Did Trump Cause Our Division?

Why A Christian CAN Vote for Donald Trump – Part 2

I have heard statements like this many times by Democrats and Never Trumpers:

“Donald Trump is crude and arrogant. He brought the lack of civility to our politics with his divisive,
abusive comments and
disrespectful name-calling.”

Before I begin I want to make it clear: I do not like it when Trump speaks crudely.
Some of his comments and name-calling are uncalled for and crude. Oftentimes he says things I wish he had left unsaid.

BUT – Trump was not a politician until he came down that escalator.
AND – some of his name calling is light-hearted and funny. “Little Marco” was funny. So was “low energy Jeb.”

I REALLY like Ron DeSantis. I would vote for him to be President in a New York second:
But “Ron DeSanctimonious” was hilarious! and effective!

Trump says what millions of his supporters are thinking.
That is, in part, why he is loved.

If that makes you steam with anger…oh well. I can recall dozens of crude and offensive things Democrats have said…but they are given a license with the media. Part of what has led to our deep division is the double-standard promoted by the media. Trump calls is “fake” media. But he did not start this assault on the media.
Long ago conservatives started referring to the “Clinton News Network” – CNN.

For the average Trump supporter what he SAYS is not as important as what he DOES.
But that is another article.

The Division Started Long Ago

Trump haters and Never-Trumpers seem to have short memories.

The vitriol we have in our politics in 2024
started more than 30 years ago.

You Been “Borked”

The political scene became very nasty in 1987 when Robert Bork was nominated for the Supreme Court by Ronald Reagan. (I think I watched the hearing on C-SPAN)

Prior to Reagan’s nomination of Bork, modern SCOTUS nominations were fairly civil and uneventful. It was understood that the POTUS had a right to place judges on the court that reflected his position – after all, “the people”  elected the President.

Immediately after the Bork nomination Ted Kennedy issued his infamous statement on the Senate floor which begins with, “Robert Bork’s America is a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions…” Then Kennedy continued…and added racist allegations in his rhetoric.

Kennedy’s first point in that statement spoke the obvious:
the Democrats were worried about a “swing vote” to reverse Roe v. Wade.

In 2011, New York Times columnist Joe Nocera claimed that
“[t]he Bork fight, in some ways, was the beginning of the end of civil discourse in politics.”  [Wikipedia]

“A High-Tech Lynching”

The 1991 Clarence Thomas hearing only continued the Bork tactics and the Democrats increased the volume. (I watched the hearing on CNN)
Anita Hill became the role model for women who would seemingly come out of nowhere to accuse a conservative of sexual harassment…after years of silence.

Clarence Thomas famously called the hearing “a high-tech lynching for uppity Blacks who in any way deign to think for themselves.”

I agree 100% with the Joe Nocera quote above. These personal attacks on Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas introduced the vitriol in politics…years before Donald Trump ever came on the scene.

Both of these examples were perpetrated by the Democratic Left to protect Roe vs. Wade.

Republican Never-Trumpers have Short Memories

In 2000 Karl Rove served as GW Bush’s attack dog against John McCain in the primaries. They (“the Bush people”) said ugly things about McCain’s wife and accused him of fathering a black child (the little girl he and his wife adopted from India).

Never-Trumpers who seem to posture with a “holier-than-thou” attitude towards Trump need to embrace this kind of Republican vitriol that happened years before Donald Trump ever came on the scene.

Just think for a moment about the nasty attacks against GW Bush. Calling him a “drunkard,” his “cowboy” strut (his response was Reagan-like, “it’s called…walking”). Then the media thought it was a good idea to bring the Bush daughters into the political fray. Do a Google search for “cnn bush twins caught drinking in public” to see how gleeful CNN was to cover this story. I thought children were supposed be left out of the political fray? If anyone said anything negative about the Obama girls the fake news lost their minds…yet the media went after the Bush daughters with delight. More vitriol and divisiveness years before Donald Trump ever came on the scene.

What About Racist Comments by Obama?

You read correctly – racist. Obama famously said Americans in rural and struggling parts of Pennsylvania “get bitter, they cling to guns or religion.” This was taken by many white, rural Americans as a veiled reference to stupidity and racism…and it also seemed to  mock Christian faith. Obama was allowed to make those kinds of comments, being “the first mainstream African-American who is articulate…and clean” (a Joe Biden gaffe). We were all expected to overlook Obama’s divisive comments AND good ol’ uncle Joe’s crudeness.

Obama’s comment above was offensive, divisive and stupid. Rural people took it for what it was – crude, racist and divisive. But because the mainstream media agreed with Obama’s comment…it is not remembered.)

Obama made other stupid comments…just like Trump does.
The only difference: Obama always spoke in a very polished and measured way. But it should still be remembered that he made comments that stoked the racial divide rather than what he had promised when elected.

2009: “The police acted stupidly.” He made this comment against the law enforcement community very early in his first term. Obama liked to make uninformed statements in critical moments of racial strife when, as a nation, we needed his unifying voice – we needed the man who had promised unity in his acceptance speech (“not red America, not blue America, but the United States of America.”)

2012: Before anyone knew the facts Obama said “If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon.” George Zimmerman was acquitted in his trial after an eyewitness testified that Trayvon had Zimmerman pinned on the ground and was apparently throwing blows down on him.

“Reckless rhetoric inflamed anti-law-enforcement
sentiment in the country and
influenced attacks on police”  [Cape Cod Times]

2014: Again, Obama commented on the death of Michael Brown in the Ferguson, MO incident before the trial. This incident was referred to by the slogan “hands up, don’t shoot.” Obama’s statement was measured, but tinged throughout with an undercurrent against the police.

Yet after calling on the DOJ to do a federal investigation and trial, the police officer was acquitted a second time. Unfortunately, Ferguson was already a pile of ashes.
[See the Manhattan Institiute, “Obama’s Ferguson Sellout”]

This article is NOT an attack on Obama or on anyone else – I am illustrating the FACT that division existed while Trump was doing The Apprentice TV show.

Trump’s Divisiveness? Let’s Look at a Few Details

His announcement speech.
The Left accused him of calling ALL people crossing the border “criminals” and “bad” people. His comment begins “they’re not sending their best…” Read the transcript.

It is easy to hear what you WANT to hear.
[I think some readers may feel this way about my recall of Obama’s divisive comments.] BUT…if you hate Trump, it is easy to miss what he says…and to misinterpret him.

He clearly says, “And some, I assume, are good people.”
He was using rhetoric to make the point that bad people were coming across the border. THAT was his focus. ICE had been tracking MS-13 in the USA since 2005 with over 4,000 arrests. Take a look at this study from the Center for Immigration Studies, “MS-13 Arrests by ICE: 2005-2014“

Trump never said “all Mexicans” coming across the border are rapists. He is using hyperbole, a rhetorical device – overstate your case to make sure the audience understands the message. It is used quite often-hyperbole.

Trump consistently uses hyperbole…and the media consistently call him a liar…as if he was truly calling the brown, metal wall on the southern border “beautiful.” It is obvious that beauty is NOT his main point.

He obviously was NOT saying “ALL Mexicans” crossing the border were criminals: he clearly said “I assume.” If he really meant “all” were bad he would likely have said something like, “only a very small percent are good people.” The media lies…Surprise!

The Charlottesville Comments

Keep Reading…even if you are getting angry with me!
[The media overwhelmingly used these comments to the press as support of Trump’s racism. Kamala Harris misrepresented these comments in the debate a few nights ago.]

I had a phone call discussion with a good friend a few years ago about Trump. He repeated the media racist narrative on Charlottesville. While we were on the phone I downloaded the full transcript off politico.com so I could read it to him.

As I read the transcript he kept stopping me to ask,
“Wait a minute…Are you commenting or reading the transcript?”
Why did he ask me this question?

Because the media repeated a lie over and over…and he had never heard what Trump had actually said. If you are a Trump hater I urge you to read the full transcript. I am using the transcript on Politico – hardly a rightwing media source.

Trump clearly denounced the white supremacists.
He also condemned the action of the young man who had used his car as a weapon and killed the young women.

Trump also pointed out (with media reporters constantly interrupting him) what was NOT being reported by most of the Trump hating media:

1. The original protesters had a legal permit to march. They were there to voice their opposition to the removal of a statute of Robert E. Lee.  There were racists there…but there were also many people who simply did not want an historical monument to be destroyed (which is against the law).

2. The counter-protesters showed up with bats and chains, looking for violence – they did NOT have a permit.

Many Counter-Protesters Came Looking for Violence

I saw this reported on the national news the day AFTER the incident. I saw it with my own eyeballs. Antifa and some BLM people. The opening photo of this ABC News article makes it clear: some of them came expecting/wanting violence. NOW you cannot find this video footage. It has been removed…hidden. Counter-protesters came to do battle. The TIME article below has a few photographs that give evidence to what I am reporting here.

TIME magazine article – This is a good example of media coverage that is biased and divisive.
Yes, Trump denounced the neo-nazis. Read the transcript.
He certainly did say “there were good people on both sides.” If you think every person who was against tearing down a Civil War monument is a racist – then you need to look in the mirror – that is a racist accusation. Not every protester on the Right was racist and not every counter-protester on the Left came for blood = “there were good people on both sides.”

Again, if you hate Trump you should at least try to be honest and objective about what he says. Read the transcript rather than simply accept video snippets where the media only show you what they want you to see.

Trump did not cause our division. He inherited it.

COMING….in my next article I want to illustrate how Trump has similarities with other great leaders. Again, the evidence is clear: our division existed prior to Trump coming on the political scene.

My next article:
“Some Great Leaders are Crude and Not Well-Liked”