Too late for Trump to be credible on hate
Nothing he says can make us believe him
“It’s a terrible, terrible thing what’s going on with hate in our country, frankly, and all over the world. And something has to be done.”
If the person who said that had any self-knowledge, he’d apologize for all he has done to fuel hatred in the past three years, and cancel his remaining political rallies or tone them way down. If he had any credibility, we’d believe him. But he doesn’t. There’s no way to trust what President Donald Trump says, especially on civility and reconciliation.
After the horrific Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh by a gunman shouting, “All Jews must die,” after a white supremacist who failed to break into a black church settled for killing two black people in a supermarket, after an unbalanced Trump fan mailed pipe bombs to prominent Democrats, what do we need?
Personally, I’d like as many former presidents as possible to appear together to tell us what we need to hear about America: We are not a country of violent haters. We are believers in humanity, tolerance, freedom of speech and the press, and the gift of diversity.
In their bones, they’d all know what to say, even off the cuff. And when the speechwriters did help these presidents, the words they said did not strain credulity.
Jimmy Carter meant it when he said, after helicopters crashed in the desert on their way to rescue U.S. hostages in Iran, “It was my decision to attempt the rescue operation. It was my decision to cancel it. ... The responsibility is fully my own.”
George H.W. Bush meant it when he said, after Iraq invaded Kuwait and he launched the Persian Gulf War, “I ask for your support in a decision I’ve made to stand up for what’s right and condemn what’s wrong. … America will stand by her friends.”
Bill Clinton meant it when he said, after the Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168, “We pledge to do all we can to help you heal the injured, to rebuild this city, and to bring to justice those who did this evil.”
George W. Bush meant it when he said, after the 9/11 attacks, “These acts of mass murder were intended to frighten our nation into chaos and retreat. But they have failed. ... Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America.”
Barack Obama meant it when he said, after the shooting in Tucson, Arizona, that killed six and injured thenRep. Gabby Giffords, among others, “We may not be able to stop all evil in the world, but I know that how we treat one another, that’s entirely up to us. And I believe that for all our imperfections, we are full of decency and goodness, and that the forces that divide us are not as strong as those that unite us.”
On the day teacher Christa McAuliffe and six other astronauts died in the Challenger shuttle explosion, Ronald Reagan wrote in his diary: “There is no way to describe our shock & horror.” It was not a stretch when he canceled the State of the Union address that night and told America, “Today is a day for mourning and remembering.”
Here is the dilemma: It doesn’t matter what Trump says now. No noble sentiment, no full-throated embrace of American values, will make us believe.
For the first time, I’m glad we have such a long windup to our presidential election. We’ll see Democrats start to emerge in a few weeks and maybe some Republicans as well. We can then refocus on making a future that proves the Trump years are an aberration.
So yes, it would be nice if Trump summoned the words many of us would like to hear. But they will be empty, and inevitably followed by jarring, inappropriate moments. Look at the rally in Illinois on Saturday, the same day as the Tree of Life shooting.
“It will require all of us working together to extract the hateful poison of anti-Semitism from the world,” Trump said, acknowledging the massacre. But then he said the New York stock exchange was open the day after the 9/11 attacks (in fact it didn’t reopen until Sept. 17, 2001) and warned against bowing to “sick” people. “We have our lives. We have our schedules. And nobody’s going to change it. So we’re here,” Trump told his audience. “And let’s have a good time.”