On the one hand, there’s the party of fascists calling out communists in the other party, probably as a precursor to resurrect the House Un-American Activities Committee.
On the other hand, there’s a party of communists calling out fascists for their intolerance, down to the canard of racism.
Exhibit A, as it were: President Trump has taken the lead, and many conservative pundits have followed, in calling anyone who’s a Democrat a communist, as many of the planks of their policy are communistic in nature.
Furthermore, his performance at the White House Correspondents Dinner, while funny, was pointed out at being mean-spirited as well as accusatory.
Exhibit B: Nolan Wells, a black teenager from Mississippi, was with a group of friends (who happen to be white) on Horn Island celebrating summer’s end and their return to the rigors of college football.
While the three friends returned home, Wells did not, and turned up two days later on the island, dead. The investigation continues, but there is little known.
That didn’t stop the cognoscenti in claiming this death was racially motivated, and it even attracted the attention of noted race hustlers, including the Rev. Al Sharpton, and civil rights attorney Ben Crump, both of whom equated Wells’ death to that of Emmett Till and Medgar Evans (murders that were racially motivated).
In both instances and from both sides, labels are hung and people are characterized without evidence, investigation or even understanding. Frankly, and I’m sure I’m in very good company, I am tired of it. I’m bone-weary tired of our “leaders” and their flying monkeys behaving like schoolkids on the playground shoving each other and tossing our “Your Mom” insults.
This is not good government, or leadership, or communication. This is designed simply to win; to discredit the other side instead of making compelling, fact-driven arguments for policy or even friendship.
While passions have certainly been part of politics and have led to conflicts, at some point cooler heads prevailed. Not so anymore, as picket lines and trenches have been brought to bear, and our “leaders” have degenerated to politics of my way or else. No longer is there debate about ideas; there is now attack the messenger, meaning that regardless of whether an idea has merit, if you destroy the person who had it, then the idea will die on the vine.
By extension, if a group, say a political party or religion, is denigrated daily and consistently, then they fade away as meaningless. Then it’s nothing to erase, leaving a path clear for whoever has the best PR team with the best insults to lead, to preach, to dictate.
There used to be a better way, and if we ever plan to seriously grow as a society, we probably should look backward instead of forward, at least in terms of cooperation. Lord knows what we’re doing now is ridiculous and stultifying.
Tony Farkas is editor of the San Jacinto News-Times and the Trinity County News-Standard. He can be reached at tony@polkcountypublishing.com.
