By Necessity: In Response to the Republican National Convention

In response to the Republican National Convention, and in particular Donald Trump’s speech on the last night, I find it necessary to speak to actions and speech of the President that were deeply troubling, that belie many of the fundamentally flawed and disturbing actions, policies, attitudes and pursuits of the Trump Presidency.

I am reminded of the transgressions of citizens' rights by the King of England, that the Founders of this country enumerated in the Declaration of Independence. I seek to write in the spirit of that specificity, so that which needs to be brought to light - that is not of our better angels – can be articulated to help us identify the forces that undermine the progress of this country, so that these influences can seen for what they instead of being cloaked and masquerading as what they pretend to be.

To begin with, note the logo (below) for the Republican National Convention. An Elephant (Republican symbol) with a Crown. The crown, it would seem, could only refer one of two things, though likely both: the crown of a king; or a crown representing God (King of Kings). If it is the first, then the symbolism is antithetical to democracy, as it implies the coronation of a President. If this is part of the meaning of the symbolism, then it confirms the anti-democratic tendencies that many have seen in Donald Trump's approach to the Presidency. If the meaning of the crown is about God,then the implication would be of the Republican Party attempting to appropriate God's crown, as if to say that Donald Trump is endorsed by God, or is chosen by or given a mantle or crown by God. The implications of both of these symbolic messages are alarming, and of a level of concern that we need to be fully awake to.

The second act of enormous symbolic importance, that must be condemned, is the use, exploitation and effective commandeering of White House and its grounds (“The Peoples’ House”), the Washington Monument, and Fort McHenry in Baltimore - for personal gain and for political profit . These are abrogations of sacred trust, larceny of government resources, violations of ethics of governance - and break the law (the Hatch Act). The former director of the Office of Government Ethics, Walter Shaub, wrote this about the use of the White House: "This abomination may be the most visible misuse of official position for private gain in America’s history. It is an abuse of the power entrusted to this man, the breach of a sacred trust. It is the civic equivalent of a mortal sin—maybe a religious one too. And it is a harbinger". President Trump himself belied this disregard when he said during his speech - gesturing toward the White House referring to regard to Republicans as opposed to Democrats: “We’re here. They’re not”.

Similarly, the prior night’s speech by Vice President Mike Pence illegally appropriated for private political purposes the sacredness of Ft. McHenry - buildings about which the Star Spangled Banner was written. This in effect to expropriated “That our flag was still there…” - and the monuments and spirit that signify it - to the Republican Party, as if it were theirs to claim for their own purposes rather than ours as a country, a sacred place of "We the People", protected from political consignment.

The third egregious act was President Trump the Republican Party’s disregard for human lives – by setting up the event so that seating on the White House Lawn had no room for social distancing, where masks were not required and few people wore them, “in violation of endless public health recommendations” (Fox5 NY). This disregard for the well-being of others - for personal and Party advantage - is appalling. It is also cause for the grief on behalf of the suffering that will be cause by Coronavirus spread, because these actions. That President Donald Trump spoke on the one hand about his care and his proclaimed efforts for health and well-being of Americans - and at that very same moment he was disregarding the same. This is emblematic not only of the disregard for well-being of others in itself, but of the pattern of efforts to deceive and manipulate: saying one thing but doing another (then denying it). Some of this cannot be anything other than deliberate; but even if his actions may in part derive from a vulnerability within him to not being able to see the truth, or to believing in his own untruths, the actions are harmful nonetheless.

There were many additional ways that what was spoken and done in the Republican National Convention and by President Trump were troubling or disturbing. Such as: disregard for truth, mischaracterizeation of others, misrepresentation of himself, obfuscation, and false accusation, and denial of reality. As well as: fear-mongering, fomenting divisiveness, and stirring agitation. Much of this has been written about elsewhere, but the examples were rampant.

It is not that the Democrats did not engage to some degree during their convention in partial truths or misleading claims, or in the expression of significant concern or even alarm at the course of the Trump presidency. But overall it was generally truthful in its approach. What happened at the Democratic Convention is nothing in comparison with the scope, scale, pervasiveness and egregiousness of false statements at the Republication Convention. (For more information on this, see FactCheck.org .)

.(see Part II - next blog post)