Opinion Columnist
Dear
Reader. I think you know, after 23 years of my writing this column,
that I’m not lazy. I always try to come up with fresh ideas. Today,
though, I am fresh out of fresh ideas. More than any time in my career, I
think our country is in danger. It has a disturbed man as resident,
whose job description — to be a healer of the country in times of great
national hurt and to pull us together to do big hard things that can be
done only together — conflicts with his political strategy, which is to
divide us and mobilize his base with anger and fear. And time and again
he has chosen the latter.
When a
person is promoted to a top job in life, usually one of two things
happens: He either grows or he swells — he either evolves and grows into
that job or all of his worst instincts and habits become swollen and
just expand over a wider field. I don’t have to tell you what happened
with resident Trump. He is a shameless liar and an abusive bully — only
now he is doing it from the bully pulpit of the residency.
When
you have a resident without shame, backed by a party without a spine,
amplified by a TV network without integrity, reason is not an option and
hope is not a strategy. The only restraint on Trump is a lever of
national power in the hands of the opposition party that can force some
accountability.
The stakes could not
be higher. If the coming midterms reaffirm Trump’s grip on every lever
of national power — the White House, the Senate, the House and the
Supreme Court — he will become even more swollen and more dangerous to
our institutions, which are now straining to contain his excesses.
Trump once boasted, “I am a nationalist.’’
He surely is. And remember what President Charles de Gaulle of France
once observed: Patriots put love of their own people first, while
nationalists put hate for other people first. This is a time for every
American patriot to do the only thing that can make a difference now:
In
the midterm elections, vote for a Democrat, canvass for a Democrat,
raise money for a Democrat, drive someone to a voting station to vote
for a Democrat. I repeat: In the midterm elections, vote for a Democrat,
canvass for a Democrat, raise money for a Democrat, drive someone to a
voting station to vote for a Democrat. I repeat: In the midterm
elections, vote for a Democrat, canvass for a Democrat, raise money for a
Democrat, drive someone to a voting station to vote for a Democrat.
Beyond
that, nothing else matters. We have to protect our institutions until
this Trump era passes and we can restore the residency to someone —
Democrat or Republican — focused on loving our country more than hating
others. To remind us what such a president sounds like, I cede the rest
of my space to President George Washington and the letter he wrote,
after a visit to Newport, R.I., where he was enthusiastically received
by, among others, members of the local Jewish community. It was dated Aug. 18, 1790. (Hat tip to the Jewish Women’s Theater in Los Angeles, Dana Milbank of The Washington Post, NPR and all others who have referenced this letter in recent days.).
Gentlemen:
While I receive, with much satisfaction, your Address replete with
expressions of affection and esteem, I rejoice in the opportunity of
assuring you that I shall always retain a grateful remembrance of the
cordial welcome I experienced in my visit to Newport, from all classes
of Citizens.
The
reflection on the days of difficulty and danger which are past is
rendered the more sweet, from a consciousness that they are succeeded by
days of uncommon prosperity and security. If we have wisdom to make the
best use of the advantages with which we are now favored, we cannot
fail, under the just administration of a good Government, to become a
great and a happy people.
The
Citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud
themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and
liberal policy: a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty
of conscience and immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that
toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of
people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural
rights. For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to
bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that
they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good
citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.
It
would be inconsistent with the frankness of my character not to avow
that I am pleased with your favorable opinion of my Administration, and
fervent wishes for my felicity. May the Children of the Stock of
Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good
will of the other Inhabitants; while everyone shall sit in safety under
his own vine and fig tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid.
May the father of all mercies scatter light and not darkness in our
paths, and make us all in our several vocations useful here, and in his
own due time and way everlastingly happy.
G. Washington
