Last night while channel serving, I was thrilled to stumble onto Charlie Chaplin’s brilliant 1940 anti-war, anti-fascist satire, The Great Dictator on TCM. It was near the end of the film that featured one of the greatest soliloquies in movie history. Chaplin in the dual role of a Jewish barber mistaken for a fictional dictator, Adenoid Hynkel, takes obvious aim at satirizing Adolph Hitler. With the barber subbing for Hynkel, Chaplin rants, raves, and bungles his way to the film’s dramatic ending when Hynkel is to deliver a signature speech to a massive gathering of his sycophants and soldiers. Expecting a Hitleresque diatribe extolling the virtues of his leadership and the power of fascism, Chaplin instead delivers a powerful statement about peace, equality, brotherhood, and universal justice.
In other words, the Jewish barber portraying Hynkel clearly shows how REAL leaders are made, how even in the face of brutality, men of integrity find a way to inspire others.
This brings me to my thoughts on OUR current leader, President Donald J. Trump.
In a string of how low can you go acts and statements from the very beginning of his candidacy, Mr. Trump has demonstrated an uncanny ability to find a way to lower an already pitifully low bar. In my mind, it began with his mocking of a disabled reporter and has continued unabated ever since. And, just when you thought it couldn’t GO any lower, Mr. Trump has set a new standard for abhorrent behavior from a President of The United States, i.e. The Most Powerful Man on Earth.
Using the latest AI technology, a video depicts the President in a fighter jet, facing us with a crown on his crash helmet – a crown. He then maneuvers the plane over huge crowds in the streets below – all with Kenny Login’s “Danger Zone” blasting in the background. The video cuts to the crowd where we can now see they were protestors from the days “NO KING” demonstrations. As the jet streaks into a strafing position, a stream of what appears to be liquid excrement flows from the planes bomb bay doors and explodes on contact with the people below.
Let me simplify the message: The President of the United States just shit all over the American people simply for exercising their sacred 1st Amendment right to peaceably assemble and express their wishes! From THE LEADER OF THE FREE WORLD? It’s vile, unconscionable, despicable, unacceptable, and completely INDEFENSIBLE.
But, of course, his reprobates sure tried.
On of the more common defense strategies was to claim that Mr. Trump did not make the video. Really? No kidding. He does not have the technical skills to make it. But he sure had the will and power to approve it! And he not only approved it, but he also loved it. When asked about the video during a press conference, Speaker Mike Johnson, smirked and said something to the effect that after all, the President is one of the greatest ever in using social media. Really? THAT’S how you would attempt to defend the indefensible? It’s become a pitiful show of weak-minded men AND woman who continue to support an increasingly unhinged leader.
Still even though the President continues to show disdain for the rule of law and the Constitution, nearly half of all Americans polled still support him. The latest polls put his approval rating at 45.5%, a number higher than those in first term and higher still that Joe Biden’s. I do not get it.
When Mr. Trump first entered politics, many people saw him as an antidote for a rigged political system. I get that, at least in the beginning. What I did not understand then and has become even more amplified now is in addition to his assaults on our Constitution, how can one look past his plethora of character flaws? I mean it’s gotten to the point where he’s literally crapping not only over people, but the Constitution itself.
“Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people! Now let us fight to fulfil that promise! Let us fight to free the world – to do away with national barriers – to do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men’s happiness. Soldiers! in the name of democracy, let us all unite!
Frank LoBuono is a Nyack Resident, photographer, blogger and retired CBS News journalist.
Photo by Frank LoBuono
