Naewna on June 27, 2020

President Trump is not Abraham Lincoln.

    During the past three and a half year, Thailand learnt about Trump’s massive evils. As time flies, we can see his increasing problems. It is an expensive lesson for a bad leader. He cares for his own benefits to be re-elected.

    During the COVID-19 era, we can clearly see his failures. This leads to the U.S. high number of infected cases. Moreover, there are increasing new infected cases in several states. Recently, more than 25 states have increasing infected cases. Despite the dead toll of 120,000, Trump has not yet been worried about his problem.

    He is not ashamed that the world regards that the outbreak comes from his inefficiency. He madly blames other countries. He calls China as the cause. He uses the word “Kung Flu” to insult the Chinese all over the world. I feel sympathy with all Chinese for their tolerance to Trump’s bad manners.

    The only truth is that both Trump and Lincoln are the Presidents from the Republican Party. Trump claims that he shares similarities with Lincoln. We must prove this.

    Anyone following history may know that Lincoln’s and Trump’s eras are different.

    Lincoln was the first President from the Republican Party which was a newly established in that era. The root of this party came from Whigs Party which was influenced by the British politics. It is not similar to the current Republican Party which is a conservative, strong right-wing party for the businessmen and the white. It always wins the majority’s votes from the southern states. It does not want to distribute economic benefits to the majority of people. Its economic stimulus minimizes the government’s roles. Moreover, the rich are offered the tax incentive. It also promotes racial discrimination.

    Lincoln took part in establishing the Republican Party promoting human equality like slave abolishment. This differed from Trump and the current party’s racial discrimination concept.

    Trump and Lincoln’s work styles are completely different. When Trump has no selling points, he misuses history to promote himself. This is very shameful.

    It is funny that John Bolton wrote “The Room Where It Happened” Book. John Bolton attacked Trump for his failure as the president after his nearly 2-year service as Trump’s National Security Advisor

    Trump never reads about Lincoln from “Team of Rivals” Book. He cited Bolton as an example of a person who was appointed because of his different political and international relation concepts. He appointed Bolton whose ideas differed from Trump and might have brought the same success as Lincoln. That is to turn enemy into alliance. It is not the real “Team of Rivals” Trump prefers people who support his ideas only.

    It is not true that Bolton came to strengthen the political power because his ideas differed from Trump. Bolton already had strong right-wing foreign policies. He applied violent measures to China and Iran. He was going to send the bombers to attack Iran. His ideas were not different from Trump at all. It is wrongful for Trump to claim that he turns enemies into alliance. Did he really study about this? Did he really read “Team of Rivals” Book?

    Lincoln actually turned enemies into alliance. He decided to involve the other 4 rivals for the President election in 1860 in his cabinet as follow.

    -Seward as the Secretary of State.

    -Chase as the Secretary of the Treasury.

    -Bastes as the Attorney General 

    -Cameron as the Secretary of War.

    Lincoln’s approach was smart. Four of them could work together with him to successfully and proudly win the Civil War. Then, Lincoln had more time to manage the country without being worried about rivals. His four rivals came back to work together as a team. Lincoln treated all of his rivals with respect, honor and dignity.

He closely consulted all affairs with them. He applied diversity to his country management.

    My current work approach focuses on R and D. The principle is similar to the concept from “Team of Rivals” Book. We can see that more than 200 years ago, Lincoln applied the concept of respect and human dignity. This is also similar to my work principles as follows.

    -R-Respect

    -D-Dignity 

    It is wrongful for Trump to claim that involving Bolton in his team is like team of rivals. Many people know that, even Trump’s mother used to warn not to allow Trump to be the national leader because he would cause a lot of losses to the country. During three and a half year, we saw what the U.S. was like. It reached the bottom. Nobody wants to be friends.

    Bolton cannot stand Trump because the current situation proves that Trump focuses on his personal benefits and the election 2020 outcome only. He wants many countries to help him get re-elected. It seriously violates the U.S. law. He asked China to import more agricultural products because his political base was in those states. The U.S. law does not allow other country to interfere the local politics.

    Moreover, Trump does not know anything. He does not study more or read books. He loves watching TV especially Fox News which always gives him encouragement and hopes. COVID-19 has not yet been extinct from the U.S. On the other hand, it gets worse than the first outbreak. Trump wants to relieve the lockdown. He promotes economic stimulus. He uses economic growth as a selling point for election 2020 campaign and will have state-by-state economic stimulus. The infected cases in the first outbreak in the U.S. do not seem to decrease. They increase in more than 25 states.

    Trump was not afraid of the outbreak in Tulsa, Oklahoma State. Trump spoke on the election campaign without wearing a mask. As a result, his 10 assistants became infected. However, Trump did not care. He continued his election campaign. He took advantage of this opportunity without caring for the potentially new infected cases. He is a selfish president. He does not care for the whole nation.

    It is more tragic that Trump never seriously studies about anything. He says that he is similar to Lincoln due to the focus on Law and Order. Despite peaceful protest allowed by the Constitution, Trump uses violent approaches to control the protesters.

    I carefully read “Team of Rivals” Book. President Lincoln never used violence as Trump said. On the contrary, Lincoln was a politician promoting the racial equality especially between the black and the white.

    Slave abolishment was the Civil War which was not applying the violent approach to the protesters like Law and Order used by Trump. Trump said that he was like Lincoln because of the use of violence. However, Lincoln used violence in war for slave abolishment only. He wanted to promote equality in the U.S. Lincoln was the pioneer promoting racial equality in the U.S. He never used violence except in war only.

Prof. Dr. Chira Hongladarom

For the print version and pictures, please click this link.

https://cdn.gotoknow.org/assets/media/files/001/401/019/original_20200629165605.pdf?1593424565

Source: Learning from Reality Column. Naewna. Saturday 27 June 2020, p.5