As a conservative for over 40 years, I’m compelled to call out fellow conservatives for driving divisions among us and stoking violence. When tragedy strikes, like a shooting or assassination, all should know to restrain impulses to disparage the deceased and refrain from a rush to judgement. Tragically, our nation’s leaders, President Trump and VP Vance chose to quickly and very publicly blame “the radical left” and “left-wing radicals who gunned down Charlie Kirk”.
President Trump went on to call fellow citizens that oppose his policies, “scum” and “vicious and horrible.” President Trump, then went on to angrily say “I hate my opponents, and I don’t want the best for them.”
This is no way for a President and senior members of an administration to speak. It is driving divisions among us even deeper, setting an example of incendiary speech that more than a few find acceptable and choose to mimic, and driving upticks in threats and political violence.
While President Trump says “he couldn’t care less” if his speech offends, perhaps all of us ought to consider how disparaging comments, about groups we don’t belong to, may ripple and produce consequences far beyond our intention. We also have a right and responsibility to let elected officials know that we expect them to live up to higher standards and show respect toward all.
Tragically, President Trump has also chosen to use the frenzy over Kirk’s assassination to label left leaning groups, like Antifa, “domestic terrorists”. Frankly, while a few individuals advocating for Antifa have acted violently, Antifa is an anti-fascist group, whose mission and message is to call out authoritarian conduct. Tragically, Republican responses to the Occupy Movement, BLM and Antifa has been to target them, rather than listening to their grievances and taking steps to address those grievances.
To quell violence, we also need our President and Republicans in Congress to stop inciting violence not only through the words they speak but the policies they’ve either implemented or sat quietly by while being implemented by President Trump.
President Trump, for example, while saying he wants to reduce crime, has rescinded funding for gun violence prevention programs, relaxed common sense gun control laws, worked to undermine the ACA, the only law that requires healthcare plans to include mental healthcare, and rescinded funding for local police, only to then impose federal troops in LA and Washington, and Chicago, and threatened to send troops into other cities. The deployment of these troops, under dubious circumstance and legality, are unsettling to many and stoking tensions.
The harsh treatment of law-abiding immigrants by masked ICE agents, at peaceful settings, like courthouses, churches, schools and places of employment, has also stoked indignation and sharp responses to the way the administration is managing immigration. Conservative principles call me to condemn the President’s cruel treatment of innocent people and doubling down with federal troops to suppress opposition to his conduct.
Furthermore, if “Republicans” wish to quell violence, they must stop feeding conditions which push people into financial distress, by taking away tax incentives they had to cover premiums for health insurance, stoking inflation through tariffs, creating economic instability and accompanying loss of jobs, and firing people who have been working diligently on the public’s behalf.
So, if President Trump, his administration, Republicans in Congress and fellow conservatives genuinely want to see peace in our country, let us recall what makes us American and remember that “All men are created equal and endowed by their creator with unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. And, if we still hold that proposition to be true, hopefully we will use it to not only guide our words, but as a plumbline by which to measure what policies to support and which leaders are worthy of supporting.