About 30 years ago the band Dire Straits skewered televised evangelism and the way its preacher/hucksters hypocritically manipulated gullible people with their constant pleas for grace-giving donations to the church. It was called “Ticket to Heaven” and always felt to me (as a big fan of the band) to be a wider comment on the many forms of greed and abuse of influence.
And timely in our time of Trump wrangling for his ticket to heaven.
“I got my ticket to heaven/And everlasting life/All the way to paradise/” is the key line (with all lyrics in italics throughout).
Whose paradise and where?, Mark Knopfler’s song seemed to ask, and now the questions raised in the song feel as pertinent as ever given the latest appalling “send me money” broadcast by none other than our President Donald J. Trump.
But now in a combined case of grotesque grandstanding of greed and egotism, he’s calling for donations so that not the donor but he, the president, might make it to heaven. This happened last week, as Trump reminded everyone that he was the victim of an unsuccessful assassination attempt and that he was spared by the grace of the Almighty God, who clearly wants him to “answer the Call to Duty…”
“But I can’t do it alone,” Trump stated. So add pathos and fear to the Bibles/sneakers/watches/cybercurrency and “God knows what else” this guy has been hawking through sheer hubris.
I’d say shamelessly but by now we know that the Emperor Has No Clothes – nor Shame.
“Now there’s nothing left for luxury/nothing left to pay my heating bill/But the good Lord will provide/I know he will/ ...”
The backdrop of Trump’s absconding with religious faith is his Aug. 19 statement on Fox & Friends that he wants to take action to end the war in Ukraine: “If I can save 7,000 people a week from being kills, I think that’s pretty – I want to try to get to heaven if possible.”
His “attempts” at peace brokering have, at best, been muddled and contradictory. His manipulation by Putin over the conflict is an example of incompetence or something far darker that true political analysts have well-expressed.
This new heaven-invoking money grab feels like as close an admission of failure as anything we can expect from a guy who himself wears a hat reading “Trump Is Right About Everything.”
It was almost possible to feel sorry for him when he said, “I’m hearing I’m not doing well. I am really at the bottom of the totem pole, but if I can get to heaven, this will be one of the reasons.”
Maybe it is possible to assume (long leap that it is) there is earnest policy-making or statesmanship in Trump’s flailing-about on Ukraine, or anything else. But when was the last time a sitting president invoked foreign affairs, or any other political duty, to collect money on his own behalf?
Between his meddling narcissism ranging from Intel and the Kennedy Center to flouting of judicial rulings, the First Amendment, and the rule of law in general, it’s clear he intends to reinvent the presidency in his own autocratic image.
As commander in chief, he seemingly wants his own hands, diamond rings and all, in charge of every decision and function of government. Perhaps he’ll even insist on assuming command of Naval submarines, in which he could announce not “I have the conn,” but “I am the con.”
So send what you can to the man with the diamond ring/They’re tuning in across the land just to hear him sing …”
How is it that even his hardiest supporters do not see through his craven veneer?
Yet no doubt MAGA will respond to his liking – the heating bill can wait.
I’m appalled to say that “you hit it on the head, Kirby.” Who could have predicted the amount of decline in Presidential competence in such a sort time.
And to an old Navy guy, your quote on the language for the ship/boat was priceless!
Yes, our country is in dire straits with this con-victed felon!