• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, June 8, 2020

The 76^th anniversary of World War II’s Normandy invasion, known as D-Day, was Saturday, June 6.

Last year, there was more celebration than normal, given that it was the 75^th anniversary. For some reason, we consider 25, 50 and 75 years to be the big milestones for celebrating events like weddings, assassinations and invasions.

We even attach precious metals and gems to those milestones: silver, gold and diamond, respectively.

Of course, all of us are a lot more preoccupied this year with the twin crises of the pandemic and the social-justice protest movement that was sparked by the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis two weeks ago.

But remembering D-Day — June 6, 1944 — is no less important this year than it was last year. It was the invasion that led to the defeat of Nazi Germany less than a year later.

And it provides a great lesson in leadership, as the Lincoln Project reminded Americans over the weekend with the release of a new video.

It juxtaposes the bold, selfless leadership style of Dwight Eisenhower, future president and the U.S. general and Allied Commander who oversaw invasion plans, and the bombastic non-leadership we’ve received from Trump over the last three years.

The video recounts how Ike penned an address before the invasion, taking full responsibility in the event that it failed, which fortunately it didn’t. The blame, he wrote, would be “mine alone.” That’s contrasted with scenes of Trump sputtering at a recent press conference that he took no responsibility “at all” for one of the federal government’s pandemic miscues.

“Isn’t it time America returned to a new kind of leadership?” the narrator asks at the end of the video.

Last week, the Lincoln Project, dedicated to defeating Trump in November, called him out for the cowardly way he dispersed peaceful demonstrators in Washington so he could get a photo op in front of a church. Hopefully, the conservative group is striking a chord with at least some in the minority who voted Trump into office in 2016.