Last week, major politicians and liberal Democratic figures, all of them open critics of President Donald Trump or strong supporters of the Democratic Party, were mailed pipe bombs. A synagogue in Pittsburgh was viciously attacked by a gunman, and 11 people were killed. Two young people of color were killed in a shooting in a grocery store in Kentucky. When President Trump perpetuates lies, instigates conspiracy theories, and refuses to denounce white nationalism, he assumes some measure of responsibility for the violence occurring in the nation today by those who support the ideals he won’t reject.
In statistics, one of the cardinal sins is drawing conclusions based on correlation. In other words, just because there is a relationship between X and Y, does not mean that Y is caused by X. The only way to find causation is by testing variables in an experiment. Let’s pose a hypothetical: the President of the United States is eloquent, decent, and striving to do the right thing; he does not openly promote bigotry and racism domestically, he supports the press and gives them a fair shake every time; he does not have more lies on record than he has days in office. Now his successor, the new President of the United States, refuses to denounce white supremacists, or acknowledge them as a threat to national security, including one instance in which he refers to them as ‘very fine people’. This same president spews and perpetuates damaging rhetoric against his political opponents, slandering their credibility, their morality, their character. He does this repeatedly, sharing conspiracy theories about the ‘deep state’ and the role of billionaires in some sort of shadow government. He calls the news media the ‘enemy of the people’ and calls outlets fake news when he doesn’t agree with their coverage, regardless of whether or not it is objective. The question to ask is whether or not these same hate crimes would occur during the tenure of each president.
There seems to be no evidence that there were bombs mailed to any of President Barack Obama’s political opponents during his time in office. Never did he tell his supporters that Mitt Romney should be locked up, never did he decry the New York Times for unfavorable coverage. During his presidency, there were hate crimes and shootings, but they didn’t seem to be tied to the president’s behavior and demeanor at the time. Let’s take President Trump, his constant railing against CNN and liberal donor and conspiracy theory subject George Soros, the endless chants of ‘lock her up’ aimed at Hillary Clinton, his digs at the intelligence of Maxine Waters – it’s a near-constant stream of insults against his opponents. Is it any surprise, then, given the president’s cult of personality, that something like these bomb mailings happened? The Obamas, Joe Biden, CNN headquarters, the Clintons, George Soros; all of them were sent devices with an intent to kill. There are reports of Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump having to convince the president to denounce anti-Semitism. This administration’s first Holocaust Remembrance Day statement went without any mention of Jews. Is it any surprise that the Jewish community of Pittsburgh was targeted on Oct. 27?
This is not to say that Donald Trump is at his rallies telling his supporters to carry out these vile acts. This is not to say that Donald Trump has not, taken at face value, denounced these crimes sincerely. It is to say, though, that these targeted political and religious attacks shouldn’t be a surprise given his rhetoric. He seems pathologically unable to fully denounce white supremacy and white nationalism. The suspects in each case appear to be in full agreement with the president’s agenda. The man suspected of mailing the pipe bombs was living in a white van plastered with pro-Trump propaganda. The suspect in the Pittsburgh shooting made numerous statements online in reference to his belief that Jewish people were bringing in migrants and refugees to the United States illegally, an activity which we can reasonably assume the president would be opposed to. The shooter in Kentucky tried to enter a predominantly black church earlier, but had to settle for slaughter in a Kroger, and said “whites don’t shoot whites.” These are men who, in lockstep with the president’s views, take what he says and accept it as their truth and the truth of the world; immigrants are bad, people who help them are bad, politicians who insult the President are bad, white supremacists and Nazis aren’t, and they feel the need to do something about it.
Past presidents have been far from perfect. The legacy of our country is one of racism and oppression. That cannot be overstated. More often than not, at the very least, our modern presidents have been vocally opposed to white nationalism and white supremacy, however much they were perpetuating it. Nazis, like those in Charlottesville, Va, are bad. They are the quintessential bad guys in the American narrative, the ones who get punched out by Captain America and Indiana Jones. But President Trump can’t do it; he cannot say he is unequivocally opposed to white supremacy and nationalism. His vice president couldn’t even get an actual Jewish rabbi to deliver a prayer for Pittsburgh. Maybe the men who carried out these hateful acts already had ideas along these lines before Trump took office. Maybe they’ve always hated Democrats, immigrants and Jewish people, people of color, and anybody else who doesn’t look like them. But our president certainly hasn’t dissuaded them. And I can’t say he’s going to stop any time soon.