Skeptics say political unity likely to be brief
Democrats and Republicans preached unity after yesterday’s shooting, but longtime political observers are predicting the rare “Kumbaya” moment will soon return to the usual Washington vitriol, backstabbing and polarization.
“Shouldn’t we be optimists for a day or two, certainly while the victims are recovering?” said University of Virginia professor Larry Sabato.
“There’s always a chance that hearts of stone will turn back to flesh and blood. Call me next Monday and I’ll probably be a pessimist again. We’ve been through this so many times, and everybody’s on their best behavior for a short while. Then it’s back to the unpleasant normal,” Sabato said.
A rare spirit of bipartisan harmony graced Capitol Hill yesterday as members of the Democratic baseball team prayed for the wounded Republican players. Both parties stood up and cheered when House Speaker Paul Ryan vowed that “an attack on one of us is an attack on all of us.”
And President Trump in an address to the nation from the White House urged Americans to “cherish those you love” and “remember those who serve.”
“We may have our differences, but we do well in times like these to remember that everyone who serves in our nation’s capital is here because, above all, they love our country. ... We are strongest when we are unified and when we work together for the common good.”
But skeptics doubted that even the shooting of one of their own will convince Washington politicians to ratchet down highly charged political rhetoric.
“We’re going to forget about it in a week or two, sadly,” said Erin O’Brien, a political science professor at the University of Massachusetts Boston. “I wish this were a turning point. ... But nothing changed from the Gabby Giffords shooting, so I don’t know that this would be different.”
Giffords, then an Arizona U.S. representative, was shot and seriously injured — and six others were killed — at a constituent meeting just outside Tucson in 2011.
U.S. Rep. Martha McSally, an Arizona Republican who now holds Giffords’ seat and was the target of threats from a Tucson man who was arrested earlier this year, said she “represents a district that knows well the effects of attacks on members of Congress.”
But she urged unity and described a closed-door Congressional meeting yesterday morning shortly after the shooting where Democrats and Republicans held hands and prayed together.
“The enemy is out there. The enemy is not amongst us,” McSally told reporters. “It can serve as a wakeup call for all us to think about how we are engaging each other. There is a moment for us to unite like we did in that room.”
The suspect, James T. Hodgkinson of Belleville, Ill., appears to have posted anti-Trump sentiments on social media and was a volunteer on the presidential campaign of Vermont U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, who said he was “sickened” by the “despicable act.”
O’Brien, the UMass professor, blamed a variety of factors for the unending political crudeness: President Trump, politicians trying to fire up their more extreme bases, the Twittersphere, and voters consuming only the news that reinforces their ideological view.
“Politicians have a responsibility to push back,” O’Brien said. “If getting shot at doesn’t make them do a gut check on what the ugliness of political discourse means, then I don’t know what will.”
GOP consultant Dave Carney said even an infusion of decorum won’t fix Washington gridlock.
“There’s a potential of being more polite and more cordial,” said Carney. “But in terms of everyone saying, ‘OK, let’s get together and fix health care, let’s reform taxes’ — that’s crazy.”