Wondering on Wednesday (v151)

Tonight I'm wondering about outrage, real and imagined.

For example, how much attention should we pay to former Attorney General Eric Holder, I wonder?  Holder caused a stir recently when he suggested that the "when they go how, we go high" sentiment of Michelle Obama was incorrect: it should be, "when they go low, we kick them." 

Not unexpectedly, there was outrage from folks who pointed out that there is no room for violence in our political system. Congressman Steve Scalise, who was critically wounded in the shooting at the Congressional Baseball game, wrote that comments like Holder's, and those of other Democrats - have no place in our democracy.

As a survivor of a politically motivated attack, it is tragic to think this is an acceptable state of political discourse in our country. I refuse to stand for this and I will continue to call for an end to it. A healthy, strong democracy is not possible if anyone lives in fear of expressing their views. 

If this is going to stop, it must start with Democratic leaders, who need to condemn, rather than promote these dangerous calls to action. 

In America,we win battles at the ballot box, not through mob rule or intimidation. While it's clear that many Democrats refuse to accept the election of President Trump, if they want change, they need to convince people with their ideas and actually win elections, rather than call for violent resistance, harassment and mob rule.

... when Democratic leaders like Eric Holder call for violence, that is a direct threat to our democracy. 

I hope he and others think long and hard about the world they are creating and the impact they are leaving on this country. 

I agree with Scalise that the level of discourse is, well, swampy at best. We don't need calls for violence, even ones as silly as Holder's. I mean, does anyone really think he's suggesting that Dems rise up and kick their GOP opponents in the shins?  Of course he wasn't, as he pointed out:

OK, stop the fake outrage. I'm obviously not advocating violence. (In fact, when I was AG violent crime in the US was historically low). I'm saying Republicans are undermining our democracy and Democrats need to be tough, proud and stand up for the values we believe in - the end.

Scalise has talked about this before; last month on a couple of Fox shows he said that the Dems needed to denounce the violence. And while it was easy to find those references, I haven't yet located anything where he called out the president for comments made in August to to evangelical leaders. After asking them to use the pulpit to get all of their people to vote in November, Trump told them 

You're one election away from losing everything you've got...they will end everything immediately. They will overturn everything that we've done and they'll do it quickly and violently. And violently. There's violence. When you look at antifa, and you look at some of these groups, these are violent people.

Now, one could wonder whether "they" and "antifa" and "these groups" are all the same, I guess. But the part that seems perfectly clear is that the ones who would be overturning "everything we've done" quickly and violently, as described by Trump, is not antifa or groups, but Congress.

And, of course, there are all of the other comments made by the president that many Republicans laugh off or ignore. And yet, Holder's comment is worthy of outrage... I wonder.

I also have to wonder what Melania Trump was thinking when she talked with Tom Llamas in that ABC interview.

I could say that I'm the most bullied person in the world... One of them, if you really see what people are saying about me.

Um, no. Not even close

First Ladies are always under a microscope, including about their fashion sense and how they comport themselves on foreign trips. So yes, she should have been prepared from the get-go for comments about her shoes and her clothes, including the green jacket, and about her tone-deafness wearing a pith helmet on her recent African tour.

Has she taken unnecessary hits? Of course she has. She did not plagiarize Michelle Obama when her Be Best initiative was rolled out - we all know that. Have people been overly interested in her relationship with her husband? I don't think any more than they have been in any other First Couple.

I'm also wondering about all of the folks who are outraged and say that the 'mainstream media' doesn't cover anything that they want to see covered;  you know -- good news about the administration (jobs reports, stock market, bills passed, crowd size, and what not).  Do you think they don't know these things are covered because they only get their news from pro-Trump sources?

I can only think that if the folks who complain about this would actually ever watch or read anything other than right-leaning outlets, they'd  know how much attention was paid to things they like.  It might not be the effusive coverage they're used to, and it might be a little more balanced, but there's plenty of coverage out there.

And wondering -- plenty of that as well.