The Problem Is Not Civility

A man tried to assassinate the former President, the former Vice President, the former Attorney General, the most recent candidate for the Presidency, a Congresswoman and a Senator. Even a partial success would have been the worst political assassination plot in American history. Alert law enforcement agents and postal workers prevented anyone from being hurt.

Before the mad bomber was identified, prominent conservatives asserted without the slightest evidence that the bombs were fakes, planted by Democrats to tarnish Republicans. This “false flag” theory first surfaced at the fringes of right-wing media. That’s not surprising, but soon well-known conservative opinion leaders jumped on this nasty bandwagon. Ann Coulter tweeted, “bombs are a liberal tactic.” Rush Limbaugh said on his program, “What sense does it make for a conservative Republican to gum up the works here by sending a bunch of bombs that are not gonna go off and that are gonna be discovered? It doesn’t make any sense in any way, shape, manner, or form.” Fox TV host Lou Dobbs wrote, “Fake News – Fake Bombs. Who could possibly benefit by so much fakery?” FOX guest “experts” on three different shows echoed this idea. Donald Trump Jr. liked a tweet that asserted “FAKE BOMBS MADE TO SCARE AND PICK UP BLUE SYMPATHY VOTE.”

What did our President do? He never mentioned the names of the victims of this attack or expressed any sympathy with them. He complained about how media coverage of this potential tragedy interfered with coverage of his campaigning, in which he encouraged his supporters to hate the people targeted by the assassin. “We have seen an effort by the media in recent hours to use the sinister actions of one individual to score political points against me and the Republican Party,”

Countless writers have identified a lack of civility as one of our country’s worst problems. They complain about the nasty tone adopted by politicians and pundits of the left and right. They assert that the problem is a national one.

No. The problem is that a few prominent conservative opinion leaders, headed by our President, have gone way beyond incivility to hatred. When the lives of the most prominent Democrats are threatened, they blame the victims. They express no satisfaction that the plot was foiled nor sympathy for the intended victims. They don’t care that lives can be disrupted, even if bombs don’t go off. Days later, none of these commentators has admitted that they were wrong to blame Democrats.

And then they go right back to shouting that liberals are terrorists and encourage terrorists. That liberals are a “mob” which endangers the country. That the very people targeted by the bomber are a danger to the country and must be stopped.

No wonder the gullible Trump supporters echo these stupid ideas, and believe the arrest of a Trump supporter is part of the hoax. They have been bombarded by Republican attacks on the morality and the patriotism of liberals for decades. Their fears have been stoked by conservative lies about liberals since the days of Sen. McCarthy. A FOX producer called it “riling up the crazies”. Now a pathetic march of frightened Central Americans has been turned into an invasion of disease-carrying terrorists.

Let’s put the responsibility where it belongs – the supposedly serious, well known people who propagate these ideas and then take no responsibility for them when they are shown to be lies.

Incivility means rudeness or bad manners. Trump and his prominent acolytes are engaged in hate speech, incitement to violence. On the midterm campaign trail, Trump’s regular speech labels Democrats as a danger to America. They are “arsonists” who “have become too extreme and too dangerous to govern.” They want to “tear down our laws, tear down our institutions in pursuit of power.” They “want to unleash violent predators and ruthless killers.” “The Democrat party has become an angry, ruthless, unhinged mob determined to get power by any means necessary.” “The Democrats are willing to do anything, to hurt anyone, to get the power they so desperately crave. They want to destroy.”

When some Americans believe their President and believe the people who appear on television news, it becomes a reasonable choice to fear and hate all liberals.

Cesar Sayoc may have made his bombs alone. But prominent conservatives from the President on down urged him to believe his targets were enemies of the people. Trump and Coulter and Limbaugh and FOX are unindicted co-conspirators in the biggest political assassination plot in modern American history.

Lock them up.

Steve Hochstadt

Boston

October 30, 2018

A Man For All Men?

Suppose you just met a man at a party, in a bar, at a meeting, or at a ball game. He talked only about himself. He told amazing stories about how wonderful and rich he was. He said he was a genius, one of the most successful businessmen in the world, and superior at everything he does. He commented on how attractive or unattractive the women around him were and bragged about his sexual exploits. He laughed about getting away with groping women he encountered. He made fun of the intelligence of well-known people. He made fun of the handicapped. Although flabby and overweight, he puffed up his chest praising men who were “tough” like him.

Then later you found out that his stories about himself were lies. That he cheats at golf. That he had cheated everyone he worked with and conned his customers. That he had cheated on his wives. And that his wealth was not earned, but given to him by his very wealthy father.

What would you say about this man? A man you would not trust with a dollar. A man from whom you would want to protect the women in your life. There’s one word which sums up this personality – asshole.

Even assholes can be nice sometimes. Maybe such a man could show compassion in his interactions with others and empathy for those less fortunate. Maybe with more public responsibility, he could become more responsible. Maybe he would show another side of his personality.

But we have observed Donald Trump for two years since his election, and he has escalated his repellent behavior. His lies have multiplied, even about facts that can be easily checked. He mocks women, their bodies, and their stories of abuse by men. He refuses to believe people who know more than he does. He encourages people to hate the press, to hate his political opponents.

He is now the most famous asshole in the world.

Some people support the political policies Trump pushes and some people don’t. But nobody could argue that Trump the man is anything but an asshole. And that means that it is worth taking a second look at those policies, because such a man cannot be trusted to do what he says. A clear example is secretly using a heartless policy of separating children from their parents as a way of dealing with asylum seekers, then denying it ever happened, then blaming it on Democrats, then imprisoning children in barracks without sufficient facilities, then defying court orders to reunite families, then admitting that they had not kept track of what they were doing.

That’s what it means to have an asshole as President.

American women have recognized how Trump’s true nature contaminates his policies. Nearly two-thirds of women disapprove of Trump. Although 84% of women who identify as Republican say they support Trump, fewer and fewer women identify as Republican now that Trump is President.

What about men? Men split nearly evenly between approval and disapproval of Trump. It’s not black men or Hispanic men, but white men who support Trump.

Men who want to protect the women in their families from guys like Trump, men who believe in honesty, who dislike braggarts, who don’t think worrying about getting venereal disease is comparable to fighting in Vietnam, who don’t accept a draft-dodger’s claims that he knows more about war than our generals – they still applaud Trump.

Conservative white men overwhelmingly support Trump. Don’t conservative values count for anything?

Trump isn’t on the ballot anywhere, but he says over and over again that this election is about him.

White men, what are you doing? Don’t vote for a sleazy liar, for an abuser of women, for a con man. Pay attention to what women around you think. Have some pride in being a man.

Send this message to every man you know. Proclaim it from the rooftops.

Don’t vote for the asshole!

Steve Hochstadt

Boston

October 23, 2018

Last Column: An Unexpected Farewell

This is my last column for the Journal-Courier. A few weeks ago, the editor, David Bauer, informed me that my column was being terminated as of today. He said the decision was “a budget decision”. Jay Jamison’s column was also ended. I don’t know what other changes have been made.

These are hard times for newspapers. Newspapers large and small have suffered in the recent past. Circulation for daily newspapers across America has fallen by about half since 2000. Advertising revenue for newspapers has fallen over 75%.

This has hit newsrooms particularly hard: the number of news journalists has dropped by half. While national newspapers are weathering this storm, local newspapers are closing. Since 2004, about 1,800 local papers have closed or merged. The smaller the paper, the more likely it would close.

The new tariffs imposed by the Trump administration raised costs suddenly. The tariff on paper from Canada greatly increased costs for all papers. In September, the US International Trade Commission found that American paper mills were not hurt by Canadian imports and canceled the tariffs. But David Bauer told me that the tariffs on imported aluminum, used to create plates for printing presses, mean that printing costs have jumped.

I was very lucky to be given the opportunity to write opinion pieces for the Journal-Courier during remarkable times. For me, “freedom of the press” captures the sense of intellectual and political freedom I was given at the end of my working life. An example of that freedom is the word limit within which most op-ed writers must operate. David let me gradually push the length of my articles from the standard 650 to 850.

Probably more important, for me and my readers, was the freedom of subject I was given. Although I was a local columnist, I could write about any place or any subject. Over 9 years, I never heard one negative word from my editor about my subjects or my opinions about them. I could go wherever I wanted in my Tuesday columns.

I will continue to write. I feel a need to comment on life and current events. Writing columns means going beyond my immediate reactions and opinions to read what other people have written, to put together relevant facts, to think again and to put my thoughts into a coherent argument. I learn something every week about the world and about myself.

But I think that something is lost in this shift away of local columnists commenting on national issues, especially political issues, occurring here and elsewhere. There are many writers across the country who write from perspectives similar to mine or to Jay’s. The internet allows anyone with a computer to access countless opinion columns on any issue every day.

The difference is that they are not here in Jacksonville. They are not neighbors. They don’t share the life of this community. You will never see them in the grocery store or at a concert or eating at a restaurant. There is no chance of developing a relationship with them. My writing will no longer seep into a single community, not just as single pieces, but as a regular injection by a person who is familiar, who sees the world from the same place as my neighbors, although not with the same eyes.

A newspaper is an experience shared across a physical community, trying, these days desperately, to appeal as broadly as possible. So we all read the same obituaries and advertisements, the same sports reporting, the same advice columns, and the same opinion pieces. Some local people, who would never go to any website that featured my writing, who would never seek out the well-known liberal media voices on the internet or on TV, did more than glance away from my Tuesday op-eds. I know that, because some of them repeatedly wrote nasty messages to me, ostensibly provoked by what I had just written, but often simply outraged by my existence.

I have talked with enough people in Jacksonville to know that some who hated my politics learned to respect me and my opinions, perhaps shifting their political perspective ever so slightly.

The demise of newspapers in America may put an end to the kind of interactions between writers and audiences which bridge partisan gulfs, which challenge partisan certainties. When people search on the internet for reading material, they usually look in familiar places where their views are shared. Internet opinion tends to reinforce what we already believe.

I will miss the sense that I am writing mainly for people I see every day. After eating breakfast at Norma’s the other day, when I went to pay, I was told that someone had picked up my tab. The internet cannot provide such personal connections.

Perhaps this change will lead to new thoughts about how to distribute my essays more widely, most likely through social media. In the meantime, my articles will be posted each Tuesday on my website stevehochstadt.blogspot.com. I will be happy to send them by email to anyone who wishes to get them – just let me know by writing to me at shochsta@ic.edu.

Thank you for allowing me into your homes and into your minds.

Steve Hochstadt

Bloomington, IN

Published in the Jacksonville Journal-Courier, October 16, 2018

This was written for my newspaper readers. I will continue to write columns and place them here.