By Edwin Cooney
In the wake of the tragic murder of 32 year-old Heather Heyer on Saturday, August 12th, 2017 while she was protesting the unity rally of the far right, the country has been in intense turmoil. Sadly, most of this turmoil has little to do with the pain and suffering of Ms. Heyer, her family, or her friends. The turmoil has been largely due to President Donald Trump’s assessment of that tragedy.
Any time an incident occurs that casts a pall sufficient to fever the national brow, it has become traditional for the President of the United States to apply a cooling compress to that brow identifying the source and nature of the tragedy that has brought about the national heartache. Most of the time, our elected leader, be his name Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush or Barack Obama, has pretty accurately put his finger on or near the source of our pain thus allowing us to adjust to the conditions that brought about the tragedy. This time, however, our elected leader spread the blame over all of us rather than pinpointing its cause. He may well have decided that “no one is perfect,” so why should his supporters be blamed for what all political extremists do from time to time? Even more, he obviously decided that an increasing number of Americans have become sufficiently suspect of “the fake media” to take seriously any foolishness of which his supporters may be guilty.
Before we move beyond the tragedy of the event to the core of President Trump’s leadership dilemma, the fact of the matter is threefold. First, the left as a force in this country, as well as worldwide, has been diminishing since the late 1970s. The new dictatorships have been rightward-leaning — a mixture of doctrine and religion as opposed to the coldhearted and materialistic regimes of Marxism Leninism of the post World War II era. Soviet Russia has become an increasingly corrupt oligarchy far more corporate-minded than socialist-oriented. Second, here at home only President Obama’s healthcare program has passed the Congress in recent years. American progressives have been largely stultified since the days of Lyndon B. Johnson. Finally, the last time any leftwing organization threatened our sense of domestic security, Stokely Carmichael, H. Rap Brown, Bobby Seale, Eldridge Cleaver, Huey Newton, and the Berrigan brothers were celebrities. Malcom X and George Jackson, were celebrated as martyrs of the left. Then there was the Symbionese Liberation Army, the SDS, and the Weathermen, all of which were nuisances except to their immediate victims. Their actual threats were negligible to our national security. Presidents Johnson and Nixon, along with Congress, spent little money combating them in comparison to the huge sums spent on combating the Viet Cong and the forces of North Vietnam, neither of which was a threat to our domestic tranquility (even if their American cheerleaders were annoying and hypocritical much of the time.)
In the New York Times last week, Linda Qiu observed that while violent leftist demonstrations such as the shootings at the GOP baseball practice and the bombing of the North Carolina Republican party headquarters have occurred, leftist demonstrations have largely been against property rather than people. She goes on to report that in the past 25 years, the left has fewer icons to draw upon for support.
As has become increasingly true, fault for any individual act pales in significance to the trend of political behavior here in America. As pointed out above, the left was far more deadly in the late 60s and up to the mid 70s than it is today. Sure, all human beings are sinners according to mainstream Christian doctrine. Clearly, however, President Trump hid behind that article of Christian faith, largely, I’m convinced, to minimize the sins of the putrid far right. Unhappily, it is President Trump who provides the oxygen to fuel and energize the dastardly deeds of the far right. It is from within their ranks that he draws the venom of suspicion from which, sadly, he hopes to redeem votes during the next two crucial national elections. Even sadder, too, many otherwise thoughtful Christians have traded in their spiritual values for the license to march in President Trump’s parade of personal pride and triumph.
At this writing, I’m on the edge, although not quite there, to advocate that this president be removed from office. Such a move would be politically, socially, and emotionally wrenching to every patriotic citizen. For the time being, President Trump must be allowed to create his own legacy and he is doing exactly that.
No, Mr. President, as far as this observer is concerned, what happened in Charlottesville, Virginia was the direct fault of James Alex Fields, Jr. You, however, are his charismatic leader and lodestar. His fault might reflect everyone’s worst tendencies, but the atmosphere that fueled and energized Mr. Fields’ fault came directly from you and reflects your faults, Sir!
Is your attempt to minimize the violence of the far right an impeachable offense? Only time will tell! For the present, your political fate is in your hands. Be more prudent with that political fate, for sooner than you can possibly realize, it may be out of your hands!
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY
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