One of the impeachment talking points was that Trump was behaving not like an elected public servant, but as if he was an absolute monarch. As a spoiled rich boy who has always gotten his own way and been able to buy his way out of trouble, this is hardly breaking news. In Trump Tower and Mar-A-Lago he has ensconced himself in fake palaces and ran a fake business empire.
The surprise is how many American seem willing to go along with his megalomaniac fiction. Especially since, like many a hereditary heir to a throne, he may promise the commoners pie in the sky but his policies always end up favoring the ruling class. But there is precedent for this kind of disconnect.
In the days of divine right, the ruler would occasionally make a ceremonial show of distributing alms to the poor or apply the king’s touch to miraculously heal those suffering from scrofula. Trump’s rallies are similar, as was his victory lap State of the Union address.
He didn’t promise to redistribute wealth and power. He just promised to do magical deeds, using a few actual Americans as props. This allowed Trump to look as if he had the well-being of his subjects at heart without passing any laws or pursuing any policies. At least Oprah gave away some new cars.
Trump simply put on a reality show reminiscent of the old daytime favorite “Queen for a Day,” on which some benighted wretch would tell a tale of woe and receive the surprise of a new washing machine with tearful gratitude. It wasn’t going to happen to the viewers, but they could dream.
So, rather than propose a program aimed at improving educational quality and opportunity for all Americans, King Donald I found a photogenic young girl deprived of the school of her choice by a local system too poorly funded or ill-managed to meet her needs. Magically he arranged to get her into the school of her dreams.
In fact, it turns out Betsy DeVos, the anti-public school Secretary of Education and pyramid scheme billion-heiress, agreed to pony up the bucks to take care of this one kid’s tuition. Every other eduction victim gets nothing. A valuable lesson in life. It’s not who you are, but who you know.
King Don next surprised a war bride by bringing her husband home from foreign wars. A tearful reunion was made for TV. Of course these are the endless wars Trump promised to bring to a conclusion. But foreign policy and military strategy are hard, one made for TV moment is easy. Too bad the rest of the troops didn’t win the PR lottery.
King Don also singled out a 100-year-old Tuskegee airman, gave him a seat in the balcony and a promotion in rank. Thus he was able, at no cost, to demostrate he is not as contemptuous of the military as his own words and actions suggest and not as racially biased as his policies and lifelong behavior, including court cases for discriminatory practices, demonstrate.
King Don also used the SOTU to dramatically bestow The Presidential Medal of Freedom in a
surprise coup de theatre when First Lady Melania hung it around the honoree’s neck. The Medal was created in 1963 by President Kennedy to recognize persons who have made “an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.”
In the past it has gone to people like Mother Teresa, Apollo astronauts, Vladimir Horowitz, I.M.Pei, Fred Rogers, Albert Sabin, and Rachel Carson. Trump has not chosen to award any medals in the fields of art, architecture, literature, dance, film and theater, science, education, history, humanitarian endeavors, journalism, TV, medicine, military affairs, philosophy, political activism, diplomacy, religion, or environmentalism.
Instead, he has stayed on brand by giving medals to seven athletes, to Elvis Presley, rightwing icons like Antonin Scalia, quack economist Arthur Laffer, disgraced Attorney General Ed Meese, and Marian Adelson, wife of Trump donor and casino operator Sheldon. However, they all sink into insignificance next to the recipient graced with the Medal of Freedom this time — Rush Limbaugh.
It is impossible to make the case that Limbaugh has any of he qualities expected of recipients of the Medal of Freedom, but Trump’s intent was not to recognize excellence but to pander to his base and reward fealty to the king.
Arguably Limbaugh by his incessant daily rants has done as much as any American to create a bitterly divided county, to substitute lies for truth, opinion for news, and to make Trump president by promoting him tirelessly to an army of ditto-heads who regard his word as gospel. So obviously Rush is deserving of inclusion in the Medal of Freedom pantheon. The king has spoken and L’etat, C’est Trump.