WHAT TRUMP “GETS”
Of the 16 “establishment” candidates the non-politician businessman Mr. Trump defeated to become the presumptive Republican presidential nominee of 2016, he, more than any of his former rivals, seems unabashedly patriotic, a man who appreciates, takes pride in, and feels deeply about America’s illustrious (and complicated) history. That history includes:
The Revolutionary War from 1775 to 1783, in which just a few brave souls broke from England in their successful quest for independence and freedom.
The Industrial Revolution from about 1760 to about 1840, which radically transformed America from primarily an agrarian culture to one driven by manufacturing and paving the way for our country’s wealth.
The Civil War from 1861 to 1865, in which our divided country was ultimately reunited and slavery abolished.
The women’s suffrage movement that began in 1840 and in 1920 resulted in the right of half our citizens to vote.
World War I (the Great War) from 1914 to 1918, which resulted in the collapse of the Russian Empire in 1917, the German and the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918, and the Ottoman Empire in 1922, and nearly 10 million deaths, including 116,516 Americans.
The Great Depression of 1929 that began in America after a fall in stock prices and metastasized into a worldwide catastrophe resulting in widespread welfare-relief programs and the rise of anti-capitalist, pro-Communist thinkers like Karl Marx.
World War II, 1939 to 1945, began in September 1939 when Germany, under Adolf Hitler and his Nazi regime, invaded Poland and France, pummeled England, and subsequently attacked and conquered Denmark, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, and France. The conflict involved the majority of the world’s nations and was marked by the Holocaust (in which 11-million perished, including six-million Jews), the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and 50-to-85-million fatalities––the deadliest conflict in human history. The Axis nations of Hitler’s Germany, Japan (under Emperor Hirohito and his Prime Ministers Tojo and Konoe), and Italy (under Mussolini) fought the Allied nations (England, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, and the United States of America, among others). The conflict concluded on September 2, 1945, with the official surrender of the last Axis nation, Japan.
The Korean War from 1950 to 1953 was between North and South Korea. A United Nations force, led by the United States, fought for the South, and China, assisted by the Soviet Union, fought for the North. The war ended in 1953, with the establishment of a Demilitarized Zone. But no peace treaty was ever signed so the two Koreas are technically still at war.
The Vietnam War from 1959 to 1975 pitted forces trying to unify the country under Communist control against the United States (aided by the South Vietnamese) trying to prevent the spread of Communism. While fought nobly for a noble cause, the war lost the support of the American public, and although U.S. and South Vietnamese forces won the Tet Offensive launched against them in 1968, President Johnson’s decision not to run again for president served to weaken U.S. resolve to win the war. His successor, President Nixon, started to withdraw U.S. troops in 1969, the last one leaving in 1973. The war ended in 1975 with Vietnam being unified under a single Communist government.
The War in Afghanistan from 2001 to 2014 was launched by President G.W. Bush in response to the attack on America on September 11, 2001. Its goal was to dismantle al Qaeda and the Taliban.
The Iraq War, 2003 to essentially the present, was also launched by Pres. G.W. Bush to rid the Mideast of weapons of mass destruction––which every intelligence agency in the world said existed––and to bring democracy to the Mideast. The conflict toppled dictator Saddam Hussein, but today Iraq is plagued by ongoing sectarian conflicts and the deadly presence of ISIS (the Islamic State of Syria).
All this is not to omit our country’s society-altering decade of the 1960s, in which the advent of The Pill, the Women’s Movement, the rise of the two-income family, men landing on the moon, the Black Power movement, the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert Kennedy––all transformed our country profoundly, including the beginning of what has today become the seemingly irreparable breach between the perpetually seething and “victimized” left and, today at least, the ineffectual and accommodating right.
