The George Floyd — Minneapolis crisis is complex: protesters delivering an urgent valid message, rioters venting frustration, looters engaging in vandalism, general public in sympathy yet fearful of chaos. Then add in all of the pundits, media, law enforcement, political angling.
Yet Trump can only glorify in grabbing the hammer of military might to smash it all down. Yup, they’re all hoodlums and “I’m your president of Law and Order. “ Gotta love me, right?
But to calm a complex crisis, you need a complete toolkit. The hammer alone will drive in the occasional nail, but also destroy the rest of the job. And in the aftermath foment repression, resentment and ensure further eruptions.
For the rioters who damage property and human safety, sure you need law enforcement. But you need more. For the protesters and concerned public you need the tools of compassion and listening, promises of remedial action to the grievance -- and here’s a biggy: The ability to show up with a varied coalition of solidarity that the country will recognize as the issue being heard. (Not a group of far right all-white toadies in front of church.)
In contrast: Think how powerful it would be for someone ( like Biden) to arrive on the scene with an array of civil rights leaders, clergy and sympathetic politicians. (People like Barber and other spiritual leaders of color alongside local officials.) Such a coalition can stand on a stage and assure a frightened public that while safety issues and proper law enforcement are in place to prevent further damage and lawlessness, they also hear the validity of the protesters’ case, and will enact necessary policy changes to ensure such a crisis of racial hatred is mitigated in the future. [And Biden is doing this already, isn’t he? Watch his zoom meeting with the mayors. And keep watching him! ]
But Trump can’t do this part. (Nor does he want to.) To arrive with such a coalition you have to cultivate relationships of goodwill and diplomacy. The very attributes Trump says are unnecessary. But surprise, surprise, they do have a practical value after all.
Trump’s relationships are based on intimidation and transaction. No one rushing to his side out of goodwill. You can’t fake this part. Instead he pushes the lie that he’s the only one with a sledge while everyone else is weak.
Trump’s toolkit consists of big hammers and oh yeah, a bottle of acid. That’s the branding of the rioters as agents of the Dems and the left. A third world dictator’s toolkit if ever I saw one.
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We could go further and point out the times Trump is forced to use the “other” tools and it falls flat. Like his lame inauthentic sympathy calls to Floyd’s family, when he throws paper towel rolls at Puerto Rican hurricane victims (and here comes another storm season), or when he arrives to coddle victims of gun violence then scoots away. Or when he demands churches reopen during COVID then exits to the golf course. How often we see him on a stage with a circle of government officials; half looking under duress. Or from today: claiming you are the friend of peaceful protesters then having the police forcibly gas and bludgeon such protesters from the street so you can walk across and do a photo op at the church.
The point is, if we go crisis by crisis, Trump’s limited toolkit is remarkably small and consistent.
With only a hammer, (and beaker of Acid ), you are only fit to lead a third world country as a dictator. Oh, but that’s what he wants, isn’t it?