OPINION:
Regarding the imbroglio caused by the Hon. Frederica S. Wilson, representing her constituency in South Florida and apparently the entire African-American race in America plus anyone else who hates President Trump, my research has uncovered something interesting.
Mrs. La David T. Johnson, widow of the Green Beret killed in Niger, apparently objected to the president’s telephone call to her. He merely referred to the deceased as “your guy” rather than by his name, La David. Moreover, he apparently made things worse by saying La David “knew what he signed up for but when it happens, it hurts anyway.” Mrs. Johnson was furious, and the Hon. Wilson wanted to take the telephone from her hands and curse Mr. Trump.
Well, according to my research, a little-known fact is that when John F. Kelly, a retired Marine general and now the president’s chief of staff, lost his son Robert in war in Afghanistan, Mr. Kelly’s friend, Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., at the time of Robert’s death the assistant commandant of the Marine Corps, bore the sad news to Mr. Kelly. What he said was poignant. He said, “Kel, he was doing exactly what he wanted to do when he was killed.” And Mr. Kelly elaborated: “He knew what he was getting into by joining that 1 percent. He knew what the possibilities were because we’re at war.” That is the way men who know about death on the battlefield talk when they speak of such things. Presumably, it is how Mr. Kelly thought the president should address Mrs. Johnson, and so he did.
For the Hon. Wilson or even Mrs. Johnson to criticize the president for his choice of words on such a difficult occasion is shameful. And to exploit the sad event — I believe Mr. Kelly called it a sacred event — for political gain is of a piece with the condition of politics today. Politics is everywhere. On the football field, in the classroom, on the news shows and, of course, in Hollywood. Why is this? It is because a political point of view that has dominated America for years and has steadily radicalized is losing wherever a vote is held or almost wherever a vote is held. There are always California and New York and a few of California and New York’s colonies, but in these states there is talk of secession. Will President Trump be called upon to be our Abraham Lincoln?
The aforementioned political point of view was once called liberalism and is now called progressivism, and it has to hate someone, so it hates Donald Trump. During the last Republican administration, the hatred of President George W. Bush was so virulent that the eminent columnist and, if I am not mistaken, psychiatrist Charles Krauthammer, coined a term for it, “the Bush Derangement Syndrome.” Some observers now speak of “the Trump Derangement Syndrome,” though this derangement syndrome does not quite do justice to those who begin to foam at the mouth at the mention of Mr. Trump.
Why is this? I think it has something to do with money. Mr. Trump has earned large sums of money, mostly on his own. It also has something to do with celebrity, which, once again, he pretty much attained on his own. Then again, Mr. Trump has achieved in less than two years what others have spent their entire lives pursuing — the presidency. Thousands of gifted men and a dozen or so women have devoted themselves to being elected president of the United States, and only 45 have achieved it. Donald, perhaps, spent less time in pursuit of the presidency than almost anyone else, with the exception of George Washington. That is a considerable achievement.
Those are powerful reasons for small-minded people wedded to an utterly materialistic view of the world to hate Mr. Trump. Still, I think there is one more reason they hate him. The 45th president of the United States relishes this country, its people, its achievements, its folkway and mores. He would rather live in America than anyplace else. As Americans used to say years ago, Donald Trump is a Yankee Doodle Dandy, and that brings out the Derangement Syndrome in some people. Call them progressives and remember — progressives really do not like America very much.
• R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr. is editor in chief of The American Spectator. He is author of “The Death of Liberalism,” published by Thomas Nelson Inc.
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