John Lewis is the last person Donald Trump should be picking a fight with right now [View all]

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Here is the question that lurks behind Donald Trump tweeting insults at civil rights icon John Lewis during Martin Luther King Jr. weekend. Is he trying to distract from another story — perhaps his national security advisor, Michael Flynn, making a strange call to the Russian ambassador during transition? Is he just so graceless and undisciplined that, during a week when he is writing a speech his transition team promises will be about “uniting Americans,” he couldn’t stop himself from attacking the last person in the country you would want to pick a fight with? Both? Neither?

There is backdrop here. Lewis, a popular member of Congress, said he wouldn’t attend Trump’s inauguration, and called the president-elect “illegitimate.” There were reasonable ways to respond to this. Ben Sasse, a Republican senator from Nebraska, modeled one of them.


Ben Sasse
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@BenSasse
To John Lewis, one of my heroes:

Please come to the Inauguration. It isn't about a man. It is a celebration of peaceful transfer of power.
4:51 PM - 13 Jan 2017

Another completely plausible response would have been to say nothing. Trump chose a third path:


Donald J. Trump
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@realDonaldTrump
Congressman John Lewis should spend more time on fixing and helping his district, which is in horrible shape and falling apart (not to......


Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
mention crime infested) rather than falsely complaining about the election results. All talk, talk, talk - no action or results. Sad!
5:07 AM - 14 Jan 2017

It is, of course, repulsive to accuse Lewis of all talk and no action or results. As Michael Skolnick pointed out on Twitter, while Lewis was arrested 45 times ridding this country of segregation, Trump was dodging the Vietnam draft. Like with the Khan family after the Democratic convention, this is a fight Trump can’t win, doesn’t need, and shouldn’t want.

http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/1/14/14273180/john-lewis-donald-trump