Trump-in-recovery: Get Well Card to America
Now that Trump is tweeting again, let’s take a look:
Trump declassifies all material from FBI and NSC concerning probes into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Trump ends negotiations on the stimulus package until after the elections.
A get well card to America? The October ‘surprise’ we’ve been anxiously awaiting? Wrong card, wrong aisle. Try the bereavement section…”Sorry about your loss.”
Two thoughts are ringing in my ears, “false decency,” and “constituent cruelty”: the stuff of anti-democratic voices chortling in Washington.
It’s “bad form” to not applaud the recovery of the President. Call this “false decency.”
Its important to pause and for a moment reflect on the primacy of the office holders, “doing their job(s).” Call this “constituent cruelty.”
Both sentiments surfaced from the MSNBC-Fox News-CNN orbits this week and these should be troubling to Americans. I looked abroad for clarification.
Judging from their reactions to the news coverage of Trump’s “recovery,” my friends from former authoritarian countries shared the one element missing from the news coverage … silence.
How so?
Isn’t ‘silence in the face of corruption’ complicity? Isn’t silence a sign of weakness?
Yes…AND let’s not forget the flip side of this perception: silence in the face of autocracy humbled, chastened, even defeated, is appropriate and HUMANE.
As a dear friend said recently, when does America stop supporting a dictator? And state terror?
Well, here’s a clue: SILENCE when the dictator is even temporarily sick.
Trump IS sick. Our collective America IS dying.
And we are squabbling over who’s going to write the epitaph.
Silence in the service of resistance to power’s human perquisites — decency, compassion — is a token of humility. More than “sending a message” or “letting ‘them’ do the ‘right thing’,” silence in the service of resistance speaks to the sender, not the recipient.
Dictators hate silence. Silence, when practiced daily and often reveals resistance.
October 7, 2020
