expansion under Bush, then cheer Trump for tearing everything down that they actually voted for?
Pride should be in embracing all of our veterans who fought those wars instead of cheering Trump and his chosen appointees who tear down any images of service members that are deemed " DEI" in silly culture war antics.
How can any American be proud of a vindictive bully tearing down America's standing in the world?
Alienating American allies around the world is nothing to be proud of. Even Bush didn't do that.
Good question. I suppose their absence is a result- of their relationship with our King-Emperor. I don't understand that relationship, at all. Do they really think about him? I mean "think"??
He fires or attacks anyone that differs with him. I guess be a thin skinned orange man wart 5 year old has it advantages.. Pass the coloring book.