By Patricia Lee Sharpe,
Dear Mr. President, you like to speak of “my generals,” but you, Mr. Trump, do not have any generals. The officers of the U.S. military are not “yours.” Nor is one single soldier. The pronoun you need is “our.” Our generals. Because they belong to us, meaning “we the people.” That’s the 327.8 million (in 2018) citizens of the United States of America of whom, even as president, you are only one.
So why, I wonder, do you insist on the “my Generals” formulation? What obscene ambition drove you to convert the Fourth of July, the day that brings Americans joyously together to celebrate “our” independence, into a politics-tainted, military spectacle regarding which you say, “My generals are thrilled”? Do you think, by fawning and pandering, you will induce to military to attach their loyalty only to you? Do you hope that someday you will find a general who, like the current Attorney General William Barr, will serve your interests with no regard for the “general welfare”? I fear so. Your taste for absolute rule seems to be insatiable.
At first I thought you had a transition problem, that you had not yet assimilated the fact that the president is not the sole proprietor of this American enterprise. As head of the Trump organization, you were accustomed to snapping your fingers and having everyone scamper around doing your will, to making the rules, not merely executing them, as Presidents must. Soon, I hoped, you’d get the idea and behave as the representative of the people who elevated you to your present office. Instead, I suspect, you soon be attempting to abolish term limits on the presidency.
Yes, I really did hope that your constant use of “I” would give way to a more inclusive “we,” that you’d understand that running the U.S. is a collective responsibility. But I was wrong. It’s not from sloth or ignorance that you don’t fill important posts. You really do intend to center the entire government in yourself as sole decision-maker. To that end, you have done your best to rid every department of subject matter specialists and experienced bureaucrats. All you want from any appointee or subordinate is personal loyalty to you. Don’t ask questions. Don’t offer alternatives. Do what I say or else! No wonder the best people won’t work for you. For the same reason, you trample on law and ignore due process, both of which interfere with your absolute freedom of action.
For some time I thought it peculiar that you picked fights with all our allies and cozied up to those who, like the Red Queen, shout, “Off with their heads!” to those who challenge them. Emperor Xi of China. Tsar Vladimir of Russia. Chairman Kim of North Korea. And lots of pettier tyrants. But the fact is you envy them. You really do want the powers they have. And when reality displeases you, you lie, having learned from the Nazi propaganda machine that lies repeated become the truth. To some people anyway. Especially since, by discrediting the media—”Off with their heads!”—you limit the access to the truth.
Day after day, you give us more reason to say “Off with Trump” in 2020.