I\u2019m writing today about anger.<\/p>\n
And I\u2019m ticked off about it.<\/p>\n
I actually think it\u2019s America\u2019s biggest problem right now. Half the country hates the other half of the country. And vice versa.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
There are online mobs ready to pounce on any available target. That could be loathsome human beings, like the remorseless madman who killed Charlie Kirk.<\/p>\n
Or it could be a deranged person at a lower level, like the crazed, screaming woman who stole a Phillies home run ball from a 10-year-old kid. Or the man who brought his assistant and side squeeze to a Coldplay concert and was outed by the Jumbotron \u2014 which turned more serious when both were fired.<\/p>\n
Can a country withstand so much rage?<\/p>\n
Passion is good. Railing at people you don\u2019t know, not so much.<\/p>\n
The irony is that the vast majority of these people wouldn\u2019t say such things to you on the street. Then they\u2019d have to deal with your reaction. <\/p>\n
But in the dark expanse of social media, they can spew all kinds of garbage, curse like sailors \u2014 especially if they\u2019re hiding behind screen names. That should be punishable by the death penalty \u2014 okay, maybe I\u2019m getting too worked up here.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Some public figures harness anger as a political tool. In private, Donald Trump can be funny and charming. But his constant battles\u2013with the media, law firms, universities, big cities, Democrats, judges, prosecutors, critics, adversaries, allies around the world\u2013are fueled by his sense of grievance. Just read his Truth Social page.<\/p>\n
I first began covering Trump in New York in the 1980s, and he was the same way. He would pick fights with the likes of Leona Helmsley, knowing it made good copy.<\/p>\n
But I could also argue that without the contempt he has for people and institutions who stand in his way, the president wouldn\u2019t be driven to accomplish all that he has in the past eight months.<\/p>\n
Elon Musk clearly has the same anger-management issue, having declared ‘the left’ to be ‘the party of murder.’ <\/p>\n
So do such Democrats as Adam Schiff, who relentlessly hammered Kash Patel at a hearing this week, ‘You want the American people to believe that? Do you think they\u2019re stupid?’ And so does the FBI director, ‘You are the biggest fraud to ever sit in the United States Senate, you are a disgrace to this institution, and an utter coward!’<\/p>\n
But we all know the game. In our echo-chamber world, you have to be harsher and angrier than the last person to break through the static and have your sound bite featured on cable or X or podcasts. So these institutions reward outrage, faux or otherwise.<\/p>\n
Silicon Valley giants make their money from engagement, and nothing fosters engagement like pissed-off people.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The last few Democratic presidents haven\u2019t been purveyors of anger. (putting aside what they\u2019re like behind closed doors). Joe Biden was so secluded we barely heard from him\u2013we now know why\u2013and was a backslapper and conciliator. Barack Obama was all about the audacity of hope. Bill Clinton ran as a southern moderate against the ‘brain-dead’ politics of both parties.<\/p>\n
You have to go back to LBJ to find a Democrat who relished beating the crap out of others, based on his years of threats and arm-twisting as Senate majority leader. ‘Ah got Hubert\u2019s pecker in my pocket,’ he would say, and other variations on that quote.<\/p>\n
He also said this about disloyal lawmakers: ‘I want him to kiss my ass in Macy\u2019s window at high noon and tell me it smells like roses.’<\/p>\n
What has been truly sickening, in the wake of Charlie Kirk\u2019s heartbreaking murder, are the sickos who flooded social media to celebrate his demise. <\/p>\n
Professors, teachers, journalists and many others have been fired for such conduct, though they had no need to vent their fury online. They didn\u2019t know Kirk. Who would want to employ someone so heartless that they don\u2019t care about his wife, and the children, 3 and 1, who have to grow up without him?<\/p>\n
No wonder I\u2019m angry. This is disgusting and pathetic.<\/p>\n
Perhaps it\u2019s no coincidence that this is one of the most famous lines in movie history, delivered by the sweating, wild-eyed anchor played by Peter Finch: <\/p>\n
‘I\u2019m mad as hell and I\u2019m not going to take this anymore!’<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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