The wreckage was still burning in the Potomac River and all the bodies were yet to be fished out when our president decided he knew what was at fault for the crash.
DEI.
Blaming the Biden and Obama administrations, he quickly pointed the finger at wokeness, claiming air traffic controllers had been hired for their skin color or their disabilities, and suggesting this was a reason for last week’s horrific collision between an American Airlines regional jet and an Army Black Hawk helicopter that left 67 people dead.
“You’re talking about extremely complex things,” Trump said of the air traffic controllers’ jobs. “And if they don’t have a great brain, a great power of the brain, they’re not going to be very good at what they do and bad things will happen.”
Never mind that there was no evidence of DEI having a direct impact on the tragedy — there couldn’t have been; the black boxes hadn’t even been recovered yet.
Didn’t matter. When a reporter asked how Trump could be so sure that diversity was at fault here, the president answered bluntly.
“Because I have common sense.”
That sentence, more than any of the many foolish ones Trump uttered Thursday morning (including his response to visiting the crash site: “Do you want me to go swimming?”) was the one that concerns me most. Because it illustrates a pattern of preference so many Americans, not just the president, have now adopted.
“Common sense” over evidence.
Blame over explanation.
A quick hanging over a patient discovery.
Pointing fingers
Think about how blame has become our knee-jerk response to almost everything — even natural disasters.
The recent Los Angeles fires were still consuming homes when pundits began blaming the California governor, Gavin Newsom, or the LA mayor, Karen Bass. It was their policies! It was the mayor being out of the country! It was the lack of water collection! It was DEI!
The pattern was similar with Hurricane Helene last September. As homes were still washing away, Trump blamed Kamala Harris for spending all the FEMA money “on housing illegal immigrants.” (never a shred of proof on that.)
When COVID-19 struck, we spent as much energy on finding blame as we did on finding a cure. We pointed at China. We pointed at foreigners. Soon we were pointing at each other for daring to have a wedding or jog without a mask.
Our proclivity for blame isn’t limited to disease or disaster. Politics is now little more than one side blaming the other for everything.
What about sports? The Kansas City Chiefs are only in the Super Bowl because the referees love them.
Even the weather is not immune. There are no unusual cold spells, heat waves or storms. It’s either climate change or climate denial.
It makes you wonder, does anything just “happen” anymore? Or is everything somebody’s fault?
Empathy, patience missing
This is a particularly worrisome trend under a Trump administration, because, like him or hate him, the man has a penchant for finger pointing. If you Google the phrases “Trump” and “never should have happened” you’ll get a list of things suggesting blame of others and exoneration of himself.
The war in Ukraine. The hush money case against him. Laken Riley’s death. The coronavirus. Last week’s midair crash. All of it never should have happened, according to Trump.
But when we say something “never should have happened,” we imply it was someone’s fault that it did. And we love finding fault in our country. We’re almost not happy until a neck can be located upon which to hang the blame.
The reason this is so dangerous, beyond the obvious, is that often a terrible event is a culmination of many things, or a series of mishaps, or, sometimes, just a tragic twist of fate. There is not always one culprit. There is not always a face to slap on the “Wanted” poster.
If our initial reaction to major events was “Wait, don’t jump to conclusions, people get it wrong that way, let’s just be patient” not only would we get things right a lot more, but by the time the facts were sorted out, emotions would be calmer, and tempers turned down. We’d likely handle the proper changes, punishments or apologies more admirably.
We also wouldn’t look so foolish when the truth came out.
“Common sense” says we should want that, right?
Trump talks about needing a “great brain” for directing airplanes. But brains aren’t only about intelligence. They are also about compassion. Empathy. And patience.
Our current president may not be big on those traits. But we should be.
Contact Mitch Albom: malbom@freepress.com. Check out the latest updates with his charities, books and events at MitchAlbom.com. Follow him @mitchalbom.
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