Morning Thanks

Garrison Keillor once said we'd all be better off if we all started the day by giving thanks for just one thing. I'll try.

Monday, June 01, 2020

President Powerless

Cities reeling from violent riots tighten restrictions, implement ...

Something's happening here that our President can't tweet or bully, lie or sue or buy his way out of. Two things actually--well, three. One is a pandemic that has taken 100,000 lives. He can pretend it's not there, urge his MAGA crowds to liberate us from oppression, and thereby undercut the CDC guidelines his own White House has created. But with the general populace and the majority of the American people, it's clear that nothing he does or says cuts any mustard. He's a clod of cold ground, and he's the President of the United States.

That Covid-19 has ransacked his precious economy goes without saying. More Americans are out of work than at any time since the Great Depression, and the numbers continue to rise. Small businesses by the thousands will not be what they were; lots of mom-and-pop start-ups are simply gone. His ace-in-the-hole--"the economy, stupid"--can no longer be, well, trump.

And now insurrection all over the nation, protests morphing into bedlam, riots, looting and burning and destruction all around, all of it growing out of an issue whose reality Trump has emphatically denied in order to secure his place among his people. For months in his presidency, Colin Kaepernick was the Devil incarnate, a quarterback whose cardinal sin was taking a knee during the National Anthem. "Get that son-of-a-bitch off the field!" Remember that? Kaepernick hasn't played a quarter since.

What the nation witnessed in a video last week was a white man, a cop, taking a knee on the throat of a black man. Trump cut his teeth on vilifying Black Lives Matter. After Minneapolis, Kaepernick, once the Devil, seems Jeremiah, and the President, with no leg to stand on, is locked into his own powerless rhetoric.

Last weekend he spent time in the bunker beneath the White House with his precious phone, berating what's happening all over America in his tried-and-true fashion, threatening "vicious dogs and ominous weapons" all over his (our) front lawn, flailing away as he's done every last week of his Presidency, trying to call up the ire of his own MAGA-capped military.

Three immeasurable problems have left America's Bully King naked as a jaybird. Things are falling apart, and our tough-guy POTUS is a paper tiger. He can blame Antifa or whatever anarchists he can name, but he can do nothing to unify people he was elected to serve, He's spent the last four years serving up raw meat for the 40 percent who've stuck with him, including t-bones of overt racism.

Yesterday in the Washington Post, Michael Gerson, a conservative Republican, and a Christian, said about Donald Trump: "He simply lacks the capacity to talk about our shared humanity." Gerson says Trump truly believes deep within the core of whatever soul he has that "no one who supports him can really be bad," and that includes "angry racists." They've become his core.

What's become vividly clear in the last three months--what's obvious during this last horrible, horrible weekend--is that three forces far beyond his control have left him flailing and failing, blaming the WHO and Antifida, and clearly ineffectual at doing anything himself about our problems, only making things worse by his infernal tweeting.

He can't buy his way out. He can't bully. He can't lie. He can't sue. He's met forces he can't demean or squash. Given the yes men he's lined up around him, I just hope things don't get worse.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

As a Republican it is very hard to argue with this. If I am taking your point correctly..you are saying this is all not his fault, but his lack of grace and leadership can worsen things since he is not able to rally the nation. If I read this correctly.

Retired said...

Let's assume you are 100% correct as the pseudo-Republican hints at in the previous comment. If you are a Bible believing Christian regenerated by the Holy Spirit, may I suggest you offer your readers some solace and peace found in the Almighty. Besides getting rid of Trump and electing more left-wing Democrats do you have encouragement for your readers?

J. C. Schaap said...

Anonymous, you read it correctly.

ronvdm said...

Well, after tear gas and rubber bullets cleared peaceful protest so DT could go to a nearby church for a photo op, he expressed deep religious commitment - he held up a Bible so all could see his courage. Hey, the rector said DT last was there in March of 2019 .
Sorry, but it did just get worse.

Anonymous said...

"I suggest you offer your readers some solace and peace found in the Almighty."

Gee, any of us believers can find peace and solace in the Almighty at any time. Why do you need Mr. Schaap to do that for you? Do it for yourself.

At the same time, on the national scene, this isn't a time for false peace, as Jeremiah said in the OT. (6:14)

There will be little civil peace until we all come together and acknowledge our country's long history of the oppression of African Americans.

Anonymous said...

Retired... this is the pseudo-Republican you referring to. I worked many republican campaigns and have been very active in conservative politics. I certainly do not need to qualify my credentials to you. However I will tell you that we have a President that acts like a child . I would not allow my own kids to talk the way our President does, so why is it ok for him to do it? When my kids don't get their way, I hold them accountable for their bellyaching. I understand that there are many liberals that can act this way, but the office of the President should transcend a junior high style of communication and name calling. I find it amazing that this President who would have never gotten elected in previous elections for his actions, attitude, and downright disregard for common respect, continues to be so supported by the Christian right. The same Christian right that would not vote for Kennedy because he was Catholic (crazy to comprehend). We are losing our way... fast. I suggest that you hold your President accountable. Praise him for the things he does right, and call him out for the dumb things he has done. Don't accept everything he says and does because he is "our guy". If we as a party continue to do this... we become sheep.

Retired said...

Pseudo Republican: thanks for your attempt at giving me your balanced approach to presidential politics. Truthfully, I wrote my comment with the same goal in mind, to add balance to a heavily imbalanced post. The best way we can love our neighbors is to tell them the whole truth. I believe that is why each blog offers a comment section.

Anonymous said...

Retired... There is nothing balanced when you call me Pseudo. I see that you are using the same tactic as our President name calling.....I do appreciate you doing it actually. It helps me define a weak argument from the get go.

Retired said...

Hello. I re-read your previous comment and noticed you self-referenced yourself as a Pseudo Republican, I sensed your approval. I decided not to call you a RINO. I do not go by "Retired " either. In the end, not the point.

I certainly can identify that you have been trained to make a mad rush to your "safe-space" of victim-hood. Resorting to an ad hominem attack generally gets the job done. Good diversion.

The JCS blog post was imbalanced. I addressed that. No more, no less.

Anonymous said...

I respect my elders. You can have the last word.

Retired said...

I would humbly like to make a strong assertion, if we conversed alone for 10 minutes we would discover much solid ground. Thanks for your comment.

Anonymous said...

we have a President that acts like a child

Good grief. This is so obvious.

George Will, who's been a conservative for decades, says the American people need to vote out
Senate Republicans AND Trump in November.

You know things are dire when Will says this.

Anonymous said...

We had a nice polite "conservative" president, George H Bush. The media mocked him incessantly and things did not work well for the interests of those who seek freedom and self actualization.

We now have a man who by Grace of God is doing many of the correct things, and happens to communicate very brashly. I voted for him simply because he had the real world experience of applying for building permits; how many other candidates can match that harrowing experience, and was it not time for the system to be reset?

And now by the Grace of God, his simplistic 'childlike' statements are exposing international and domestic corruption the world has never been aware of. Miserable trade disadvantages from countries that suppress human rights not only in their own domain but by buying influence in America. And a rotating door of domestic public "servants" that are there only for personal profit.

I am appreciating childlike honesty more and more with each tweet.