The “town hall” meeting that Donald Trump filmed for Fox News (because who else would think this up?) yielded a hilariously bad image for a president who cares about little else besides that. He claimed the setting was Fox News’ idea, but a smarter and less vainglorious man than Trump would have nixed the idea. But Trump went along with it–and in fact he suggested it in the first place–because he’s just foolish enough to believe himself to be Lincoln’s superior. In his diseased mind, he’s everyone’s superior.
The Lincoln Memorial is a fitting tribute to the greatest American president–and perhaps the most consequential American–who ever lived. You really can’t appreciate the magnitude of it until you set eyes on it yourself. It’s always crowded, as it should be, and everyone wants to have their picture taken with the Great Emancipator. The sight of Lincoln rendered in such a resolute pose, and at such a massive physical scale, is truly an experience nobody should ever miss when they find themselves in the nation’s capital.
Trump is always the victor in his version of reality. He’s the smartest, the richest, the most powerful, and whatever other superlatives you want to think up. They all apply to him, and him alone. And yet, he’ll never command the kind of admiration and respect that Lincoln still enjoys, to this day. But Trump will tell us all, with a straight face and the bravado we’ve seen so many times before, that he’s the best president there’s ever been. And it’s because he knows there’s some segment of the population that accepts his every utterance as fact.
Trump should know better than to compare himself with Abraham Lincoln in any meaningful way, but he goes ahead and does it anyway. And in the process, he reveals a smallness–in both a literal and a figurative sense–that he’ll never be able to overcome.
April is National Poetry Month, and it just ended but I wanted to close by sharing a poem about Lincoln that was penned by Berton Bellis. And as you read it, ask yourself if any of this could ever apply to Donald John Trump.
Down thru endless ages,
Came a soul from others apart-
Incased in a body of awkward appearance;
But in a true heavenly made heart.
He was born in a hewed log cabin,
Grew up simple and plain;
This life-on earth a sacrifice,
To remove from liberty a stain.
No pen can give him due credit-
No words the good of his mind;
But his love is forever burning,
In the hearts of all human kind.
The world now bows to his honor,
And hail this emancipator’ name;
Columbia is proud of his memory,
He lives in everlasting fame.
His life of bitter sorrow,
Hard work and saddened tears,
Has made happy millions of humans,
And will for the future years.
O, Father, hear us in heaven!
May his reward increase ten-fold!
To repay for the great good he did us,
While his clay on earth lies cold.
His life is a lesson for the living,
Shows democracy is strength and sand,
That a good mind no matter how humble,
Can spread peace and love o’er the land.
“In God we trust”-our nation all-
Our reward was grand and kind,
For we’ll always live and never fall!
By following this wonderful mind
Those who love and respect Lincoln must not allow this present-day charlatan to usurp anything more than he already has.
Blue Batting Helmet 