Way back in 1876 Samuel Clemens, under the pen name of Mark Twain, penned the American classic novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Tom was an irascible one, just ask his Aunt Polly whom he lived with. One day for his misdeed(s) she punished him making him whitewash(paint) her picket fence. Tom convinced his friends to do it for him selling it as a privilege to do such work and admire it as an accomplishment. And paint it they did. It’s an amazing accomplishment unto itself, even if it is fiction.
If you jump to 2019 in the adventures of Donald Trump, himself a bit irascible, it looks like he too has passed out the paint brushes. It looks like the President has convinced his “friends” on The Squad ( Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan) to do his work for him as well. The Squad has repeatedly attempted to paint Trump as a racist among other non flattering accusations. Meanwhile the media cannot get enough of the four congresswoman giving the feud much air time. He has portrayed them on the canvas as the new faces of the ever further leaning left Democratic Party. Green New Deal, free healthcare, free tuition, and a free for all are promised. He purposely helps them get even more oxygen. Aunt Polly, aka Nancy Pelosi, is beside herself. She can’t decide if she wants to punish Trump, or her freshman legislators, or both.
Meanwhile the 2020 cattle call of 23 Democratic hopefuls to gain the nomination has far too little oxygen in the room. Each candidate is trying to find their way. In the crowded herd one has tried to go further left than the next. Free this and free that is promised for all but the wealthy. For the wealthy pay for this and pay for that is promised. Heck, Cory Booker piled on over the weekend and told America that Trump was even worse than a racist. “The reality is, this is a guy who is worse than a racist,” the Democratic presidential contender from New Jersey told Dana Bash on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “He is actually using racist tropes and racial language for political gains, trying to use this as a weapon to divide our nation against itself. We aren’t sure what that is called. Is that a racist’s racist? Booker took a harder left turn than The Squad.
Trump has made the race (at least for now) a binary decision. Vote for me, or vote for the new Democratic Party, the face of which is The Squad. He has plenty of paint brushes to go around. And, he has plenty of Democrats and media folks lining up on the drop cloths.
Is there one person left in America who hasn’t come to their own conclusion as to whether Trump is a racist (whatever definition of racist one may have) or is not? And, isn’t this the theme every four years? Reagan, Bush, Dole, Bush, McCain, Romney, and Trump have all been painted with the same whitewash. Isn’t it time to let the paint dry and move on to another chore? Infrastructure, medical care reform, drug costs, and immigration come to mind.
Tom Sawyer went missing in another stunt that Aunt Polly didn’t approve. Eventually town members had a funeral, for he was presumed dead. Tom got wind of this and decided to show up at his own funeral. “Rumors of his death,” he said, “were greatly exaggerated.”
Try as the Democrats might, rumors of Trump’s political career being dead are greatly exaggerated as well.
And, he gave out plenty of paint brushes to eager “friends” as proof.