Prentiss Smith

After two more massacres in two more American cities, El Paso and Dayton, Americans are hearing the same tired and predictive refrain of “thoughts and prayers,” while morally bankrupt politicians continue to feed at the trough of the NRA, and while scores of Americans perish just going about their daily lives. No, there is nothing wrong with law abiding citizens owning as many guns as they want for protection or whatever, but there is no sane reason why any citizen should be able to purchase weapons of war without going through the most stringent of requirements and protocols.

AK-47’s and AR-15’s are the weapons of choice for mass murderers because they maximize the kill rate. In Dayton, the assailant killed nine people and wounded scores in less than 30 seconds. Had the police not been in close proximity, there’s no telling how many lives would have been taken. During the Clinton Administration, both parties worked together to pass an assault ban in 1994. The assault ban lasted ten years until it was repealed in 2004. It should have never been repealed. They are killing machines. So many lives taken! So many families destroyed. A nation that is traumatized every time a loud pop goes off. People running and scurrying for cover if a car backfires.

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It is this kind of madness that Americans are living through, with spineless politicians refusing to do what 80 to 90% of Americans, including NRA members, want them to do, which is to enact more stringent and sensible gun control laws. These same politicians, mostly Republicans, bend over backwards to stroke the ego of an egomaniac and narcissistic president, who can’t even set aside his petty political grievances one day to honor the slain victims in Dayton and El Paso. He made it about himself. He has no capacity to understand that there is a time to fight and there is a time to stand down. Empathy is what was needed from the president this week, not political attacks on his adversaries. There will be plenty of time for that in the future. The words of a president matter. They can console. They can cajole. They can inspire and they can unify a nation in difficult times. This president has failed that test every time because he does not know how to do it.

People are dying in churches, in synagogues, in mosques, in elementary schools, and in grocery stores from white domestic terrorism. There have been no Muslim mass attacks in America this year, but there have been numerous attacks from white domestic terrorists, and this president has failed to demonstratively condemn them. Yes, he read a prepared speech from a teleprompter condemning white supremacy, but the only people who believed the words coming out of his mouth were his faithful followers. Hispanics, who had just suffered the worst massacre of Hispanics in American history, certainly didn’t believe him.

This past week, a self-proclaimed white nationalist walked into a Walmart and murdered 22 people, all of them Hispanic except one. In his manifesto, published on a white nationalist web site, he used some of the same words that have been used at rallies and in political campaigns over the last several months. The rhetoric at these political rallies targets Hispanics. He was clearly deranged with hate! He was not born with this hate, he was inspired and taught this kind of hate. It’s the same kind of hate that was seen in Charlottesville, when young white men paraded down the streets with tiki lamps proclaiming that “Jews will not replace us.” It is the same kind of hatred that propelled a man to send pipe bombs to prominent Democrats across the country, and it is the same kind of hate that saw a white nationalist storm a synagogue and kill eleven parishioners.

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The words of a president matter. Those words can have profound consequences for good or for ill. The language this president has used should never be used by a President of the United States. He has sullied the office with his hateful and xenophobic rhetoric, and it has had catastrophic consequences. Americans are not dumb. They may be gullible, but they know what they see in plain view. There is no plausible deniability. There is causation and correlation. Words from a president matter. They have profound consequences.

Although this president has sowed the seeds of discord and division from the beginning of his presidency, the real problem is his Republican enablers in Washington and around the country who don’t have the guts to say, no Mr. President, this is not right. There are great people in all races and there are bad people in all races, but to demonize and categorize one group of people as “rapists and murders,” is wrong. They are spineless in the face of obvious xenophobia and bigotry that is beginning to have profound consequences in the country. Republicans like to deflect and call people who call out racists, racists. That’s how they shut down dialogue, instead of engaging in a substantive and meaningful conversation that might educate them.

Today, America has a leader, who has from day one decided that the only way for him to be re-elected is to divide the nation, which is why he continues to vilify immigrants, specifically Mexican immigrants, who he has demonized, scapegoated, and labeled as “rapists and murderers,” saying they bring crime and disease to America. He has talked about them as “vermin” and “breeders.” He has used the bigoted language of “invaders,” which is code language to his sheep like followers. No, this president did not pull the triggers in El Paso and Dayton, but he supplied the ammunition. No, he did not start the fire, but he has surely fanned the flames. White nationalists believe they have an ally in the White House, and the only way for them to be marginalized is for the president to forcefully and unequivocally disavow them, but he won’t. The words of a president matter, they can have profound consequences. He and he alone can bring them to heel, but he won’t. That is the tragedy. And that’s my take.

smithpren@aol.com