Political Violence

 

There is lots to worry about right now.   COVID19, the economy, the threat from China,  cyberattacks on our government and corporate systems, the refusal to opens schools, Iran’s nuclear ambitions.  The list goes on and on.

But if you had to ask me what I worry about most, it’s the acclimation to violence and death based on political leanings.

President Biden’s statement on the Chinese concentration camps in which the Uighurs are being detained was nothing short of horrifying.    When confronted with the issue, Biden shrugged it off as “different cultural norms,” despite very reliable reports of what is going on in these camps keep surfacing.   The “never again” mantra after the horrors of Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen, and Treblinka have apparently faded into obscurity.   So much has been written about why Roosevelt didn’t bomb the rail lines or take firmer action and why Pope Pius XII maintained relative silence in the face of the reports, yet here we are again.  We fought a world war against axis powers that enslaved peoples and exterminated them and imposed their will on other nations.  We expended great sums of money and fought proxy wars against a Soviet Union that ran the gulags.  Yet 30 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, America’s leader is willing to dismiss the camps with an “Oh, well, multiculturalism, you know.”  Even worse has been the tight-lipped Pope Francis, who shows no hesitation to berate the West on climate change and immigration, but when it comes to actual concentration camps in China, it’s crickets.

In the same week, conservative radio icon Rush Limbaugh passed away.  The expressions of glee from the left on social media were very disquieting.   “Cancer took cancer” posted one person.  Another posted, “the worst part about Rush Limbaugh being dead is he’s not alive to see how happy people are that he’s dead.”  That people celebrate a person’s death, whatever his or her political leanings is absolutely abhorrent.

Almost a year after Andrew Cuomo issued an order that condemned thousands of New Yorkers to their untimely deaths, we are finally getting some calls for an “investigation”  after a whistleblower came forward and claimed that Cuomo covered up the actual number of infected individuals that were reintroduced into nursing homes.   This all happened despite President Trump’s deployment of a navy ship and opening of the Javits center to house these people.   Similarly, transgender Rachel Levine, health director in Pennsylvania (whom Biden tapped for his administration) moved her mother out of a nursing home just before Pennsylvania governor Tom Wolf issued a similar order in that state.  Moving infected people into these homes is at best negligent, and possibly criminal.  It is on the order of killing someone in a drunk driving accident.  These decisions were made for political purposes.  And the media (and some of his Democratic colleagues) are just now catching up.

Finally, symbolism and words are important.  After Trump’s election, we had the acting out of a stabbing murder of Trump in Central Park, and the terrible image of a beheaded and bloody head of Trump held up by Kathy Griffin.  Kamala Harris joked about killing Trump and Pence in an interview with Ellen DeGeneres.   Joe Biden talked about beating Trump up if they were in high school.  Former SNL star Jane Curtin said that her New Year’s wish was for the Republican Party to die.  Hillary Clinton famously wrote off Trump supporters as “deplorables.”  Obama wrote them off as people that “bitterly cling to their guns and religion.”  Yes, you can dismiss the symbolism as, “Oh, well, that’s just art.”  But it expresses desire and is worrisome.  Similarly, when political leaders express, even in a joking fashion, a desire to use physical violence against an opponent, you should take notice. And when they label entire segments of our society, and treat them with contempt, you should take notice.  Think Hutus and Tutsis.

All of these things worry me a great deal.  This callous disregard for “the other” makes it nearly impossible to have a sane debate or conversation.   In the case of Joe Biden’s callous disregard for the plight of the Uighurs, it leads me to wonder out loud if Biden and his supporters might be similarly inclined to treat their political adversaries in the same fashion.