French Politician Wants The Statue of Liberty Back
Karoline Leavitt's Ignorant Response to French Politician Proves We Should Probably Send it Back
Among its many “perks,” like cronic “Professional Victimitis” and the inability to ever admit a mistake, being a MAGAt also means having a shockingly ignorant understanding of history, and yet feeling somehow emboldened to lecture others about the very subjects of which you know least.
Take, for example the press secretary for America’s first convicted felon President. Like all Trump’s lickspittles, Karoline Leavitt’s qualifications for her post in the current Trump maladministration mainly consists of being eager and willing to debase herself in service of a serial bankrupt, tax-cheating, draft-dodging con man who, if we were living in a functioning nation of laws, should be in prison, not back at the helm of America’s destruction.
So far, Leavitt has distinguished herself by never once earning a “true” or even “mostly true” Politifact rating and, like her boss, pissing off America’s allies while pleasing the repugnant, America-hating, democracy-loathing autocrats of Earth.
The World Sees America’s Ideals Destroyed By Trump
This week, French politician Raphael Glucksmann provocatively suggested that if America abandons the principles embodied by the Statue of Liberty, we might as well send her back to France. Officially titled "Liberty Enlightening the World," the Statue of Liberty is a gift from the people of France to the United States, symbolizing freedom and democracy.
Written in 1883 to raise funds for the statue's pedestal, Emma Lazarus’ poem "The New Colossus" reimagines the statue as a modern counterpart to the ancient Greek Colossus of Rhodes, presenting Liberty not as a figure of conquest but as a beacon of hope and freedom.
Nearly 20 years after the statue's dedication and 16 years after Lazarus's death, the poem was engraved on a bronze plaque and mounted inside the pedestal. Over time, both poem and statue have come to symbolize American ideals that Trump and his selfish, greed-centered cult of destroyers routinely attack.
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
Lazarus's words convey a message of inclusivity to those who seek refuge and opportunity in America. For any true patriot, it’s a heartbreakingly poignant reminder given we’re currently under the regime of a fascist autocrat that rejects America’s true strength and despises everything the poem and the statue have come to represent.
Of course, rather than engage in a meaningful reflection on these values, and take a moment to ponder why anyone an elected representative of an allied nation would even consider demanding the return of their iconic gift, Leavitt launched typical juvenile MAGAt attacks.
Leavitt said that her boss, a well documented admirer of authoritarians, would “absolutely not” return the statue and pointed to the U.S.’s role in helping liberate France from the 20th Century German racist, autocrat and tyrant, Trump and his unelected South African sociopathic master admire and emulate. Does anyone with a clue think a parasite who can’t stop himself from doing a Nazi salute holds dear the values embodied in the Statue of Liberty?
Leavitt said, “my advice to that unnamed low-level French politician would be to remind them that it’s only because of the United States of America that the French are not speaking German right now. So they should be very grateful to our great country.”
Of course, rather than “own” the supposed “low-level French politician” with her childish snark, Leavitt simply shamed herself - and by extension the once-great nation she has no business speaking for. Like the other “Meme University” graduates that populate the MAGAt cult, Leavitt, no doubt is sadly ignorant of the fact that the United States would currently be pledging allegiance to King Charles III if not for her oldest ally.
A Short History Lesson for Mal-informed MAGAts
Leavitt is undoubtedly unaware that French support during the American Revolution was pivotal in securing the colonies' independence from British rule. Since 1778, the French have put their bodies and treasure on the line for America’s freedom - a fact that Republicans have a long history of negating. I’m old enough to remember the lame Republican attempt to rebrand "French Fries" as "Freedom Fries" in response to France's vocal opposition to the illegal invasion of Iraq, which was based on lies.
Located directly north of the White House in Washington, D.C., Lafayette Square is a historic park that I suspect Leavitt has traversed, likely unaware of the Revolutionary War hero for whom it is named. This square honors Marquis de Lafayette, a French nobleman and army officer who journeyed to America to join the Continental Army, quickly forging a close alliance with General George Washington. Lafayette played a crucial role in several pivotal battles, particularly at the Siege of Yorktown, where French military support was instrumental in securing a decisive victory for the Americans. The involvement of France in our fight for independence had profound repercussions for their homeland, exacerbating a financial crisis that eventually contributed to the onset of the French Revolution a decade later. Perhaps a keen reporter in the White House Press Room could prompt Leavitt to reflect on the significant contributions and sacrifices made by the French people for America—far more substantial than those of a tax-cheating, draft-dodging, serial-bankrupt con artist who avoided military service due to supposedly sore feet.
If it Speaks and Behaves Like a Fascist, it’s Probably a MAGAt Republican
For anyone who isn’t a Nazi apologist, a modern democratic nation even considering asking us to return a gift that symbolizes our shared dedication to inclusiveness and freedom, is another moment of reflection.
It can’t be denied that Trump's immigration policies often echo the rhetoric and policies of Hitler and the Nazis, particularly in the way they dehumanize immigrant communities. It’s a disgrace for any leader - much less a president - to target minority communities. Lying that immigrants are “eating cats and dogs” and are supposedly “poisoning the blood” of the nation are echoes of Hitler’s playbook and world’s away from the ideals of a poem that once symbolized a “nation of immigrants” embracing people “yearning to breathe free.”
In response to Leavitt's babyish statement, Glucksmann took to Twitter to reiterate his original remark with even more clarity and conviction. Undoubtedly, Leavitt's juvenile reaction only served to reinforce Glucksmann's point, highlighting the stark contrast between thoughtful discourse and petty provocations that are emblematic of Trump maladministration of cowards who think a nation of immigrants too “woke” for their backward-ass distortions of the world.
As usual, MAGAts “own” themselves as their antics unintentionally validate the very criticisms they seek to undermine.
Glucksmann wrote,
Dear Americans,
Since the White House press secretary is attacking me today, I wanted to tell you this:
1. Our two people are intimately linked by History, the blood we shed and the passion for freedom we share, a passion symbolized by this Statue that was offered to the United States by France to honor your glorious Revolution.
2. As the press secretary for this shameful Administration said: without your nation, France would have "spoken German." In my case, it goes further: I would simply not be here if hundreds of thousands of young Americans had not landed on our beaches in Normandy.
3. Our gratitude to these heroes and their sacrifices is therefore eternal.
4. But the America of these heroes fought against tyrants, it did not flatter them. It was the enemy of fascism, not the friend of Putin. It helped the resistance and didn't attack Zelensky.
5. It celebrated science and didn't fire researchers for using banned words. It welcomed the persecuted and didn't target them.
It was far, so far from what your current President does, says, and embodies.
6. This America, faithful to the wonderful words inscribed on the Statue of Liberty, your America, is worth so much more than the betrayal of Ukraine and Europe, xenophobia, or obscurantism.
7. We all in Europe love this nation to which we know we owe so much. It will rise again. You will rise again. We are counting on you.
8. And it is precisely because I am petrified by Trump’s betrayal that I said yesterday in a rally that we could symbolically take back the Statue of Liberty if your government despised everything it symbolizes in your eyes, ours, and those of the world.
It was a wake up call.
9. No one, of course, will come and steal the Statue of Liberty.
The statue is yours. But what it embodies belongs to everyone.
And if the free world no longer interests your government, then we will take up the torch, here in Europe.
10. Until we meet again in the fight for freedom and dignity, we will be the continuators of our shared history and the protectors of our treasure: more than a statue of copper and steel, the freedom it symbolizes.
As I write this, Karoline Leavitt has yet to respond, but I’m sure she’s sharpening the usual tediously infantile MAGAt retort rather than take a moment to really ponder the contrast between Trump's policies and the ideals symbolized by the Statue of Liberty and Emma Lazarus's poem.
Particularly heartbreaking is the statement, “if the free world no longer interests your government, then we will take up the torch, here in Europe.”
No longer a touchstone, in an America degraded by MAGAts, “The New Colossus” has become a statement of irony and symbol for how far we’ve fallen.
It’s just 60 days into this abomination of an administration and Trump has already done so much damage to our nation and our standing in the world, we will be digging ourselves out of it for generations.
Let’s not forget that 31.5% of the voting population inflicted this madness on us. Trump may have received more votes than Harris of the 60% of registered voters who turned out on Election Day, but only slightly. Including third party candidates, more people voted against the con man than for him, so he does not have the “popular vote,” no matter how many times he repeats it. Trump, Musk and MAGAts do not have anything near a mandate to destroy democracy and America’s once-good name around the world. So, the only question that remains should be, how much longer are we going to take it, people? How much longer?
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LUUUUUV your essays Tara, the spice, the verve, the Everything of them!!!! Thank you!!!!