Hat’s off to the Donald Trump supporters who heeded the warnings about the coronavirus and declined to attend Trump’s Tulsa Relaunch Rally. For those 6,200 people who did attend, I hope you remain COVID free and healthy.
I decided it was my civic duty as an informed voter to watch the rally to see what all the fuss was about. I’ve never watched any of his rallies before, but I have sat through plenty of State of the Union addresses, press conferences, and television interviews, so I’m not completely ignorant of Trumpeze.
I tuned in on Saturday night and watched Trump walk out into the one-third-full stadium, to a song he does not have permission to play, looking rather deflated at the miniscule size of the crowd. The consummate showman rose to the task, launched into his speech and immediately excoriated the “fake news” and the “very bad people outside.” Then he declared “the silent majority is stronger than ever before.”
Clearly, that line anticipated that the 19,000 seat arena would be filled to capacity with the “silent majority” and there would be an overflow crowd of a million people outside. His silent majority did not show up as he’d hoped.
But, who is the “silent majority” anyway?
In the 19th century, when the number of dead people over the course of history exceeded the number of living people, such phrases as “gone to a better world,” “gone before,” and “joined the silent majority” served as euphemisms for having “died.” If you put that euphemism in the context of today, we could easily be referring to the over 120,000 Americans who have died from the coronavirus pandemic.
That “silent majority” is growing and the president never once referred to those poor souls who are no longer with us. They can’t vote, so why bother. Instead he joked about different names for the pandemic, like “Chinese Virus” and “Kung Flu,” which got a huge rise from his audience.
Other politicians around the world and over the course of history have referred to the “silent majority,” but the one that put the phrase on the American political map was Richard Nixon in 1969. The backdrop was the Vietnam War. Large country-wide demonstrations and teach-ins started on October 15, 1969. In rebuttal to the demonstrations, Nixon delivered a speech on Nov. 3, 1969, where he outlined his “plan to end the war.” In his conclusion he said: “And so tonight, to you, the great silent majority of my fellow Americans – I ask for your support. Let us be united for peace. Let us be united against defeat. Because let us understand: North Vietnam cannot defeat or humiliate the United States. Only Americans can do that.”
We know the cost in lives and currency for that strategy, and we know how divided the country became and has remained since then. Nixon refused to listen to the “vocal minority,” the demonstrators who begged him to cease the fighting and bring their children, parents, friends, colleagues, and co-workers home. We also know that his strategy would prove to be his downfall.
Trump is similarly ignoring the calls of today’s “vocal minority,” specifically the millions of people worldwide who are demonstrating because they believe “Black lives matter.” His answer to the pleas to defund the police (which really means re-envisioning what it means to provide safety and security to our citizens) and wipe out systemic racism is to promote his “law and order” agenda, another mantra coined by Nixon. He uses racist language in reference to the demonstrators, like “thugs” and “rioters,” in his speech, which also riles up his audience into a frenzy of hate.
After watching the entire rally, I came to the realization that the president is really just a wannabe comedian. He has a stable of one-liners that he throws out indiscriminately, knowing that they will get a rise out of his audience. His most common phrase appears to be “the greatest (fill in the blank) in the history of America.” His foils are the “fake news media,” “Sleepy Joe Biden,” “the radical left,” “AOC,” “Socialist Sanders,” etc. He brags about his very expensive silk ties (which is why he needed to use two hands to take a drink of water); the fact that Air Force One has all brand new TVs in every room of the plane, even the closets; his homes, hotels, and golf courses are nicer than anyone else’s; and he wears leather bottom shoes (which explains why he had to creep down the ramp at the West Point graduation).
The trouble is real comedians want you to laugh with them, not at them. They also know how to read their audience. Trump reads the rally goers well, but he is tone deaf to the rest of the world. I only hope all of the “vocal minorities” in this country rise up to topple this “comedian in chief.”
(Susannah Colt lives in Whitefield.)