After Donald Trump’s scary, dark musings last night–laden as it was with lies, threats and his profoundly disturbing vision of what he aims to do as president–a little reflection is in order.
Think about it. Is our common public weal more imperiled today than it was in those dark days of 2008?
Yet, neither of the two major party candidates that year offered as dark a vision of the nation nor offered as harsh a prescription of how to rebuild our nation.
Looking back through the tunnel of time, back to 2008, we found a cratered U.S. economy. Banks deemed too big to fail were nevertheless filing for bankruptcy protection. Despite billions in government assistance to financial firms, a historic economic recession was just around the corner.
With the worst attack on American soil in our history within memory, the U.S. military was enmeshed in two wars, American service personnel dying in pursuit of Osama bin Laden in the mountains and caves of Afghanistan and a self-inflicted misadventure in Iraq as we expended treasury we could not afford.
The Republican nominee for president that year, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), assessed where the nation was and gave a conservative prescription for what we needed to do as a nation to get past those troubling days.
McCain was not the most positive or hopeful of candidates and some of his actions, starting with his nominating Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his vice presidential nominee, and his ideas showed very much how out of touch he was.
That year’s Democratic Party nominee, Sen. Barack Obama, was the candidate of positivity and hope. As destabilizing as the times were, Obama did not seek to divide or pit one group of Americans against each other.
“Yes, We Can,” he and his supporters bellowed, on how they aim to go about repairing and rebuilding our nation. Better yet, Obama found in his own story our shared immigrant legacy.
“Four years ago, I stood before you and told you my story, of the brief union between a young man from Kenya and a young woman from Kansas who weren’t well-off or well-known, but shared a belief that in America their son could achieve whatever he put his mind to.
“It is that promise that’s always set this country apart, that through hard work and sacrifice each of us can pursue our individual dreams, but still come together as one American family, to ensure that the next generation can pursue their dreams, as well. That’s why I stand here tonight. Because for 232 years, at each moment when that promise was in jeopardy, ordinary men and women — students and soldiers, farmers and teachers, nurses and janitors — found the courage to keep it alive.
“We meet at one of those defining moments, a moment when our nation is at war, our economy is in turmoil, and the American promise has been threatened once more.”
Trump thinks differently. He wants to wall off America from the rest of the world. To heal our economy or defeat the scourge of terrorism, he wants to make America hate somebody. It instructive to see Obama’s path through that wilderness.
Methodically, Obama worked to rebuild the American economy with little help from Republicans in Congress. In fact, Congressional Republicans threw as many obstacles in his way as they could.
Obama is not perfect. He made several mis-steps, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal that he insists on pushing. But has been a noble and dignified public servant who withstood unprecedented abuse and disrespect, including from this noxioux gasbag on whom the Republicans have bestowed their nomination for president of the United States.
Donald Trump must never become President of the United States.
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