Charles van Heck's Woodhull Journal

June 14^th  will be remembered in history as a turning point. The assassination of Minnesota State Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark. The attempted assassination of Minnesota State Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette. This was the day millions of Americans gathered to protest the Trumpian regime’s policies that violate both the rights of immigrants and U.S. citizens. June 14th was the day of Trump’s big birthday bash. From Trump’s appearance, I would venture that Calvin Coolidge had more fun eating the sour cream chocolate cake given to him by Mrs. John J. Halley for his 55^th birthday than Trump did viewing his Army. No doubt, Trump would have preferred more attention, just as Coolidge would have favored apple pie made with pork (his favorite dessert), and soldiers would have chosen to do anything other than parade for their Commander-in-Chief.

As history will establish, Trump contended with issues alien to his experience in the following days. He wore flip-flops at the G-7 conference and then onto the White House lawn, where he again changed his mind about immigrants working in agriculture and hospitality. His policies hurt his MAGA base (including those areas in need of emergency relief). There are wars in Ukraine, Gaza, and Iran. Trump, still wearing flip-flops, entered the Situation Room to weigh a decision to bomb Iran.

Shortly after she left office as Secretary of State, I attended a meeting with Madeleine Albright. As Secretary of State in the Clinton Administration, she had gone to Pyongyang to meet with Kim Jong Il to discuss limiting the North Korean missile program. Albright was cautiously optimistic that Kim wanted better relations with the United States. The negotiations were for a deal: the Kim regime would have some light water reactors, and the U.S. would provide the heavy fuel. This would have removed, or at least frozen, the fuel rods necessary to construct a nuclear bomb. The Bush Administration abandoned the negotiated outline. The North Koreans immediately began to enrich uranium. This brought the world closer to the unthinkable.

The current crisis, the war between Israel and Iran, is due to Trump’s decision in 2018  to abandon the Obama-negotiated arrangements with Iran in 2015. Seven nations had signed off on the deal.

The presidency is like the game Mousetrap. All presidents have the illusion that they can win the game.  Circumstances interfere with their agendas. They believe in their destiny, but believe circumstances conspired against them. Doris Kearns Goodwin writes, “Destiny and victimization are not the same. The latter assumes neither an act of will nor a motivating passion; the circumstances appear exclusively external, arbitrary, and exorbitant.” Decisions “are the product of their own beliefs, inward needs, and the public experiences.”

Trump believes in his destiny and that he is a master dealmaker. What he and his supporters fail to recognize is that for all the power of his office, he has neither control over the agenda of other world leaders, nor the variances of conflicting ethnic groups in regional areas involved in local wars. Trump believes he has the capacity to change reality. Reality has a way of lowering the trap on the presidency.

The scholar and journalist Ronnie Dugger observes that, “World War II rolled into World War III, which has been fought on without declaration on local battlefields since 1950… a war around the world that has already lasted longer than that somewhat similar Thirty Years War of the seventeenth century.” World War III has squandered human life, natural resources, and brought demoralizing terror. How much Trump, and we ourselves understand this reality is questionable.

The failed economic policy of William McKinley shapes Trump’s vision of America. “President McKinley made our country very rich through tariffs and through talent. He was a natural businessman” he has said. History shows that McKinley’s policies resulted in a recession that began in 1893 and resulted in double-digit unemployment. The Trumpian policies cannot recreate the “idyllic” American Empire of the 19^th century in the 21^st century. 

The Trumpian domestic and foreign policies are akin to Wilie E. Coyote chasing the Road-Runner with absurd schemes to capture his prey. They always backfired. The cartoon character of Wilie E. Coyote is based on the coyote in Mark Twain’s novel Roughing It. Twain described the coyote as “ a long, slim, sick and sorry looking skeleton… that is a living, breathing allegory of Want.” Trump is full of braggadocio and hyper-masculinity that mask his want and insecurity.

The assassination of June 14^th  gave Americans a preview of the extreme measures some Trumpians will go to support their leader. The arrests and detainment of immigrants and elected officials are disturbing signals of what we can continue to expect from his authoritarian regime⸺ state-sanctioned violence. According to the White House, Trump will decide whether to bomb Iran within 2 weeks. The protests of June 14^th revealed the strength of citizens to say “No” to the Trumpian policies and schemes that will result in tragedy. We owe that much to the memory of Minnesota State Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark.     

Image: A small memorial for Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark – both fatally shot – sits outside the State Capitol in St. Paul on June 14. 

Photo by: Ellen Schmidt/Reuters

Source: Eden Prairie Local News