Power Of Symbols
Symbolism.
I knew a police chief from a North Jersey community who would show up at Township Council meetings wearing a long, black, leather coat that looked like it came out of Hitler’s wardrobe.
For certain, that was the image the chief wanted to project, Hitler-like strength and an attitude that nobody should mess with the chief. It was the symbolism that counted.
Just like the photo op created by our fearless leader who showed up at a church in D.C., carrying a Bible like the one he never read. The street leading to the church was emptied in advance of peaceful protesters by tear gas and riot-equipped police and National Guardsmen.
Taking up the rear of the leaders’ entourage was the Secretary of Defense and the Attorney General. If that’s not symbolism, I don’t know what is. The president, who sees himself as Il Duche or the Furher himself, was letting the world know that his military, his law enforcers and his church were all in lockstep with their leader and anyone who differs does so at his or her own peril.
Of course symbolism can cut both ways. While protesters grew in numbers outside the White House, the fearless leader took refuge in the presidential bunker beneath the White House. A symbol of fear for sure. Of course, Trump said he withdrew to the bumper to inspect the facility. Of course he did.
Will the next step in metamorphosis to totalitarianism be Trump in military uniform? I can see him wearing a uniform with rows and rows of ribbons for his fearless exploits that never happened. Just like his mentors, Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, who all wore military uniforms when addressing their involuntary followers. You get the symbolism.
FDR never wore a uniform, JFK didn’t, George W. didn’t, Obama didn’t. No president has been done up as a soldier and there is a very good reason for that, the symbolism.
This country is run by an elected civilian who is in charge of the military. Unlike totalitarian regimes, the military does not run the country. The military was created to defend the nation against foreign enemies. The president is supposed to project that separation with the military.
Symbolism.
Domestic security is the job of state, county and local law enforcement with assistance, if requested, of the National Guard. You don’t want the Army involved because soldiers deal with the enemy and a population exercising its constitutional rights of assembly and free speech is not the enemy or isn’t supposed to be the enemy.
There’s another very good reason that soldiers and marines aren’t brought in to stop protests, even if they turn violent. The members of the military are not trained to quiet down protesters or the dissuade looters. The members of the military are trained with one basic role. That would be to kill the enemy. Military involvement in civil strife can only end in a bad way.
When the military arrives in town, the message is the people are the enemy. Symbolism.
Trump wants to project the image of an all-powerful leader with a military that serves him and follows his wishes. Trump micromanages out of a belief that he and only he can fix the country’s problems. If FDR micromanaged WWII we would be in chains and eating our daily ration of sauerkraut.
The lines between government and public institutions are disappearing under the fearless leader. There is no opposition in the Senate, leaving Trump as the executive and legislative leader. And he has unabashedly courted the Christian evangelicals, with no concerns about the separation between church and state.
The chink in the presidential armor is already showing in the powerful criticism lodged against him by his former defense secretary and secretary of state.
Trump and his pretentions are like the bumbling Hitler character in Charley Chaplin’s film “The Great Dictator.” The fearless leader is an emperor whose clothes have long since disappeared, showing him for the man he is.
We see the “Trump 2020” banners flown just below the American flag. Never before have Americans flown a political banner alongside the American flag. Not until now.
Will we soon see “Trump 2020” flags flying high above the American flag? Symbolism.
Will we soon see construction of a 50-foot tall statue of the fearless leader? And will Mexico pay for it?