Democrats’ calls for ‘unity’ and ‘cooling down rhetoric’ ring hollow

How can we forgive and forget what they have done to Trump and his supporters?

Corey Comperatore, a fire chief and father of two, is being hailed as a hero, all over liberal media and conservative media, for taking a bullet to save his family at the Saturday Trump rally in Butler, PA. President Biden called him as such.  

But had President Trump not been shot Saturday in Butler PA, Biden, and Comperatore had just went on with his life, the Democrats and much of the media and elites in the nation would have continued their campaign against them as “existential threats to our democracy.”   

I was a Day One “Trumpster” in June 2015 when he announced his quest for president and many liberal and conservative friends thought I was nuts.  I defended Trump throughout the campaigns and his term of office.  As a result, I was unfriended quite a lot on Facebook, and lost friendships with two long time high school buddies.  My car was vandalized in 2021 – both windshield and back window smashed — and anti-Trump hate threats painted on the vehicle and my apartment door.  And my neighbors in the complex, largely liberal, showed no compassion for me. 

I met a variety of newbies to the political scene during the 2016 and 2020 Trump campaigns.  Many had never voted nor participated in political life.  I recognized there was a cult facet to Trump, and yes, a number of his backers made some anti-immigrant remarks.  

However, those people whom the media portray as “representative” of Trump supporters were a tiny minority. Most were like Corey Comperatore – honest, hardworking people who believe in God, family and country.  They viewed Trump as a champion for the Forgotten Americans (like them) and as the best man to “Make America Great Again.”

But when Biden calls for “unity” and “cooling down the rhetoric” it’s hard for me to even listen to him.  It all rings hollow and I change the channel.

How can I forgive Biden and the Democrats pursuing an eight-year-long effort to not just destroy Trump, but tarnish and demonize his supporters, particularly after the Jan. 6, 2021 riots at the Capitol?  How can I forgive Biden for that polarizing speech at Independence Hall in Philadelphia in 2022 where he basically accused the “ultra MAGA Republicans” and “election deniers” of being a threat to the Republic?

How can I forgive the Democrats for coddling and apologizing for the Leftist mobs that rampaged through America’s cities in 2020 as “social justice warriors,” and threatened Jews at their synagogues and on campuses the last seven months?   

You are not the ones to lecture us.  We’re sick of your virtue signaling.  You have normalized political violence more than us.  Yet, you blow out of proportion the “threat” to the country of the 1/6/21 rioters and Trump himself, whose rhetoric about the election brought it on.

Five people died that day, four from natural causes;  the other was a Trump backer shot by police.  Some 500 are serving in jail.  More stand to be prosecuted.

In contrast, 19 died in the Floyd riots, 14,000 arrested and up to $2 billion in property damage,  and most of the perpetrators never served time in prison.  Few of the anti-Israel campus protesters faced any legal consequences.

 If Joe Biden was shot Saturday by a right winger, there’d be no talk of unity in the mainstream media and toning down the rhetoric. There’d  be Palmer Raids by Justice at every Trumpster in the area where Biden was shot and calls for investigating this like 1/6 .  The media would be non-stop harping on Trump as the cause of the problem.  Now, they try to deny their complicity in all this.

What if after the deranged Bernie Sanders supporter shot and injured Rep. Steve Scalise and four other Republican House members practicing baseball in Alexandria in the spring of 2017, instead of calling for Unity as Trump did, asked Congress to investigate the “dangerous Far Left “ in the country a la the 1/6 committee?  Maybe if Republicans had done that, we’d exorcize the radical Leftist demons from our politics, but it sure would have looked like censorship.

I don’t know what Donald Trump is going to say Thursday night in his acceptance speech to achieve “unity,” because frankly, his rhetoric and bluster has not been helpful for that – and there’s a good argument he brought on these investigations and indictments (although most of them are insane).

If he thinks he can get Democrat votes from that, forget it.  I do not expect hard-core Democrats to vote for him no matter what happened this past weekend, nor whether Biden decides to stay on the ticket or drop out.

What is really needed is another congressional inquest into bitter partisanship and social isolation that leads not just to shootings like what happened in Butler, but mass shootings and violent protest.

Perhaps Mr. Trump in his speech will advocate for that, or do so on the campaign trail. But it can’t be one-sided like the 1/6 committee, but look at ALL extremism and threat of misinformation and alternative facts on social media What also is needed is better education in our schools, and colleges, so Americans can respect people for different political and religious views.  The schools push diversity, equity and inclusion, but that does not include any education on religious and political views.  Having compassion for the Comperatore heroes for a week or two is not going to cut it for me.

We can’t expect the news media and social media to take the lead when they profit from the division and political vitriol, unless the government acts – which it has not yet.  

I am unsure if the political parties and consultant class will avoid the “politics of personal destruction,” which President Clinton warned us about, when it can be so lucrative politically to cut the legs off your opponent – particularly if your policies are bad and you need to deflect, like the Democrats have done on the abortion and “democracy” issues.

But perhaps a bi partisan congressionally charged commission could help change the conversation, so at some point in our political culture we can get back to what we learned from the French philosopher Voltaire:  “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”