When Tragedy Strikes, Blame Disabled Folks

Trump turns every tragedy into a blame game. Rich white guys like him are never the ones to blame

Every president has to face tragedy on their watch.

For pretty much every other past president I know of, what they did in tragedy was to try and comfort the families affected and the entire country, to try and inspire and uplift people, to remind them that even through the pain, our country is united in caring for us all.

Well, to make a painfully obvious point, that sure ain’t Donald Trump. He uses tragedy to try and score cheap political points, and to blame people who don’t look like him. He does it without facts, without substantive information, because facts and real information might be inconvenient to the bullshit story he is trying to tell.

Trump made a particular attack today, with of course absolutely no justification or evidence, on people with disabilities. Trump has a long history of hating people with disabilities. He famously mocked a reporter with a disability in a terribly disparaging way. He told aides he didn’t want to be seen with soldiers who had been wounded in war time. He made fun of Joe Biden’s stutter. He has spoken repeatedly of what a huge fan he is of Ayn Rand, who is well known for saying that society would be better off if people with disabilities were left by the side of the road.

Well, I have news for you, Donald Trump: people with disabilities have contributed so many more good things to this country than you ever have or will.

Unlike you, who dodged the draft, Bob Dole got disabled for life in World War II, but became a long term Senator who helped pass the Americans with Disabilities Act into law, a law which has meant that millions of perfectly well qualified people got jobs. The people who worked with Dole to get that bill enacted – public officials like Tom Harkin and Steny Hoyer and George HW Bush, and disability rights leaders like Justin Dart Jr, Becky Ogle, Marca Bristo, and Judy Heumann – did more to actually improve people’s lives than you ever will, Trump.

My brother Kevin, who was developmentally disabled and died because of muscular dystrophy, did more to make his corner of the world a gentler and kinder place than anyone I have ever known. One of my best friends, Doug Kruse, was in a car accident which put him in a wheelchair, but has written more than a dozen books and received high honors for his research and teaching work at Rutgers University. Doug could think circles around you, Trump, without blinking an eye.

As for me, I have cerebral palsy and am a diabetic, and I helped kick your ass on repealing Obamacare, in the 2018 election, and in the 2020 election. On the Obamacare fight, Ady Barkan with Lou Gehrig’s disease and people from the ADAPT disability group helped greatly in the ass-kicking. I plan to help kick your ass again on a whole bunch of different issues and in the 2026 and 2028 elections as well. So I say this with all due respect, President Trump: go suck on it.

Ady Barkan in 2019.