Damning With Faint Praise

DONALD TRUMP"S remarks about Jesse Jackson were, unsurprisingly, a perfect example of "damning with faint praise". He knew that for the sake of appearances alone he had to say something, anything free of his usual acidic vitriole and rampant, but subtle implicit racism. He almost made it seem as if the two of them drank beer together,palled around a bit, shared a golf cart.Two peas in a perfecty harmonious pod, Donnie and Jesse. Two galant crusaders for racial and economic justice. A firm, enduring frienship based on mutual respect and admiration."Quite a character. Quite a character, that Jesse. A good guy." Gotta give Trump credit. I was certain that he would remain silent, would have nothing to say. I was wrong. How and why I would expect Trump to remain on the sidelines and out of the spotlight by missing such a golden opportunity to redirct the spotlight towards himself is beyond my comprehension. A momentary lapse of good judegment is my excuse. And, as always, it probably would have been better had he had the good sense to say nothing, but that,of course, is far beyond his capabilities. Donnie always has to weigh in, always has to find a way to make something which has nothing to do with him about, and only about, his glorious, shining, stinking self. Drawing atention to himself at every opportunity is a narcissist's stock in trade, and its what makes Trump Trump. "He shines and stinks like dead mackeral by moonlight", as one founding father said of another, and as I can't seem to stop quoting. The quote is just too good to let lie. But in the midst of his usual self aggrandizement, he found a way to mention Jesse Jackson, and I'll give him that.And he didn't utter a single syllable about shit hole counries in Africa, didn't use the "N" word, at least not unless it was "redacted", as we say these days, edited out. You can never be too sure. In private conservation, Trump never fails to refer to African-Americans as "niggers". That, according to everyone who has ever written a book about him using primary source material. I never in amillion years would have know precisely how close the two menwere, and how much Trumpofa boost Donald gave to Jackson's career. What, the civil rights leader spent a night of two in Trump Tower,and in the Lincoln bedroom, correct? Probably included room service. Trump's obsession with being on the winning team at all costs impels him inmany instances to dwell among his emenies,and to break bread with them. The next step is the announcement of the itinerary for Jackson's funeral,time, place, guest list, and so forth. You can bet your bottom dollar that Donald Trump will be seated in the front row, amidst a sea of black faces the sort of which he has long held in abject contempt, looking all pious, deep in mourning. He's not half bad at feigning emotion, like any good politician. And so I surrrender, with feigned dignity but very real revulsion and disgust, to the inevitable reality that, after all, everything in the currrent incarnation of this parallel political universe is all about and only about Donald J.Trump. Like John Adams said to his wife when Thomas Jefferson stole the election of 1800 and the presidency from her husband "My darling, if he wants it that badly, let him have it." I repeat that story ad nauseum too. i just can't seem to let it go. So let Trump have his moment of vainglorious stolen glory in the sunshine of his own refleced light. We are free to turn away in disgust. Jesse Jackson shall live forever, in our hearts and minds. Trump will sink beneath the cess pool of his own igmoinous, perfidious making, relegated to history's hall of scum and shame. Jesse Jackson will shine on forever as a beacon of social, economic, and racial justice, far from the dark but mercifully short shadow cast by Donald Trump's rotting, stinking dead indecency.