Response

When I watch the Lord of the Rings movies I very much want to go to New Zealand to see firsthand those landscapes that Peter Jackson took so much time to show us in the films.  Over the last few days I feel like I want to go to New Zealand just to give the folks there a hug. What they are going through in the wake of the mosque shootings is unfortunately not unique in the world these days.  Too many places have faced similar violence, and I suppose there is nothing particularly new under the sun.  Still, I think it is important for us not to lose our sense of outrage and grief at these eruptions of senseless violence.  It is also crucial for us to express, and to keep expressing our firm conviction that, even if such evil has been with us forever, it is never to be accepted and brushed over.

One of the most important functions of a leader in this world of ours is to be a part of that expression of our collective non-acceptance of the status quo.  For all his many shortcomings as President, I will never forget the image of George W. Bush in his windbreaker walking amid the rubble of the twin towers, talking to survivors and firefighters and hugging people. The pictures of New Zealand's Prime minister (who is not Muslim) donning a hijab and going to be with the families of the slain and the people who were near the shootings show a leader who obviously has a deep sense of empathy for the suffering that has occurred in Christchurch.  Then there is the response of our Tweeter in Chief... sigh, well I mean he did tweet out his condolences, and then proceeded to move right on to bashing John McCain (who BTW is deceased) over something that happened years ago.

Look, I get it, even Trump can do the "I care about you" routine for a minute, he was in Alabama last week hugging up on some people who lost their homes to a tornado.  He just doesn't seem to have any ability or inclination to stick to it.  There may be moments where he displays empathy, but they flash by so quickly, and he returns to his petulant bullying of his perceived enemies that it's hard for us to register that care has been expressed.  It's like if I were to conduct a funeral with all the appropriate emotional mien, but as I'm leaving the sanctuary I break into some sort of celebratory touchdown dance, and immediately begin laughing it up as the funeral director and I head out to a bar for a beer.  I doubt that the grieving family would take my prior performance seriously.

What I expect a good leader to do would be to spend at least some time contemplating the nature of a tragedy like the one in New Zealand or Pittsburgh, and perhaps even reflecting on the ways that he or she might exercise the power of their position to heal and perhaps even prevent future eruptions like this. I'm not saying that Trump, or any other leader, has the ability to prevent the explosion of a deranged person into violence, but it seems incumbent upon them to help us try to wrestle with such events with more than just a "thoughts and prayers" tweet.

I suppose this is just another data point in an already extensive collection of things that tell us that Trump is a horrible President on the one hand and pretty shabby human being on the other, but there is something about his dodging of any accountability in situations like this that seem like failures that amount to more than just disagreeable policy decisions.  His insistence, for instance, on downplaying the threat of white supremacy, nationalism and various right wing movements that have erupted in violence a bit too frequently of late, does not make me think he has our best interest at heart.  With a few exceptions (the guy who shot the Republicans playing softball), too many of the recent eruptions of mass violence have been perpetrated by folks who have stewed a bit too much in the racism and xenophobia that Trump gleefully stokes. This time it was against Muslims, in Pittsburgh it was Jews, in Charlotte it was (black) Christians, in Orlando it was gays, the exact pathology of the shooters was different, but it boils down to hatred of those who are different, which ultimately goes back to fear.

So much of what Trump says and does circles around telling his base what to be afraid of; outsiders and enemies are always seeking to do him/America harm.  The toxicity of that message effects all of us, because, like it or not, he is our leader for the time being. The character of a leader does matter, it was true when Bill Clinton was abusing women, and it is true now. It is an indictment of our national integrity that we often accept such malodorous character in the name of economic success.

I'm not blaming Trump for this, but I am suggesting his actively divisive rhetoric is a contributing factor in many of the recent "tribal" identity-based violent incidents. Even in the wake of something like what happened last week, he doesn't acknowledge that or repent of his complicity in the atmosphere of hatred.  He cannot help us mourn or heal, maybe it's just not in his character. We need to learn this lesson as a nation, it's not just policy, and it's not just legislation and judicial appointments that we need from our elected officials, we need them to actually be decent human beings too.  I know, it's a big ask, but people are dying, and we need some better ideas.