George W. Bush laments 'shocking failure' in
treatment of black Americans
The 43rd president expressed support for protests that
have taken place around the world, while denouncing looting and violence.
By CAITLIN
OPRYSKO
06/02/2020
06:08 PM EDT
Former
President George W. Bush is calling for a national examination of “tragic
failures” in the realm of racial injustice following a week of protests over
the police killing of an unarmed black man in Minneapolis.
In a
statement released Tuesday evening, the 43rd president said he and former first
lady Laura Bush had been “anguished by the brutal suffocation of George Floyd,”
the 46-year-old who was pinned by a knee to the neck for nearly nine minutes
last Monday by an officer of the Minneapolis Police Department.
The former
president said that he and his wife had thus far “resisted the urge to speak
out, because this is not the time for us to lecture. It is time for us to
listen.”
But “it
remains a shocking failure that many African Americans, especially young
African American men, are harassed and threatened in their own country,” Bush
said, as he argued that “the doctrine and habits of racial superiority, which
once nearly split our country, still threaten our Union” today.
Bush expressed
support for the protests that have sprung up all over the world. At times, the
events have descended into violence, with some protesters setting fire to and
looting businesses, while clashing with law enforcement officers who have fired
tear gas and rubber bullets at demonstrators and members of the media covering
the events.
The former
president denounced the violence, asserting that “looting is not liberation,
and destruction is not progress,” and that “lasting justice will only come by
peaceful means.”
“We also
know that lasting peace in our communities requires truly equal justice,” he
added.
His
comments stand in stark contrast to those of the current occupant of the White
House.
President
Donald Trump has faced criticism over the past few days for centering his
public remarks on instances of violence and looting rather than addressing the
root cause of the protests — disparities in law enforcement and inequities in
the criminal justice system. On Monday, Trump urged state and local leaders to
call in the National Guard to “dominate” protesters, and threatened to go over
their heads and deploy the military to clamp down on the demonstrations if he
deemed their efforts insufficient.
Unlike the
current president, who has derided and dismissed protesters as “lowlifes,”
“thugs” or anti-fascist operatives, Bush acknowledged the deeply rooted nature
of protesters' concerns, an injustice that he said would require “a consistent,
courageous and creative effort” to rectify.
“This
tragedy — in a long series of similar tragedies — raises a long overdue
question: How do we end systemic racism in our society?” he said. Bush then
appeared to take a veiled dig at Trump and the complaints leveled at him by
critics. “The only way to see ourselves in a true light is to listen to the
voices of so many who are hurting and grieving. Those who set out to silence
those voices do not understand the meaning of America — or how it becomes a
better place.”
“Many doubt
the justice of our country, and with good reason,” he continued. “Black people
see the repeated violation of their rights without an urgent and adequate
response from American institutions.”
While Trump
on Monday heralded the rule of law during a Rose Garden address announcing his
threat to unleash the military on protesters, and dubbed himself “your
president of law and order,” Bush on Tuesday noted that such a concept
“ultimately depends on the fairness and legitimacy of the legal system.”
“There is a
better way — the way of empathy, and shared commitment, and bold action, and a
peace rooted in justice,” he said. “I am confident that together, Americans
will choose the better way.”
Americans think America is in bad shape
Just three-in-10 voters say the country is on the
right track, a low since Trump took office, a POLITICO/Morning Consult poll
shows.
By STEVEN
SHEPARD
06/03/2020
04:30 AM EDT
Nearly seven-in-10 voters say things in the U.S. are
pretty seriously on the wrong track, according to a new POLITICO/Morning
Consult poll.
Only 31
percent of voters say the country is headed in the right direction, the lowest
mark recorded in POLITICO/Morning Consult polling since President Donald Trump
took office in early 2017. Sixty-nine percent of those surveyed from May
29-June 1 say the country is on the wrong track.
The poll
was conducted May 29-June 1, amid historic disruption in American life: the
continued coronavirus pandemic, the crippling of the U.S. economy and the widespread
protests over police brutality and the unequal treatment of racial minorities.
Those protests turned violent and destructive in some cities while the poll was
in the field.
With Trump
facing a challenging reelection campaign in five months, Republican voters are
far more likely to say the country is headed in the right direction. Nearly
two-thirds, 65 percent, say the country is going in the right direction, versus
9 percent of Democrats and 23 percent of independents.
While the
31 percent “right direction” figure is a Trump-era low, it represents only a
slight decline from the previous week, when 34 percent said the country is
headed in the right direction. But the change is more significant since the
coronavirus crisis began: Three months ago, in a POLITICO/Morning Consult poll
conducted in late February and early March, 43 percent said the country was
headed in the right direction.
"As
2020 headlines continue to be dominated by crises, the fewest voters we've
tracked in nearly four years believe the country is going in the right
direction," said Tyler Sinclair, vice president at Morning Consult.
The new
POLITICO/Morning Consult survey is not the only one to show declining views of
the country's direction. A Monmouth University poll out Tuesday also
represented the low-water mark, going back to 2013, in the percentage who said
the U.S. was headed in the right direction.
Though a
decline in the number of Americans viewing the country as headed in the right
direction would be concerning for Trump’s campaign, other incumbent presidents
have won reelection even with significant majorities saying the country is on
the wrong track. A Washington Post analysis in 2016 showed that Barack Obama
and Bill Clinton won reelection despite high “wrong track” numbers in the
polls.
The
president’s approval rating is considered a more accurate predictor of his
political fortunes, but that also looks bleak for Trump: In the new
POLITICO/Morning Consult poll, 41 percent of voters approve of the job Trump is
doing, and 55 percent disapprove. That’s statistically unchanged from the
previous week, when 40 percent approved — though it is slightly lower than
Trump’s approval ratings earlier this year, before voters’ perceptions of his
response to the coronavirus outbreak turned negative.
The
POLITICO/Morning Consult poll surveyed 1,981 registered voters and has a margin
of error of plus or minus 2 percent.
Morning
Consult is a global data intelligence company, delivering insights on what
people think in real time by surveying tens of thousands across the globe every
single day.
More
details on the poll and its methodology can be found in these two documents:
Toplines | Crosstabs
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