Fear and Loathing in Ohio

A powerful story on Page 15a of today’s NY Times is easy to miss.  It recounts the ordeal of Jamie McGregor, owner of McGregor Metal in Springfield Ohio.  A fifth generation resident of the city and a lifelong Republican, McGregor and his family have been inundated with vicious phone calls, emails and letters, many containing death threats, because he spoke out publicly in appreciation of his Haitian employees. Never before gun owners, the McGregors have had to purchase and train with guns.  The FBI, which deems some of the threats credible and dangerous, has tutored the family on security procedures—e.g., vary driving routes to and from work and school, keep the blinds drawn at home, use gloves and tongs when handling and opening mail.

Could we ask for a better illustration of what is at stake in this election?  The threats that the McGregors face are the work of the Republican nominees for president and vice president.  There is lots of simmering resentment in American society, but never before in our history has a President of the United States worked so persistently and successfully at operationalizing fear and hatred. Trump has an able sidekick and understudy in JD Vance. These are unscrupulous people, whose political fortunes rest on inciting and exploiting the ugliest impulses of a sizable minority of our fellow citizens. They make this country a meaner, angrier, more violent place.  Their defeat won’t put to rest all the malign forces that they exploit, but it is absolutely necessary if we are to hope to call ourselves, not necessarily a great, but a reasonably decent country.