Jackie Wilson Asheeke
I use words from the American Pledge of Allegiance as my column’s title. As a child in catholic school we began each day with a prayer and the Pledge. Given the divisiveness of Donald Trump, the Pledge has lost its meaning. If the President doesn’t live by it, how can it still hold?
The key lessons from this year’s US presidential election are not about Trump vs Biden or who finally wins the 270 electoral votes. It is about a United States of America that has violated its own Pledge.
It is about the small minority of hateful, dangerous Americans urged on by Trump as they stepped into the light up from the bowels of the USA where they have always lurked.
It is about tens of millions of one-issue voters who have denigrated the meaning of democracy.
It is about scores of greedy, selfish men who back the megalomaniac living on Pennsylvania Avenue because they boosted (pre-pandemic) their business opportunities, careers and bank accounts.
It is about presidential lies that are normal; a lack of human decency or executive dignity, and a man who loves himself more than he loves his country. It is not “Make American Great Again” is has always been “Make Donald Trump Great.”
Worst of all, the key take away is that tens of millions are ok with all of that insanity. They are not following the Pledge of Allegiance.
Please view a video clip from MSNBC in the USA from a man named, Eddie Gloud. I agree with him 100 percent. Gloud makes the point: “This is us. Trump is a manifestation of the ugliness that is in us. This is not about Trump. We cannot blame Donald Trump. This is about US. This is America.”
Donald Trump is a proud liar, serial adulterer, and a massively indebted papier-mâché ‘billionaire’ who may not have paid his fair share of income taxes. He is an enormous self-promoter and egotist. He has been entitled since the day he was born. Undeniably, he is beloved by a huge percentage of the American population. Just like other demagogues around the world and in history that have had large numbers of emotive constituents, he promises everything (depending on who he is speaking to). But, he does not deliver what was promised, nor did he ever intend to. He knows that people no matter what he does or says, his ‘true-believers’ are more than happy to drink the Kool Aid of Donald Trump.
He primed the pump of what is happening now with ‘Fake News!” that he shouted at the outset of his administration. Any news reports that he doesn’t like are ‘fake.’ Now, he has given press conferences with lies about ‘illegal’ votes in this election. For Trump, an ‘illegal vote’ is any that has been cast against him.
Bottom line: Trump told his supporters not to vote by mail (so, they didn’t). Biden on the other hand, told his supporters (due to Covid) to vote by mail wherever legally possible (they did)! Voting by mail has always been possible in the modern era. Trump votes by mail! Mail-in ballots are always counted LAST. This time however, a record number of over 100 million ballots came in by mail. This is done by hand and takes a HUGE amount of time. So far, the public (all parties are on site), televised, live online opening and counting of these ballots in several pending states, have yielded results that seem to mostly favour Biden.
Donald Trump is being hoist by his own petard and he doesn’t like it.
Trump is delusional enough to claim victory in a close race before the counting is complete. He is alleging fraud with no evidence. Even his own party contradicts him by defending the American electoral system. Other republicans are winning their races on that same ballot. If the Trump part is supposedly ‘rigged’ that means their win is rigged too!
The television networks cut Trump’s totally inappropriate speech of lies off the air. His Vice President and running mate is not standing beside him. Trump needs to recite the Pledge over and over as a mantra. He’s rambling all over the place now.
Americans who believe in the Pledge of Allegiance should re-say the entire Pledge and embrace it again. Regardless how their vote was cast, people must love their country more than they love themselves. The excerpt from the poem below is appropriate in these dark Trump days:
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea! – Katharine Lee Bates
