At a time when so many forces appear to be dividing us as a nation, it’s tragic that President Trump seeks to co-opt or destroy no matter remaining threads unite us.
I refer, after all, to the U.S. males’s Olympic hockey staff profitable gold: the type of victory that usually causes Individuals to neglect their variations and as an alternative concentrate on one thing healthful, like chanting “USA” whereas mispronouncing the names of the European gamers we defeated earlier than taking over Canada.
This could have been pure civic oxygen. As an alternative, we acquired video of Kash Patel pounding beers with the gamers — which isn’t unlawful, however does make you ponder whether the top of the Federal Bureau of Investigation has a desk someplace with uncared for paperwork which may maintain the solutions to the D.B. Cooper thriller.
Then got here the presidential cellphone name to the boys’s staff, throughout which Trump joked about having to ask the ladies’s staff to the State of the Union, too, or danger impeachment — the form of sexist humor that lands finest in case you’re a 79-year-old billionaire and not a 23-year-old athlete questioning whether or not C-SPAN is recording. (The U.S. girls’s hockey staff additionally introduced residence the gold this 12 months, additionally after beating Canada. The White Home invited the ladies to the State of the Union, and they declined.)
It’s onerous accountable the gamers on the boys’s staff who have been subjected to Trump’s joke. They didn’t invite this. They’re not Muhammad Ali taking a principled stand towards Vietnam, or Tommie Smith and John Carlos elevating fists for Black energy on the Olympics in 1968, and even Colin Kaepernick protesting police brutality by kneeling through the nationwide anthem. They’re simply hockey bros who survived a brutal recreation and have been out of the blue confronted with two of probably the most highly effective figures within the federal authorities — and a cooler stuffed with beer.
When the FBI director desires to hold, you don’t say, “Sorry, sir, we have now a staff curfew.” And when the president calls, you undoubtedly don’t say, “Are you able to maintain? We’re attempting to stay critical, bipartisan and chivalrous.” Below these circumstances, most agreeable younger males would salute, smile and attempt to skate previous it.
However symbolism issues. If the staff turns into perceived as a partisan mascot, then the victory stops belonging to the nation and begins belonging to a faction. That will be unhealthy for everybody, together with the staff, as a result of politics is the quickest option to flip one thing enjoyable into one thing divisive.
And Trump’s meddling with the medal winners didn’t finish after his name. It continued throughout Tuesday night time’s State of the Union tackle, when Trump spent six minutes honoring the staff, going as far as to announce that he would award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to goalie Connor Hellebuyck.
To make certain, presidents have all the time tried to delight in mirrored glory. The principle distinction with Trump, as all the time, is scale. He doesn’t simply affiliate himself with common establishments; he absorbs them within the common thoughts.
We’ve seen this dynamic play out with evangelical Christianity, legislation enforcement, the nation of Israel and numerous cultural symbols. As soon as one thing will get labeled as “Trump-adjacent,” hundreds of thousands of Individuals are drawn to it. Nevertheless, hundreds of thousands of different Individuals recoil from it, which isn’t wholesome for establishments which are presupposed to serve everybody. (And what occurs to these establishments when Trump is changed by somebody from the opposing get together?)
In the meantime, our tradition retains splitting into area of interest markets. Heck, this 12 months’s Tremendous Bowl necessitated two separate halftime reveals to accommodate our divided political and cultural worldviews. Previously, this may have been deemed each pointless and logistically inconceivable.
However at present, absent a typical tradition, leisure corporations micro-target by way of demographics. Many reveals code both proper or left — rural or city. The success of the western drama “Yellowstone,” which spawned imitators reminiscent of “Ransom Canyon” on Netflix, demonstrates the success of interesting to MAGA-leaning viewers. In the meantime, most “status” TV reveals skew leftward. The identical cultural divides now exist amongst comedians and musicians and in virtually each side of American life.
None of this was attributable to Trump — know-how (cable information, the web, the iPhone) made narrowcasting doable — however he weaponized it for politics. And whereas most fashionable politicians tried to construct broad majorities the way in which broadcast TV as soon as chased rankings — by offending as few individuals as doable — Trump got here to not convey peace however division.
Now, unity isn’t robotically virtuous. North Korea is unified. So is a cult. Individuals are presupposed to disagree — it’s virtually written into the Structure. Disagreement is baked into our nationwide id like free speech and complaining about taxes.
However a functioning republic wants a number of shared experiences that aren’t instantly sorted into pink and blue bins. And when Olympic gold medals get drafted into the tradition wars, that’s when you realize we’re operating out of widespread floor.
You would possibly assume conservatives — historically apprehensive about social cohesion and anomie — would lament this erosion of a mainstream nationwide id. As an alternative, they hold supporting the political equal of a garden mower aimed on the delicate cloth of our nation.
So right here we’re. The state of the union is split. However how lengthy can a home divided towards itself stand?
We’re, as they are saying, skating on skinny ice.
Matt Okay. Lewis is the writer of “Filthy Wealthy Politicians” and “Too Dumb to Fail.”
