Trump tweets as gun violence and white nationalist terrorism
stalk America
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“Ainda este ano,
o presidente assinou uma lei que flexibilizava o acesso a armas a pessoas com
doenças mentais. Curiosamente, a Casa Branca recusou-se a revelar a foto
oficial desse acordo.”
“Grupos que
defendem o controlo das armas reagiram rapidamente às palavras de Donald Trump.
“Sejamos claros: o que está em causa não são doenças mentais, não são jogos de
vídeo, não são filmes. Isto que ele diz são argumentos usados pela NRA
(National Rifle Association, o lobby das armas norte-americano). O que está em
causa é o acesso fácil às armas”, comentou John Feinblatt, presidente da
Everytown for Gun Safety, citado pelo New York Times.”
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Domestic terrorism now results in more deaths than the
foreign kind but the president shows no sign of toning down his rhetoric
David Smith in Washington
@smithinamerica
Sun 4 Aug 2019 18.45 BST Last modified on Mon 5 Aug 2019
01.05 BST
Two menaces have stalked America throughout its history. One
is gun violence. The other is white supremacy. In El Paso, Texas, on Saturday
they collided.
A 21-year-old gunman with a hatred of Hispanic immigrants
killed 20 people in a shopping mall in the eighth deadliest mass shooting in
American history. The suspect is believed to have posted online an
anti-immigrant screed that praised the killing of 51 people in Christchurch
mosques in New Zealand in March.
Less than 13 hours later, nine people were killed in Dayton,
Ohio, in a second mass shooting.
The chilling reality of domestic terrorism – which now
results in far more deaths than foreign terrorism – was acknowledged by
political analysts, Democratic candidates for president and George P Bush,
nephew of former president George W Bush.
But there was no televised appearance from President Donald
Trump, who attempted to wash his hands of the hate crime in a few tweets. His
acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, toured TV studios on Sunday expressing
righteous indignation. “I blame the people who pull the trigger,” Mulvaney told
NBC’s Meet the Press with Chuck Todd. “Goodness gracious, is someone really
blaming the president? People are sick, until we address why people think this
way.”
There is a need for caution when drawing a direct line
between politicians and heinous acts: the Columbine high school massacre
happened under President Bill Clinton, the Orlando nightclub shooting under
Barack Obama. But the lone gunman theory is often a way of refusing to grapple
with underlying motives. For those who live with violence and its consquences
in their communities every day, context matters.
Trump has spent the past month stoking racial resentments,
tweeting that four US congresswomen of colour should “go back” to their
countries, holding a rally where the crowd chanted “send her back!” and
deriding the majority African American district that contains part of Baltimore
as “a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess”.
Inflammatory words matter in a country that has more guns
than people. Tragically, shootings have become as American as apple pie. Dayton
was the 22nd mass killing in America this year, according to an AP/USA
Today/Northeastern University mass murder database, which tracks all attacks
involving four or more people killed. America has by far the highest gun
ownership rate in the world.
Time and again
Congress refuses to act. Not even the shooting that killed 20 students
and six teachers at Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, in
2012 led to meaningful reforms, even though a sympathetic president, Barack
Obama, was in the White House.
Then came Trump. The National Rifle Association (NRA) was a
key part of his coalition, spending $30m to help him beat Hillary Clinton. He has resisted basic measures such as
signing background checks for gun sales into law. A promise to defend
the second amendment, the right to bear arms, always rouses one of the biggest
cheers at his campaign ralles. Trump wildly exaggerates Democrats’ plans for
gun control.
In addition, Trump has fomented a toxic discourse around
immigration and race. He questioned Obama’s birthplace, launched his election
campaign with talk of Mexican “criminals” and “rapists” and drew moral
equivalence between white supremacists and anti-fascist protesters in
Charlottesville, Virginia. He has used the word “invasion” numerous times when
tweeting about the US-Mexico border; the gunman in El Paso, in a “manifesto”
being linked to him, complained of a “Hispanic invasion of Texas”.
White nationalist terrorism is now a real danger, yet it
receives a fraction of the attention of Islamist extremism. The FBI director,
Christopher Wray, testified last month that the bureau has recorded about 100
arrests of domestic terrorism suspects in the past nine months; many were
linked to white supremacist violence. Trump’s critics say he is fanning the flames
of bigotry.
Presidential candidate Cory Booker told CNN’s State of the
Union: “I want to say with more moral clarity that Donald Trump is responsible
for this. He is responsible because he is stoking fears and hatred and bigotry.
He is responsible because he is failing to condemn white supremacy, and seeing
it as it is.
Trump believes the rhetoric worked for him in 2016, not with
a majority of Americans (he lost the popular vote), but with the white-majority
states that were crucial to his victory in the electoral college. The past
month – where has doubled down on race baiting and launched unprecedented
racist attacks on Democrat politicians of color – strongly implies he will try
the same approach in 2020 but perhaps go even further. The election looks set
to be the most explosive in living memory.
But, gun control
activists say, this is no time for despair or surrender. The NRA is
currently in a state of disarray, plagued by internal feuding and financial
strife. House Republicans suffered a hammering in last year’s midterm
elections, driven by an anti-Trump backlash. Voters can make a difference in
2020, not only in the White House but, crucially, in the Senate. As Nelson Mandela once observed, it always seems
impossible until it is done.
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