Sydney Williams: on Anger
Anger has been a constant in American politics since the beginning. On July 11, 1804, a long and bitter feud between Vice President Aaron Burr and former Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton ended in the latter’s death by gunshot on a field in Weehawken, New Jersey. On February 6, 1858, as the House of Representatives debated the Kansas Territory’s pro-slavery Lecompton Constitution, Pennsylvania’s Republican Galusha Grow and South Carolina Democrat Laurence Keitt traded insults and then blows. On March 1, 1954 four Puerto Rican nationalists in the visitors’ gallery unfurled a Puerto Rican flag and opened fire on members of Congress, wounding five. When heated political dialogue becomes angry words (or worse), the nation loses. The 1960s were angry years, fed by opponents and proponents of Civil Rights and an unpopular war in Southeast Asia. We are living through another period where anger has become pervasive and political extremism has made the middle way a difficult passage.
We are in a summer of discontent, made inhospitable by Covid-19, an economic depression and unprecedented hatred for the President of the United States. Political extremism has always been around, but usually on the fringes. Joseph McCarthy, George Wallace and Lester Maddox once represented right-wing extremists, just as Henry Wallace and George McGovern did on the left. (George Wallace and Maddox were both Democrats, but extreme rightwing in their views). However, they were all marginalized by the far larger center-right and center-left parts of their respective Parties. That is no longer the case. Bernie Sanders, an avowed Socialist, is contributing to the Democrat platform. Like a mutating cell infected with a virus, the country has been dividing and separating, creating extremists on both ends.
Anger is defined as strong feelings of annoyance, displeasure and hostility. Anger can be a positive force when used with deliberation. Colin Powell once said, “Get mad, then get over it.” It is when anger emanate from hatred and its manifestations devolve into violence that should concern us. The killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25th spawned understandable protests across the United States, but which rose to incoherent violence in some cities and the rebirth of the Black Lives Matter and Antifa movements. Corporations, schools and colleges were quick to demonstrate their “wokeness.” What that exactly meant is of less interest to them than in how they are perceived. If you aren’t “woke,” you are racist. The lockdown of the economy in response to COVID-19 has made inner cities tinder boxes, with demonstrators protesting government edicts that violate rights to assemble, especially in places of worship.
While rioters call for defunding police, murder rates in the Country’s fifty largest cities have risen 24% through July. Disrespect for law enforcement has abetted property destruction. A July 27 editorial in the Wall Street Journal headlined “A Weekend of Urban Anarchy,” spoke to assaults on public and private property in the cities of Seattle; Portland, Oregon, Louisville, Kentucky; New York; Atlanta, and Baltimore. “Lawlessness begets lawlessness, and in recent weeks we’ve seen reports of vigilantes and far-right activists joining the melee from Richmond to Philadelphia. Local officials are allowing this to happen, and the more it is indulged the worse it is likely to get.” Legal restrictions imposed by the Seattle City Council banning the use of pepper spray caused Carmen Best, Chief of the Seattle Police Department to issue a statement in which she said that in order to protect her officers, she would have an “adjusted deployment” in response to any demonstrations that threaten private property. She would not place her officers at risk, with them unable to respond.
Second quarter GDP numbers showed a preliminary decrease of 32.9% (down 9.5% from the same quarter a year ago), the worst quarterly GDP report on record. Fear of COVID-19 had employed government politicians and bureaucrats order businesses to close, creating unemployment; they urged people to stay home, regardless of economic costs. Their actions were supported by employed media workers. If we persist on this path, more lives will be destroyed, perhaps not by the coronavirus, but by poverty, isolation, bankruptcies, increased drug usage and suicide. Ironically, one of the worst performing sectors during the quarter was the health industry, led by a halt in elective surgeries, fewer cancer screens and less heart monitoring. Government spending cannot make up the difference. No federal or state agency can replicate the efficiency of the free market, comprised of billions of decisions by millions of people. As a nation, we should ensure that the most vulnerable are protected from COVID-19, while encouraging the rest to act responsibly and allow the economy to recover. It is little wonder that the response to the virus, which has been largely political, has given rise to frustration, leading to anger.
Mainstream media would have us believe that this anger is the fault of the mercurial Mr. Trump, but, in truth, it did not begin with him. The “Billy Goat” behavior of President Clinton angered those who felt he had tarnished the Presidency. The invasion of Iraq by President George W. Bush was based on allegations that Saddam Hussein harbored weapons of mass destruction. When no such weapons were found, opponents became angered. The IRS targeting of conservatives, lies about Benghazi, Fast and Furious and cash sent to Iran were scandals that enveloped the Obama Administration and angered those who felt they had been snookered. Nevertheless, the vitriol then did not reach levels seen today.
Anger is a tool of the inarticulate and bubbles to the surface when reason is absent. Hatred for Donald Trump is ubiquitous; his personality and his promise to “drain the swamp” that links lobbyists to government employees has led to anger towards him. Hatred for those whose political opinions do not coincide with ours has led to anger toward our neighbors. Hatred for our Country is a consequence of dubious claims that “systemic” racism is rampant in the United States.
Lost in this anger is an appreciation for how rare is the freedom that was the promise of our Founders more than two centuries ago. As a nation, we are a work-in-progress, but the foundation on which our liberties are built is solid, if we can keep them, as Benjamin Franklin admonished. While some are born into wealthy, two-parent loving families and others have obstacles to overcome, every person born in this Country is privileged. Where else in the world would one have equivalent opportunities?
The purpose of government is not to give everyone an easy life. It is to provide the infrastructure that keeps people safe from enemies without and oppressors within – safe to be free and independent, to enact and execute laws that protect property and persons, to ensure against those who misuse power, whether political or economic and to give each person the opportunity through education to improve their lot. Education is the crucible where ideas germinate and tolerance is formed. As former U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch (R- UT) wrote recently in the Wall Street Journal, “Restoring intellectual honesty to our universities is key to rebuilding credibility in the expert class.” So true. Let calm replace anger, so Aristotle’s fool gains wisdom.
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