A different take on the Donald
By Ivan Morgan
In the wake of what happened to Donald Trump last Saturday I have nothing but questions.
When Donald Trump was elected president in November 2016 I was in shock. Watching the coverage late into the night, I nodded off, only to have my wife wake me to say he’d won. I was in disbelief. The whole next day was surreal. Thank God I live in Canada, I thought! How could this philandering, right wing, crooked braggart buffoon be President?
Almost 10 years later we have a very different political landscape in those United States.
If the would-be assassin had killed Trump last Saturday, what would have happened? Riots? Civil war? Had Trump died, make no mistake, it would have affected you and me. Justin Trudeau’s dad once described the relationship between Canada and the U.S. as like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly and even-tempered the beast is, one is affected by every twitch and grunt. There would have been more than twitching and grunting.
Where was law enforcement and the secret service? How did that young fellow get so close? I was trained in marksmanship as a teenager, and a clear shot at 130 metres would have been easy with the rifles we used. Using a modern assault rifle with a scope would be simple. The assailant didn’t miss; Trump just moved his head at the right moment.
Mainstream media told me Trump was a coward, a bully and a cad. I was told he was morally bankrupt, craven, without moral fibre, a Nazi. In fact, I don’t recall any media ever saying anything good about him.
Clipped by an assassin’s bullet, knocked down by his secret service detail, he rose, pushed aside his frantic handlers, and, with his face covered in blood, raised a clenched fist to the crowd, and started chanting “Fight” and “USA.” He stood defiant in the wake of an assassin’s bullet. Are these the actions of a coward?
As a journalist I am wedded to the truth. Not the politically expedient or correct truth, but the actual truth. I watched the coverage of that event on much of the mainstream or “legacy” media, both American and Canadian. Initially none of them showed that pivotal moment. That was edited out, cut away, or depicted in stills. They did not show what was clearly the most powerful political footage in recent memory. Are they manipulative or incompetent?
In 2016 I thought Trump supporters were uneducated rednecks, “deplorables” as then Democratic presidential hopeful Hilary Clinton called them. Does that include firefighter Corey Comperatore, who dove to protect his family during the shooting and was fatally shot in the head? Is he just another misguided fool ready to surrender democracy? Are he and his grieving family, and half of that great nation, fascists? Dupes? Morons?
At the core of American democracy has always been the tug between individual rights and the power of government. Are those who want less government crazy? Dangerous? Deranged?
The Democrats and many media outlets have been making all manner of reference to Trump as Hitler, and a Nazi. Strong words can have hard consequences. Did this rhetoric lead to what happened in Butler, Pennsylvania?
Until recently I believed Joe Biden was a capable president. As I wrote last month, I watched the presidential debate, using my eyes. He’s not. Are the Democrats really trying to protect democracy? Or clinging to power at any cost?
In the USA and in this country, everyone needs to dial back the rhetoric. We are democratic nations that settle our differences at the ballot box, not with violence. We all get a vote. We all have a say on how we want our country to be run, how we want our communities to look. Your vote is not wrong. It’s your vote. We tally them up to see where we are headed. We abide by the will of everyone. That’s democracy. Our opponents aren’t the enemy, or devils, or Nazis. They are people we don’t agree with politically. They are also our neighbours.
I have been a student of United States presidential history all my life. To my recollection no presidential candidate has ever been more vilified, persecuted, harassed and abused than Donald J. Trump. Has he brought it all on himself?
His supporters say no. Here’s what they say about their candidate: Impeached, arrested, convicted, shot. Still standing.
Ivan Morgan can be reached at Ivan.morgan@gmail.com