Extemporaneous musings, occasionally poetic, about life in its richly varied dimensions, especially as relates to history, theology, law, literature, science, by one who is an attorney, ordained minister, historian, writer, and African American.
Sunday, November 27, 2016
MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN. COMPARED TO WHAT?
MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, BUT COMPARED TO WHAT?
"Compared to what?" is more than a popular song from the 1960s by Eddie Harris and Les McCann. It is also the conundrum of our times.
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"Make America great again," being Donald Trump's campaign slogan begs the question: "Compared to what?" of ourselves and our nation.
Any utterance that leaves to one's imagination what its its indefinite predicate may be, is deliberately deceitful.
A predicate must be declared or be reasonably inferable from context.
"Make America great again," is one such deceitful utterance. It has no predicate to compare to, nor for its verb to operate upon. That is left to the listener 's own imagination to make of it what he will!
"Make America Great Again," is very simple sounding, yet it is also complex. It elides accountability to anyone or anything.
Does that phrase mean before Barack Obama was elected President?
Does it mean before 1954, when the U. S. Supreme Court overruled its former 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson,? Plessy legalized "Jim Crow." Brown v. Board of Education reversed Jim Crow, and outlawed segregation in public schools. And well beyond.
Or does Donald Trump mean by his "Make America great again," slogan that more remote time, before his grandfather emigrated here from Germany, after the Civil War?
With nothing to compare Donald Trump's slick, deceitful campaign statement or slogan to, there is no definite predicate nor premise for it to operate upon. There are as many craven, popular-delusional confusions about what he means as there are Trump voters!
It is like the Bible verse, "where each does what is right in its own sight ," Judges 21:25; or as instated here, where one freely believes what is right in his or in her own mind!
We are now in this dubious time described in scripture with a lame duck Democrat as President; a presumptive President-Elect who lost the popular vote ; an Electoral College yet to vote on 12/19/2016.
When "Compared to what" meets "Make America great again," who knows what is real?