Title : RICHARD COHEN GETS IT TOTALLY WRONG
link : RICHARD COHEN GETS IT TOTALLY WRONG
RICHARD COHEN GETS IT TOTALLY WRONG
‘Going low’ only validates
Trump and debases America
By: Richard Cohen
The Washington Post
16 October 2018
Eric H. Holder, who has never been elected for anything in his life, has some advice for his fellow Democrats. Revising Michelle Obama’s mantra — “When they go low, we go high” — Holder says, “When they go low, we kick them.” All through this great nation of ours, Republicans licked their chops. Someone should check to see if Holder is on the GOP payroll.
NOTE: Richard Cohen makes the mistake of confusing "going low" with violence or at least suggesting that such a tactic includes violent acts. Nothing could be further from the truth. What it means is that after Republicans have gerrymandered, suppressed and criminalized the hell out of America for decades, the left will no longer remain silent in the face of such fascist-style tactics to win, as they have, control of America. Confronting Trump's cabinet members on the street or in restaurants is not a violent act. It is confrontational and it is "not nice." But it is not gunning down abortion providers nor ramming cars into crowds of demonstrators.
And On This Note, Have A Great Day Everyone!
Trump and debases America
The Washington Post
16 October 2018
Eric H. Holder, who has never been elected for anything in his life, has some advice for his fellow Democrats. Revising Michelle Obama’s mantra — “When they go low, we go high” — Holder says, “When they go low, we kick them.” All through this great nation of ours, Republicans licked their chops. Someone should check to see if Holder is on the GOP payroll.
Holder, once President Barack Obama’s attorney general, did a wee retreat rom his “kick them” statement, saying it was not, of course, a call for violence. Of course not. Holder is not stupid. Shortly after birth, it seems, he became a Superior Court judge, then he served as the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, and then as deputy attorney general during the Bill Clinton administration. In addition, that mysterious entity that the storied New York Times columnist Russell Baker called “The Great Mentioner” has mentioned Holder as a possible presidential candidate. I thought I should mention that.
I should also mention that Michael Avenatti, so impatient with the Great Mentioner that he has mentioned himself, uttered a similar sentiment: “When they go low, I say hit back harder.” Even Hillary Clinton joined in. “You cannot be civil with a political party that wants to destroy what you stand for,” she said. Actually, you can. You just don’t have to be a patsy.
The trouble with these statements is that here and there are people who don’t need encouragement to act uncivilly or even violently. Already, there has been an upsurge in confrontation that has made for ugly television. The confrontation two women had with Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) — “Look at me,” one of them ordered — was difficult to watch and was used by pro-Brett M. Kavanaugh senators to their advantage. So, too, was the hounding of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) in a D.C. restaurant. I admit it takes some effort to feel sorry for Cruz, but even he is entitled to a sense of security.
You might disagree. But recent political history strongly suggests that bad manners make for bad tactics. Ronald Reagan was elected governor of California twice by running against student demonstrators at the University of California at Berkeley. Reagan, who is invariably lauded as a gentleman, called the campus “a haven for communist sympathizers, protesters and sex deviants.” The demonstrations did little to change America, but they eventually made Reagan president of the United States.
Similarly, Richard M. Nixon used the anti-war demonstrations of the Vietnam era to pummel George McGovern. Nixon ran, both shamelessly and ironically, on a law-and-order platform that worked wonders with some of the same white working-class voters who now are in a swoon over Trump. The Democrats’ fondness for the marginalized — hardly an evil trait, by the way — ran into a rebuttal with Richard M. Scammon and Ben J. Wattenberg’s important book, “The Real Majority” (1970). It argued not only that elections are won in the center but also that the party needed to look beyond economic issues and toward the social issues that disturb ordinary Americans. Take that, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).
Nixon’s call for law and order was hardly innovative. Throughout the 20th century, right-wing movements made headway urging an end to (left-wing) demonstrations and coupling this with an attack on modernity — secularism, homosexuality and the usual list of prejudices. They all recognized that most voters feel uneasy with social change and absolutely abhor anything that portends violence or the lack of civility. It makes them feel unsafe and suggests, as does graffiti on a subway car, that worse will follow.
The urge to deal with Trump on his own terms is understandable but shortsighted. Not even Avenatti, who hardly lacks self-confidence and would surely suffer horribly if deprived of media attention, can match Trump when it comes to sheer narcissistic aggression. The president’s genius is reading his opponents’ “tell” — their inner weakness. He destroyed his GOP rivals with insults that were, really, encapsulations of what was perceived but not yet stated: Jeb Bush’s passivity, Marco Rubio’s youth and so on. As he showed on his reality show, “The Apprentice,” the president — like any predator — is adept at finding weakness and moving in for the kill. His show was a companion to “Animal Planet.”
“Going low” is not, like proper meds, going to restore Trump voters to sanity. It will, however, only further debase American politics and validate Trump. Politics is not beanbag — whatever that is — and a little larceny is not only permitted but required. But an uncivil society is a dangerous place with possibly horrendous consequences. Beware. The Civil War had nothing to do with manners, but it’s a warning nonetheless.
NOTE: Richard Cohen makes the mistake of confusing "going low" with violence or at least suggesting that such a tactic includes violent acts. Nothing could be further from the truth. What it means is that after Republicans have gerrymandered, suppressed and criminalized the hell out of America for decades, the left will no longer remain silent in the face of such fascist-style tactics to win, as they have, control of America. Confronting Trump's cabinet members on the street or in restaurants is not a violent act. It is confrontational and it is "not nice." But it is not gunning down abortion providers nor ramming cars into crowds of demonstrators.
Take Antifa who shows up at White Supremacist and Neo-Nazi rallies to confront those folks who advocate the deportation, jailing or execution of African Americans, Latino Americans, and Jews as their ultimate goal. Frankly, I'm glad that they do show up since our leaders - particularly now - don't seem to have the courage to call out the Fascist thread that has grown larger in America of late. While the press dismisses Antifa as a violent organization, they ignore the origins of this movement which goes back to Germany's rise of Fascism as a counter to Adolph Hitler's populist and popular rise to power. This is what Antifa is all about and I for one am glad that they are around.
Cohen's historical parallels, the Anti-Vietnam War protests, Reagan's railing against the Berkley student "Communists," Nixon's wining over of the Silent Majority in defeating anti-war candidate George McGovern, occurred in an age and an atmosphere so different from today's as to be render these parallels irrelevant. Back when Reagan was running for Governor of California, students at Berkley were routinely and universally labelled trouble-makers, communist sympathizers, violent mobs as were all other student protesters around the country by the media and there was no countervailing force to this national narrative.
Not so today. We are inundated with countervailing narratives on all sides, so much so that it is often difficult to make heads or tails of what's really going on in America. But it took a Timothy McVeigh and the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995 to awaken America's "Silent Majority" centrists to the then-underground anti-government and Fascist tinged movements that lay hidden from public view. There was no "countervailing" force back then that somehow justified his actions even though there existed many groups that shared his world view. We just didn't see or read much about them. His deadly act remained the worst terrorist act in America until the 9-11 attacks.
Today we live in a world where every organization, every movement, every narrative has any number of countervailing tropes thanks to the internet and cable television. No longer does the greatly expanded media work in concert to present an event in a particular light so that America digests a single world view. Michelle Obama's "When they go low, we go high" was a pre-Trump statement advocating civility when there was still at least a shred of civility in our political discourse even though her husband was being touted as the Anti-Christ and the Washington Post was debating the "two sides" of Trump's birther movement.
The election of Donald Trump was an electric wake-up call and revealed just how many Americans were steeped in conspiracy theories, right wing ideologies, racism and authoritarian tendencies. This American populism resembles nothing more than the populism of pre-World War II Germany where a previously unknown political actor entered center stage and plunged Germany and the world into one of the darkest periods of human history. This is precisely what Antifa is attempting to counter under what has become the fairly evident racism, misogyny, xenophobia and authoritarianism of Trump and his Administration.
So Mr. Cohen, you might want to take into these facts into account when you hear calls for Democrats, liberals, and progressives to take off the gloves and fight back. Does this mean literal street fights? No. But when you survey America's recent history and compare the left and the right regarding violence, recall that it isn't liberals who have shot and killed abortion providers, blown up abortion clinics, slaughtered kids in schools, churches, theaters and shopping malls. We Democrats, liberals and progressives have waited long enough - in fact, far too long - for Congress and our leaders to enact sensible gun control laws, to outlaw big money in politics, to reform our criminal justice system, to prevent voter suppression, and a whole host of conservative and Republican ideologies and initiatives that have run amok in America.
Our patience is at an end. We have been far too polite, too understanding, too compassionate for far too long. And now we realize that our basic liberal ideals have led to Trump. No, we are not advocating violence. We never have although Alex Jones and Rush Limbaugh will tell you that we want to foment Civil War II. And as for changing the minds of Trump supporters, we know that this is simply impossible. They need to be left in the dust of history. This is what we are attempting to do. Shaming Trump's Cabinet members as a tactic, is in no way comparable to the murderous tactics and history of right wing violence. And now it's the President who calls us war mongering, out of control mobs who can't be trusted to govern. Mr. Cohen, the calls for getting tough aren't about violence. But they are about stopping America's slide into dictatorship or another Holocaust.
I would think, given your heritage, you would understand this.
And On This Note, Have A Great Day Everyone!
PS: The video clips are my additions and did not appear in Richard Cohen's piece.
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