We are better than this.
America is better than this.
We are better than a president who incites his fans in campaign rallies to “punch” protesters and chant “lock her up.”
We are better than a president who can’t call for unity for more than a two or three breaths before he begins to scold Democratic opponents and blame the press for what he falsely calls “fake news.”
Most of all, we are better than the hate and bigotry and meanness that we’ve allowed him to elicit from us – one by one – as he dragged us down into the mud with him.
It didn’t begin with his presidency, or even his campaigning. But, after years of whipping up conflict on reality TV, he put America’s divisive insecurities on a stage and spiked them with steroids.
But the president’s act has consequences.
Unintended ones, no doubt, but consequences nonetheless.
This week at least 10 pipe bombs have been discovered at, or en route to, the homes or offices of a number of progressive Democrats who have been critical of Trump and who have been stridently targeted by the president in his public comments and tweets.
The devices were sent to the homes or perceived offices of former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton; former president and first lady Barack and Michelle Obama; former Vice President Joe Biden; former CIA director John Brennan; former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder; U.S. Rep and former Democratic Party chairman Debbie Wasserman Schultz; U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-California; Democratic donor George Soros, and actor Robert De Niro.
The device addressed to Brennan was delivered to the New York office of CNN, where he has appeared on news shows as a commentator. CNN is also a frequent target of the president and his devotees.
Thankfully, none of the devices detonated on their own, and no one was injured, but authorities have cautioned that there may still be some explosive packages that have not yet come to light in mail or delivery systems.
Trump at first responded appropriately – presidentially – saying at the White House, “We have to unify. We have to come together and send one clear, strong, unmistakable message that acts or threats of political violence of any kind have no place in the United States of America.”
But, like so many other times, he botched the follow-through.
Campaigning later in Wisconsin – in a moment that still should have called for humility, peace and unification – Trump drew some snickers from the crowd when he said, “By the way, do you see how nice I’m behaving tonight? Have you ever seen this?”
And he blasted the media and sent the crowd into a vulgar, anti-CNN chant.
The media has, he said, “a responsibility to set a civil tone and to stop the endless hostility and constant negative and oftentimes false attacks and stories.”
Make no mistake, folks. Someone – not Trump – but someone tried to assassinate two of our former presidents, a former presidential candidate, two congresswomen, a former CIA director, a former U.S. attorney general, a campaign donor and an actor.
Is that person deranged? Probably. Has that person, by watching our president before his brief moment of “unity” talk, had any reason to think his or her thoughts of violence should be outside the realm of normal political thinking? That’s a harder question to answer.
We are better than being manipulated by a politician’s continuing projection of “American carnage,” a phrase Donald Trump flipped out just minutes after he was sworn in as president in 2016.
We are better than falling for his taunts against fellow politicians or minorities or refugees or the media – which he has labeled “the enemy of the people” after a phrase previously used by the late Soviet revolutionary and Communist dictator Joseph Stalin.
Here are a few more choice quotes attributed to Stalin:
“Death is the solution to all problems. No man – no problem.”
“A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic.”
“It is enough that the people know there was an election. The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything.”
Chilling, huh?
We are better than this. America is better than this. We have to be.