In defense of Trump.

[tigerred59]

I apologize if I make people uncomfortable. I do not come from a different place, but I do come from a different time. The first time I remember being political was in junior high school; in those days it was not called middle school. I wore a campaign button for John F. Kennedy. Mr. May, our social studies teacher, allowed it.

There were picture posters on the wall that kept a running count of the intercontinental missiles we had compared to the Soviet Union. Our textbooks portrayed Russian women as kerchiefed, toothless riders of tractors. I remember being surprised that when Lee Harvey Oswald returned to the US he brought a Russian wife, Marina, who was quite beautiful.

Mr. May told us to watch Kennedy debate Nixon, and Nixon’s sweaty brow, hanging jowls, and shifty eyes did him in. Kennedy won, and my thirteen-year-old mind was pleased even if I had some sleepless nights listening to distant fire whistles blow during tests to warn the public of nuclear attacks.

On his way out, President Dwight D. Eisenhower made a speech for history. Eisenhower had been a military general, but oddly, he was warning of a growing military industrial complex. I watched the speech, but it was way over my adolescent head. It was apparently over the heads of millions of adults as well.

Donald Trump is no perfect specimen of history, but a lot of us voted for him because the US is hated in the Middle East due to the interventional military adventurism that makes US corporations and politicians rich. Did we not escape the Great depression by winning WW2 with industrial fortitude? Yes, we did. Does that mean we must use war to force our way of life on the poorest of the human race? We think not.

Trump had a frustrating relationship with his National Security Advisor, John Bolton. In trump’s words, “Bolton just wants to bomb everybody”. Trump is a builder, not a destroyer. Do we need another World Trade Center to understand that? Trump’s voters may the true progressives; we want to try a different way.

We want to lead the world by example, not by the sword. We can keep a strong military for our defense but not an offensive defense to make politicians rich. We need to go back and listen to Eisenhower’s warning. Trump will make war on our crumbling infrastructure, not on distant places most cannot find on a map.

President Eisenhower warns of military-industrial complex | January 17, 1961 | HISTORY

On January 17, 1961, Dwight D. Eisenhower ends his presidential term by warning the nation about the increasing power of the military-industrial complex. His remarks, issued during a televised farewell address to the American people, were particularly significant since Ike had famously served...

www.history.com

And you can say that shit, while covered in a mask amidst a pandemic he failed to address? okay