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Trump’s head: Dangerous, deadly moment in politics

Jun 07, 2017 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

CNN has fired comedian, Cathy Griffin, who appeared on television with a mock-up head of President Trump with blood all over the image. It was a morbid joke that typified the madness that passes unpunished in American politics. There are some lines in politics you never cross not only because the crossing violates moral propriety but also because in politics those lines are pregnant with violent moments.
Those of us who live in Guyana could understand the revulsion people felt about what Griffin did. Maybe Griffin is ignorant of the volatile nature of her country’s politics. But it is not only in the US that Griffin’s action constitutes a danger to leaders but it applies across the globe. In Guyana, the two major antagonists – PPP and PNC – have been confronting each other for well over sixty years. This permanent pugilism has produced fanatics on both sides.
The leader of each party is seen as the personification of the supporter’s race. For the fanatical supporter of the PPP and the PNC if you touch the leader of my party you are disrespecting “my race.” The very last conversation I had with Ronald Waddell was days into the post-election violence of 2001. Waddell at the time was a student at UG and was going up the stairs as I was going down. I spoke about his inflammatory, inciting rhetoric on television.
He told me that the PPP had crossed the line, that in the long battle between the PPP and PNC, the leader was never attacked. He was referring to the arrest of Corbin at the entrance to the Office of the President. Corbin appeared in a wheel chair on television and that same night and days after, the violent tempo in downtown Georgetown increased. See my reference to that incident in my column, “Corbin got Conned,” Kaieteur News, August 26, 2009.
I didn’t tell Waddell what I knew when, he, Waddell was yet in short pants. I was sixteen years old and attended a PPP public meeting at Parade Ground to see and hear Dr. Jagan. Thugs broke up the gathering and someone pelted a coconut shell into the chest of Dr. Jagan severely hurting him. More coconut shells rained down at Dr. Jagan but his bodyguard, Harold Snagg, (now in his late seventies and currently a security detail at channel 9 with a private firm) jumped in front of DR. Jagan and sustained some bodily injuries.
Whether it was Waddell’s inflammatory rhetoric or Waddell’s genuine revulsion at what happened to Corbin, that caused an increase in the post-election turmoil of 2001, the fact is that history is replete with countless examples of violent attacks on politicians when their “folklorist” admirers see them as victims of ridicule by others.
This is where Ms. Griffin’s silly bravado became dangerous. She could have invited violence upon herself. She was mocking an American President who enjoys frenetic admiration in many parts of the US but more importantly, her misplaced joke could also have gone the other way.
What if people who disliked Trump took their cue from what Ms. Griffin did and sought to harm Mr. Trump? Surely, Ms. Griffin had to know that she had crossed the line with what she did. And she deserves the condemnation of the world. The issue is wider than Mr. Trump. The issue is civilized observance of moral conduct in politics. What Ms. Griffin did was simply dangerous and deadly. Her action could have incited anti-Trump detractors.
Guyanese, more than many other nationalities, know how macabre and violent are the politics of propaganda. One recalls the campaign statement of Bharrat Jagdeo that if the PNC wins the 2015 elections, Indian homes would be invaded and they would be victims of violent robberies. In the deserted countryside of Guyana, that depraved demagoguery could have led to isolated attacks on PNC supporters.
I thought that when picketers stood outside of Kaieteur News denouncing it for reporting on Joe Harmon, PNC leaders should have descended on the scene and request their supporters to leave.
Subsequent to that picket, a grenade was thrown at the building. We don’t know if it was an act as a response to the Harmon issue. Will we ever know? I was angry with the Office of the President for issuing a press release which accused me of mischief in that I stated that the President created a ministry for his son-in-law.
I did nothing of the sort. But such political recklessness could have brought on an attack on me by some insane Granger supporter. The President and Joe Harmon are yet to apologize to me.

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