Last week in this space we reported on a Trump campaign that by every available objective measure seems to be in trouble. Our reporting coincided with a Wall Street Journal editorial taking the president to task for “bear baiting the press” and “defensive self-congratulation.”
It’s hard to imagine that he and his campaign were unaware of that editorial, so it is therefore easy to imagine that such awareness informed the crafting and delivery of an Independence Day speech given Friday evening, July 3 at Mt. Rushmore.
Some are saying that the speech is the best so far of his presidency. In the main, it was a full-throated defense and celebration of America’s founding and its record on liberty and prosperity. The president set the tone early on.
Our founders launched not only a revolution in government but a revolution in the pursuit of justice, equality, liberty and prosperity. No nation has done more to advance the human condition than the United States of America. And no people have done more to promote human progress than the citizens of our great nation.”
He went on to enumerate a long list of American accomplishments and to name Americans who achieved greatness.
We gave the world the poetry of Walt Whitman, the stories of Mark Twain, the songs of Irving Berlin, the voice of Ella Fitzgerald, the style of Frank Sinatra, the comedy of Bob Hope, the power of the Saturn V rocket, the toughness of the Ford F-150 and the awesome might of the American aircraft carriers. Americans must never lose sight of this miraculous story.”
Within the speech, without name-calling or baiting, he warned against the political voices and forces that are tearing down monuments and statues in cities across the country.
No movement that seeks to dismantle these treasured American legacies can possibly have a love of America at its heart. Can’t happen. No person who remains quiet at the destruction of this resplendent heritage can possibly lead us to a better future. The radical ideology attacking our country advances under the banner of ‘social justice.’ But in truth it would demolish both justice and society.”
He ended the speech on a high note.
We stand tall. We stand proud. And we only kneel to Almighty God.”
The president’s critics – including the news pages of the Washington Post and the New York Times – called the speech “dark” and “divisive.” But the president was clearly not playing to his critics. He was playing to the very same heartland voters who took a chance on him in 2016. He was playing to voters who are concerned about violence in the streets of American cities. He was playing to voters who call themselves patriotic and want to be proud of their country.
It wasn’t a campaign speech and yet it was. Come what may between now and November 3, when the history of the 2020 presidential election is written, it is likely that Donald Trump’s speech at Mt. Rushmore on July 3 will be marked as a critical point of inflection.