I wasn’t at all surprised that the GOP announced that Nick Sandmann would be speaking at the Republican National Convention. In a sense, he’s the perfect speaker because the party is nothing but a reactionary group with nothing to offer but whining about how mean everyone is to them.
If you don’t remember, Nick Sandmann is a high school bully who got into a stand-off with a Native American who interceded between some Covington Catholic High School students and a group of Black Hebrew Israelites.
Sandmann’s creepy grin and his racist comrades got some bad attention on Twitter and in the news. So his parents hired a PR firm and he went on a media tour culminating with nuisance lawsuits against The Washington Post, CNN, and others.
Nick Sandmann Gives a Speech
So the GOP gave him 5 minutes at the RNC. The worst you can say about the media coverage of the original incident is that it was too critical. I happen to think it wasn’t critical enough. Sandmann was a bully running the usual, “I’m not touching you!” play.
But it was interesting to watch Sandmann’s speech because he changed his story notably from what he told while on his media tour. What’s more, it made the Native American involved in the incident, Nathan Phillips, out to be the bad guy. Of course, I knew that was always what laid behind his behavior. It was always just a bunch of privileged white kids acting racist.
The last quarter of Sandmann’s RNC speech was about how badly Donald Trump had been treated by the media. “I know that you’ll agree with me when we say that no one in this country has been a victim of unfair media coverage more than President Donald Trump.” Because we all know who the real victim is in all this: the leader of the free world!
Whining and Moaning
But the next day, Sandmann told Fox News:
I would have given this same exact speech at the DNC if the Democrat National Convention actually cared about holding the media accountable. But I haven’t seen that, and they never invited me to give such a speech. So, I used the platform I had.
(Note that it is the “Democrat” National Convention, not the “Democratic” National Convention. This is a typical bully move: not calling people by their names. Sandmann can’t resist this even when on his best behavior!)
First, a quarter of the speech was a love letter to Donald Trump. Is Sandmann confused on that point? Does he really think the DNC would be interested in that speech? But more important: he’s making a stand for media accountability?!
Even if you agree with him that the media was unfair, how is this a major issue? The single largest news channel is Fox News, at it is nothing if not reactionary in favor of the right. The day after Sandmann’s speech, Tucker Carlson was on the network apologizing for an apparent murderer.
I saw people on Twitter claiming that Kyle Rittenhouse is being “wronged” the way Nick Sandman was. (Don’t be surprised if Rittenhouse is turned into the same kind “victim” who was just acting in self-defense.) People on the right who claim that the media is unfair are just saying that the wrong people are being attacked.
This Is the Modern GOP
And Sandmann wasn’t alone in this regard. Most of the speeches at the RNC were filled with the same kind of whining that have come to define the Trump era. They claim to be the alpha-men who are strong and powerful. But they can’t take even the most minor criticism.
The truth is that relative to his behavior, Donald Trump has been given a pass. The mainstream news is still trying to figure out how to respond to his continual bald-faced lies. But there is Nick Sandmann and all the other Trump enablers. They don’t spend much time talking about Trump and what he does. (I wonder why?!) Instead, it’s all the world is being mean to Donald Trump — and other rich white guys who, for example, get PR firms to protect them when they behave badly in public.
Afterword
It is now widely accepted that Nick Sandmann was just a non-violent kid who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. But Nathan Phillips got in front of him because Sandmann and his friends were walking toward the Black Hebrew Israelites with clear (admittedly understandable) negative intent.
But it goes to show that in America, the truth doesn’t matter when you have money and a PR firm behind you.
Image of Nick Sandmann taken from ABC News under Fair Use.
Good Lord.
A skill I learned years ago at the baseball site was “let the picture do the recap.” If you’ve got a good photographer (and Hannah Goslein of Getty Images, the Twin Cities sports photographer, is beyond outstanding), then half your work as a writer is already done. You have to fill in the context & details, but the hook of the first paragraph? It’s finished without typing a word.
This guy, and that picture… he looks like “Boy Scouts For McCarthy.” The poor fool doesn’t realize how completely fleeting right-wing propaganda love is (anybody remember Herman Cain?) but he’s young and dumb and probably hopes he’ll be the next Hannity. I can’t blame him on the money side of that, Hannity is ten types of loaded and who wouldn’t want that kind of money? But morally, he is more of an idiot than I generally excuse younglings for being.
One thing about the new video is how it reminds me of a commercial that the UK National Front (I think) made with all these kids saying, very calmly, horrible things about stopping immigration. In all cases, I get the impression that none of them really grok what they supposedly stand for.
I’m so depressed about civilization right now. We’ve reached a point where people with money can greatly expand it by tearing society apart. And they are probably right. As bad as it will get, it will never touch them. Until it touches us all.
Gotta wonder what Nick Sandmann will make of the rest of his life.
I assume he will end up in upper management in the finance industry. You know: because Jesus.