Mr. Trump: Have You no Concept of Workmanship, Honor, Ethics, and Beauty?

OK. I hope I'm not the only one seeing that the pendulum is swinging back to an America completely different from the vulgar MAGA that awful little man in the White House envisions. He who cheats the workman. He who values nothing beyond that which enriches him. He who has created no beauty beyond its ability to generate profit--or, that bugbear of the crass--its ability to appreciate in value over time.

I can almost hear his thoughts:  "Let me tell you about that homo Da Vinci. He may be queer, but he sure delivered on return on investment. Wish I'd gotten in on the ground floor."

Somewhere around the Reagan years, corporate America decided that all Americans valued was getting material things at a cut-rate price. It didn't matter whether the cheap goods lasted or if they had beauty as long as Americans could feel that they owned the same sort of things as the wealthy. Under this rubric, owning a fake piece of Ming pottery was as good as owning an original as long as the fake was somewhat passable. And for a few dollars you could own something that looked a bit like Wedgwood china or Waterford crystal.

Actually, this remains the IKEA marketing strategy: cheap, modern-looking throw-away furnishings that look like real wood but aren't.

It didn't long, though, before thrift stores began to be clogged with the stuff.

My gosh. It turns out that the fake, cheap stuff did not feed the soul.

When I hold one of my genuine Waterford cut crystal glasses, there is a solidity that feels good in my hand. Held up to the light, light plays in prisms as the cuts create rainbows. Even someone not familiar with crystal finds themselves running their fingers down the sides of the glass. Holding the glass is an occasion.

The fake Waterford patterns, cut in glass of course, are dull. The light feels dead. The glasses and decanters feel like imposters.

The amazing thing is that once this difference is pointed out there's an ah-hah moment as the person recognizes the difference between art and drek. It's hard to go back once you see.

That's what I see happening in America.

We are led by a man without any sense of history beyond aggrandizing himself. Lincoln is good and useful as long as Trump can use the Lincoln legacy to promote himself. He quotes Kennedy to make himself appear inspiring without understanding the context of political speech. And he makes a virtue of it, as if to say if you have Donald Trump, why do you need Lincoln and Kennedy?

Sigh--I've written presidential speeches but always for presidents who had some grasp of history. As one of the assistants that you seem to burn through (I lasted five years with my president) may I ask when you are going to write your own, Sir?

Well, let me give you rule one: you can't--or shouldn't--rely on your assistants to write speeches that you will then reject three hours later in a tweet. Speech writers really hate that and you may very well find Trump memorabilia sold cut rate at Good Will.

America is telling you, Sir, that we are tired of imitations. If you can't govern, stand aside and let those more qualified rescue us from the terrible mess you are making.