America is polarized and divided and the world must wonder whether or not it can fulfill its supposed role as \u201cleader of the free world.\u201d What exactly that phrase is supposed to mean, I just do not know any more, given the internal fighting that dominates this country. President Joe Biden, a Democrat, last week gave a partisan speech that effectively blamed all of America\u2019s ills on the Republicans, further widening that divide. He said: \u201cToo much of what\u2019s happening in our country today is not normal. Donald Trump and the MAGA (Make America Great Again) Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic.\u201d
\nThe deep divides in the country have drawn in every voting constituency \u2014 and Arab Americans are no exception. Although they are concerned by Biden\u2019s failure to live up to his campaign promises, they have joined in the stampede to pillory Trump, attacking him personally and not addressing the issues. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the daughter of Palestinian immigrants, has used hate politics in an attempt to energize the Arab American, Muslim and progressive communities, including by unleashing a profanity-laced speech attacking Trump hours after she was sworn into office.
\nSome think the politics of hate started when Trump appeared on the political scene. But the truth is that this divisive political phase began when a former Georgia history professor, Newt Gingrich, entered Congress in 1979 after transforming a Democratic district into a Republican one.
\nPrior to Gingrich\u2019s rise, former President Ronald Reagan \u2014 who won the support of both Republicans and Democrats, creating what we now refer to as \u201cReagan Democrats\u201d \u2014 expressed how politics should never besmirch personalities. Speaking in 1985 at the presidential library named for one of his predecessors, John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1963, Reagan praised Kennedy, but then added this important comment, which reflects the old manner of American politics that today is lost in the mire: \u201cWhich is not to say I supported John Kennedy when he ran for president. I didn\u2019t. I was for the other fellow. But you know it is true, when the battle\u2019s over and the ground is cooled, well it\u2019s then that you see the opposing general\u2019s valor.\u201d
\nThat kind of political brilliance is no longer here in America. Gingrich set the tone, but many Republicans and Democrats have since fueled the growth of hate politics.
\nPresident George W. Bush used anger to bring people together in the days after Al-Qaeda\u2019s 2001 terrorist attack that took the lives of nearly 3,000 people in New York, Washington and in a field in Pennsylvania. Bush declared in no uncertain terms to the leaders of foreign nations, and to the American people themselves: \u201cOver time it\u2019s going to be important for nations to know they will be held accountable for inactivity. You\u2019re either with us or against us in the fight against terror.\u201d
\nAnd in her 2016 presidential election campaign against Trump, Hillary Clinton, the former first lady and New York senator, vowed to run a \u201cpositive campaign.\u201d But her campaign rhetoric fueled anger and was symbolized by her comment attacking those who supported her opponent as \u201cdeplorables.\u201d
\nCandidates use the politics of hate to rally their supporters, but also as a way to avoid a respectful discussion of the issues. The worst part of it is that the hatred is narrow in focus, usually against a single person, and not about the bigger issues that are more important and that might impact people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
America is polarized and divided and the world must wonder whether or not it can fulfill its supposed role as \u201cleader of the free world.\u201d What exactly that phrase is supposed to mean, I just do not know any more, given the internal fighting that dominates this country. President Joe Biden, a Democrat, last week […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[10614],"class_list":{"0":"post-283107","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-editorial","7":"tag-politics-of-hate"},"yoast_head":"\n