We learn history by studying the past. Trump, however, reversed the past while pretending to revere our heritage
Trump’s speech brought demonstrations by Lakota complaining that the government had stolen Mount Rushmore from them. The event featured strict anti-social distancing policies during the coronavirus pandemic (the chairs were zip-tied together). Trump's rambling speech threw out right-wing tropes faster than a jai alai player flings balls.
Trump Cited Martin Luther King, Jr.
But the press overlooked that Trump, who recently tweeted a video of a man shouting “White Power,” called on the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to endorse his ideas. He did so by referring to King's famous "I Have a Dream." Trump's brazen rhetorical move highlighted his goal to block social change at all costs.
Trump said:
“They would tear down the principles that propelled the abolition of slavery in America and, ultimately, around the world, ending an evil institution that had plagued humanity for thousands and thousands of years. Our opponents would tear apart the very documents that Martin Luther King used to express his dream, and the ideas that were the foundation of the righteous movement for Civil Rights. They would tear down the beliefs, culture, and identity that have made America the most vibrant and tolerant society in the history of the Earth.”Shortly after, Trump misleadingly pretended that King endorsed America's foundational values:
“We must demand that our children are taught once again to see America as did Reverend Martin Luther King, when he said that the Founders had signed “a promissory note” to every future generation. Dr. King saw that the mission of justice required us to fully embrace our founding ideals. Those ideals are so important to us — the founding ideals. He called on his fellow citizens not to rip down their heritage, but to live up to their heritage. (Applause.)”
That is, of course, nothing like what King said. Trump is incorrect. So, let's now look at King's own words.
King did not endorse America’s social order; instead, he called on the nation to change and live up to its founding ideals. This is what he said in the “I Have a Dream” speech passage to which Trump referred:
“When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the ‘unalienable Rights’ of ‘Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.’ It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked ‘insufficient funds.”
So, King did not say to lay down and accept how things were; he called on the nation to offer the human rights that the Declaration of Independence promised. Instead, King wanted us to ask, how could we have social order if we lacked justice? Indeed, King’s famous speech discussed issues that could have been torn from 2020’s headlines:
“We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality.”
Quoting the prophet Isaiah, King said:
“We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until ‘justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.’”
Despite King's hope, stories of police brutality still fill the news in 2020 and send protesters into the streets. Trump recently tweeted that a Black Lives Matter leader favored "Treason, Sedition, Insurrection." And we still find conservative politicians, including in my home state of Texas, working with all their might to make it hard for minorities to cast their ballots. Former Department of Justice voting rights prosecutor Justin Levitt recently said that, “The reversals in Texas voter ID and redistricting should be scandalous.” I testify from my own experience that obtaining a Texas ID is a nightmarish experience. Trump was not trying to fulfill King's vision; on the contrary, Trump wanted to overturn it. Yet, Trump twisted King's words to support his own views.
No, King did not tell people to accept the status quo. On the contrary, in his “Letter from a Birmingham City Jail,” he asked, what were White churchgoers thinking when the “bruised and weary Negro men and women decided to rise from the dark dungeons of complacency to the bright hills of creative protest?" He said “creative protest.” Not submission.
A Clash of Values
Yet, in his Mount Rushmore speech, Trump said not one word about voting rights or police brutality, instead complaining about “angry mobs” who protested racism. Instead of speaking for justice, Trump complained about a “left-wing cultural revolution” that “is designed to overthrow the American Revolution.” Unlike King, Trump made social stability, not justice, his prime value. According To Trump's speech,
“The radical ideology attacking our country advances under the banner of social justice. But in truth, it would demolish both justice and society.”
Which shall be the United States of America’s central value? Justice, or social order? A true conservative, Trump asserted that we can have no justice without social order. But King denied that we could enjoy social order if we lacked justice. While praising history in his Mount Rushmore speech, Trump made a bold excursion into historical unreality. He reversed King's values along the way.
Technical note: Prosopopoeia is a classic rhetorical trope in which a speaker pretends to be speaking for someone else. This works best when the speaker pretends to be speaking for someone who is dead, like Martin Luther King, Jr., who cannot complain about being misquoted. Other examples might be, “your grandfather would turn over in his grave,” or “our Founding Fathers would never want to tear down a statue.” We often call upon revered figures to support our own ludicrous ideas. It always sounds traditional. This is what Trump did when he cited, twisted, and misquoted Martin Luther King, Jr.
Prosopopoeia” is a Greek word that means “personality.”
Thanks to my graduate school classmate Martin Medhurst and his intrepid team at AmericanRhetoric.com for publishing a definitive text of King's speech.
Image: National Park Service
No comments:
Post a Comment