Truth or consequences, once a whacky TV game show, is also an actual life lesson learned early even by small children: get caught in a lie, and the fallout is a loss of trust. But while this cause and effect hold for most of humankind, trump habitually goes repercussion-free.
Reward and punishment
What’s more, besides escaping aftereffects, Trump even gets rewarded. Case in pointlessness: there was no upshot to his denials of sexually abusing women, even despite his admission caught on the Access Hollywood video. Yet he got to be president, anyway.
In denial
Now Trump denies calling African nations “shitholes” during an immigration meeting with senators, telling reporters who question him about it, “I am the least racist person you have ever interviewed.” Which is a whopper when you consider his zeal for birtherism. Because he sidesteps all impact on his charmed life, you half-expect him to snag a Noble Peace Prize for bringing people of all nations together.
Reality Bites
Meanwhile back in the real world, even if there’s a suspicion of racism, repercussions come and swiftly. I was thinking of a mural in Essex by celebrated British painter Banksy some five years ago. What you saw were pigeons wielding signs, one of which said, “Go back to Africa” meant for a migratory swallow in the picture.
Another sign said, “Migrants Not Welcome.” Apparently, the image was created in reaction to Britain’s immigration policies, which are believed too lax.
For the birds
The Essex County Standard reported that when complaints came into the District Council against the work, contending it was “racist” and “offensive” to Africans, it was readily painted over.
This was no small thing. Banksy is considered a cultural icon in England and is so popularly known, especially to young adults the world over that when they think of Britain, this artist is on a par with the country’s other cultural icons, like the Beatles, Adele, Elton John and J.K. Rowling.
Double standard
Meanwhile, Trump is quick to exact severe consequences even in questionable circumstances like deporting Jorge Garcia, an undocumented father of two, brought to the U.S.
from Mexico 30 years ago when he was a boy of 10. It’s well known that our president thinks little of immigrants from south of the border.
He actually kicked off his presidential run with these inflammatory words: "When Mexico sends it people, they're not sending their best. They're sending people that have lots of problems…They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists…” But the immigrant in question was a kid. Now, thanks to Trump’s “deportation force,” Garcia is sent to a country he doesn’t know.
Hasta la vista
Speaking of Mexico, Diego Rivera’s mural for the Rockefeller Center lobby, like the Banksy mural, also had to be destroyed, in this case, because the artist refused Rockefeller’s request to remove a portrait of Lenis in the painting. Rivera’s consequence was that his work was scraped clean from the lobby wall. Don’t you wonder when Trump will experience a blowback like that?