Member-only story
President Trump’s Tulsa City Blues
The protean qualities of our democracy call for the civic friction we allow ourselves to experience as we go about the quotidian activities of life: raising children, showing up for work, pursuing an education, electing local and national leadership. In order to truly surface the best of our public intentions — and put them into democratic action — we allow for the fullest flow of ideas for causes and concerns, no matter how much we may disagree with them. With deep respect for pluralism and patience in the market place of ideas, we Americans opt for transparency over intolerance. We sway mostly toward deliberation and integrity over open cynicism about public life. No matter how ugly America has looked in the past, and despite the blood encrusted present moment, our inclinations inexorably bend toward light.
These values came to mind last Saturday night as I watched President Trump performing in Tulsa, Oklahoma at a rally intended to re-ignite his reelection campaign. As of late, Trump has been slumping in public support. The highly scrutinized police murders of young black people across the nation in recent weeks, and the COVID-19 pandemic that has killed over 110,000 Americans, has sapped Trump’s re-election possibilities, eroding the enthusiasm of his voter base.
But for Trump, rallies of the sort he orchestrated in Tulsa last week, have historically…
