When ‘Unity’ Divides
Terry H. Schwadron
Aug. 24, 2017
Maybe in Trumpland, English words mean something different that what I know.
When Donald Trump talks about bringing “unity” to the country or “unifying” our differences, he doesn’t seem to mean unity. He seems to mean “you agree with me.”
Now there’s nothing really wrong for a highly opinionated, highly strung, emotional President asking people to drop their own beliefs to take on his. But why call this “unity”? It’s a basic part of politics to try to persuade others to accept an adjustment in thinking; they call that compromise. At its heart, politics is about presentation of sufficient argument so that you and I agree to vote on the same thing or person, each of us finding enough of what we actually are seeking to feel okay about supporting the compromise.
But hearing the President, rearing back on his legs, baying at the moon, or at his rally crowd, that the time has come to “unify” means something completely different.
It wasn’t reporters or the media that gave four different explanations for violence in Charlottesville on successive days. It was the President. The media just recorded it. And then people reacted to that. If you are Donald Trump and you’re unhappy about how your words were received, just say that. What is gained by this continuing insulting attack on journalism? What is sick and unpatriotic about media coverage of the President’s own words, different on successive days?
There’s nothing fake being reported here. There is only fake horror over hearing that some people didn’t hear what he may have intended, but never stated in a straightaway manner.
When he is being rational and straightforward, Mr. Trump says, “It is time to heal the wounds that have divided us, and to seek a new unity based on the common values that unite us. We are one people, with one home and one flag. We are not defined by the color of our skin, the figure on our paycheck or the party of our politics,” adding that “shared humanity,” “citizenship” and patriotism could heal the nation’s divides political and racial divides.”
That’s fine, easy to understand, and apparently heartfelt.
But the day before, in Phoenix, he said, “Our movement is about love” before erupting in anger, blaming the media for misrepresenting him, leading to widespread condemnation of his response to violence organized by white supremacists in Charlottesville. He read messages that he said called for healing and unity but skipped the fact that he had equated armed supremacists, including one who plowed a car through the crowd, and protesters equally for the violence. Again, it wasn’t reporters who walked away from his business councils, it wasn’t media people who called him out from the Senate, it wasn’t journalists who said they felt insulted and left out of the country that Mr. Trump says he wants to embrace.
What exactly are our common values if the American leader condemns hate one date and embracing it the next by spreading the blame around to everyone else. How do out common values and respect for law and order fare when the President openly talked of pardoning the convicted Sheriff Joe Arpaio over contempt of court for his practice of racist, unfair raids on people on suspicion that they may be illegal immigrants. Once again, the “unity” this President flaunts is absolute agreement with him that Arpaio is a good guy because he has pursued ardent, if illegal, immigration campaigns with which Mr. Trump agrees.
Beyond the words, the Phoenix rally showed the demeanor of a leader under enormous isolation and stress. What were we doing talking about the failures of the media while we are looking at simultaneous nuclear threats in North Korea, Iran and now Pakistan, about going to war again in Afghanistan, about the lack of anything resembling a unified (forget bipartisan) approach to a legislative agenda that includes keeping the country from shutting down over abridging the national debt limits in a month. James Clapper, the former director of national intelligence, said watching the President’s changing personalities made him question whether Mr. Trump is able to perform the job of President.
Indeed, the President’s lunging for his beloved promise for a physical Wall on the southern border, threatening to let the government go broke if there is no money to build the Wall, played like Ahab going after the ever-elusive white whale.
More and more people are talking out loud about whether Mr. Trump has all of his marbles, personally and politically. He is loudly insulting the very Republicans whose support he needs for his legislative agenda, but has not lifted a finger to help define and refine what he wants; his calls for “unity” in politics means total capitulation to his ideas, not a persuasion exercise in political compromise. He is loudly insulting the media because he doesn’t like how he looks in the mirror, that disagreement with his image of self is “fake news”; there are plenty of journalistic investigative pieces out there that actually do try to pull away wool from presidential policy-making, but coverage of his own remarks are not it. People dealing with the President are reporting fencing with multiple personalities, and the staff left inside the White House is quick to say, “hey, that was him, not us.” That too is not the media.
The President is under siege from the FBI and Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III. He is under pressure internationally. He has burned bridges with allies and made enemies more eager to slap back. He is at war with Congress.
Perhaps it is time for the President to take a new look at what “unity” actually means.
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