Looking small
By Eugene Robinson
July 4 at 8:49 PM
President Trump chose the wrong backdrop for his attempt to make Independence Day all about himself. Standing beneath the majestic statue of Abraham Lincoln, occupying a space where great orators have stood, Trump looked and sounded quite small ...
Missing, as Trump spoke in Lincoln’s shadow, was any sense of humility as a vital aspect of American greatness. But you might have guessed that ...
All week, reporters and citizen-journalists spotted heavy-duty Defense Department hardware being trucked into town for Trump’s martial-themed celebration of “your favorite president, me” ... All that was missing was a reviewing stand, like the one on Red Square where grim-faced Soviet leaders used to watch the tanks roll past.
Oh, wait, there was a reviewing stand of sorts — a closed-off VIP section near the Lincoln Memorial where Republican Party donors and bigwigs could sit up front, basking in the glow of their maximum leader. Democratic Party luminaries were not invited ...
... Your view of what the Fourth of July means is every bit as valid as the president’s. Mine is, too, and it excludes fighters and bombers over the Lincoln Memorial.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trumps-salute-to-america-was-a-made-for-television-reelection-event/2019/07/04/b58c9b34-9eaa-11e9-b27f-ed2942f73d70_story.html?utm_term=.1ffd4a63b8f6