Sydney M. Williams : “Will Cooler Heads Prevail?”
Sadly, we have moved away from the concept of a legislature deliberating, and respectively (and reflectively) debating what is in the best interest of Americans. The metaphor of the squeaky wheel getting the grease is more fitting in an atmosphere where the disenchanted or ‘victims’ take to the streets. This past summer’s Antifa and BLM protests turned into destructive and lethal riots in cities across the country. Last week’s riot, which emanated from a giant Trump rally, reached a crescendo when dozens of Trump supporters (and perhaps others) stormed the U.S. Capitol.
Why has this happened? In August 2014, Ashley Parker, writing on the front page of the New York Times, noted: “A generation ago, here in the Senate Dining Room, Mike Mansfield, a Democrat of Montana and majority leader, and George Aiken, a Republican of Vermont, met most mornings to have breakfast together, a scene almost unimaginable in today’s polarized climate.” Now, six and a half years later, polarization has worsened into a hyper-partisanship that is probably the worse since the pre-Civil War days. It is not only politicians and extremists who face diametrical opposition, families and friends have become isolated because of political differences.
The question is why? The United States has never been wealthier or militarily more powerful. Soldiers have been brought home from, seemingly endless, overseas wars. More young people are in college than ever before and now women outnumber men on campuses. Poverty has declined. Employment and incomes for minorities reached record levels a year ago, and the segregation of the 1950s is a distant memory. The nation has become energy independent for the first time since 1957, according to the Institute for Energy Independence. Government and industry, working together created a vaccine in record time. Why is there no effort to look at what has been done correctly, and then build on mutual successes, rather than focusing on grievances? Perhaps it is an excess of leisure time? Perhaps the ubiquity of the internet, social media, C-SPAN and 24-hour-news no longer allow time for reflection.
As partisanship intensifies, hope for reconciliation fades. Calls for unity and healing are offset by acts of retribution and division. We see it in Washington, and I see it in responses to my essays. Democrats have used identity politics, as a means to reach out to minorities and women. However, by their nature, identity politics, which serve to divide, are racist and sexist. Universities, media and big tech companies have exorcised conservative speech.
Amidst this maelstrom, the Presidential Inaugural Committee announced their theme, one badly needed: America United. We can only hope this time unity takes traction. Every president’s inaugural has made similar requests, including President Trump’s, yet disunity continues to rise. Mr. Biden faces opposition to unity from his own party. Both Senator Chuck Schumer and House Leader Nancy Pelosi have called for the invocation of the 25th Amendment or the impeachment of Mr. Trump. Do they believe that such actions will help unify the nation, when there is a week to Inaugural? Mr. Trump will be gone on January 20. It was his acts of self-destruction that caused Republicans to lose the Senate and that will tarnish his legacy. The small number of rioters who invaded the Capitol did more harm to Mr. Trump and the Republican Party than did four years of persistent Democrat opposition. Kimberly Strassel put it well in last Friday’s Wall Street Journal: “The pity is that Mr. Trump’s conflagration will mostly harm the Americans he went to Washington to help. They will bear the higher taxes, the higher costs of regulation, the higher unemployment, the loss of freedoms.” Is piling on in his last days the way to mollify the 74 million Americans who voted for him in November?
A few readers have told me that they are so incensed by Mr. Trump’s behavior that he belongs in jail. But they were not so outraged by the behavior of the Obama Administration four years ago when agents from the FBI and the Justice Department used a phony dossier, which was paid for by the Clinton campaign and that alleged Russian intervention in the 2016 election, to harass and intimidate Mr. Trump and his incoming Administration. Most were silent during this past summer when thugs from Antifa and BLM killed people and destroyed property, including minority-owned businesses. We don’t need condescending hypocrites. We need people to take responsibility for their actions, and we need an honest accounting of events.
As conservatives, we must not descend into the rabbit hole of immoral equivalence. Just because Democrats behaved badly is no excuse for Republicans to up the ante. With Trump, because of the swamp that had become Washington, we willingly (and knowingly) made a pact with the Devil. In my opinion, Mr. Trump is not a bad man. He is flawed, but who amongst us is not? Conservatives pride themselves in a belief that morality is absolute, not relative. Gerard Baker, in Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal, wrote: “The path for a reinvigorated conservative movement is a narrow but fruitful one. It must articulate and address the legitimate grievances of Americans, while resisting the temptation to win them over with simplistic fictions.” Extreme partisanship sees the world as black or white, but grey is the dominant color.
Special moments bring opportunities. This is such a time. By the end of the day on January 6, with two weeks to go to inauguration, Mr. Trump was finished as a politician and his legacy was impaired if not destroyed. I write that even though Alan Dershowitz, professor emeritus at Harvard Law School and a distinguished civil rights lawyer, wrote of Mr. Trump’s speech to protesters: It [the speech] “was misguided and wrong but completely protected by the First Amendment.” No matter how culpable Mr. Biden may feel Mr. Trump to be for last Wednesday’s invasion of the Capitol, he should not remain silent. He should try conciliation rather than accusation. The late Italian psychiatrist Roberto Assagioli once wrote words that speak to us today: “Without forgiveness, life is governed by an endless cycle of resentment and retaliation.” Mr. Biden has a unique opportunity, not to forgive Mr. Trump, but to reach out to the millions who voted for him. This will not be easy, as hatred for Mr. Trump has been a unifying factor among Democrats. But this moment will pass once Mr. Biden is inaugurated, and more pressing matters face him, and intolerance, once again, rules the way forward.
Will cooler heads prevail? The odds would say no, but surprising things happen. One of the better comments I have read about that fateful afternoon of January 6 was from First Lady Melania Trump, a woman whom the media has largely ignored: “It is inspiring to see that so many have found a passion and enthusiasm in participating in an election, but we must not allow that passion to turn to violence.” Words that cool in an over-heated time.
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