A bit late to the party, this one....
Wandering past the German cable TV station Deutsche-Welle the other day, overheard the anchor woman saying that Donald Trump’s Independence Day speech had beeen “very divisive”. Full of “racism and white supremacy” she informed us. All in “support of confederate statues”. Oh really, I thought. Must see this. So I hied me to a site and watched it in full. Not long, about half an hour. [Transcript]
He was reading from a teleprompter, so it was written for him and was not one of his extempore acts.
For my taste it was rather too strong on the “American exceptionalism” stuff. Then again that’s been standard bipartisan political fare for decades. Obama himself often talked of it. So on that point, even if it’s uncomfortable for we non-Americans, it’s as normal, as American as apple pie. I could find no racism in the speech. In fact the opposite: the speech referred for the need for equal treatment and equal opportunity for people of all races, classes, faiths, etc. Confederate statues? Not even mentioned. Not once. His “white supremacism” consists of talking of the “Founding Fathers” and the “Great Americans” on Mount Rushmore behind him. Again that has been standard fare for polical speeches until five minutes ago. One might consider it “white supremacist” only if one considers the whole American enterprise, since its founding, to be one of unalloyed oppression and evil at the hands of white men, which is, of course, the very narrative promoted by the New York Times “1619 Project”. CNN even had “Independence” in scare quotes, as if it were not an official National day.
The longer lasting narrative, the one I’m guessing most Americans hew to, is that America has a flawed but aspirational past. Aspiring to be better, to be “a more perfect union”. Never perfect, but vastly improved and still trying.
Read the transcript yourself and decide. Was it an unexceptional speech or was it a “racist, divisive, White supremacist speech, supporting confederate statues”? I’m no Trump fanboy. But I see here a case of outright misrepresentation by every one of the media I’ve checked on the speech: CNN, NYT, Washington Post.
Almost forgot: some journalists complained that Trump railed against “imaginary foes” in his attack on cancel culture and the violence in recent riots and looting. My goodness. You can hardly avoid hearing news daily of the latest person cancelled for having breached one shibboleth or another. And I remember clearly that there was rioting, looting and arson across the country, that led to extended curfews in such major cities as LA. It was not my imagination. As for looters, many were interviewed. Were they looting in memory of George Floyd? No, they were not. They wanted a new pair of Nikes, foc. Or a Samsung TV. Conflating the violence with “peaceful demonstrators”, of which to be sure there many, is a trick to excuse the violence.
Wandering past the German cable TV station Deutsche-Welle the other day, overheard the anchor woman saying that Donald Trump’s Independence Day speech had beeen “very divisive”. Full of “racism and white supremacy” she informed us. All in “support of confederate statues”. Oh really, I thought. Must see this. So I hied me to a site and watched it in full. Not long, about half an hour. [Transcript]
He was reading from a teleprompter, so it was written for him and was not one of his extempore acts.
For my taste it was rather too strong on the “American exceptionalism” stuff. Then again that’s been standard bipartisan political fare for decades. Obama himself often talked of it. So on that point, even if it’s uncomfortable for we non-Americans, it’s as normal, as American as apple pie. I could find no racism in the speech. In fact the opposite: the speech referred for the need for equal treatment and equal opportunity for people of all races, classes, faiths, etc. Confederate statues? Not even mentioned. Not once. His “white supremacism” consists of talking of the “Founding Fathers” and the “Great Americans” on Mount Rushmore behind him. Again that has been standard fare for polical speeches until five minutes ago. One might consider it “white supremacist” only if one considers the whole American enterprise, since its founding, to be one of unalloyed oppression and evil at the hands of white men, which is, of course, the very narrative promoted by the New York Times “1619 Project”. CNN even had “Independence” in scare quotes, as if it were not an official National day.
The longer lasting narrative, the one I’m guessing most Americans hew to, is that America has a flawed but aspirational past. Aspiring to be better, to be “a more perfect union”. Never perfect, but vastly improved and still trying.
Read the transcript yourself and decide. Was it an unexceptional speech or was it a “racist, divisive, White supremacist speech, supporting confederate statues”? I’m no Trump fanboy. But I see here a case of outright misrepresentation by every one of the media I’ve checked on the speech: CNN, NYT, Washington Post.
Almost forgot: some journalists complained that Trump railed against “imaginary foes” in his attack on cancel culture and the violence in recent riots and looting. My goodness. You can hardly avoid hearing news daily of the latest person cancelled for having breached one shibboleth or another. And I remember clearly that there was rioting, looting and arson across the country, that led to extended curfews in such major cities as LA. It was not my imagination. As for looters, many were interviewed. Were they looting in memory of George Floyd? No, they were not. They wanted a new pair of Nikes, foc. Or a Samsung TV. Conflating the violence with “peaceful demonstrators”, of which to be sure there many, is a trick to excuse the violence.
