Trump stands firm in a time of crisis
President Trump’s Rose Garden speech on Monday evening was just not soft enough for the mainstream media, aroused to apoplexy by the thought that the ongoing violent riots across America may be quelled by the National Guard.
Channel Nine’s political editor Chris Uhlmann, for instance, pulled no punches on the Today morning show. The President, by asserting the need for law and order, was only exacerbating the situation. In the face of lawless mobs, looting, burning, vandalising, and committing assault, Trump’s response was that of a “totalitarian leader” rather than a “consoler-in-chief.”
In his speech, Trump clearly expressed his dismay at the killing of George Floyd and his solidarity with the peaceful protestors: “All Americans are rightly sickened and revolted by the brutal death of George Floyd. My administration is fully committed that for George and his family, justice will be served. He will not have died in vain.”
The unity of disgust at the killing of George Floyd crosses all political affiliations. But what we have seen for the past week on the streets of countless American cities is an amalgam of well-meaning protestors, violent anti-Trump activists, lawless criminal gangs, and opportunistic looters.
It takes an extraordinary bias on the part of Chris Uhlmann to imagine that some consoling platitudes will magically heal the damage being done at the moment. Since Trump’s election in 2016 the anti-Trump media have pilloried the President at every opportunity, aided by talk show hosts, comedians, and Hollywood celebrities.
The rage we now see exploding across the country has been deliberately stoked by the enemies of Trump with the sole aim of removing the elected government, either by force or at the ballot box.
Only last year TV host Bill Maher said he was hoping for the economy to crash, simply to damage Trump’s election chances. Here we have something even better to weaponise against Trump, widespread chaos in the name of racial justice, left to spread by incompetent Democrat state leaders.
Of course, they must ignore the amazing economic revival that has benefitted African-Americans since 2016. And they must ignore Trump’s profound plea for a stable civil society: “Where there is no justice, there is no liberty, where there is no safety, there is no future. We must never give in to anger or hatred. If malice or violence reigns, then none of us is free.”
Jason Beale is a Melbourne writer. His essays, reviews and poetry have appeared in print and online. A chapbook of his poems titled Be Quiet About Love was recently published in the Picaro Poets series by Ginninderra Press.
