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Monday, January 16, 2017

Donald Trump missed his lessons on leadership etiquette

On the Memorial of Martin Luther King's legacy as America's Civil Rights leader, Donald Trump decided to pick a Twitter fued with icon Congressman John Lewis. As the President Elect, shame on him! John Lewis deserves respect from Donald Trump, regardless of how the revered Congressman feels about the outcome of the 2016 election. Lots of people believe, with good cause, that Donald Trump is an illegitimate leader of the free world. Rather than whine about the problems with his election, he should be proving his competence.
Twitter is no place to air or resolve differences, particularly about political issues. Rather, Donald Trump's Twitter storms create anxiety and drives up Americans' fears about his ability to lead.

"Some political observers say Dr. Ben Carson’s appointment is an indication that Trump is not serious about improving the lives of people in struggling communities."- The Boston Globe

William Linthicum collage (c) displayed at the Kennedy Heights Arts Center in Cincinnati Ohio during Martin Luther King memorial holiday

The Boston Globe article by Janell Ross and Vanessa Williams

The eruption of hostilities between President-elect Donald Trump and civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., may be recorded as just one more example of what has become standard Twitter retaliation for Trump.

But coming on the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday weekend, it also reignited the passions around Trump’s difficult history with African-Americans, the group of voters from whom he might be most alienated as he prepares to move into  Washington DC this week.
Rep. John Lewis at the Capitol earlier this month.
Congressman John Lewis D-Ga, in Washington DC at the Capitol

In an interview with NBC’s ‘‘Meet the Press’’ on Friday, Lewis said he did not regard Trump to be ‘‘a legitimate president’’ because of allegations that high-level Russian operatives interfered in the election on Trump’s behalf. Trump lobbed back with a tweet in the early hours of Saturday morning that disparaged both the congressman and his district, which includes some of Atlanta’s most affluent neighborhoods.

‘‘Congressman John Lewis should spend more time on fixing and helping his district, which is in horrible shape and falling apart,’’ Trump wrote. ‘‘(Not to ...’’ - he needed two tweets to finish the thought - ‘‘mention crime infested) rather than falsely complaining about the election results. All talk, talk, talk - no action or results. Sad!’’ (Meanwhile, it was quickly pointed out that Donald Trump had no idea where Congressman Lewis served his constituents, in fact, in one of the most affluent sections of Georgia!)

Trump continued his taunts in a separate tweet Saturday evening, saying Lewis should ‘‘finally focus on the burning and crime infested inner-cities of the U.S. I can use all the help I can get!’’

Trump’s attack on Lewis drew widespread condemnation across party lines, particularly given Lewis’ role in the fight for black voting rights.

‘‘John Lewis is beyond a doubt the conscience of the country and that’s why his people (constituents) send him to Congress,’’ said Kwame Lillard, an activist who helped to organize the civil-rights-era Freedom Rides and has known Lewis for more than 60 years.

Lewis was one of the leaders of the legendary Selma to Montgomery voting rights march in 1965, in which Alabama state troopers clashed with marchers, leaving many of them, including Lewis, badly injured. The march entered the American lexicon as ‘‘Bloody Sunday’’ and the stark images of the police beatings helped build support for the civil right movement.

Shamed Dogan, a Republican member of Missouri House of Representatives, said the state’s new Republican governor, Eric Greitens, attended the Missouri Legislative Black Caucus’s Martin Luther King Jr. celebration two days after taking office. ‘‘I would like to see Donald Trump take the same approach to the Congressional Black Caucus and find common ground with them instead of feuding with heroes like Congressman Lewis,’’ Dogan said.

Trump’s harsh rhetoric about Hispanics, Muslims and women was one of the hallmarks of his campaign, and while he emerged from the election with a solid majority of electoral college votes, he trailed Democrat Hillary Clinton by nearly 3 million popular votes. In the national exit poll, 91 percent of black voters had an unfavorable toward Trump, while 83 percent had a favorable view of Clinton. In their vote preference, the exit poll found black voters favored Clinton 89 to 8 percent over Trump.

Since Election Day, he has said he would reach out to voters who did not support him in an effort to bring the country together.

During the transition, Trump has been frequently photographed with black celebrities at his New York headquarters, including the rapper Kanye West, retired football great Ray Lewis and boxing promoter Don King. On Friday, he was visited by Steve Harvey, a comedian, game-show host and dating-advice guru. Harvey supported Clinton and had been critical of Trump during the campaign, but after their meeting he said the president-elect was ‘‘congenial and sincere.’’

The attack on Lewis, however, underscores Trump’s tense relationship with black voters and seemed to echo some of his past confrontations with African-Americans.

Trump started his presidential campaign with huge disadvantages among African-Americans, in part because of his years-long questioning of whether President Barack Obama was a U.S. citizen. Trump also drew criticism for taking out a full-page ad in New York newspapers urging the death penalty for five black and Hispanic teenagers accused of raping a woman in Central Park. Even after the young men were exonerated, Trump criticized the city for awarding them damages for the years they had spent in prison and continued to argue that they were ‘‘guilty of something.’’

In the closing weeks of the campaign, Trump began appealing to black voters to give him a chance. Speaking at rallies, to overwhelmingly white audiences, Trump described black people as living ‘‘in hell,’’ stuck in crumbling, crime-ridden neighborhoods and failing schools: ‘‘What do you have to lose?’’ he asked.

For some people, Trump’s attack on Lewis - as well as his inaccurate description of Atlanta, a longtime haven for middle- and upper-middle-class African-Americans - brought it all back.

Andra Gillespie, a political scientist at Emory University in Atlanta, said if Trump was serious about reaching out to the black community, he would have to take responsibility for a campaign whose tone was ‘‘divisive at best, seriously offensive at worst’’ and ‘‘dangerous’’ with reports of an increase in racist behavior and actions directed at minorities by some whites. She said he will have to meet with and apologize to the civil rights community and young activists in the Black Lives Matter movement.

‘‘The burden of proof is on you. It’s not on everybody else to warm up to you because you’re the president,’’ she said of Trump. ‘‘Because the rhetoric came out of his mouth, the burden of proof is on him to show that he’s changed, he’s sensitive and he cares about those issues.’’

D.L. Hughley, a comedian and political commentator, put it more bluntly in a Facebook video in which he blasted Trump for ‘‘having a comedian and a rapper and a football player out to talk about the concerns of the community.’’

‘‘If Donald Trump cared about black people, he wouldn’t have denigrated the president with those claims of birtherism ,’’ he said. Hughley, who in the late 1990s toured with Harvey as part of the popular ‘‘Kings of Comedy,’’ said Trump was more comfortable with black entertainers. ‘‘You’d rather see us run the football than run the country.’’

So far Trump has nominated one African-American for a Cabinet position: retired pediatric neurosurgeon Ben Carson, as secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Harvey told reporters that Trump asked him to work with Carson on inner-city issues.

Some political observers say Carson’s appointment is an indication that Trump is not serious about improving the lives of people in struggling communities.

Michael Eric Dyson, a sociology professor at Georgetown University, said that in touting Carson and Harvey as his urban policy team, Trump is practicing ‘‘affirmative action in the worst sense of that term.’’

‘‘Steve Harvey is a talented comedian but he is not a politician, a policy maker. He nor Carson have any expertise in the issues they will oversee,’’ Dyson said. ‘‘This is really nothing more than an attempted end run around serious engagement and an example of the kind of visionary bankruptcy of President-elect Trump.’’


Obviously, Donald Trump has no interest in learning leadership etiquette. Therefore, he will politically crash and burn. his energy level can't sustain this turmoil, resulting from his unhinged behaviors.

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