As I watched Donald Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress, tightening my stomach and the muscles in my neck as I became increasingly nauseous, I suddenly realized that my body was responding in a way that by now is completely consistent and almost “normal” when I listen to this man.
Contrary to most other presidents of the United States who at least try to unify the disparate segments of the nation when they speak in this context, Donald Trump uses his platform, whether at campaign rallies or formal ceremonies, to further divide us and cast blame on his political opponents for the problems we face.
Related
Big lies & transgender mice: 3 takeaways from Donald Trump’s congressional address
Trump referred to trans identity as a “lie” and falsely claimed that the government has spent $8 million to “make mice transgender.”
Even in front of Congress, Trump continually, plays either the “tough guy mob boss” card by threatening opponents of his programs and policies, or else he plays the “victim” card by claiming that his opponents, through the deep state, have weaponized governmental institutions against him.
Dive deeper every day
Join our newsletter for thought-provoking commentary that goes beyond the surface of LGBTQ+ issues
Subscribe to our Newsletter today
He returned again to his enemies list, those he has stereotyped and accused of bringing evil upon the nation, which include, “radical Islamists”; “radical liberals” and the entire Democratic (“Democrat”) party; raping, drug pushing, sex trafficking, gang bagging, mentally psychopathic “illegal aliens”; and “radical gender ideology” through which men and boys are playing on girls and women’s teams and invading women’s locker rooms and restrooms.
Trump invited and singled out the families of two young women who were killed by “illegal aliens.” Though their stories of loss and grief were very poignant, Trump used these families as props in his sorted narrative depicting virtually all undocumented non-citizens in the same shadow of deception, crime, and evil.
I was genuinely moved to tears after Trump introduced a 13-year-old boy who has been undergoing intensive brain cancer treatments. Trump told of the boy’s dream of one day serving as a police officer. He introduced the man standing next to the boy in the gallery who awarded him with a certificate as an intelligence officer. Hardly a dry eye was visible within the room when the boy gave the man a gracious hug.
Nevertheless, this, too, was hypocritical political theater. The man who singled out this brave young boy is the same man who defunded and eliminated the United States Agency for International Development, an agency that fights cancer and infectious diseases globally.
The man who singled out the brave young boy is the same man who has attempted to defund governmental subsidies to institutions conducting pediatric cancer research and treatment.
Of all those the president profiled in the gallery, I found him honoring the “courage” and “fortitude” of the mother of a transgender young person as the most insidious and dangerous.
Trump introduced this woman as a mother whose child was “indoctrinated” with “transgender ideology” by the school and who began using they/them pronouns. Trump cast this mother as the victim, claiming “teachers and administrators conspired to deceive” her.
In this way, Trump attempted to deprive agency in the young person’s emerging gender identity. Throughout his political career, Trump has said transgender people are a symptom of the radical “woke” movement, which he loudly proclaimed in his Congressional address is hereby dead, as is the “tyranny” of Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives and the “poison” of critical race theory in schools.
Trump’s entire political shtick of “Make America Great Again” evokes a quote from historian Hasan Kwame Jeffries in his TED Talk, “Why We Must Confront the Painful Parts of US History, who claims that U.S. history is often presented in the schools as a “whitewashed” version of the truth.
Jeffries claims that in the U.S., “We hate history, we love nostalgia. Nostalgia. We love stories about the past that make us feel comfortable about the present.”
The anti-woke, anti-DEI movement gives those who love nostalgia over truth justification to revise history to their liking.
“Make America Great Again” conjures up images of a mythological white 1950s suburban landscape filled with beautiful homes, manicured lawns, white picket fences, healthy white children, mothers either cooking in tidy kitchens or being handed meals by the non-white cook, and a fatherly “breadwinner” pulling into the driveway in a gleaming new model automobile.
If we look at the truth in our history, we discover, for example, the genius of James Madison, the chief writer of the U.S. Constitution, the Federalist Papers, and the Bill of Rights.
But we also learn that Madison “owned” approximately 100 enslaved Africans. We also know that George Washington “owned” between 250 and 600 enslaved people; Thomas Jefferson between 200 and 600; and James Monroe 75. All but two of our first 10 presidents, John Adams and John Quincey Adams, “owned” enslaved people.
Jeffries talked about touring Madison’s famous mansion, “Montpelier,” where he stood in the very room where one of the primary leaders of the new nation wrote his famous documents, including the Bill of Rights, that he and the other “founders” did not extend to those they enslaved.
The Montpelier tour guide took Jeffries from Madison’s office into the basement and showed him the small handprints of enslaved children who formulated the bricks that served as the foundation of Madison’s regal home.
This is the metaphor for our nation. The bodies, hands, arms, legs, the very souls of the marginalized, the enslaved, the exploited, and the “huddled masses yearning to breathe free” have always been the builders, the creators, the constructors of the foundations and pillars of the United States of America.
Trump and his MAGA crowd have perpetually attempted to demonize and dehumanize these creators by revising our history. Instead of scapegoating and further marginalizing entire groups of people, Trump should have highlighted the fact that the very room where he spoke, the very rotunda under which he was inaugurated as the 47th president of the United States, and the very balcony on which he was inaugurated as the 45th president were all built by enslaved Africans.
Enslaved people were involved in virtually every aspect of the construction of the Capitol, which began in 1793. They also built the White House, the residence of this president and every other since John Adams.
Rather than giving a shout-out to an intolerant mother of a transgender young person, he could have honored, for example, Philip Reid, an enslaved African American who ironically cast the Statue of Freedom in bronze atop the Capitol from a plaster model by Thomas Crawford.
In 2012, Congress finally acknowledged the enslaved artisans of the Capitol building with a marker.
Donald Trump’s march as Divider-In-Chief and historical whitewasher will take us backward. The more we know the true, often difficult history along with the good, we as a nation will finally comprehend the full legacy of our past as a way of moving forever forward.
We cannot expect Donald Trump to lead the way on any of this.
Subscribe to the LGBTQ Nation newsletter and be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.