“Fake” Outrage sparks more Ugliness at Political Rallies and we are better for it

Much is being said and many are claiming to demand that the media and all others step up and stand up to bulling at political rallies but the more we protest these actions the more coverage they get and those actions that should be prominent in our news cycle of Americans doing right by each other gets all the more ignored.  Like this article titled “The Media And Trump's Rally Thugs” written by Eric Boehlert for his Media Matters Blog.  Mr. Boehlert recalls “Donald Trump's rallies may have reached a new apex of bigotry and intolerance last week when on two occasions protesters were set upon by agitated Trump supporters. In Lowell, Massachusetts, they tore up a "God Bless President Obama" sign, and then hurled insults at a Muslim woman wearing a "I Come In Peace" t-shirt who was escorted out of a Trump rally in Rock Hill, South Carolina.  According to tweets from inside the South Carolina event, jacked-up Trump supporters were anxious to randomly kick out lots of other people from the rally, even if the targets of their wrath weren't protesting the event.  The two ugly episodes last week join a long list of nasty and shocking physical skirmishes that have come to define Trump's political road show. In fact, here are some of the menacing utterances and taunts that have reportedly been yelled by Trump's supporters at rallies recently: "Go home n****r." "Sieg Heil." "Kick his ass." "Light the motherfucker on fire." "Scum!" And "get him the hell out of here."  Actually that last taunt came directly from Trump, currently the Republican Party's frontrunner.  The idea that people are regularly being attacked, threatened and accosted at campaign rallies for a major party frontrunner is just off the charts in terms of modern American politics.  Last month, Talking Points Memo published a helpful round-up of the violent outbursts, explicitly noting, "Racist and bigoted language has become commonplace at the rallies, both from Trump supporters and the candidate himself."  Since then, the ugly phenomenon has only escalated, yet the press seems unsure of how to deal with it. Yes, journalists type up the here's-what-happened-dispatches. But where's the outrage? Where the endless pundit panel discussions about the outrageous behavior Trump are is purposefully fermenting? Where are the deep, front-page dives into what the cauldron of Trump campaign violence reveals about his possible presidency?  Meanwhile, Politico last week cheered the violent Trump events as being "fun."

I call it fake outrage because those who have a voice and can make the necessary changes refuse to take the obviously next step and actually do something about it.  Those who are assaulted at these rallies could seek legal remedy and name names as a way to bring these thugs to justice but many don’t.  I call it fake outrage because media could boycott rallies that display this type of behavior and show the world that America is not a country that showcases ignorance like this but they don’t.  I call it fake outrage because those of the minority class has been subjected to this type of reaction for many years now and has often times sought to hid instead of find the courage to fight it head on.  Those that have like Dr. Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Robert Kennedy and so many others ended up dead so those who claim true outrage considers whether they are willing to sacrifice their lives to make too much noise.  Anyone who claims to care as much as many but fail to take the next step is not as passionate about that change they seek so no change will come.

I say that we are better because of it simply because it now shows that America is just like any other country.  We have a good and we have our bad.  Back in the day we choose to hid the bad from those who may be watching and only show the good but that began to fall apart when we totally ignored our job of confronting evil and just stuck our heads in the sand.  We choose to pretend that it didn’t exist and when someone would bring it up, we would tag them as nothing more than troublemakers and minimize their pain.  We would spend large amounts of time and space bad-mouthing other countries about their violations of nature’s laws while we found new and more creative ways to bury ours.  The chickens have come home to roost because now the entire world knows that we have immature and major party bullies in every aspect of our American lives and since that cat is now out of the bag, the world is looking at us to see how we get it back in. 

The annoyance of this entire thing is that we have spent so much time denying that ugliness exists within this country that we are not well versed or practiced in the knowledge of how to correct this issue.  Many who may be in a position to help us find an answer are now more concerned about surviving any encounter with this evil that they are too afraid to step out.  So the problem continues and with each step further and further into the mainstream of this nation, the ugliness grows and becomes even more powerful than anyone had ever thought possible.  The five percent that we had been able to keep under wraps have now achieved positions within our society where they now have all the wealth and therefore the influence to make their voices louder and since no repercussions appears nowhere on their horizon, their boldness becomes a blank check issued from the people.  It’s now seems more appropriate to act un-American and scoffs at those who call your un-American acts out for all to see because those who stand against this evil are ignored while your evil acts are dramatized and made into a TV movie.  We are the better for it because now we cannot tell anyone how messy their house is until we clean up ours and we wonder why our influence has waned.  We are better for it because now we can show the world how a country can finally admit it addiction to evil, take full responsibility for its years of denial and come together to finally fix that problem.  We are better for it because now we have an opportunity to finally take the lead again simply by leading by example.