Last week will go down as one of the most awful in recent American history because of the murders of 11 Jewish worshipers at a synagogue in Pittsburgh and of two African-American shoppers at a grocery store in Kentucky and the pipe bombs mailed to at least 14 prominent Democrats and national security figures perceived by the “CNN sucks” crowd to be constant critics of President Donald Trump. These heinous acts created a sense of a violent nation spinning out of control. With each crime, the suspects’ hate-filled views came into sharper, shocking focus.
Yes, as White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Monday, it’s wrong to hold the president responsible for the acts of deranged individuals. But it is not wrong to hold the nation’s leader responsible for setting a terrible example with his constant attempts to divide Americans. Instead of trying to act as a unifying force, he gleefully governs by ostracizing entire groups. Even after the unspeakable synagogue murders, Trump’s disavowal was overshadowed by more vituperative rhetoric. His Monday tweets denouncing the media as the “true enemy of the people” were unfathomable given the hate crimes preceding them.
This is not an excuse for the displays of gross incivility on the left. Broad condemnations of the tens of millions of people who voted for Trump and harassment of conservatives based on binary political boundaries isn’t close to killing, but it’s close-minded and intolerable, too. Still, the half-hearted way Trump condemns evil is uniquely corrosive. What he loves above all else is belittling his critics. That should be beneath the office of the presidency.
Unfortunately, there is fresh evidence that Trump is a symptom — not the cause — of powerful forces creating upheaval around the world. The global wave of populist nationalism that led to Trump’s election in 2016 also led to Great Britain’s vote to leave the European Union and to the rise of authoritarian regimes in Turkey and Hungary. On Sunday, Brazil elected as its president Jair Bolsonaro. Labeled “the Trump of the Tropics” by the media, he openly espouses political violence to create a Christian nationalist state. “If a minority is against it, then move!” he said last year. “Minorities must fit in or simply disappear!” Disappear?
Then on Monday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel — seen by many as the moral leader of what might be called the old world order — announced she would not seek another term in office. This was widely seen as Merkel’s acknowledgment of her fading popularity and her struggles to run a coalition government amid a strong backlash to her welcoming hundreds of thousands of refugees.
Tribalism? Racism? A biologically hard-wired fear of the other? However labeled, it is increasingly clear that in many developed nations, there are many who prefer homogeneity to diversity — who see new arrivals as subtracting from, not adding to, a nation’s social and economic capital — and whose hostility is increasingly open.
What’s also clear is that a nation extolled as an example of a healthy democracy must regain its way. Here’s an idea: Far from the fringes, there is still room for common understanding. This can start by talking to a neighbor or following someone on Twitter with whom you disagree. It can continue with avoiding inflammatory language when discussing issues of the day and with bipartisan support for the least toxic politicians like Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, and Ben Sasse, R-Nebraska.
Developing empathy for people with different views may be difficult in an era in which technology makes it easy to live in an echo chamber. But putting hatred — and mutual loathing — in their place is a start. A cancer is eating our country. Don’t let it.
Facebook: San Diego Union-Tribune Ideas & Opinion