FOCUS: Shaun King | We're Not Opposing Donald Trump With the Unified Fierceness He Deserves
Shaun King, New York Daily News
King writes: "Our visible, tangible opposition to Donald Trump simply does not have the unified fierceness he deserves."
READ MORE
Shaun King, New York Daily News
King writes: "Our visible, tangible opposition to Donald Trump simply does not have the unified fierceness he deserves."
READ MORE
man who some believe to be a pretty terrible human being is scheduled to become our next President in less than three weeks. I won't make yet another rundown of all of the awful things he has said and done. I've done that a dozen times. Pretty much every reputable news outlet in the country has covered Trump's lies, deceit, failed commitments, his unethical business dealings, and his personal admissions on mistreating and sexually assaulting women.
We knew he was a bad man before he was elected. Since he's been elected, his character continues to fail us as a nation. He continues to pour profuse praise on Vladimir Putin. He repeatedly tweets vindictive messages to his "enemies" like he is some villain in a Marvel movie. In ways that we've never seen before from an elected President, he attacks individual journalists, union leaders, actors, comedy shows and Broadway musicals. He openly takes credit for business deals and jobs won that he had little to do with. He recklessly rambles on about nuclear weapons and arms races like it's all a big game. It isn't.
This is all very real. In less than three weeks, this man will pivot from being the President-elect to the President of the United States. He will occupy the Oval Office. He will have the nuclear codes. The FBI, the CIA, and all of our military might will be at his command. With Steve Bannon, who some consider the most offensive, sexist, bigoted, ill-tempered hot heads in the country by Trump's side, as his chief strategist, we are about to enter into a dangerous and troubling new era of American history.
I believe you feel it coming. I believe you see it coming.
The only way what's about to happen is anything other than a complete and total disaster is if Donald Trump's very nature shape shifts into something altogether different. His core values, his essence, the very fabric of his humanity would have to morph and transform in a miraculous manner for us to avoid anything other than calamity.
If he operates the government like he operates his marriages and relationships with women, we are in trouble.
If he operates the government like he operated Trump University, which just settled a multi-million dollar lawsuit with its students for overpromising and under-delivering, we are in trouble.
Yet, as I look out over the country, our visible, tangible opposition to Donald Trump simply does not have the unified fierceness he deserves.
Maybe we are exhausted or overwhelmed or so bewildered that we don't quite know what to do? That's a luxury we cannot afford.
Maybe we are waiting for the Democratic Party to rise up and oppose him for us? That simply isn't going to happen. The Democratic Party is in shambles. Bill and Hillary Clinton are not going to be opposition leaders. As she takes long walks in the forest and as Bill calls Donald to wish him well, I think we've seen clues of what they will be in a Trump administration. Vice Presidential candidate Tim Kaine has all but faded into the abyss. Will Barack and Michelle Obama, who opposed Trump so masterfully during the final weeks of the election, and seemed to be speaking from the heart while doing so, break tradition and vocally oppose his presidency? Or will they operate like most other former first families and simply give Trump the space to be himself?
Whatever the case, if what we see right now is a sign of the opposition we will be offering to Donald Trump, it's not enough. We must wake out of our Trump-induced stupor and fill the streets not by the dozens, or hundreds, but by the thousands and millions. If we honestly oppose this man like we say we do on Twitter, we must do more than tweet about him. He's about to do much more than tweet. He is about to sign executive orders and back legislation which will be far more problematic than his social media shenanigans. And if all we have are retweets and Facebook likes, we will lose in spectacular fashion.
South Korea should be our role model. For months on end, in fierce opposition to corruption with their President, millions of people filled the streets in protest. At first, what it would accomplish was not clear, but the people knew that corruption necessitates opposition. As the opposition grew and grew and grew, it gripped the nation and eventually broke the back of the administration, causing the ouster of their President.
Trump deserves this type of opposition. It will not grow from the establishment, but from the will and energy of the people. If Donald Trump is going to be opposed, it's going to come from the people and it must start now.
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