By Dave Gauger
In recent months there has been a lot of talk about patriotism. And far too much is cheap talk with little substance. I’m a veteran who is mightily offended by the tweeting twit in the Oval Office holding himself up as the country’s “instructor-in-chief” in matters relating to patriotism.
Donald J. Trump during his campaign for the presidency belittled Sen. John McCain because he was “captured” and subsequently spent five years in the Hanoi Hilton. As a fellow Navy pilot who flew missions in Vietnam, I was nauseated by Trump’s denigration of McCain, remembering that Trump claimed no less than five draft deferments during the Vietnam War. For his fifth patriotic “escape” from service to country, this self-proclaimed patriot hired a doctor to state that the poor lad had a spur on one foot.
Adding further insult to serious thinking U.S. citizens, our bloviating hypocrite president repeatedly trashed the Gold Star parents of Capt. Humayun Saqib Muazzam Khan, who gave the ultimate sacrifice while serving you and me in Iraq. Capt. Khan’s father, Khizr, and his mother, Ghazala, are proud U.S. citizens — immigrants from Pakistan. Khizr Khan responded to Trump’s disgusting personal attacks: “Have you ever been to Arlington Cemetery? Go look at the graves of brave patriots who died defending the United States of America. You will see all faiths, genders and ethnicities. You have sacrificed nothing and no one.”
Continuing to establish his fake patriotism, our president — yours and mine — diminished himself still further by attacking Gold Star widow Myeshia Johnson, whose husband was killed Oct. 4 in Niger. Sgt. La David Johnson’s gift of life to his country elicited from our tweeting twit president repeated derision.
Trump’s condemnation of #TakeKnee protests by NFL players is little more than blatantly playing to his loyal redneck supporters who feel empowered by hate. Mr. President, did it ever occur to you that those kneeing protesters represent a patriotic call for our nation to circle back and faithfully address unfulfilled promises of equal treatment by law enforcement regardless of color and ethnicity?
Historian Alexis de Tocqueville many generations ago wrote, “The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults.” As a nation, we need to repair our presidency.
President Trump is a United States patriot on the cheap — as in avoid paying federal corporate income taxes year after year, and then boasting about it. Hey, Mr. T, it’s our taxes that pay for our honored military personnel and their supporting equipment. Mr. T, you’re a freeloader; nonetheless, you’re welcome to drive on our nation’s federal highways — you know, the ones our tax dollars funded without your help. It would’ve been great if you, Mr. T, had chipped in a few bucks at least once in a while.
Super patriot Trump proudly wears a red-white-and-blue lapel pin. How impressive! It represents a yuuuuge four-dollar sacrifice! This firmly establishes the overstuffed, narcissistic president of the United States as a cheap lapel-pin patriot.
If only he would quit using patriotism to justify hate.
Dave Gauger lives in Raymond and owns Gauger Media Service, a company that helps broker the sale of newspapers. He formerly owned the Raymond Herald and other newspapers, as well as radio stations.
