05/28/2026
For too many Baby Boomers, it appears that all pertinent history did not begin until the 1980s under Reagan. It then went dormant in the '90s and was not restarted until 2015. This has left us in the highly distasteful position of narrow knowledge fed by screens and illiterate word-of-mouth.
There are many things about Trump, his cabinet, and his views that make me want to puke. I don't watch any news. Takes too much religion. I've cut my computer and phone time down to a few minutes a day.
One manifestation of my out-of-placeness is the ongoing political worship, canned praise, hyperbolic recognition, and defenseless defense of Donald Trump.
"He's the greatest president ever, by far."
"He's equal to Washington and Lincoln in bravery and strength."
"He's a rich, respected businessman."
I could go on with the well-deep dung heap, but I'm going to focus a moment on his comparisons to Washington and Lincoln. Trump has never been able to, or desired to, communicate with any useful logic, clarity, selflessness, historical perspective, or worthwhile resolve that bind a nation together.
I give you two examples for comparison, Washington's Farewell Address and Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address. This is long. A no no these days. Please give Washington and Lincoln, at least, the courtesy of time that we give to Trump.
From George Washington, 1796:
“While then every part of our country thus feels an immediate and particular interest in union, all the parts combined cannot fail to find in the united mass of means and efforts greater strength, greater resource, proportionably greater security from external danger, a less frequent interruption of their peace by foreign nations; and, what is of inestimable value! They must derive from union an exemption from those broils and wars between themselves, which so frequently afflict neighboring countries not tied together by the same government; which their own rivalships alone would be sufficient to produce, but which opposite foreign alliances, attachments, and
intrigues would stimulate and embitter. Hence likewise they will avoid the necessity of those overgrown military establishments which, under any form of government, are inauspicious to liberty, and which are to be regarded as particularly hostile to liberty. In this sense it is, that your Union ought to be considered as a main foundation of your liberty, and that the love of the one ought to endear to you the preservation of the other.”
Please tell me even one time since 2015 that Trump has said or done anything that recognizes the absolute necessity of maintaining liberty by the bonds of unity as one nation!
From Abraham Lincoln, March 4, 1865:
"Fellow-countrymen: At this second appearing to take the oath of the presidential office, there is less occasion for an extended address than there was at the first. Then a statement, somewhat in detail, of a course to be pursued, seemed fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four years, during which public declarations have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new could be presented.
On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it—all sought to avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war—seeking to dissolve the Union, and divide effects, by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive; and the other would accept war rather than let it perish. And the war came.
One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the Southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was, somehow, the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union, even by war; while the government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it.
Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes his aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces. The prayers of both could not be answered—that of neither has been answered fully.
The Almighty has his own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of offenses! for it must needs be that offenses come; but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh." If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through his appointed time, he now wills to remove, and that he gives to both North and South this terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to him? Fondly do we hope—fervently do we pray—that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, so still it must be said, "The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."
With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan—to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations.”
Donald J. Trump has no interest in binding up the nation's wounds. He has vested interest in opening them further.
From the beginning until now, Donald Trump's quintessential aim has been precisely the opposite of Washington's and Lincoln's. And, he is being allowed, and cheered on even, to pursue strength by division, exploitation, murder, and war.
For any person of faith, explain to me how this is going to end well. For any person of no particular faith, please explain to me how this is going to end well.
As both Washington and Lincoln knew relative to the disunion of the north and south, denying things are bad between us does not promote improvement.
Brian
U.S. attempts at compromise over slavery
The Constitution (1787)
Fugitive Slave Act (1793)
Missouri Compromise (1820)
Second Missouri Compromise (1821)
"Gag rule” in Congress (1831-1844)
Compromise of 1850
Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)
Crittenden Compromise (1860)
Major Conflicts
Bloody Kansas 1854-1861
Civil War 1861-1865
American Indian Wars 1609-1890
Indian Removal Act 1830-1850
Trail of Tears
Reconstruction mess
Jim Crow laws
1960s violence
