HAVE YOU NO DECENCY?
by Cash Michaels
The lifeless bodies of 67 passengers after the collision of American Eagle Flight 5342 and a Black Hawk Army helicopter were still floating in the icy Potomac River of Washington DC last week, when President Donald J. Trump took to the White House press room lectern, and blamed the tragedy on Democrats, presidents Obama and Biden specifically, and the federal government’s diversity, equity and inclusion policies that include even the handicapped.
Rep. Alma Adams called Trump’s remarks “disgraceful.”
David Sanger of The New York Times aptly reported :
Mr. Trump’s instant focus on diversity reflected his instinct to frame major events through his political or ideological lens, whether the facts fit or not. It is something he has done before….often detached from facts and analysis.”
Prime example, direct from Trump’s executive order outlawing DEI in federal agencies:
“[DEI policies] …undermine our national unity, as they deny, discredit, and undermine the traditional American values of hard work, excellence, and individual achievement in favor of an unlawful, corrosive, and pernicious identity-based spoils system.”
Late Show host Stephen Colbert found a definite pattern to Trump’s penchant for madness when the president was asked at the press conference following the crash why blame diversity, equity and inclusion policies:
“Because I have common sense, OK?” The hatemonger-in-chief replied.
“Trump “blames everything on DEI, it’s his only game,” Colbert added, according to Buzzfeed. “The horrific fire sweeping through Los Angeles, DEI in the fire department. Violence in America, DEI in the police departments. Grocery prices, DEI chickens…”
As preposterous and racist as that seems, I’m not going to spend precious more time and space here blasting Trump for his beyond psychotic views on DEI. I did that last week, so my position on it is very clear.
But I must remark on Trump’s cold-bloodedness, and his permission slip to the rest of America to be just like him in times of national tragedy.
Mindless. Heartless. Petty. Careless. Cruel. Calculating.
Trump’s stupefying remarks in the immediate aftermath of the Reagan National Airport disaster were flares to his MAGA followers that this is the kind of America you wanted, well, this is the kind of America you now have!
Clearly, Trump’s behavior was atypical of what decent Americans have come to expect in times of national sorrow and crisis.
The mark of a good leader is that in times of crisis, you lead, you set the example for others to follow! First you help define the depth of pain the country must be feeling so that everyone is on the same page, and then you lead your constituents in that grieving.
Bill Clinton was a master at this after the domestic terrorist attack on the Federal Building in Oklahoma City in April 1995 which killed 168, and injured more than 680, the second deadliest in US history.
To this day, conservatives accuse Clinton of exploiting that attack for political gain, but tell that to the victims’ families Clinton spent time with and consoled in the aftermath. You’ll recall, his presidency was in the crapper until that attack, and then the nation saw a leader who cared and embraced tearful loved ones in their deepest, darkest hour of need.
Say what you want about Bill Clinton’s motives. The human decency he displayed during that horrific episode in American history will never be forgotten.
The same with Republican Pres. George W. Bush in the aftermath of the Sept. 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks. Going to New York City, and standing amid the rubble of the World Trade Center with courageous NYC firefighters, vowing to find the terrorists responsible and bring them to justice, bought Bush enormous bipartisan good will that he later squandered, but the power of his fighting words and imagery momentarily brought stunned Americans together, and that will always be remembered.
And of course, the visible outrage and grief of Pres. Barack Obama in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy in Newtown, Conn.. where on December 14, 2012, a gunman walked in and slaughtered 27, most of whom were young, defenseless children.
No, Obama didn’t play politics with that dark tragedy, but he understandably tried to leverage it to get a Republican-led Congress to pass more gun-control legislation, which it ultimately didn’t.
Like a broken record three years later when a white supremacist murdered nine black prayer group members at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, SC during a meeting, Obama again wore his torn heart of his sleeve as he not only spoke at the mass funeral, but actually and famously sang “Amazing Grace” to lead the nation in sorrow.
In each case, the president of the United States, in times of immense tragedy, helped to heal the wounds of a troubled and saddened nation. You can argue their motives (after all, these are politicians we’re talking about here, and in the case of Clinton and Obama, particularly gifted ones). But you can’t argue with the end results - in leading by example during moments of national pain and tragedy, these leaders brought the nation together.
In his heartless remarks as people were losing their homes to rampaging fires in California weeks ago, and certainly in the aftermath of the Reagan National Airport catastrophe last week, not only did Donald Trump use these opportunities to, again, display a remarkable inhumanity that has become his trademark since his controversial days as a New York City real estate tycoon, but also model for his nation of MAGA followers what their everyday default behaviors should be - blame anything and everything bad on your enemies, regardless of whether it’s true or not.
Trump wants a nation of followers who see the world through his twisted mind. That means he has to rebuild America in his image, make people not just understand his way of living, but embrace it, and accept what comes with it.
That also means he has to leverage every tragedy for political advantage, this way the uninitiated will come around to his way of thinking eventually.
This isn’t new. Republicans have been doing it for decades. But Trump has raised it to a different, more lethal art form because he wants to see his enemies - perceived and otherwise - crushed and destroyed.
Look at what he did as soon as he was sworn back into office - remove the Secret Service security detail from some of his former administration officials-turned-critics like Dr. Anthony Fauci and Mike Pompeo. Trump said it point blank - he doesn’t care what happens to them, knowing their lives have been threatened since leaving government.
That’s how ruthless dictators behave, not principled presidents of the United States.
Wonder how Trump’s friends in the right -wing clergy, like Rev. Franklin Graham or Rev. Lorenzo Sewell feel about their leader’s anti-christian behavior of late?
The bottomline here is that those who voted to elect Trump president again are getting what they wanted, and don’t give a flip what the rest of us think. That means no matter what happens from now on, as long as Trump remains in office, there is no possibility of him bringing this country together, unless those of us who didn’t vote for him also commit to a senseless mantra of hatred that really benefits only one person.
It’s a well known fact that Trump loves conflict, especially when he causes it. It’s his best weapon to keep everyone off balance and distracted while he does his dirty work, like true criminal.
So the question for the president and his MAGA followers is this: “Have you no decency?”
And the answer from them is quite simple.
“What for? Decency is for suckers and losers, not folks who live to destroy their enemies one day.”
This is what you voted for America! Live with it!
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