Several thousand protesters, move through city streets. Many chant slogans (“Hey, hey, ho, ho, fascist Trump has got to go”), some carrying signs that read “Black Lives Matter,” and others hold cell phones high to videorecord police who move in unison alongside the phalanx of marchers. Ahead, a sizable contingent of counter protesters line the curb brandishing Trump placards and waving dozens of large American flags. Cops riding bicycles form a protective buffer between the opposing groups.
This has been a familiar scene over the last several months, testimony to a politically divided country and several cause célèbre misadventures. In case you haven’t noticed, our flag is more prominently displayed among one contending group. That detail strikes me as salient as the two sides trade barbs and insults: the “Make America Great Again” crowd waves the Stars and Stripes as if the flag represents Republican-Trumpism attitudes. Passing protestors have only few, if that, Old Glories hoisted among all the placards and raised fists. Apparently, the pro-Trumpers have concluded that the Stars and Stripes represents their sort of patriotism, and the BLM bunch has conceded the point, though I wish they wouldn’t because they are as equally proud members of this country as their political opposites.
You may have noticed Trump hugging the flag as a show of how much hew loves our country. Honestly, who hugs the flag while smiling for the cameras as a show of patriotism? Who? Donald Trump, the fawning buffoon, that’s who. He is a showman, a salesman through-and-through. You may also have noticed, too, a recent press conference where Trump stood before dozens of American flags, a wall of flags, to deliver an off-the-cuff speech. And I am sure you have noticed how Trump employed federal police to clear a street full of peaceful demonstrators so he could reach historic St. John’s Church for a three-minute photo op. There he stood with a condescending smirk holding a bible head-high. Get it? “Look at me. I am a bigtime Christian. I want your vote.” Flag and Christianity, two powerful symbols to let voters know what he exemplifies. The problem is, in my view, he is neither a patriot (consider his bone spurs to avoid military service) nor is he a devout Christian (consider his vulgar and ghastly moral and ethical behavior). I should tread softly here in gauging Trump’s allegiances to God and country because who am I, really, to judge others, but, let’s face it, we all have (certainly most Americans) come to the same sad conclusions. Even a goodly number of those in his family have called him out as a fraud.
What else is he, then? He’s salesman, a huckster, a confidence man. He sold a false bill of goods and services to middle America, to all those good country people who farm and go to church each Sunday and work hard to support their families, all those people in the fly-over red states. He has defrauded those people who truly want a great America but must settle for a diminished America.
He has desecrated flag and Bible.