The past couple of days I expressed to friends who are right-wing my disgust with members of Congress standing, one after another, to say Trump is great. Two of my friends said, “Democrats did the same thing with Obama.”
I want to be clear. I am open to consider whatever proof one might offer for positions with which I disagree. I am open to consider facts that contradict philosophies or policies in which I believe. I still await someone who can disprove the New York Yankees are evil, or that the designated hitter rule hurts the game of baseball.
They cited no specific occurrence. Trump has had cabinet members go around a table in praise of him. (I half-way expected him to point at one and say, “I didn’t hear a hrumph from him!”) This would remind me of a third-world dictatorship, except I cannot remember hearing or seeing such a spectacle. Some despots, it appears, have a sense of taste.
In fact, President Obama—yes, he legally was elected President without any “help” from a hostile foreign power—faced hostility from Day One, even from people in his own party. McConnell and Ryan met the day of President Obama’s inauguration—a big crowd showed up for that inauguration—to plot how to block policies and make President Obama a one-term President.
So, there was no session of derriere-kissing of President Obama.
One friend gave me the false-equivalency thing: both parties do it. What do “both parties” do? The last incident similar to Trump’s love fest from government leaders (for lack of a better term) occurred in—you saw this coming—1934. When civil servants and military officers of the Third Reich were required, by law, to take an oath of loyalty to Adolf Hitler. Previously such oaths had been to the German constitution and president.
Now, if anyone can show me footage or news accounts of government officials, as in the cabinet or members of either party of Congress, lining up en masse to say what a great President Obama is (at the time, because being in office is a requisite for this comparison), I shall be glad to concede the point. I have had to concede that (1) Yankees’ fans (the bastards) were quite polite when I was at Yankee Stadium in 2006 and (2) the DH has speeded up games.
However, video of a line of officials kissing President Obama’s butt will not happen, unless someone photo-shops it or does some other weird thing to create an alternate reality. Then again, an “alternate reality” is the best way to describe how some see the World under Trump.
One final thing I want to say, in the spirit of the holidays, to Vladimir Putin, President of All the Russias: Idi na’ hui.