4A Monday, October 29, 2018
The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com
WASHINGTON/POLITICS
Fed-up Americans crave unity amid violence
A group holds a sign at the intersection of Murray Ave. and Forbes Ave. in the Squirrel Hill
section of Pittsburgh, during a memorial vigil for the victims of the shooting at the Tree of
Life Synagogue where a shooter opened fire, killing multiple people and wounding others,
including several police officers, Saturday, Oct. 27.
BY CLAIRE GALOFARO AND
MARGERY A. BECK
Associated Press
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — She
flipped through television
channels and radio stations,
scanning from conservative
to liberal media, search
ing for any sign that the
polarized nation had finally
reached its tipping point.
For days, Elisa Karem
Parker had been seeing
updates in the news: A pipe
bomb sent to liberal politi
cal donor George Soros. One
delivered to CNN. More to
former President Barack
Obama, Hillary Clinton and
other prominent political
figures villainized by those
on the right — a bizarre plot
unfolding just ahead of the
midterm election that will
decide which party controls
Congress.
“It’s like our country
is becoming ‘The Hunger
Games,’” Parker, who con
siders herself squarely in the
middle of the political divide,
told her husband and teen
age son over dinner.
As authorities intercepted
more than a dozen pipe
bombs addressed to Presi
dent Donald Trump’s most
ardent critics — and then,
on Saturday, as news broke
of yet another mass shooting
in America — political sci
entists and ordinary citizens
observed again that rabid
partisanship had devolved
to the point of acts of violent
extremism. Many wonder
whether this latest spasm
might be the moment that
the nation collectively con
siders how poisonous the
political culture has become
and decides to turn the other
way.
“If this isn’t it, I’d hate
to think about what it will
take,” said Parker as she cast
her ballot in early voting last
week in Louisville, Kentucky.
The mail-bomb plot is
merely the latest in a series
of stunning attacks to test
how much political animos
ity Americans are willing
to accept: the shooting of a
Republican congressman at
a baseball practice, the white
supremacist rally that turned
deadly in Virginia, the recent
ricin scare-letters mailed to
Trump and other top mem
bers of his administration.
On Friday, authorities
arrested a suspect in the
bomb probe — a 56-year-
old registered Republican
and Trump enthusiast who
“appears to be a partisan,”
Attorney General Jeff Ses
sions said when asked about
motive. By then, politi
cians and talking heads had
already backed into the usual
comers. Both parties blamed
the other, and the president
called for unity, then again
described liberals and the
media as villains. The hope
Parker had that this might be
a turning point faded.
Then came the shooting at
a Pittsburgh synagogue that
claimed 11 lives, an attack
likely to cause ugly partisan
debates over gun control,
hate speech and more.
“I just can’t believe the
kind of violence that we’re
experiencing in our coun
try,” Pittsburgh resident
Cindy Jennings said at a vigil
for those targeted at the Tree
of Life Synagogue. “I feel like
the leadership in our country
right now is just encouraging
violence, and I wish that that
would stop.”
The volatile tribalism now
so ingrained in American life
will eventually right itself,
says Robb Wilier, a sociology
professor at Stanford Univer
sity, but not until the public
decides it’s had enough and
stops rewarding politicians
who use incendiary language
and demonize the other side.
It’s impossible to guess, he
notes, how much damage
will be done in the meantime.
“That is the question of our
time: Are we going to choose
to continue the war, or are
we going to choose peace?
And we don’t know yet what
the answer to that will be,
because while a majority of
Americans are fed up with
the extremity of our politi
cal divisions, it does feel like
we’re stuck here,” Wilier
says. “It will get worse before
it gets better.”
GENE J. PUSKAR I Associated Press
Animosity between par
ties has been growing for
decades now, to the point that
studies show Republicans
and Democrats don’t want
to date one another, don’t
want their children to marry
one another and don’t want
to live in the same neigh
borhoods at a rate unprec
edented in modern America.
At the same time, politicians
began using increasingly
apocalyptic language. Wilier
says those two forces — the
splintering of society along
party lines and the ascent
of vitriolic campaigning —
merged to create a breeding
ground for violence.
“It was simmering,” says
Parker. “It’s like the gas
burner was on, then Trump
lit the fire.”
The president vaulted
to political prominence by
promoting the racist and
false conspiracy theory that
Obama was not born in the
United States, launched his
presidential campaign by
calling Mexicans rapists
and murderers, and rou
tinely describes his enemies,
including the intended recip
ients of the pipe bombs, as
“evil,” ’’dangerous,” ’’the
enemy of the American
people.”
“That let loose a period of
incivility, which is too mild a
word; it’s potentially explo
sive anger that can turn into
violence,” says Bob Shrum,
a former Democratic strate
gist who last month started
the Center for the Political
Future, a program at the Uni
versity of Southern Califor
nia designed to restore sanity
and bipartisanship in politics.
He’s watched with frus
tration as some liberal poli
ticians respond to Trump’s
presidency by imitating his
divisive style.
He describes it as a “cold
civil war,” where people
consider those who disagree
with them bad, un-American
— their enemy.
“Is there a tipping point?
I don’t know,” he says. “I do
believe we’re in a dangerous
moment, unlike anything I’ve
seen in my lifetime, and I’m
75 years old.”
Sessions allies hope for graceful exit
BY ERIC TUCKER AND
JONATHAN LEMIRE
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Sens
ing that Jeff Sessions’ days at
the Justice Department may
be numbered, some of his
supporters want the White
House to allow for a graceful
exit for an attorney general
they believe has dutifully car
ried out the administration’s
agenda even while enduring
the president’s fury.
It seems unlikely that
efforts to soften a possible
dismissal after the Nov. 6
midterm election would
find sympathy in the White
House, where President Don
ald Trump’s rage remains
unabated over the attorney
general’s recusal from the
Russia investigation. A hand
picked successor could theo
retically oversee the rest of
the probe in place of Dep
uty Attorney General Rod
Rosenstein.
But some supporters say
they hope that if and when
Sessions is replaced, his
record as senator and attor
ney general will be recog
nized and not overwhelmed
by Trump’s attacks, or that
the administration will at
least respect the Justice
Department by guaranteeing
a smooth transition.
A scenario advocated by
at least one Sessions ally,
former Cincinnati Mayor
Ken Blackwell, would allow
him to remain on the job
until January and be permit
ted to resign on his own then
rather than be fired imme
diately after the midterms.
Blackwell said allies have
made their case to adminis
tration officials that Sessions
has successfully pushed the
president’s core priorities,
including on illegal immigra
tion, and deserves some sort
of recognition from the White
House that “he has more than
a passing grade.”
“It is not unknown, from
anyone from John Kelly to
Jared Kushner, that there is
a base of support,”
said Blackwell,
referring to Trump’s
chief of staff and son-
in-law. “A portion of
that base is ready to
continue advocacy
for his service.”
Newt Gingrich, a
Sessions
former Republican
House speaker who
is close to the White House
and calls himself a longtime
“admirer” of Sessions, said
he would be open to serving
as an intermediary if asked
between the White House
and Sessions supporters.
“He deserves a graceful
exit. His career deserves a
strong conclusion,” said Gin
grich, who called Sessions
“a strong conservative who
has done strong work at the
Department of Justice.”
Sessions, who has pub
licly acknowledged the
president’s displeasure,
has plowed forward with
the conventional duties of
the job, including a regu
lar calendar of events and
announcements. On Friday,
he spoke first at the Justice
Department news confer
ence announcing the arrest
of a mail-bomb suspect in
Florida.
The president, though
mindful that Sessions
remains popular
among much of his
base, would seem
unlikely to sign off
on a plan to extend
Sessions’ time in
office, according to
a White House offi
cial and an outside
adviser familiar with
Trump’s thinking but
not authorized to publicly dis
cuss private conversations.
Trump has repeatedly had
to be talked out of firing Ses
sions before November and
has signaled to allies that
he wants to make sweep
ing changes at the Justice
Department once the mid
terms have concluded.
He told The Associated
Press this month that he was
“not thrilled” with Sessions
but made no commitment to
dismiss him.
If Trump were to wait, it
would not be out of defer
ence to Sessions, but rather
because the White House
would be managing the
fallout from the midterms
and preparing for a pair of
presidential overseas trips in
November, according to the
official.
Sessions’ decision to
recuse remains his original
sin in Trump’s eyes. Trump
has fumed that Sessions has
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not done more to protect his
personal interests and has
vented about what he sees
as Sessions’ failure to get a
handle on immigration and
his lack of emphasis on com
bating transnational criminal
organizations.
Cameron Smith, a former
Sessions Senate aide, said,
“The idea that this gets bet
ter — they stand next to
each other and sing com
mon praises — I just don’t
see anybody looking at that
seriously.”
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