The Carnage Stops Here

It was described as a “dark” inaugural speech, while protesters burned limos and the world’s most interesting trash can.

President Trump called for the end of the “carnage.”

Americans want great schools for their children, safe neighborhoods for their families, and good jobs for themselves. These are the just and reasonable demands of a righteous public.

But for too many of our citizens, a different reality exists: Mothers and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities; rusted-out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation; an education system flush with cash, but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of knowledge; and the crime and gangs and drugs that have stolen too many lives and robbed our country of so much unrealized potential.

This American carnage stops right here and stops right now.

These are simple themes, some of which are accurate and some less some. Some not at all. The nice folks whose team lost the election promptly lost their shit.

Except, of course, this is “fake news,” the Obama White House website having been archived because, well, he wasn’t president anymore, and the new president gets to put up what he wants rather than what the former president wants. Or what you want, unless you happen to be the new president. Which you’re probably not.

While much of the hysteria was false, whether deliberately or ignorantly, President Trump did put his position on crime up on the screen.

A Trump Administration will empower our law enforcement officers to do their jobs and keep our streets free of crime and violence. The Trump Administration will be a law and order administration. President Trump will honor our men and women in uniform and will support their mission of protecting the public. The dangerous anti-police atmosphere in America is wrong. The Trump Administration will end it.

Is it possible that Donald Trump is the last guy on the planet to watch youtube videos of cops killing people, engaged in misconduct, lying, abusing their position? Well, sure, it’s possible.

Our job is not to make life more comfortable for the rioter, the looter, or the violent disrupter. Our job is to make life more comfortable for parents who want their kids to be able to walk the streets safely. Or the senior citizen waiting for a bus. Or the young child walking home from school.

More comfortable for the rioter, looter or violent disrupter, whatever that means? No. Not “more comfortable.” Sure, it’s not Peggy Noonan-level rhetoric, but it’s the same level stuff that got him elected. The job is to achieve the things that help Americans without violating the constitutional rights of those in the way. He doesn’t mention the Constitution. But then, he wasn’t elected to be the coddler-in-chief. so no reason to suspect he would.

But as Dara Lind points out at Vox, it’s just talk.

The rhetoric on the White House website is just that: rhetoric.

Does it reflect what Trump “truly believes”? Dara thinks so.

These attitudes would be embodied in the Trump administration even if this page on the site didn’t exist. But the message is being sent clearly that, starting the minute President Trump took the oath of office, rank-and-file police officers have free rein and tacit White House support.

Some of us question whether Trump “truly believes” much of anything, or is just in a constant state of marketing. But even so, former presidents professed a belief in reform, and look at how that ended up? Talk is cheap. Rhetoric is empty until action is taken.

Will action be taken? One would suspect it will come, though what form it will take remains a mystery. There is a good chance that Trump will pound hard on the “tough on crime” issue as it’s historic appeal has been well-proven, and it’s far easier to address than the economy. It will serve well to deflect attention away from jobs and debt and create the sense of action.

Is this good enough? Isn’t this just mind-numbingly wrong and stupid, contrary to what’s been acknowledged all around, by police and public, pundits and academics? And still he’s going straight for the “tough on crime” rhetoric? Of course. As my spiritual adviser, H.L. Mencken, explained:

But when the field is nationwide, and the fight must be waged chiefly at second and third hand, and the force of personality cannot so readily make itself felt, then all the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre—the man who can most adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum.

The Presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men. As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.

Have we reached the ultimate goal of the “plain folks”? Maybe. Never underestimate the ability of someone worse to be our “heart’s desire.” And lest the perpetually panicked* and pointlessly passionate take comfort in their name-calling (Darth Cheeto? Cute!) and self-righteous ignorance, what makes them think their stupidity is any better? The options ranged from an authoritarian on the right to an authoritarian on the left, both hellbent on undermining constitutional rights. Just different ones.

So is it time to gird yer loins for battle? When wasn’t it? But stick to your twitters and change.org petitions, your marches in matching sneakers for purposes that you neither understand nor actually care about. Serious people will do the dirty work of fighting the government when it does what the last administration did, no matter which constitutional rights are under assault.

Lawyers will fight for your constitutional rights, no matter what Trump, the ACLU or Sheriff David Clarke has to say about it. We will fight the “downright morons,” both within the White House and without.

*For those lawyers who wear their emotions on their sleeve like a badge of honor, go to a march, sign a petition, twit up a storm. Just stay out of the way of serious lawyers. Your inability to overcome your feelings of fear and loathing render you worthless in the fight. No, “strenuously object” is not how it works.

22 thoughts on “The Carnage Stops Here

  1. REvers

    DARTH CHEETO!?

    You are very lucky that my coffee hasn’t finished perking yet, or I would be sending you a bill for the cost of cleaning the mixture of coffee and spit off of my monitor.

  2. Billy Bob

    What is so photogenic about a burning garbage can? Color me Lost in a Lost World! Yes, it is a very interesting garbage can. We’re getting off to a good start: Garbage in, garbage out! And may the most
    vacuous man alive preside over the late, great U.S. of A., without serious mishap.

    Are we not already heavily invested in the police state? What is Trump talking about? Let’s just say he has a “steep learning curve” looming in the days, weeks and months ahead. The electioneering and tough posturing is now behind us. It’s off to the races. We would like to see some changes, but nobody is consulting us about those changes. Ha. In spite of the rhetoric, it’s as if some of don’t exist. Some of us are sorry we were born.

    1. Richard G. Kopf

      Billy Bob,

      I love the photo of a burning garbage and the stringers attempting to take a Getty image that will go viral. You don’t appreciate performance art. Barbarian.

      All the best.

      RGK

  3. PDB

    Nothing I have seen from Trump post election seems the least bit different from what any other Republican president has ever said. Do all these people freaking out right now not remember Nixon, Ford, Reagan, or either Bushes…and the fact that they survived those administrations?

  4. DM f/k/a "Dwight Mann"

    “And lest the perpetually panicked* and pointlessly passionate take comfort in their name-calling (Darth Cheeto? Cute!).” C’mon, name-calling the candidates and president is a hallowed American tradition. “Ma, ma, where’s my pa?” (I’ll donate 1000 pesos to SJ if you can remember the response without google).

    1. SHG Post author

      Please. Grover. Try harder.

      I don’t say they can’t, but name-calling isn’t a substitute for substance.

      1. Lucas Beauchamp

        DM asked for the response, not the President taunted.

        “Gone to the White House, ha, ha, ha.”

      2. DM f/k/a "Dwight Mann"

        True, but it sure can be cathartic. The response from Cleveland’s supporters was “Goin’ to the White House ha, ha, ha!” Do you want those Chilean pesos sent to your office address?

        1. SHG Post author

          If it was me, just hit the donate. But Lucas gave you the response (and I only want donations from people who choose to donate). So Lucas wins the prize.

    1. SHG Post author

      I bet lots of people who aren’t otherwise inclined to hate Trump will be turned around with a comment like this.

      1. Jake D

        Objection: Begging the question. Who says I’m trying to sway opinion?

        PS- Does the fact that we disagree hurt your feelz? Stop being so precious!

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