All week, the images of an American reckoning accumulated — peaceful demonstrators calling for racial justice; phalanxes of riot police poised for clashes; urban centers aflame with scattered violence; a moat of metal erected around the White House; a president demanding military suppression of an “angry mob” before theatrically brandishing a Bible.
The scenes laid bare the struggle for unity against deepening division in America 2020. By week’s end, the unfolding events — at times uplifting, at times shocking — crystallized around one overriding issue: What kind of country are we, and what kind of country do we want to be? …
What began as one more outpouring in reaction to one more killing of an unarmed black person seemed to take on a desperate, new urgency in a year of cascading crises: impeachment, pandemic, massive unemployment and racial upheaval.
President Trump caused the first of these crises and compounded the others with his conduct. His often incendiary words, his divisive record on issues of race, seemed to act as accelerant to the forces that swept this week across the American landscape. CONT.
Dan Balz & Greg Miller, Washington Post
The OPINION TODAY email newsletter is a concise daily rundown of significant new poll results and insightful analysis. It’s FREE. Sign up here: opiniontoday.substack