An illustration of Karma – where the term “Trumpism,” might be substituted…
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Well, it didn’t happen. On Inauguration Day we didn’t have another “deja vu all over again,” in terms of a Hard Hat Riot like in May 1970. (Or – five years earlier – of Hell’s Angels Attacking a Peace Protest.)
That is, on Inauguration Day 2017 we didn’t have history repeating Itself. (As I feared in the last post, or at least not to the extent of the Hard Hat Riots of 1970.) And BTW: The caption for the photo at left reads:
Hard hats on cabinet table after Nixon meeting with supporting construction trades group (05/26/1970) less than three weeks after the New York City Hard Hat Riot.
Meaning this: A few weeks after hard-hat construction workers beat up peace protesters in 1970 – with lead pipes and crowbars – President Richard Nixon invited them to the White House. Which leads to this question: If either “Hard hats” or Bikers for Trump had started beating up protesters on Inauguration Day 2017, would the Donald have invited them to the White House for a similar “victory lap,” like Nixon? Fortunately, we didn’t have to find out…
Also incidentally, within four years of the Hard-hat riot, Richard Nixon resigned under the threat of impeacnment. See also That OTHER “Teflon Don,” which wondered back in March 2016 whether – if Donald Trump did manage to get elected – “he may well be the first president in American history to get both impeached and convicted.”
On other hand, that post also noted that Trump might just surprise us, like that “other Great American Showman, P. T. Barnum.” (That is, though often called the Prince Of Humbug, Barnum later ran for office and turned out to be a quite effective “public servant.*”)
Which brings us to certain Facebook exchanges in the days after the inauguration. A Facebook friend (“FF”) wrote, “Donald Trump is now our president.” (Which of course included an unspoken addendum: “And so we should all support him even if we voted for Hillary.”) That led to a couple of thoughts.
First, “Obama was our president too,” as already noted. And second: “Where the hell have you been the last eight years?” But I didn’t respond with either of those thoughts. As to Trump being now our president I replied, “So was Lyndon Johnson, and we ran his ass out of town!”
The “FF” caught me at a bad moment.
But that led me to go back and review the moment – in 1968 -when then-president Johnson shocked the nation by saying, “I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your President.” (Caricatured at left.)
Ironically, he did so to help “guard against divisiveness and all its ugly consequences.” He added, “I should not permit the Presidency to become involved in the partisan divisions that are developing in this political year.” (Which led to this thought: “Oh, for an hour of Johnson…”)
That in turn led me to two other web articles: 1) Specter of Lyndon Johnson haunts Trump as President-elect, and New president should remember fates of LBJ and Richard Nixon:
Trump has been elected precisely because most people, including even many people who did not vote for him, understand that the country has declined during the Obama administration – that living standards for the majority are eroding, that the touted national health insurance legislation has only made costs explode without covering everyone, and that the country’s standing in the world has diminished…
Which could lead to this response by “Bizarro Trump.” (Discussed more fully in the next post and as shown in the bottom image.) Bizarro Trump would say: “If America has ‘declined’ over the past eight years, it’s all the fault of those right-wing traitors in Congress!“
To extend that thought: They’re the ones who refused to deal with Obama; who refused to compromise. In doing so they violated the spirit of American politics, going back to the Constitution itself. (See U.S. Constitutional Convention: Key Compromises, and also Why the GOP Became the Party of No. That article – from 2012 – detailed “the Republican plot to obstruct President Obama before he even took office.”)
Incidentally, Googling “the party of no” got me some 8,890,000 results.
And that brings us back to karma. My theory is: If you put together Exodus 22:28, Luke 6:38, Hosea 8:7, and the concept of karma, you come up with this:
Donald Trump can’t do what he’s done and say what he’s said – especially as a candidate – without karma coming back and biting him on the ass!
And that brings us back to Trumpism, as illustrated in the top image, a political cartoon from 1918. (Another BTW: Googling “Trumpism” got me 606,000 results.) By substituting “Trumpism” for the term “militarism,” you get the idea that people generally reap what they sow, and that those who live by the sword shall die by the sword.
All of which led me to the idea of a post on a new parlor game, “Bizarro Trump.” (Based in part on Bizarro Jerry and Bizarro Superman.) The tentative caption for the lead image below: “Does this guy look familiar? (At least metaphorically?) BTW: He ‘debuted‘ in November 2016…”
That idea – of Americans using Trump’s tactics against him – will be explored more fully in the next post. In the meantime, Democrats should probably hone their skill at gutter politics…
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Notes:
The upper image is courtesy of Karma – Wikipedia. It accompanies a segment on the suggestion that the term is “akin to ‘Christian notions of sin and its effects’ … that the Christian teaching on Last Judgment according to one’s charity is a teaching on karma. Christianity also teaches morals such as reap what one sows (Galatians 6:7) and live by the sword, die by the sword (Matthew 26:52).“
“Note” also that an asterisk in the main text indicates a statement supported by a reference detailed further in this “notes” section. Thus, as to P.T. Barnum turning out to be an effective politician:
Barnum supposedly coined the phrase “There’s a sucker born every minute,” which sounds like classic Donald Trump. On the other hand, he served two terms in the Connecticut legislature, then got elected Mayor of Bridgeport, CT, in 1875, where he “worked to improve the water supply, bring gas lighting to streets, and enforce liquor and prostitution laws.” He also favored the abolition of slavery and worked hard for “African-American suffrage.”
See That OTHER “Teflon Don.” As to the “Prince Of Humbug,” that link refers to one musical number from Barnum, the Broadway play “based on the life of showman P. T. Barnum.” The original Broadway production opened in 1980, and was later revived “at the Chichester Festival Theatre from 15 July to 31 August 2013.” (Which leads to the question: “A century from now will there be a Broadway musical based on the life of Donald Trump?”)
Re: Karma. It refers to the “spiritual principle of cause and effect.” Wikipedia:
[The] actions of an individual (cause) influence the future of that individual (effect). Good intent and good deed contribute to good karma and future happiness, while bad intent and bad deed contribute to bad karma and future suffering.
Re: “Oh, for an hour of Johnson.” The original phrase was “Oh, but for an hour of [Andrew] Jackson.” See History for Kossacks: Election of 1860 – Daily Kos, which – speaking of the interlude between Abraham Lincoln’s election and his actually taking office in 1860 – noted:
Lincoln found himself armed with nothing but words to stop the South from seceding before he could even take office… President James Buchanan, nearing 70 … looked at the Constitution and saw his hands being tied by a lack of specific instruction. The cry went up from frustrated members of his own party: “Oh, but for an hour of Jackson!”
The image to the right of the paragraph “the ones who refused to compromise” is of Luther Martin, the Founding Father who promoted the Great Compromise that made the Constitution possible.
Re: The Bible citations and karma. Exodus 22:28 reads, “You shall not revile God, nor curse a ruler of your people.” (As to the last eight years, see “more honored in the breach.”) Luke 6:38 holds that “the measure you use will be the measure you receive.” (In the ISV, “you’ll be evaluated by the same standard with which you evaluate others.”) Which arguably nullifies the mandate of Exodus 22:28, as to those people who failed to observe it. And finally – on this point – there’s this gem from Hosea 8:7, “They that sow the wind, shall reap the whirlwind.”
Re: “Trumpism.” The noted “606,000 results” included Donald Trump and the Causes of ‘Trumpism’ – The Atlantic. Those eight causes included Newt Gingrich, Rush Limbaugh and Roger Ailes – among others – contributing to “raging populism; coarsened culture; bitter, invective-laced politics; demagoguery and nativism.”
Re: “Gutter politics.” The link in the text is to Cruz Condemns Trump’s ‘Gutter Politics’ – The Daily Beast. See also Trump campaign blasts Clinton’s ‘gutter politics,’ and Cruz defends Huckabee, accuses Obama of ‘gutter politics.’
The lower image is courtesy of kotobukiya created a statue that the bizarro version of jerry seinfeld would totally get on board with … dailydead.com: “Standing eight inches tall, this Bizarro anti-Superman statue is based on DC Comics’ New 52 version of the popular villain and will be released in November [2016].” (Which is actually kind of appropriate…)
The original “lower image” was going to be the painting at right, of “The senators encircl[ing] Caesar,” and referring to Roman senators literally stabbing Caesar in the back. (Not merely metaphorically, as has been the case for the last eight years.) That image would have been courtesy of Julius Caesar – Wikipedia, with the caption: “The senators encircle Caesar, a 19th-century interpretation of the event by Carl Theodor von Piloty.” The event is detailed further in Assassination of Julius Caesar – Wikipedia, which includes a similar painting by Vincenzo Camuccini, “La morte di Cesare.”