Last Thursday, senior Trump representative Mercedes Schlapp mocked Joe Biden’s town hall for being akin to “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.” This is a fine contrast to the bumbling mess that defined Donald Trump’s town hall, but it’s also a telling remark. The Trump administration’s behavior over its first term makes this comment unsurprising — Mr. Trump routinely brands Republicans who disagree with him as Democrats, and he famously asked his team to foot the legal fees for one of his supporters who punched a reporter in the face.
What astounded me is that they think the American public would consider this comparison a negative. Facilitating creative writing workshops and writing political pieces in this election cycle have taught me two important things about America in 2020:
1. Empathy is important when opinions differ. Editing poetry, like politics, has a significant emotional component. This is something Fred Rogers understood when he addressed the Senate Subcommittee on Communications on May 1, 1969.
2. The vast majority of Americans, Democratic and Republican alike, are desperate for a unifying figure. I’ve heard some variation of this sentiment echoed repeatedly from family, friends, workshop attendees, Cleveland neighbors and members of my rural hometown.
It’s nice that Ms. Schlapp clarified that Mr. Rogers’ values oppose the current administration’s. After all, the administration offered no new platform and had no accomplishments from the first term to tout — none that helped the wider American public, since the GOP’s tax law overwhelmingly benefited the ultrarich — so it’s refreshing to hear its stance on basic human traits, like compassion. Here’s something else Mr. Rogers understood: Empathy and unity are not weaknesses, try as Mr. Trump might to demonize those traits.
The sane part of America, not the outspoken minority posting scores of toxic vitriol online (hint hint, Mr. President), desires camaraderie. Mr. Biden is not capable of unifying the country overnight. At this point, nobody is. But Ms. Schlapp’s comment points to the truth: A second Trump term will sharpen that divide, because this White House does not value unity.
JEREMY JUSEK
Parma, Ohio
First Published: October 21, 2020, 4:00 a.m.
