Political leaders must tamp down Twitter tirades
The president of the United States should not be weighing in on conspiracy theories being flung around social media, especially when they involve private citizens. Most certainly such irresponsible rhetoric should be muzzled at this time of heightened national tension and anxiety.
On Tuesday, several days after a 75-year-old protester, Martin Gugino, was seen being pushed to the ground by two Buffalo police officers and lay bleeding on the pavement, President Trump took to Twitter to float a theory.
“Buffalo protester shoved by Police could be an ANTIFA provocateur,” Trump tweeted. “75 year old Martin Gugino was pushed away after appearing to scan police communications in order to black out the equipment. @OANN I watched, he fell harder than was pushed. Was aiming scanner. Could be a set up?”
The tweet was shared more than 155,000 times and made its way into the news cycle.
This messaging from the commander-in-chief erodes faith in his ability to conduct himself in a tempered manner and justifiably has citizens of this country wondering just where exactly the president’s mind is when we so crucially need him concentrating on the immense challenges at hand.
Additionally, the leader of the free world should not be using his platform to bully and impugn a United States citizen. Such rhetorical assaults on public figures like Joe Scarborough are bad enough but Martin Gugino did nothing to earn Trump’s ire. Protesting and acts civil disobedience are protected under our constitution.
Likewise, other elected leaders should immediately cease stoking racial tensions for political gain.
On Thursday, Rep Joe Kennedy III tweeted, “99 years ago a white mob massacred hundreds of
Black people in the Greenwood District of Tulsa.The most racist President of my lifetime knows exactly what message he’s sending when he goes there on Juneteenth.”
The implication is that somehow Trump is celebrating the Tulsa race massacre of 1921 in which scores of black Americans were injured and killed by white rioters, which is unfounded and wildly inflammatory.
Likewise, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren did her best to stoke racial tensions, tweeting, “We saw it in Wisconsin back in April, and we saw it again yesterday in Georgia. Republicans will stop at nothing to suppress the right to vote — especially for Black communities and communities of color. This is not democracy.”
And it doesn’t end with the radical rhetoric. Americans are being encouraged to pursue violence and destruction towards those perceived as political enemies. When discussing the widespread riots that have resulted in injuries, deaths and the looting and burning of small businesses across America, Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey lectured us that, “America is burning. But that’s how forests grow.”
These incidents are not isolated. This kind of rhetoric has become normalized in our politics. The president’s Twitter feed should not be littered with incendiary nonsense and neither should the language of the others we elect to represent us.
Unfortunately when such language and messaging is cultivated year over year it seeps into the culture.
Politicians need to get better. Whether it is in the White House or Congress or our state house here in the commonwealth, or our city and town halls throughout the state, our democracy is suffering as a result of our cynical politics and shallow, opportunistic leaders.