OPINION
TRUMP'S DISTRACTION FROM THE PANDEMIC AND HIS RUSSIAN FAILURES BY LARRY J. SCHWEIGER - PITTSBURGH CURRENT COLUMNIST
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INFO@PITTSBURGHCURRENT.COM
ver the showman, Trump staged two separate 4th of July speeches demonizing protesters who were challenging police brutality in the murder of George Floyd. Calling protesters "far-left fascists," his baseless “Cancel Culture” message claims totalitarianism is “driving people from their jobs, shaming dissenters, and demanding total submission from anyone who disagrees.” Trump is firing up his shrinking base by stoking the perceived grievances of white voters. He proffered that “America is imperiled” apparently by those who seek police reforms and social justice. Instead of unifying America by finding solutions in the wake of the protests or announcing strong Federal actions to address the worst pandemic in a hundred years, Trump’s divisive messaging doubled down on cultural division. Trump called protesters "angry mobs." He claims they "are trying to tear down statues of our Founders, defac(ing) our most sacred memorials, and unleash(ing) a wave of violent crime in our cities... In our schools, our newsrooms, even our corporate boardrooms, there is a new far-left fascism that demands absolute allegiance. If you do not speak its language, perform its rituals, recite its mantras, and follow its commandments, then you will be censored, banished, blacklisted, persecuted, and punished. It’s not going to happen to us.” Taxpayers are footing the
bill for these divisive political events. From the military band, Mount Rushmore facilities, and fireworks to the jets and helicopters flying overhead, Trump’s extravagant reelection event for 3,700 Trump donors and supporters was held at our expense. Images of these lavish events will no doubt soon be a part of Trump’s political ad campaign. Trump claims to be concerned for monuments, but he dismantled the Native American's Bears Ears Monument by cutting its acreage by 85% for uranium miners. Trump’s border wall cut through the ecologically fragile Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. Trump cut the two-million-acre Grand Staircase-Escalante Monument nearly in half to open it to coal miners. Trump's racist rhetoric and Antifa claims have consequences too. Armed self-appointed militia and white nationalists from around the country traveled to the National Parks at Gettysburg on the 4th of July to stop a hoax. An anonymous provocateur on social media created fake plans for non-existent “Antifa” protesters to converge Gettysburg on Independence Day to burn American flags. While it was a perverse hoax, it exposes Trump's followers who are being hoodwinked by false Antifa claims. When Trump tweeted a video of a Trumpster shouting “white power” at protesters, others in the administration falsely claimed that he did not hear
14 | JULY 7, 2020 | PITTSBURGH CURRENT
Donald Trump before his Mount Rushmore speech escalated already volatile racial tens
those words. Trump's racist diatribes, blatant anti-Muslimism, treatment of innocent Latino children, and past comments about "very good people" who were chanting "the Jews will not replace us" has made it painfully clear that Trump is a racist. The racist shift in the Republican Party did not start with Trump. The Democratic Party longheld white southern voters dating back to when the Democratic National Convention in 1864 nominated General George B. McClellan-a reluctant general
that Lincoln fired for inaction. At that same convention, Democratic “Copperheads” succeeded in adopting a platform advocating dividing the Nation to seek an immediate peace with the Confederacy. Southern white voters consistently supported conservative Democrats, including racist President Wilson. A majority of black voters backed Republicans up to and including Eisenhower’s elections in 1952, and in 1956. Ike had a deep respect for his African American soldiers. He gave a good reason
