Sunday, January 22, 2017

The Trumpauguration: Made in America? Really? Three Things to Remember

I watched this strange performance under less than ideal circumstances--post-operatively, sitting on a hospital bed, gazing up at Trump's mouth, words emerging from it being simultaneously translated into German. I thought, when I heard him say he'd be building "Railways! Bridges, tunnels, roads!" that I was still too gorked out from the anesthesia. What planet were we on? Planet 1860-something? Those eighteen-sixties, they were good for "I Been Workin' On The Railroad," published 1894. Amtrak's been declining for years, Donald. But presumably you know that. So what's going on? Was I really hearing the Mormon Tabernacle Choir? Not that they don't sing well . . .but the point seems that they were made in upstate New York, not some foreign country--and the lobsters served were Maine lobsters, shrimp from the Gulf, the steak--apparently from Virgina, not New Zealand.  Of course Made in America extended to religions, too: a Jew, A Christian Evangelical, and a Catholic bishop, but no Imam. Never mind that Thomas Jefferson's bill establishing religious freedom was meant, in his words, "to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mahometan, the Hindoo, and Infidel of every denomination." Could Trump not have brought in an Imam to speak of the value of human life? Could we have had more than one nonwhite person onstage? That we will never forget the day is correct, but not for the reasons Trump stated. That the people now have the power was the worst lie. Why were so many of the women--Ivanka, Tiffany, Hillary--wearing white? They are, comparatively speaking, the virgins. He's the whore. Remember the following:
(1) Isolationism has never worked: American history is immigration. 
(2) Economy is global.
(3) Never give up. America will be sane again. It may take a long time, but Trump, like Voldemort, won't last forever.

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