Paul Brandus
5:02 p.m. EDT October 26, 2016
http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2016/10/25/trump-tramples-hallowed-ground-gettysburg-paul-brandus/92692154/At Gettysburg, a land sanctified by blood and arguably the most magnificent and consequential words ever uttered by an American president, Donald Trump — who fourscore and 17 days ago accepted the nomination of what used to be Abraham Lincoln’s party — invoked his name as he described what he would do if given the Great Emancipator’s job.
That Trump ventured to hallowed ground once trod upon by Lincoln naturally invites comparisons. One Trump supporter asked his Twitter followers to vote on who gave the better speech at Gettysburg. Trump won, of course, by a landslide. Talk about rigged.
Not that there weren’t similarities. Both men spoke on days ending in the letter “y.” Both were in Pennsylvania, and the weather was good. It was pretty nice on Saturday, and when Lincoln visited on Nov. 19, 1863, "the sky was cloudless,” one eyewitness said, "and the sun shone out in glorious splendor.” But that’s about it.
Lincoln uttered about 275 words in fewer than three mesmerizing, poignant minutes. “The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here,” he said humbly. He couldn’t have been more wrong.
Trump began by spending four times as long — 13 minutes — listing his grievances. He singled out all the women who have accused him of improper behavior or sexual assault. On the very day he was channeling his inner Lincoln, a former porn actress named Jessica Drake said Trump offered her $10,000 to come back to his room after they met in Lake Tahoe in 2006. Perhaps he wanted to show her his big hands, but I could be wrong. In any case, Drake, whose credits include Sex for Sale, said no thanks.
(snip)
Lincoln dreamed, prayed for a nation “dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” Trump, with his religious tests, misogyny and ethnic stereotyping, thinks some are more equal than others. His own words imply a government “of the hateful, by the hateful, for the hateful.”
“It is my privilege to be here in Gettysburg, hallowed ground where so many lives were given in service to freedom,” he said. A nice sentiment that he then trampled on by saying that the democracy so many died for is a sham — broken, rigged and conspiring specifically against him.
(full article at link)
