Washington Post (Editorial)
August 21, 2015
DONALD
TRUMP’S rapidly expanding catalogue of bombast is already a weighty
tome, and it’s a fool’s errand to take each of his utterances seriously.
Still, his loathsome
comment on Wednesday, in which he excused violence against a Hispanic
man in Boston as “passionate” acts of “people who are following me,”
taps into a dark vein in American history and merits special attention.
In
the Boston incident, two brothers were charged with using a metal pole
to assault a 58-year-old Hispanic man. The man, who was homeless, was
left with a broken nose
and other injuries to his face, arms and chest. “Donald Trump was
right, all these illegals need to be deported,” one of the brothers,
Scott Leader, told police, the Boston Globe reported.
When
Mr. Trump was told of the incident, in which the brothers also are
alleged to have urinated on the man before beating him, he said the
following: “It would be a shame.
. . . I will say that people who are following me are very passionate.
They love this country and they want this country to be great again.
They are passionate.”
Officials
in Massachusetts had a different reaction when the Globe asked them
about the incident. “A disgrace,” said Police Commissioner William B.
Evans. “Sickening,”
said Daniel F. Conley, Boston’s top prosecutor.
Mr.
Trump, under a barrage of criticism, took more than a day to retreat
from his original statement, finally tweeting that he “would never
condone violence” and “we must
treat each other with respect.” This from the man who slandered
undocumented immigrants as “rapists” and suggested Fox News journalist
Megyn Kelly had asked him tough questions because she was menstruating.
The
truth is that Mr. Trump deliberately whips up popular rage for
political advantage. By spewing hatred on the stump, Mr. Trump
encourages it in the bleachers and on
the streets, then sanctions it when it occurs. Remember: He also
minimized the death threats Ms. Kelly received after his dustup with
her, telling the Hollywood Reporter, “I’m sure they don’t mean that,”
then pivoting to stress his “respect for the people
that like me.”
Mr.
Trump is not the first politician to inspire and then explain away
crimes of hatred; he’s just the most recent one. Recall the Southern
politicians of the past century
who were apologists for lynchings. Rep. Charles E. Bennett of Florida,
who said he condemned such violence, nonetheless explained that
lynchings occurred because Southerners were aggrieved at the meddling of
Congress. Others, more coarsely, cited the rape
of white women by black men as having naturally incited a lynch mob.
Mr.
Trump’s immigrant-bashing rhetoric is intended to galvanize political
anger and win Republican primaries, not incite a lynch mob. The trouble
is that his contempt-filled
hyperbole appeals not to rational discourse but to passions — passions
that can and do get out of hand.
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