What did you expect? It’s the Boy Scouts and it’s Donald Trump


The big annual event for the Boy Scouts is the Jamboree and this year they invited Donald Trump. Rather than deliver the uplifting bromides that are the usual fare at events like this, Donald Trump gave the 30,000 assembled scouts what sounded like his usual political rally speech, boasting about his election victory and ridiculing his opponents, drawing whoops and boos from the assembled scouts as they responded enthusiastically.

This has naturally upset some parents. But I am not surprised. What did they expect from this narcissist? Give him a large audience and, irrespective of their age or the nature of the occasion, he immediately goes into his campaign mode. The Boy Scouts, unlike their Girl Scout counterparts, are a pretty reactionary organization, having to be dragged into the modern era when it comes to social issues like equal rights for the LGBT community. Trump probably felt that these were the kind of people who come to his rallies and behaved accordingly.

Comments

  1. says

    Presumably they kept him away from the girl scouts so he wouldn’t grab any of them. You can get away with that when you’re president.

  2. jrkrideau says

    Lieutenant General Robert Baden-Powell, would not have been impressed. He was a bit dubious at times, some stories about him were umm-yes but not nothing like Harry Flashman..

    He seems to have done his best for his boys and girls and would have been horrified to have a politician making some slimy speech to them. The King, of course.

    According to the Wiki I looked at, I could not tell how sexist he was but he and his sister formed the Girl Guides in 1910.

  3. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    What I want to know is what will the Boy Scouts do when the first woman president is elected? Currently the BSA’s bylaws make the sitting POTUS the nominal head of the organization (though in practice the title is honorary). Yet they ban women and freaked out over the idea that trans kids might want to participate in scouting. I don’t know if they’ve done it recently, but one Eagle Scout I know was told not to come to a reunion because as long as she doesn’t attend scouting events, the BSA could pretend that she doesn’t exist and/or hadn’t transitioned, but if she showed up to a reunion they’d be “forced” to revoke her Eagle Scout certificate or merit badge or whatever it is that makes you officially an eagle scout.

    Boorishly sexist presidents are one thing. They are still on board with the sexism after all. Presidents that make hash of the gender absolutism of the BSA? The boorishness of (or lack thereof in) any woman or trans president would be irrelevant; I suspect that chances are 50/50 that president would never get an invite to speak to the annual Jamboree.

  4. hyphenman says

    @ CDRRFFODHH No. 3

    I’m one of the Eagle Scouts who returned his medal back in 2012 over the issue of banning homosexuals in scouting.

    Please tell your friend that scouts who honor the oath would never think of behaving so dishonorably as to consider revoking an Eagle’s medal in this way.

    What did your friend decide to do about the reunion?

    Cheers,

    Jeff Hess
    Have Coffee Will Write

  5. fusilier says

    jkrideau@2

    Dan Beard, were he still with us, would have cut the mic and use a canoe paddle in an … unapproved … fashion on that pitiful excuse for a human face. Although he founded the BSA, he withdrew from the organization in protest over the militarization during WWI.*

    fusilier

    James 2:24

    *citation definitely needed, sorry.

  6. timberwoof says

    hyphenman, good on you. I recall a speech made at an Eagle-making: Once an Eagle, always an Eagle. My brother was denied his Eagle because he was not a member of the sponsoring church. There’s so much wrong with the system.

    When Hitler banned independent German scouting organizations, the scouts burned down their camps rather than let the Nazis co-opt them. In the United States, the Boy Scouts have managed to obtain governmental support that they are the only official “Scouting” organization and they do all they can to discourage independent Scouting. Hmmm.

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