In Tough Times, Americans Expect the President to Unite the Nation and Mourn the Fallen. Trump Hasn’t Done Either
Photo Credit: SFC Thomas R. Roberts / Public domain
By: Logan Phillips
Date: August 16th
Standing on the rubble of the Twin Towers in the aftermath of the devastating terrorist attack on a very symbol of American Prosperity, President George W Bush spoke not only to the assembled first responders before him, but to a nation in mourning. Speaking into a bull horn, President George W Bush said, “I want you all to know, that America today, America today is on bended knee in prayer for the peoples whose lives were lost here, for the workers who work here, for the families who mourn. This nation stands with the good people of New York City, and New Jersey and Connecticut as we mourn the loss of thousands of our citizens.”
A man in the crowd shouted, “We can’t hear you.”
Bush shouted back, his voice full of emotion, “I can hear you! I can hear you; the rest of the world hears you, and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon. The nation sends its love and compassion to everybody who is here.”
There is much to criticize about the War on Terror that followed, but at the height of the defining crisis of Bush’s presidency, he showed the American people that he understood the stakes, that he felt the pain of the victims, and he strived to unite the country. Don’t think this makes a difference? A previously unpopular President, elected with a weak mandate in the aftermath of the 2000 election debacle, temporarily became the most popular President in history with a 90% approval rating.
America now faces a triage of three great crises all at once – the great pandemic, a moment of reckoning over systemic racism, and an economic crisis. However, there have been few such acknowledgements of the fallen from the current President, and few accolades for the heroes of this moment that risked their lives for their fellow countrymen. Trump has abdicated the moral leadership role that most of his predecessors over the last century have been all too eager to embrace.
If you tune into the White House briefings or watched his recent string of rallies, you would be hard pressed to remember a time when he acknowledged the pain of those who have lost their loved ones from the Coronavirus. Chances are you won’t come across any mention of the searing economic pain felt by families, the small business owners seeing their life’s work collapse before their very eyes, or the single parent mothers trying to keep a family afloat after losing their job.
America, he insists instead, is doing just find. One day, he is often fond of saying, the coronavirus will just disappear. The economy will soon be doing great. When asked, by reporter Catherine Herridge, why African Americans are still dying at such high rates at the hands of Law Enforcement, the President answered, “What a terrible question to ask. So are white people. More white people, by the way.”
This was hardly reminiscent of George W Bush standing in the rubble of the Twin Towers. Imagine for a moment if he instead insisted that there is no problem here, other countries have suffered plenty of their own terrorist attacks, and that everyone was telling him he handled terrorism better then anyone.
FDR, Fireside Chat, 4/28/1935
It’s not just the length, nor the toll, of the Coronavirus crisis alone that has corroded Donald Trump’s political standing. Franklin Delano Roosevelt proved that a President can endure even a prolonged crisis while maintaining their support. It took the United States ten years to get out of the Great Depression. Americans were starving in the Dust Bowl, unemployed in the inner cities, and saw their quality of life rapidly decline. However, Franklin Delano Roosevelt made it loud and clear to the nation that he heard their cries, and understood their pain. He didn’t sugar coat the challenge ahead, but he laid out exactly what he was doing to make things better, and promised that one day, we will make it out of this stronger than ever.
According to my Grandfather, if you walked down the streets of Dixon, Illinois on a Sunday afternoon when FDR was addressing the nation, you would not miss a single word – because every household in town was tuned to the radio to hear their President.
In spite, or more likely, because of this grand crisis, Franklin Delano Roosevelt is the only president in American history to serve more than two terms. Now, compare Donald Trump’s disinterest in acknowledging the pain Americans face today, and it becomes clear why he is currently trailing Joe Biden.
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