Newsweek apparently missed that unimportant story on January 20, 2107 when Barack Obama stepped down and Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 45th President of the United States. The fake news magazine is demanding that Obama declare a national state of emergency over hate crimes, which is both dumb and clearly not one of his powers as a private citizen. Also, Obama was too lazy to do anything when he was in office, what are the chances he’s motivated now that he’s super-wealthy for no good reason?
Newsweek gave former NAACP president Cornell William Brooks some space to opine, and this is the brilliance he came up with:
OBAMA, BUSH, CLINTON AND CARTER: YOU MUST DECLARE A NATIONAL STATE OF EMERGENCY ON HATE
Hey, at least he threw some white guys in on this insanity.
With the blood-soaked rise of hate crime in the streets and racist presidential rhetoric in the White House, Americans worry whether America is devolving into a republic of hate. Based on lives taken and values threatened, now is the time for a declaration of a “National State of Emergency on Hate.” But instead of a complicit President Trump, Americans must call on four private citizens to act: former presidents Obama, Bush, Clinton and Carter need to declare this state of emergency—and convene a National Summit on Hate and Democracy.
The four former presidents could declare a national “donkey punch” emergency and it wouldn’t make a damn bit of difference as they no longer have power. Sure, Bill Clinton can still get away with rape and have people killed, but he doesn’t have the powers of the presidency.
Really, this is less about any kind of real national hate emergency and more about hating on Trump:
The political speech of the Trump campaign and administration hasn’t merely been partisan. It’s been racially poisonous. While hate crime normally declines in the final quarter of the year, it rose in the quarter preceding Trump’s inauguration. Tragically, it has continued to rise since. This president’s speeches, tweets, and policy announcements correlate with hate victimization. For example, when President Trump announced his Muslim travel ban, Americans witnessed the worst spike in Islamophobic hate crime since September 11, 2001.
Since Trump never announced a Mulsim travel ban, how is it possible to tie a spike in anti-Muslim hate crime to a thing that never happened?
Maybe a better question is: How exactly would 4 private citizens go about declaring a national emergency? The author doesn’t answer for Carter, Clinton, and Bush, but here’s how Obama could do it:
In 2009, President Obama declared a national state of emergency based on the danger of an actual infectious disease, swine flu.
Well that makes perfect liberal sense. Obama declared a national state of emergency for the swine flu so obviously he could do the same thing with hate crimes. I wonder if there’s anything different between Obama’s occupation 8 years ago and now that would prevent this from becoming a reality.
Hate crime did not begin with Trump’s campaigns and will not end with his presidency, but with hate crime as high as it is, now is the time for bold action.
With the dangerous spread of hate and the violent rise of hate crime, we desperately need all former presidents, from both parties, to help us heal from the devastation exacerbated by their unworthy successor.
Calling on former presidents to declare a national hate crime emergency is very dumb but so is the flawed premise that there is a hate crime crisis in this country. There’s a hate crime hoax crisis and a minority-on-minority hate crime crisis, but there’s definitely not a “Trump supporters committing hate crimes” crisis. In fact, more people wearing MAGA hats are attacked than the other way around.
