Trump's July 3 Mount
Rushmore Speech
An Obsolete Definition of Who Is a Citizen
- Kathleen Chandler -
Indigenous land defenders block road through Black Hills to Mount
Rushmore, July 3, 2020.
President Trump's July 3 speech at Mount
Rushmore, in the Black Hills region of South Dakota, was indicative of
many things, not least of which is his racist, anti-worker and
anti-communist outlook. What Trump said boils down to repeating that
the U.S. is the main force for equality in the world, the greatest
nation on earth and that it is indispensable -- at a time many millions
in the U.S. and worldwide are demonstrating just how illegitimate such
claims are. Along with saying that July 4 is the "most important day in
the history of nations," the speech is imbued with the denigration of
the peoples of the world and their contributions. Referring to the
presidents whose faces are sculpted on the face of Mount Rushmore --
George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore
Roosevelt -- Trump said:
"They enshrined a divine truth that changed the
world forever when they said: 'all men are created equal.' [...]
"Before these figures were immortalized in stone,
they were American giants in full flesh and blood, gallant men whose
intrepid deeds unleashed the greatest leap of human advancement the
world has ever known. [...]
"We will state the truth in full, without apology:
We declare that the United States of America is the most just and
exceptional nation ever to exist on Earth."
Besides noting the extreme chauvinism and racist
spirit of the speech, at the heart of the matter is a major concern of
the people of the United States: Who gets to define citizenship in the
United States?
According to Trump, he gets to define who is and
who is not a citizen in "his America." Despite his particularly narrow
and racist definition which is rejected by everyone except a very few
self-serving bigots of his ilk, the real issue is the practice in the
United States where it is the state which defines the citizen, not the
citizens who define the state. Ipso
facto, it is not the people who define their own rights
and duties by virtue of their being.
Should the being, qualities and beliefs of
citizens be determined by those who have usurped the monopoly on the
use of force and coercion, backed up by an obsolete Constitution and
laws which seek to give this legitimacy? No, they should not. It is the
people who should define citizenship and give it a content consistent
with their needs and the requirements of the times in a manner which
favours them.
The location of the July 3 speech and the speech
itself were used to attack the mass movement which continues in the
United States. It is clear that Trump is using the oft-repeated
declaration that he is a law-and-order president to oppose the people's
striving for empowerment. But the clash between the exploiters and the
oppressed over where the country is headed, anger with the government's
failures concerning the COVID-19 pandemic and categorical rejection of
police violence and impunity ring ever louder. The demand for equality
and accountability cannot be silenced by Trump's threats of suppression
through the use of force.
Despite differences in the ranks of the ruling
elite for and against Trump, each claims to represent the Constitution
and under its aegis, the ruling class as a whole is eager to block the
emergence of a modern conception of rights and citizenship which the
people's striving for empowerment is giving rise to. Their
differences are over how to appear to govern on behalf of the nation
while the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Differences also
pertain to who they can put in the office of the president who can best
give an air of legitimacy to their monopoly over the use of force. If
Trump cannot do it and quell the revolt within the ranks of the elite
and between the elite and the people, then they need someone who can.
It is the search for such a person we see in the run-up to the
Democratic and Republican Conventions, planned for August 17-20 and
August 24-27 respectively, and the ongoing election campaign.The
obsolete Constitution cannot help them to sort out what's what because
the conditions it was devised to deal with no longer exist.
A modern conception of rights declares that all
those who make up the body politic are equal members with equal rights
to decide the quality and shape of that body politic. A body politic
can no longer tolerate a hierarchy of privileges given out by those
with the right connections. It can no longer tolerate being divided
between those who govern and those who are governed, those who rule and
have the monopoly over the use of force and those who are ruled and
have nothing.
Repeatedly in the Mount Rushmore speech, Trump
emphasized that to be considered American, one must believe in what the
state decides. This means supporting the military and its wars,
evidenced in part by having both the state Air National Guard and the
Air Force's Blue Angels fly over. When he proclaimed July 4 as "the
most important day in the history of nations," he said that "every
American heart should swell with pride. Every American family should
cheer with delight." Implicit is the threat that should they not, they
will be dealt with swiftly and deserve whatever they get.
"Our nation is witnessing a merciless campaign to
wipe out our history, defame our heroes, erase our values, and
indoctrinate our children," Trump said. "Angry mobs are trying to tear
down statues of our Founders, deface our most sacred memorials, and
unleash a wave of violent crime in our cities. Many of these people
have no idea why they are doing this, but some know exactly what they
are doing. They think the American people are weak and soft and
submissive," he said.
Those standing up against state-organized racist
assaults, against the slave power and its Confederacy that defended the
system of slave labour, against the violence and impunity of the police
and military today, are the "they." This "they" stands outside of "the
American people," Trump says. On the basis of this claim, this "they"
can legitimately be targeted as "the enemy." It is neither mistaken
phrasing on his part, nor an exaggeration about how those who seek to
give rise to a modern definition of rights are categorized. The theme
is repeated throughout the speech.
"Those who seek to erase our heritage want
Americans to forget our pride and our great dignity, so that we can no
longer understand ourselves or America's destiny," Trump said. "We will
expose this dangerous movement, protect our nation's children, end this
radical assault, and preserve our beloved American way of life," he
said.
The "American way of life" and "destiny" Trump and
the rulers are striving to protect is precisely what is being
questioned by the mass movement of unprecedented size, scope, vigour
and determination. Neither Trump nor any of the pundits commenting on
the speech have any intention of dwelling on the fact that this "way of
life" is responsible for hundreds of years of enslavement and genocide
of Africans and Indigenous peoples (that Washington, Jefferson and
Lincoln all enforced) which continues to this day. It is to cover up
the use of armed force against Mexico and pretend that half of U.S.
territory was not stolen from Mexico. It is to divert
attention from the continued and stepped up discrimination against
Mexican Americans, the colonization of Puerto Rico that continues to
this day and discrimination against peoples of Latin American,
Caribbean and Asian origin, and the "destiny" of the U.S. as a world
imperialist power responsible for untold wars, occupations, massacres
and genocide on a world scale, of which Teddy Roosevelt was a major
architect.
 While the people
are demanding that the defunct liberal institutions of governance be
replaced with modern institutions which are in accord with the needs of
the times, Trump also once again targeted governors and mayors who will
not do his bidding. This reflects the deep divisions among the rulers
and their military bureaucracy and policing agencies, as to how the
U.S. can maintain its monopoly on the use of force to maintain its
domination at home and abroad.
"The violent mayhem we have seen in the streets of
cities that are run by liberal Democrats, in every case, is the
predictable result of years of extreme indoctrination and bias in
education, journalism, and other cultural institutions," Trump said.
"My fellow Americans, it is time to speak up loudly and strongly and
powerfully and defend the integrity of our country," he said.
Who are the "fellow Americans" Trump is trying to
rally? Calculations put the number of people directly participating in
current protests at 15-20 million. Their "America" is not the one Trump
describes. What the people in the United States want is inscribed on
their signs, murals and street paintings and expressed in their
slogans. Signs carried in demonstrations, especially those involving
immigration and separation of families, and those against police
impunity show clearly that Trump's America is not the "America" of the
people. While Trump's conception of "the people" is consistent with
that contained in the U.S. Constitution, it is not the conception of
the millions who are coming forward to speak in their own name and who
represent themselves. They do not accept a polity in which those who
govern represent narrow private interests and exist above those who are
governed.
The rulers fear the growing consciousness that the
"way of life" the elites praise -- of which Trump's is just one variant
-- and the governing arrangements that protect it do not represent the
people, do not serve the interests of the peoples of the world or of
the U.S. The rulers have no intention of providing a new direction
which provides a way forward because all of them serve narrow private
interests. For the elites, the liberal democratic institutions are the
end of history, the pinnacle of what human civilization has given rise
to. This is why many within the ruling class who oppose Trump say he is
deviating from the constitution and the liberal democratic institutions
must prevail. They hide the fact that both these institutions and the
Constitution are obsolete. They can no longer sort out the
contradictions within the ranks of the rulers or between the rulers and
the people who are demanding arrangements consistent with the times and
their needs.
The people of the United States are striving to
take democracy beyond the limits imposed at the time of the American
revolution, the Civil War and subsequent developments. They seek to put
in place a democracy of the people's own making that empowers them to
govern and take the decisions which affect their lives.
This article was published in
Volume 50 Number 26 - July 18, 2020
Article Link:
Trump's July 3 Mount
Rushmore Speech: An Obsolete Definition of Who Is a Citizen - Kathleen Chandler
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
|
