6/27/18: After only seventeen months in office, President Trump has discovered a human rights issue that he cares to address.
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“Greensboro
lunch counter moment” for Team Trump
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You are probably asking yourself, “Well, Mr. Blogger, what issue could that be? Does the Tin Man without a heart now admit it is cruel to tear young children away from parents at the southern border?”
No.
“Aha!” you are thinking. “It must be that the Trump administration is going to stand up for victims of repressive regimes around the world. Good job, Mr. Trump, this has always been what America – in its finest moments – is about!”
No.
“Okay,” you are thinking, “perhaps Trump realizes he should have been tougher on Kim Jong-un when it came to human rights! Yes. That must be it!” The president has to have spent more time studying the horrors perpetrated by Kim’s regime. He must realize he has to do whatever he can to help the 120,000 political prisoners currently held in the North Korea gulag! And he has thought about what he said. He told reporters Kim had a “great personality,” and he was “funny,” and he “loves his people.” Now Trump is ready to admit he sounded like a fool!
Not even close.
The Trump administration finally had its “Greensboro lunch counter” moment last week when the Red Hen restaurant in Lexington, Virginia, kicked Sarah Huckabee Sanders to the curb. She and her family did enjoy a free cheese plate before the owner bounced them out. With that, the president took a stand. If Stephanie Wilkinson, the restaurant owner, wanted to protest the policies of the Trump administration, suddenly the president realized he wanted to be counted among those who stood up in the cause of humanity. The cause of civil rights would have a mighty champion in the White House. It was time for a return to “civility,” Trump said.
Consider the hypocrisy of this call for “civility” from Trump
and his crew. They don’t care if children get locked up on the border. They
don’t care if African Americans get gunned down wrongly by police. They do care
if the White House Press Secretary can’t finish her glass of wine in peace.
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Trump supporters defending Sarah Sanders by vilifying gays. |
The most cursory study of Trump’s Twitter feed reveals how regularly he employs uncivil language. Hiding behind the seal of the President of the United States, he uses the “bully pulpit” to bully foes. Like all good haters, he’s a master of dehumanization. Sometimes, he vilifies entire groups. Immigrants are always criminals of some type, “murders,” “rapists” or “members of MS-13.” They want to “invade” our country. They “infest” our land. These aren’t human beings. These are bugs, worthy of being stepped on, crushed or shot.
Trump has the vast power of the federal government behind him and like any bully, loves to punch down. His foes never disagree with him on principle. Sen. John Tester of Montana is not dishonest. He’s “sick.” Peter Strzok, the F.B.I. agent so much in the news, is in Trump’s mind a “sick loser.” Former F.B.I. Director James Comey is “very sick or very dumb.” The “Fake News” people have a “sick” agenda. President Obama was a “Bad (or sick) guy” when he tapped the phones at Trump Tower.
No evidence of tapping was ever found.
There’s a whiff of Hitler in what he tweets and says.
The crude insults pollute Trump’s dialogue and stink up his Twitter feed. The instincts of the bully are consistently on display. Mary Kissel, a columnist for the Wall Street Journal, is “a major loser.” Sometimes, Trump employs a demeaning descriptor, “Liddle,” as in “Liddle Bob Corker,” applied to a Republican senator and frequent critic. Mort Zuckerman, owner of the New York Daily News, is “little Morty,” and a “loser.” Like the meanest kid in your seventh-grade class, Trump will insult the physical appearance of others or their intellectual gifts. He called a Miss Universe contestant who gained fifteen pounds a “pig.” Reporters who don’t fawn are subject to attack. You have “really dumb” Cheri Jacobs and Don Lemon, “the dumbest man on television.” S. E. Cupp is “one of the dumber pundits on TV. Hard to watch, no talent.” In one tweet, Trump nails two critics at once, “Crazy Joe Scarborough and dumb as a rock Mika.”
He probably can’t spell Mika’s last name (Brzezinski) and he’s too slothful intellectually to look it up.
The more you examine Trump’s attacks, the more you realize how dangerous they are. When this petty bully is angry, and he’s often angry, he employs the worst kind of language to degrade foes.
Trump isn’t just uncivil.
There’s a whiff of Hitler in what he tweets and says. For that reason, the reporter, Mary Kissel, gets hammered when Trump re-tweets a supporter who refers to Kissel as that “POS WSJ LIAR FANTASY PUNDIT.” Think about that. Kissel isn’t a reporter doing a job. The President of the United States isn’t interested in the First Amendment. He’s not a champion of a free press. He’s calling a critic a piece of shit. Trump’s enemies are never human. The worst dictators have all understood this drill. Reporters for Politico, Trump insists, are “pure scum.” Journalists who criticize him in any way are “basic scum” and “enemies of the American people [emphasis added here and below].” During a campaign rally on Monday the president referred to Stephen Colbert, a late-night comedian, as a “lowlife.”
You can’t compare Trump or any other politician to Hitler
until they turn on the gas. You can say Trump has the instincts. He’s a hater, as
was the German psychopath. When it comes to the accused in court, not generally
the most sympathetic lot, we see how low Trump is ready to go. Trump never
doubts that those accused are guilty and always howls in favor of the
harshest punishment. In 2013 he reacted angrily to news reports of teens
randomly attacking people on the streets: “The scum that gets high on
badly hurting old ladies and others through knockout assaults wouldn’t feel
that way with a gun at their head!” But we’ve seen too much evidence that the
“scum” on the streets often turn out to be innocent young African American men
who get gunned down by police and armed citizens too quick to shoot.
When it comes to those accused of crimes, Trump carries dehumanization to an extreme. “Did you hear they caught those animals who killed that lawyer in the mall parking lot? That is great news!” he tweeted in 2013.
Animals, scum, lowlifes. It’s the language of hate. Nazi leaders referred to Jews as “vermin,” and by dehumanizing them, helped make the unthinkable thinkable. In 1942 the governor of Idaho called Japanese Americans – all of them – “rats.” That type of rhetoric allowed the U.S. government to get away with detaining 110,000 human beings, including 77,000 U.S. citizens, because their humanity had been obscured.
Trump is always ready to play up the hate. Knowing many of his supporters are offended by Black Lives Matter, Candidate Trump, and later President Trump made no effort to bridge the gap. He knows that more than a few members of his base have hoods and sheets. Trump appealed to the worst that was in their hearts. “How come there are no protests in favor of the two young police officers gunned down in Mississippi by two deranged animals,” he asked during his campaign.
What did Candidate Trump demand? “DEATH PENALTY!” he shouted on Twitter, in all caps.
The problem with referring to criminals as animals, isn’t just that it makes inhuman behavior toward them acceptable.
The second issue is that not all “criminals” are guilty.
You don’t want to rush to execute an innocent human being.
(See: 3/27/18, 6/2/18 and 4/20/19.)
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