#60 - Bookends to the Hijacking of Patriotism, Part 2

My earlier post on this topic dealt with Colin Kaepernick and other NFL players who chose to kneel during the national anthem as a form of protest to the oppression of people of color, and in the process they hijacked a common show of patriotic honor for their own special cause.

This post deals with President Trump’s campaign rally in Phoenix last week.  

Mr. Trump is always in rare form at his rallies.  He behaves as if he is still on the campaign, and he feeds off of the crowd, and the crowd feeds off of him.  It’s as if they were all once part of an original single cell organism, and they divided and divided and divided again, and with each division the resulting generations of offspring became more and more detached from reality, but at the same time, they all became more attached through an invisible umbilical cord to the amoeba-in-chief who despite being elected to the most powerful position in the world, still behaves pretty much like a single cell organism.

Anyway, at last week’s rally, President Trump, delivered a speech in which he called journalists “sick people.”

While criticizing media coverage has long been a surefire tactic to rile up his crowds, the depth of the President’s most recent jabs took even seasoned journalists by surprise. He accused the news media of “trying to take away our history and our heritage” and questioned their patriotism.

“I really think they don’t like our country, I really believe it” he said.

By now, the Liberal Press should be accustomed to the attacks and name calling from Mr. Trump, it's just part of the shtick that he pulls out for all of his rally goers. And it makes them feel good to boo and hiss whenever he brings them up and makes them seem like evil villains.

But the comments at the Phoenix rally were more alarming to journalists than most of his previous attacks.  Margaret Sullivan, a media columnist for The Washington Post, called it “the most sustained attack any president has ever made on the press.”

But I want to specifically focus on his comment where he said he believed that journalists didn't love our country.  In politics, it's certainly fair game to go after your opponents and challenge their positions, their experience, their skills, and  their competency.  I do it all the time, and with Mr. Trump, as we all know, there is never a shortage of material.

But I have never challenged his patriotism, nor to the best of my somewhat limited knowledge on this particular point, have I ever heard any members of the Flaming Liberal Press or the perpetrators of Fake News from CNN do so either. 

So while this was just one line from another one of Trump’s misguided, ego-gratifying rallies, it represented a serious escalation in the rhetoric against the press.   Most independent minded thinkers are fully aware of Trump’s tendency to misstate facts or just make something up on the fly, and this includes many of his supporters.  While they might acknowledge this behavior, it does not change their support for him. 

But in my mind this one is just a bridge too far.  Once again, Mr Trump attempts to vilify those who might oppose him, in this case the Liberal press, but this time he does it by making the case to his rally goers that if you are patriotic, you are with him. But if you have a different opinion, you are not. 

And not only are you unpatriotic, you are also sick.

We have almost become numb, hearing the extraordinary amount of divisive commentary from this man, but this one I can not forget and I will not forgive, not because it is another vile attempt to belittle and denigrate those who disagree with him,  but because he has the outlandish gall to hijack our collective patriotism and use it to fit his own minuscule political purpose.

While I do disagree with Colin Kaepernick’s protest of the national anthem, I do observe that his actions were intended for the benefit of others.   When Donald Trump did it, it was solely for the benefit of Donald Trump.

Neither one was good, but Trump’s stands out because of the intended animosity and hatred.   And more importantly because he is the President of the United States.