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Diminished dominating trump his act9/22/2023 ![]() ![]() By “my country” he means that America exclusively belongs to “us”, the Trump camp, and thus we have sunk into a Trump America and now have to play by its rules. Recently, a swastika-wearing man in Ulysses, Pennsylvania told a CNN reporter: “rural area spoke up when they elected Trump” and “this is my country.” Footnote 1 By “rural area” he means a vast political base that supports Trump and sees him as the most visible and representative of this base. It has become a daily routine that “this is my neighborhood,” “this is my city,” “this is my country” reverberate with “go back to Africa,” “go back to Mexico,” “go back to India,” “go back to China.” Trump’s rise has made it loud and clear that this land is my land but no longer your land. This rhetoric effectuates racial and cultural divides in this land and builds walls to make the horizontal America contained and “quarantined”, and the vertical America enhanced and energized. The Trump presidency has normalized racially charged incidents through constant reminders of “us” versus “them” rhetoric. Since Trump’s “Make America Great Again” and “America First” replaced Obama’s “Yes We Can,” the American culture has turned its tide from equity and inclusivity to hierarchy and exclusivity. He or she is a symbol, in a distinctive position to create an era and a culture. ![]() president epitomizes what means to be an American and embodies what America is. While both claiming American values and interests, the question becomes: which one is the true and undistorted Americanism?Īny ism needs a larger-than-life figure to be the face and the voice of the system, the identifiable practice, and the movement in which that particular ism is embodied. ![]() In fact, we find ourselves catapulted into an abyss that separates the two Americas: one envisioned by Guthrie and one enacted by Trump. In a divisive and combative time like the Trump era that we are presently living, bigotry, hate, and intolerance distance Guthrie’s American Dream even further from Trump’s American reality. It has been the vertical America building walls and blocking the views. However, between dream and reality there is always a distance. The horizontal perspective is also a precursor of Martin Luther King’s dream that one day we all cross racial barriers and level cultural hierarchies and be judged by the content of our character not the color of our skin, and that a racially harmonious and interconnected society define America. That is the American Dream, meant for all of us, regardless of race, creed, color or gender. Clearly, he envisions a paradisiacal land where the most impossible dream can come true. Guthrie’s song sings of an equalizing Americanism. In an unimpeded and sweeping horizontality, “from California to New York island,” everywhere is replete with bright colors and fresh air, celebrating this land and singing the symphony of American voices. It is an ideal and dream land for a horizontal America. Guthrie sang from his soul a land that flattens social hierarchies and erases divides between us and them. He protested the Dust Bowl experiences in his adulthood, imagined an idyllic America where everyone has a place, and sought social justice in an environment characteristic of inequality, discrimination, and exclusion. When the American “Troubadour” Woody Guthrie composed the lyrics of “This Land Is Your Land” in 1940, he had just completed one of his major migrations, the trans-continental journey from California to New York, in search of job and shelter. Trump, however, maintained control over the chat by patting Kim, and using his hand to guide him, who is almost half his age, into the room.This land is your land, this land is my land From the California to the New York island From the Redwood Forest, to the gulf stream waters This land was made for you and me As I went walking that ribbon of highway I saw above me that endless skyway And saw below me that golden valley This land was made for you and me While both men walked to the library where they held their first face-to-face meeting, Trump sought to ease any tension in the air by chatting to Kim, and letting him walk slightly ahead. Projecting authority comes easily to Trump, who as a global leader, businessman and former television personality is well-versed in using body language effectively. President Richard Nixon to China in 1972 led to the transformation of China.Īhead of the meeting, Trump had said he would be able to work out within the first minute whether his North Korean counterpart was serious about making peace. Should they succeed, it could bring lasting change to the security landscape of Northeast Asia, like the visit of former U.S. Trump and Kim are meeting in Singapore for historic talks aimed at finding a way to end a nuclear standoff on the Korean peninsula.
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