A political ‘non-political’ act

By now you’ve heard of the Saturday shooting that took the lives of 11 people at Tree of Life synagogue in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh. (Full disclosure: I live just a short bus ride from there and attended a bar mitzvah of a former schoolmate there in the 1970s.)  Yesterday, President Trump came here to “pay his respects,” visiting the temple and also one of the hospitals where some of the victims who survived the shooting were convalescing.

Given that the president came across that day as somewhat of a mourner, many of his supporters were infuriated that anti-Trump demonstrators filled the streets of Forbes Avenue, the main thoroughfare, that same day. This wasn’t a political visit, they insist.

They’re wrong.

One, he was asked to delay his visit for a couple of weeks, to allow the families to grieve in peace; however, he refused the entreaty and came anyway — and in doing so, he became the issue. After all, there’s an election next Tuesday and he couldn’t pass up an opportunity to be seen in a rare positive light.

Two, upon learning of the shooting he made the insensitive comment that the shooter, identified as a Robert Bowers of the suburb of Baldwin Borough, could have been stopped had the synagogue had armed guards (given his arsenal and that two of the wounded were Pittsburgh police, that seems far-fetched).

And three, the reason Bowers took aim at worshipers that morning in the first place was due to the belief, fairly common in right-wing conspiracy circles, that the Jewish people were financially supporting the “caravan” coming from from Honduras that’s seeking political asylum in his country, falsely claiming that it’s an issue of “immigration.”

See, one of the issues that the demonstrators have with the president was his unwillingness to repudiate “white nationalism” — chilling, given that it’s the same ideology that spurred Adolf Hitler to take control of Germany. Given the context that 30 percent of Squirrel Hill is Jewish, that's pretty potent.

Once again, you have Trump supporters complaining about a lack of “civility” in American politics. But they should understand that Trump has never been civil in his own right — even at a rally that he held before coming here he blasted the media, a staple of his grievance. That’s why his visit here should never be seen as one of someone who cares.

Because, really, he doesn’t.