Trump is making Americans meaner

When a natural disaster occurs anywhere in the United States, Americans step up and help. I live in Virginia, which was mostly spared the wrath of Hurricane Helene, but within hours I received news that rescue teams from Maryland, Virginia and other jurisdictions were bringing help to western North Carolina (some of them). Mule!). First responders who live hundreds of miles from affected areas are jumping into their vehicles to help. People like you and me donate. Local and state governments, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and hundreds of private charities such as the Salvation Army, Red Cross, World Central Kitchen, Americares and Save the Children are providing food, water, shelter, toiletries and medical care.

Natural disasters are moments of unity. They remind us of our fragility in the face of nature. It’s a matter of life and death. We don’t ask if you live in a red or blue state before sending help. When my family first moved to our current neighborhood in suburban Washington, DC, the neighborhood children asked if they could set up a table in our front yard to raise money for hurricane victims in Texas. After Hurricane Sandy, Chris Christie and Barack Obama hugged. Some things go beyond politics. It’s one of the better things about America.

But not now. In the hours after Helene devastated the South, Republican candidate Donald Trump was circulating Rumors to the effect that the Biden-Harris administration and the “Democratic governor of North Carolina” “did everything possible not to help people in Republican areas.” As it happens, Asheville, one of the most devastated parts of North Carolina, is pretty blue, but whatever. Trump’s lips moved, so he lied. That’s what he does: sow distrust, create resentment and hatred.

When there are no real reasons for fear and loathing, he and Igor JD Vance freely invent things to strike fear into the hearts of their followers. Crime has been declining for three years in a row, after rising during the pandemic (when Trump was president). But in the pseudo-reality invented by Trump crime is “so out of control. . . You can’t walk across the street to get a loaf of bread. You will be shot. You will be attacked. If you get raped, you get whatever it is.”

The alleged cause of this scourge is immigrants. Trump speaks in Wisconsin worked out on his theme of other nations emptying their prisons and mental institutions and sending their criminals to the United States (where they will be warmly welcomed by the Biden-Harris administration). “I will rid Wisconsin of this mass invasion of murderers, rapists, gangsters, drug dealers, thugs and vicious gang members. . . . They will go to your kitchen. They’ll cut your throat. . . . Hundreds of small towns and towns are being occupied by migrants with MK-47s.”

In addition to the fictitious immigration crime wave (immigrants commit fewer crimes than native-born Americans), the Trump forces turned an election that went against them into a cause for division, fear and disgust. For 150 years, the losers (mostly) wished the winners well and accepted the will of the voters. Trump, after his defeat in 2020, invented a reality in which devious, evil enemies conspired to deprive people of their choices. It was all a deception, but one that helped to radicalize and enrage about half the country.

This is the brutal, false incitement that Trump never tires of injecting into American life. And while it has become commonplace, it is not yet the dominant culture. Trump’s false stories about Haitian immigrants in Ohio plunged Springfield into chaos. Bomb threats closed schools and universities. The owner by McGregor Metal had to lower his sunglasses at night, buy a gun and alter his family’s freedom of movement because of death threats after defending his Haitian employees.

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Here’s what Jamie McGregor said that prompted his neighbors to paint a target on his back: “You come to work every day. They don’t cause drama. You are on time. I wish I had 30 more.” One could interpret this comment as an indirect disparagement of American workers (Who causes drama? Who doesn’t show up on time?), but in the pre-MAGAfication of the GOP, people probably would have responded with more restraint. They might have been upset. Maybe you wrote a letter to the editor. But under Trump’s toxic influence was McGregor flooded with messages like: “Why do you import third world savages who eat animals and give them jobs instead of US citizens?” A message was left in the company’s voicemail: “The owner of McGregor Metal can put a bullet in the Get a skull, and that would be 100 percent justified.” His children and his 80-year-old mother also received threats. The FBI called and said some of the threats appeared serious and offered advice on how to stay safe.

Some people tend to vote for Trump because he was president before and everything seemed fine. The economy was doing well (until COVID). There were no new wars. But there were new wars – between Americans. Trump’s relentless lies and incitement have turned this county into a less rational and less generous nation. That alone should be reason enough to vote for your opponent. An election will not repair the damage to our national character. But another Trump term could be enough to tip the scales for a long time.

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