With the passing of Colin Powell, Trump shows how low he can go

Commentary

Trump’s mean-spirited statement about another American hero was not completely unexpected. But it did lead me to consider some things.

Amidst the obituaries detailing Colin Powell’s unsurpassed career as an American hero and the accolades from both colleagues and adversaries alike, came this one, which unfortunately, was not “fake news:”

Amid tributes to Colin Powell, Donald Trump disparages former secretary of state

Tue, October 19, 2021, 4:22 PM

WASHINGTON – A day after the death of former Secretary of State Colin Powell, former President Donald Trump disparaged the diplomat and decorated general in a statement released by his office.

Powell, 84, died Monday of COVID-19 complications.

Trump’s statement Tuesday echoed his actions after the deaths of other prominent Americans whom the former president considered political foes, including Sen. John McCain, civil rights icon John Lewis and Rep. John Dingell, who was the longest-serving member of Congress.

Trump criticized Powell’s record on the Iraq War and derided the news media for treating the former secretary of state “so beautifully” after his death.

“Hope that happens to me someday,” Trump said.

“He made plenty of mistakes, but anyway, may he rest in peace!” he said.

Trump’s former vice president, Mike Pence, sent out a statement lauding Powell as “a true American Patriot who served our Nation with distinction in uniform.”

Powell, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was a Republican who backed Democratic president Joe Biden last year and said he viewed Trump as someone who had “drifted away” from the U.S. Constitution.

“We need people that will speak the truth,” Powell told CNN after the Jan. 6 insurrection by Trump supporters at the U.S. Capitol, the event that prompted his final break from the Republican Party.

Here is Trump’s statement in its nasty entirety:

Now, I can’t stop people from voting for, or supporting this man; that’s their right as Americans living in a democratic society. I can discuss their positions with them, arguing against some of them, particularly their support of the “Big Lie” which is quickly undoing what has been for hundreds of years, a democratic society. But their vote is their vote; beyond supporting in every way possible candidates who oppose their positions, we all vote in “free and fair” elections and revel in, or suffer the consequences of, those elections.

But there is one thing I can do. And that’s to not support candidates in other kinds of elections who continue to support this man and his tyrannical, anti-American, anarchistic ideas in other kinds of elections.

I’m about to vote in another kind of election.

I live in a community with a home owners association (HOA). The HOA is overseen by a five-person Board of Directors, each of whom serves a two-year term. This year there are seven candidates running for the three open positions. Based on their candidate resumes, I know some things about these seven individuals, but there’s one thing I don’t know: their position regarding Donald Trump.

The fact is I don’t care if any of these candidates are Republicans, Democrats, independents, conservatives or liberals. They don’t have to tell me for whom they voted in the last two presidential elections. Voting is a private matter. But, do I have the right to find out if, given what’s gone on in this country in the last several years, culminating in an attack on the Capitol, an event largely instigated by Donald Trump and his acolytes, if they continue to support this man? Because if they do continue to support him, in my mind and for my vote, they don’t have the judgement to oversee the management of this community.

I guess the next step is to find out.