November 2016 – Dare I Say It?

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# Month: November 2016

## Driving the Wedge Deeper

Democrats have been working overtime since the election blaming Trump for the division in America, and then doing their best to widen the gap. One of the better examples is Harry Reid who, after issuing a statement on the 11th of November claiming many Americans were “wracked by fear” due to Trump’s election, took to the Senate floor twice, on the 15th and 17th to continue his inflammatory rhetoric.

On 15th, Reid’s speech, in addition to claiming Trump had “made sexual assault a laughing matter”, accused Trump of creating a climate of fear, saying “there are many who are afraid”, and that “his election sparked a rise in hate crimes and threats of violence”. He blamed this on the fact that “many of our fellow Americans believe that Trump’s election validates the kind of bullying, aggressive behavior Trump modeled on a daily basis.” .

Reid cited, as evidence of his claims, some anecdotal stories he had heard, a compilation from the Southern Poverty Law Center of 315 reports of incidents of “harassment and intimidation” collected since the Election, an NBC News article which mostly dealt with the SPLC report, the fact that a KKK chapter in North Carolina was holding a parade to celebrate the election results, and a purported letter from a seventh grade girl in Rhode Island about how she was afraid because Trump won.

Reid goes on to say that Trump’s appointment of Steve Bannon, “a champion of white supremacy”, as Chief Strategist for the administration has deepened the wounds, and calls for his dismissal He concludes by calling upon Trump to “take responsibility…And show America that racism, bullying and bigotry have no place in the White House or in America.”

Reid’s second speech, on the 17th, begins: “Two days ago I came here and called upon our President-elect to rise to the dignity of his office. I called upon Donald Trump to take responsibility for his rhetoric and his actions, to work to heal the wounds that he created. Our President-elect has chosen to do none of those things.” He says the number of incidents in the SPLC report has risen by 40% in two days, to 437. He recounts some of the incidents and then quotes a Washington Post editorial on the same topic which says that, “These hateful acts are the work of a tiny minority of his supporters, but they have been emboldened by the ugly rhetoric of his presidential campaign.” Reid concludes by expressing hope that Trump will put an end to the incidents.

It’s interesting to note that Reid obviously didn’t call Trump with his concerns–he would have said so. Yet, if his goal was indeed to stop the incidents he refers to, and “heal the wounds”, wouldn’t a personal call have been the logical first step? Surely Trump would have taken a call from the Senate Minority Leader. The only logical conclusion is that Reid’s main purpose was not to solve the problem, but to fan the flames, and to get the face time he knows he will miss when his term ends in January.

As to the nuts and bolts of his charges, Reid apparently has only recently acquired a concern about sexual assault because I don’t recall him taking Bill Clinton to task on the Senate floor. And the fact that a KKK chapter is having a parade doesn’t make the upcoming Trump presidency guilty by association. Over sixty million people voted for Trump; are they all guilty too? With regard to the reports of “hate” incidents, the SPLC has a “#ReportHate” web page with a form for victims of these incidents to fill out. The SPLC, according to the NBC article, admits it is not attempting to vet these reports due to staff limitations. NBC says it confirmed “a few dozen”, but it would be no surprise if the confirmation process was merely to contact the “victim” to verify that they filed the report. Regardless, the vast majority of the claims mentioned by NBC and Reid involve mainly graffiti or unkind remarks, unlike the more aggressive behavior some Trump supporters have been subjected to.

Make no mistake, no acts of this kind are acceptable or defensible, mostly because of their inhumanity and incivility, but also because they provide grist for the Liberals’ mill. That said, you have to wonder, given the extent of the Clinton supporters’ angst since the election, if the SPLC’s invitation–evidently circulated on Twitter, given the hash tag– to report acts of hate so easily, hasn’t tempted many to gin up incidents to validate their reaction to the Election’s outcome. Harry Reid’s and the media’s free publicity certainly hasn’t reduced the inclination.

To the extent these reports are true, and they may be overwhelmingly, these acts are not just the result of one election. They are the result of years of pent-up frustration with: the Liberals’ portrayal of everything as Minorities and LGBT vs. Non-Liberal Whites (with the whites always being wrong), with the disdain with which much of the white population has been regarded (“clinging to their guns and religion”, “basket of deplorables”) by the Liberal establishment, and with all the other social issues I mentioned in my posts on November 5th and 14th. Fortunately, even the Washington Post admits the perpetrators comprise only a tiny minority of Trump supporters.

The letter from the seventh grade girl sounds suspiciously like a staffer wrote it; it fits a little too conveniently into Reid’s theme, and he gives no information as to whom it was sent. If it is valid, it’s a reflection not of Trump’s election, but of the fear-mongering the Democrats have been engaged in before and since the election. And finally, the appointment of Steve Bannon may well have been ill-advised, if only because he seems to be a lightning rod for some of their more extreme claims, but given the kind of rhetoric the Left has been spouting, you’ll have to excuse me if I’m a little skeptical of some of the characterizations with which they have portrayed him.

The bottom line is that these speeches by Harry Reid typify the tactics of the Left since the Election, and before. How many times have you seen the words racism and bigotry, in addition to the other terms I discussed on November 14, included in articles and statements about the incoming administration. Sometimes, they aren’t used as direct charges, but as ‘concerns’ expressed about the direction of the Nation under a Trump presidency. The intention of these tactics is to create a negative impression in peoples’ minds in order to intensify the divide the Democrats have created over the last eight years, and to agitate their followers, with the goal of maintaining as much power as they can.

They blame Trump for dividing this country, but Trump was elected because the country was divided in the first place. To say that Trump is responsible for the division is like saying that the washing machine broke because you called the repairman.