Writing on a Dirty Slate
Reciting Trump’s parade of horribles doesn’t take long. He has picked a fight with professional football players, most of them African- American. We believe he did so largely to provoke racial animosity toward them, and by extension African-Americans generally, by his base supporters. He equated people protesting discrimination with white supremacists and neo-Nazis. Trump’s attitude toward African-American protesters borders on contempt. Before a national television audience that undoubtedly included many children, he called the players “sons of bitches,” though he’d earlier excused white supremacist protesters as “fine people.” He targeted Muslim countries with a travel ban several lower federal courts found unconstitutional. He disrespected Gold Star Families. The list seems endless and grows daily.
Reciting Trump’s parade of horribles doesn’t take long. He has picked a fight with professional football players, most of them African- American. We believe he did so largely to provoke racial animosity toward them, and by extension African-Americans generally, by his base supporters. He equated people protesting discrimination with white supremacists and neo-Nazis. Trump’s attitude toward African-American protesters borders on contempt. Before a national television audience that undoubtedly included many children, he called the players “sons of bitches,” though he’d earlier excused white supremacist protesters as “fine people.” He targeted Muslim countries with a travel ban several lower federal courts found unconstitutional. He disrespected Gold Star Families. The list seems endless and grows daily.
Trump’s
conduct goes far beyond possible illegality and crassness. His behavior has inflamed racial passions in
the nation and the body politic. His
followers now find free reign to act immorally and irresponsibly on racial
matters. White evangelicals remain loyal
to him, despite his public vulgarity and racial dog whistling, perhaps because
of it. No political restraint exists on
Trump and nothing compels him to hide his racism. Trump shows no sign of a moral compass on
racial division, making him either immoral or the ultimate cynic. Regardless, the country suffers from having a
man in the White House who further divides an already fractured nation.
Doing Better Nothing ordains this circumstance. American political leaders have exhibited leadership that heals racial divisions. On the tense night of April 4, 1968, Robert Kennedy stood on a flatbed truck in the heart of the ghetto in Indianapolis and announced Martin Luther King’s murder. In what some see as one of the great political speeches ever, Kennedy asked blacks who might seek revenge against whites for King‘s murder to remember that his brother also had been killed “by a white man.” Kennedy ended his six minute speech by telling the crowd that what America needed at the time was “love and understanding and compassion toward one another.” Significantly, while many cities burned that night, Indianapolis remained calm.
During the
2008 general election, a woman at a town hall meeting in Minnesota said to Republican
Presidential nominee John McCain she couldn’t trust Democratic nominee Barak
Obama because he was “an Arab.” McCain took
the microphone and told the woman Obama wasn’t an “Arab,” but “a decent family
man, citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental
issues and that’s what this campaign is all about.” Trump didn’t take his cue from the nominee of
his party. He instead embarked on a shameful,
multi-year campaign questioning Obama’s legitimacy as a native born American
citizen eligible to serve as President.
As Kennedy
and McCain demonstrated, American politicians do not always live in a cesspool
fouled by the stench of racial and cultural bigotry and grievance. They can rise to the occasion. Some get it
right, at least some of the time. We see
this as another time for national statesmanship.
A Blueprint Men and women seeking office in 2018,
in response to the bankrupt racial and cultural politics of the Trump era, should
at least pledge the following:
1. Never equate any group or individual
claiming racial supremacy with those protesting injustice and discrimination.
That distinguishes America from so many other countries and truly would make
America great.
2. Recognize that peaceful protest
represents the highest form of patriotism.
After all, unlike many other rights Americans exercise, the constitution
specifically and unequivocally spells out that one.
3. Express and exhibit a willingness to confront
racial, ethnic, and religious differences with frank, respectful dialogue that
neither patronizes people nor sugarcoats differences.
4. Understand that civility and respect
for people demonstrate strength and character, not weakness or timidity (and
not what’s derisively called “political correctness”).
5. Study the history of racism and
racial discord in America for enlightenment, recognizing that such inquiry need
not breed guilt or resentment.
6. Treat anyone who has lost a loved
one, especially in service to the nation, with the utmost respect and dignity
and not as a political weapon.
7. Remember that what’s past is prologue
and those who fail to learn from history’s mistakes are doomed to repeat them.
We could (and perhaps should) put other things on this list. The comprehensiveness of the list, however, is not the point. If the next President and other national leaders work at the items on this list, or one like it, America will become a better place and wake up from its current nightmare.
Don’t you
think so?
