Are Trump Signs the New Confederate Flag?
I started this out with a Tweet this morning (Thursday):
Allow me to explain. First, some preliminaries. This interlude focuses on Americans, who six and a half months after the Presidential election, continue to display large, performative Trump signs/fly flags, not the kind that were posted and then forgotten about. Rather, they are there because the owner WANTS them to be seen. I am not focusing on Trump voters; I will never understand the decision to vote for him, but I do not wish to be critical of you. I am not focusing on enthusiastic Trump supporters who want nothing more than to have him back in office. I find you to be unfortunate and unprincipled, but this is NOT ABOUT YOU—unless you have a sign or a flag up. This is about the guy with the big trailer in the field. I think he’s a lot like the guy(s) who fly big Confederate flags.
I have spent DAYS on I-70, and every now and then a big, obnoxious Trump sign comes over the horizon. This one was in Kansas:
The first time I saw one of these on the trip, I had the same feeling I have when I pass a big Confederate flag flying, and that is to wonder what is REALLY behind this display. Since then, I’ve seen maybe seven of eight more. All huge. All still standing months after the election, months after the insurrection. What’s going on here?
Trump as the new “Lost Cause” is clearly not original thought, and the vague suspicion I have that there is a correlation between Trump sign dead-enders and flyers of the Confederate flag is widely shared. Let’s review how the two practices are alike:
Both associate the owner with defeat. No, that’s not enough. Both represent the owner embracing and celebrating defeat.
Both are backward-looking to a time believed to be better than now.
Both represent an act that will doubtlessly annoy others. I suspect this is not a mistake.
Both have darkness and inhumanity at their core. You can come at me all you want with your “way of life” and “states rights” BS, but the Confederacy was formed in order to protect and extend slavery. Donald Trump was a corrupt businessman, was a corrupt President, and is a corrupt ex-President. The inhumane way he treated people was a feature, not a bug.
Both represent armed insurrection against the legitimate federal government of the United States. For the slow among you, I am not saying Trump voters advocate/support armed insurrection against the United States. I am saying that the Confederate Flag certainly represents insurrection, and the performative display of Trump signs AFTER just such an insurrection occurred (convened, instructed, led, and tasked by the name on the signs) tie the person displaying these symbols to armed insurrection. Both the Lost Cause of the Confederacy and the Lost Cause of Trump have been buttressed by lies and half-truths, not to mention a considerable amount of rewriting of history and dishonesty about personal motives.
I sincerely doubt there will be Trump signs in wheat fields 156 years from now. I hope there aren’t Trump signs in wheat fields a year from now. But the fact that they are there draws on the same dark energy that causes someone to fly a Confederate flag. And it is not a positive thing.
Hays KS to Colorado Springs, CO
Western Kansas and Eastern Colorado are a lot alike. Miles and miles of grazing land and wheatfields, pretty flat, sparsely populated (at least that part of the two states proximate to I-70), and as my friend Todd put it, pretty much looking a lot like what its like to be at sea. And then, on the horizon, you start to see a change coming—snow tipped mountains begin to jut upward and everything seems to change. I am stopping for the night (it is afternoon on Thursday) in Colorado Springs with what is shaping up to be a full social agenda. Tonight I am having dinner with my boy Chili at The Famous Steak House, where I will almost certainly be ordering the Lamb Chops (more on this tomorrow morning when I post this). Chili is a retired USAF Officer who I met in 2006 at the Joint Forces Staff College in Norfolk. There were about fifteen of us in the room with our desks arranged in a U-Shaped configuration. Chili sat off to my left if I remember correctly, quiet and serious, with a face and head that looked like it should be in the British Museum. If anyone I know could play a Roman senator, it is Chili.
It is now “tomorrow morning” (Friday) and dinner with Chili and his lovely and engaging bride Lisa is in the rearview. We had a thoroughly delightful evening (me lamb chops, Chili pork chop, Lisa crab cake) where I caught up with Chili and acquainted myself with his newish better half (she entered the scene in in 2015, and I don’t think I’ve seen Chili since 2012 or so). Some years ago, we were at a bar in Arlington VA and the topic of “being worldly” was in the air. Chili claimed that he was, having traveled extensively in the Air Force. I offered that worldly wasn’t what I thought of when I thought of him…I thought him a “mensch”. And that is what he is. Chili is a mensch. He’s still got a wee bit of Brooklyn in him, his list of hobbies is staggering (flying, para-gliding, watch collecting were only a few discussed last night), and he’s keenly aware of the world around him. We are both a little worried about the state of the country these days, and we covered a lot of ground—which included Lisa’s very patiently being subjected to my interrogation. He’s very lucky that she is as patient as she is, because Chili’s next big project is going to be building his own airplane. Mensch.
Today, I’ll meet up with a shipmate from the mighty USS PRINCETON (CG 59) Stefan, who also lives round these parts. We’ll have a quick cup of coffee before I head north for lunch with my nephew Kevin. After lunch, I’ll press on for 3.5 more hours until I get to Rawlins WY for the night.