Jaki Jean & the Yertle the Turtle that is Donald Trump

To those who know me well, it is no secret that I find this the most baffling election of the past fifty-five years.  Or that I no longer recognize the Republican Party as the party of my father, Jack.  Or that I hold the media & the GOP & millions of American voters responsible for the rise of a blatantly unqualified candidate for the Presidency.

It baffles me how more people voted for Trump in the GOP primaries than any GOP candidate in the primaries from Taft in 1952 to Romney in 2008.   Of course, more people voted against the Trumpster than in every Democrat primary during the same time frame. [i]  That does not baffle me. 

During his candidacy, the Trumpster has tweeted, pontificated & repeated insults to people, places, & things, including “presidential candidates, journalists, news organizations, nations, a Neil Young song & even a lectern in the Oval Office.[ii]

Of course, his inappropriate & most often unfounded insults began years ago, most notably in the 2008 election, when he persisted in questioning Barack Obama’s place of birth & citizenship.  Each time he utters or tweets a new insult, I wonder why his minions of fanatic followers do not question their candidate.

Or why the GOP does not stand up for the Democracy & Republic they claim to serve, & cry out, “This is it.  We will no longer support a candidate who is clearly unfit to lead this country or the free world.”

Trump’s most recent attack on the Gold Star family of fallen American solder, Army Captain Humayun Khan, goes beyond insulting & outrageous – it is obscene & unthinkable in America.  The line should have been drawn months ago, long before The Donald’s latest rants, trying to turn the Khan’s grief & sacrifice into a discussion of “radical Islamic terrorism.”

It has also launched a barrage of conspiracy “theories” in social media.  Khizr Khan has been accused of being a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, of using his immigration lawyer status to help people applying for E-2 & E-5 visas to buy their way into the U.S., & claims that he is trying to reach a goal of a worldwide caliphate.

The Trumpster, like Yertle the Turtle in Dr. Seuss’s classic was king of his own Universe & pond. 

A nice little pond.  It was clean.  It was neat.

The water was warm.  There was plenty to eat.[iii]

The Trumpster’s turtles had everything turtles might need.  And they were all happy.  Quite happy indeed.

One would suppose that The Donald would be content with continuing to build more golf courses, more buildings emblazoned with TRUMP in gold letters, more resorts.  Content with attaching his name to products produced outside the USA.  But like Yertle the Turtle, the Trumpster was not content with being the king of a kingdom he deemed too small.

I am ruler of all that I see.

But I don’t see enough.

Trumpster decided, just as Yertle decided, to build a higher throne on the backs of his turtles. 

Yertle was content with a larger throne until one of his turtles, plain little turtle Mack, protests as the throne building expansion continued, complaining, as the bottom of the throne, of pain in his back & shoulders & knees.  Yertle’s response is classic Trump.  Just not tweeted.

SILENCE!  the King of the Turtles barked back.

I’m king, and you’re only a turtle named Mack.

You stay in your place while I sit here and rule.

When Yertle wanted to build his throne even higher, the turtles in the pond were afraid, but they came, swimming by dozens.  And

One after another, they climbed up the stack.

The Yertle the Turtle, perched up to his throne in the sky, proclaims:

Ah, me !  What a throne!  What a wonderful chair!

I’m Yertle the Turtle!  Oh, marvelous me!

For I am the ruler of all that I see!

Just as Trump assured his following that he is the cure for everything that ails the United States.

“I am your voice, said Trump. I alone can fix it. I will restore law and order. He did not appeal to prayer, or to God. He did not ask Americans to measure him against their values, or to hold him responsible for living up to them. He did not ask for their help. He asked them to place their faith in him.[iv]

Because the Trumpster loves, believes & promotes his marvelous me.

One lone turtle in Yertle the King’s pond, the same plain little complaining Mack, decided he had taken enough of his King’s abuse & bellowing.  He did a plain little thing:

He burped!

And his burp shook the throne of the king.

Somewhere, within the Republican Party, there must be a plain little voice like Mack the turtle’s, whose protest burp will bring down the web of myth & the throne created by the Trumpster & his turtle followers.  If not in the GOP, then in the media that continuously broadcasts the marvelous me’s antics.  Or in the Democratic opposition, by going out in record numbers during the upcoming election.

As an optimist, I am hoping for a Mack or a voice even stronger to finally say, “NO MORE.”  Or the combined voices of the old guard Republican Party & the newer GOP voices to come to the conclusion that Trumpster the Turtle should return to his own pond for the future & survival of our nation.

That one day very soon we can say:

And today the great Yertle, that Marvelous he,

Is King of the Mud.  That is all he can see.

And the turtles, of course . . . all the turtles are free.

As turtles, and, maybe, all creatures should be.

It would be a comfortable & familiar place for the Trumpster.  He has spent the last year in the mud.

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[1]   https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/06/08/donald-trump-got-the-most-votes-in-gop-primary-history-a-historic-number-of-people-voted-against-him-too/

[1]  http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/01/28/upshot/donald-trump-twitter-insults.html

[1] Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories.  Dr. Seuss, 1950.

[1] http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/07/trump-rnc-speech-alone-fix-it/492557/[1]  http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/01/28/upshot/donald-trump-twitter-insults.html