Gratuitous Meanness

Spite

My opinion, and understanding, of, whether Democrats should support the bill to fund the government for the next 6 months, has been whipsawed between opinion pieces on both sides.

But when I saw this photo

of Starlette Thomas, holding a piece of the demolished Black Lives Matter mural in Washington, D.C., my rage at the gratuitous meanness of this administration, swung my sense back to the side of refusing to do anything to support them.

If Black Lives Matter was simply a woke expression of a political/human issue, then so was the Civil War.

There is only one reason for the tearing apart of the mural, created in 2020 in response to national outrage at the horrific murder of George Floyd: humiliation of people of color as a sop to the remaining racism which MAGA perceives as its core supporters.

Wiser minds than mine had suggested that politics is no longer, if it ever was, driven by policy issues. Maybe always, and certainly since Reagan, elections have largely been decided by emotion. No one has exploited the world of social media more than the in-name-only president.

I choose to believe that naked racism represents no more than one-third of the nation. The rest of the MAGA movement is made up of people who have, justifiably, felt left behind by the prosperity people like me have enjoyed.

They want me to know they’re sick of living in the shadow of the “elite.” Which I take to mean college graduates who have done well as our economy has shifted from industry to information.

While the Democratic Party has historically championed the rights of hourly workers, our leaders speak with the accent of higher education.

Speak, with voices of genuine compassion, the conviction that the upside down economy has gotten steadily more lopsided since the 70s, and support will shift from anger and alienation, to mutual caring.

Two-thirds of the nation understands that people of color have a steeper road to climb, simply because of the vagary of birth.

We can all understand – even more important, feel, share – Starlette Thomas’ grief as she embraces a piece of what once promised to be national passion for equal justice.

Gratuitous meanness will not finally carry the day.