WASHINGTON —For Donald Trump supporters who stood on the National Mall watching the inaugural festivities on the Jumbotron, his address was a sign he’s recognizing the gravity of the office he now inhabits.
“It was powerful,” Nicky Crais, said, carrying her 7-year-old daughter Ellie on her shoulders.
“I like that he emphasized that it was our day, America’s day,” her husband, who declined to give his name, citing his position as a diplomatic attaché for the military. “He’s communicating outside the capital to people in the countryside.”
The couple said they drove in from Virginia Beach, Virginia, so that their two young daughters could be present for the “historic” day.
A light rain fell as Trump gave his address and wide swaths of the mall stood unoccupied. Protesters holding “No more walls” and “Trump is racist” signs cut across the lawn, while high school students in matching yellow beanies squinted up at the screen.
“I thought the speech was great,” John Falk, a biometric salesman who traveled 22 hours by bus from Cincinnati to New York City to Washington, D.C., to attend the ceremony, told TPM. “I liked that he sounded presidential, inclusive.”
“He didn’t say the “I” word once,” said his friend Dino Roscigno, who described himself as an “actor, director and security guard” from New York. “That’s more than I can say about a certain someone I can think of.”
“He was magnanimous,” Falk continued. “He thanked Michelle and Barack Obama for the smooth transition when in reality we know it was much rockier than that.”
“He could’ve criticized those Democratic lawmakers who didn’t come and he didn’t,” Roscigno added.
“It was more statesmanlike,” Falk said. “I hope it’s a sign of things to come. He always has the Twitter bomb and he can pull out that weapon if he needs to, but I hope this is a sign he’s ready to assume the mantle, the weight of the job.”
The two men had come to D.C. with their friend Omer Halilovic, a self-described socialist who stood to the side taking intermittent drags on an American Spirit cigarette and bobbing along to Elton John’s “Rocket Man,” a Trump campaign rally favorite.
In 2008, Roscigno lost a bet with Halilovic on Barack Obama winning the election. Roscigno paid for his plane ticket to the capital so he could watch the inauguration. This year, their roles were reversed.
“This time, I bought his ticket, and I took a picture with this cap,” Halilovic said, pointing to Roscigno’s red “Make America Great Again” hat. “I put it on Facebook.”
Though he said Trump’s politics in no way represented his own, watching him give his inaugural address didn’t bother him.
“For me, this is a symbol of democracy,” he said. “You had an election and people voted in it. We lost.”
The medium-sized crowd began dispersing as soon as Trump’s speech wrapped. At least towards the back of the crowd, near the Washington Monument, the mood was relatively subdued.
“He made a lot of good points,” Jake Ryder, a 25-year-old who said he voted for both Mitt Romney and Trump said. “I just hope he lives up to expectations.”
Robert and Tina Beard, married federal government workers who took the Metro down from Clarksville, Maryland, seemed nonplussed as they departed.
Though Tina Beard had a Trump button pinned American flag scarf, she shrugged when asked how the speech went.
“It was fine,” Robert Beard said. “We’re not so much Trump supporters as we have Obama fatigue.”
even if true, it’s about 60 years too late
Another opinion … that I agree with …
http://www.politicususa.com/2017/01/20/donald-trump-delivered-worst-inauguration-speech-american-history.html
My preference is to have a president who is a grown up, not a president who needs to grow up.
Simon & Garfinkle
below, is what I wrote to my Trump friends…ex-friends…this morning. I don’t send this for commendation, or accolades. It just sums up how I feel today.
I don’t give a shit if you roll your eyes at this. This will be my one and only email of the day.
I am in all black, with a #nevermypresident button on, that a friend made. I don’t say that as a joke, or to be funny. I am truly depressed today. I was on the verge of tears this morning. I will not watch one second of, what I consider, to be the death of our democracy. I will never accept this dick rapist.
I have tried to put these feelings aside, out of respect for over 34 years of friendship with Chewy, almost at 25 with Matt (a guestimate. we didn’t really become “friends” until right after high school, although I always respected him because clearly we knew of each other, and shared mutual friends.). Also, out of respect for Collins and his effeminate plea the other day, which came from someone I hold in the highest regard…so, i tried. I truly tried.
Scott, who despite his politics, is proof that two people can disagree, fundamentally, on most everything regarding their world view, and still love each other. In my case, my affection for Scott is unconditional. My affection for Chewy and Matt, as well. I know based on our recent rhetoric, that notion seems laughable, at this time, but it’s never changed that.
I suppose it’s hope. It’s hope that there is still a decency within them. A hope that they will someday realize that their votes, and the others who voted for this con-man, serial rapist, have real consequences. That there are real human stories that will be adversely, and irreparably, affected, and even destroyed.
Also, a prayer… yes, your favorite Atheist said the p-word–a prayer that they didn’t just vote for an unqualified, mentally ill, selfish, racist, serial rapist to spite their friend Albert.
I tried because, maybe I was being irrational? Maybe I am being silly? Maybe…Scott is right?
Well, I suppose I’m not as strong as I hoped I’d be. I can’t. I cannot look passed this.
Not yet. Maybe not ever.
The days I want to forgive, and mend, and laugh with my friends again, the rapist pedophile then sends out an asshole-ish, weakling tweet. Or “drains the swamp” by putting more scum in his cabinet, like this Steve Mnuchin guy. If Matt and Mark are worth their salt, they will read up on who this guy is. What he’s done. But they won’t. Because “anyone but Hillary!”. Because “Emails!”
Ignore that. Ignore all of the Rapist’s manymanymany (shout out to Commandant Lassard) egregious inhumanities, like sexually assaulting multiple women, and Trump University…That’s fine.
What they should not ignore, however, and if my friendship ever meant anything to them, they will come here, to where I work, and put faces and real stories to the damage that’s about to be inflicted. These “conservatives”, my friends, can then explain to my special needs people here that while they’re sorry for the plight and terrible situations that our consumers have endured, and endure, it’s not their problem, nor government’s responsibility to offer them a safety net. They can explain why government should be “derrr run like a business!” and the world should be a Darwin-like jungle, where our weak and vulnerable, through no fault of their own, get eaten.
They can help me assuage the phone calls I get, where special needs individuals are in tears, asking me if they are going to lose their medicaid, medicare, or social security disability. And watch me squirm, as I try to not answer them, but calm them, because the truth can put them back in a hospital. Or, worse, prompt them to inflict damage to themselves. or, the worst, take their own life.
If social security disability is gutted, like Scott’s hero, Paul Ryan, has vowed to do, many lives will literally be lost to suicides. That’s not hyperbole. That’s a promise. The republican voter, nationwide, will have blood on their hands, if…when…that does happen.
Then Matt and, yes, even Scott can explain that they’re Catholics and give through their church, and that should be enough! They can explain that a couple more pennies on the dollar of taxes, that can make all the difference, is NOT an option! If it isn’t enough, then tough shit…then remind these special needs folks, that they are on their own.
This is an open invitation. Come meet them. Join me at the soup kitchen I volunteer at. Learn. Be part of the world–THE WHOLE WORLD, not just the parts you like, safely tucked away in the suburbs, wrapped in the warm blanket of propaganda from Fox News.
OR, you can remain blissfully ignorant, and be a part of a party that provided shelter to the KKK, any and all white supremacists, and who approves of a murderous dictator, Vladimir Putin, to the tune of almost %50. Putin, who has homosexuals imprisoned, or killed. Who poisons anyone who dares speak out against him. Literally…poisons them! He has limited access to the internet to sites that only speak favorably of him. Who banned any media outlet critical of him, from any access. (Sound familiar?), and could, very possibly, have leverage on the guy just elected to our highest and most sacred office. Because true leadership, in their eyes, is using a position of power to hold others down.
No, I’m afraid I’m not ready to come home. Especially not today. I will hold you, the Rapist voter, directly accountable for the hardships that come to my “flock”, as it were. Right or wrong–I will.
This is the corniest thing I will ever admit…but, I don’t really give a fuck–My heart is broken. My country, and my friends, turned their backs on our most vulnerable. My friends wounded me.
Worse, they left me devoid of hope, for the first time in my life.
Congratulations, Mark and Matt. Today is your big day. Your spoils of war. Bask in it. Call all liberals like me “sore losers!”. make a monolith of us, because that’s easier and more fun than a realization that there are innocent lives at stake. If you draw back the curtain of a monolith, you’ll see they are made up of persons. Persons who have plight, sorrow and human stories.
I realize I have wasted my time. That this will fall on deaf ears. Be that as it may, I, like gnat, will be in your ear reminding you that you are an accessory to the damage this piece of shit will inflict. Just like if you drive a murderer to a murder, you are complicit.
Enjoy your “victory”! It’s only human life in the balance…no big deal.