DAVID MARCUS: Reflecting Pool controversy is mirror for our broken politics
In the 104 years that the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool has stood on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the event it is most closely associated with is the 1963 “I Have a Dream,” speech by the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
But today, far from a symbol of national unity, this body of water has created a wave of anger and discontent.
On Friday, United States Attorney for the District of Washington, D.C., Jeanine Pirro did the right thing and dropped charges against David Hearn, a former Olympic athlete who had been facing 10 years in jail for allegedly defacing the monument.
Hearn was accused of pulling up pieces of the new sealant installed this year during President Donald Trump’s renovation of the pool. He claims he was just curious about the preexisting damage he saw.
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It may have been as annoying as chipping away at dried paint, but it wasn’t a felony.
According to the motion filed Friday, additional documents showed that the damage to the Reflecting ool was the result of flawed installation by the contractor.
The first thing to say here is good for Pirro, who, unlike former President Biden’s Department of Justice in many January 6 and abortion protest cases, did not allow primal politics to influence her legal decision. That is how this is supposed to work.
What matters here is that the reason that Hearn’s curiosity, politically driven or otherwise, caused this kerfuffle, is that Trump’s repair of the Reflecting Pool, a public works project that should be as mundane as installing a stop sign, has become a synecdoche for America’s political divide.
To Trump’s critics, such as independent journalist Jim Acosta, who has all but camped out by the pool for months, this is a prime example of cronyism, Trump lining his friends’ pockets as they fail to properly line this national treasure.
It was with glee that leftists celebrated the peeling of sealant and the growth of algae in the pool, as if nature itself was confirming all of their anti-Trump convictions.
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But one big flaw in this argument is exposed by a 2012 Washington Post headline after work had been done on the pool, that blared, “Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool Is Drained To Remove Algae.” So, unless then-President Obama was also a corrupt cronyist, it might just be that the Reflecting Pool is not easy to maintain.
The fault in this situation, as Pirro rightly points out, is with the Department of the Interior, for telling President Trump what he wanted to hear instead of the truth. To the extent that it put Hearn’s freedom at risk, that was utterly unacceptable.
But at the same time, in this day and age, was it so crazy for Interior to think that a deranged leftist was intentionally trying to damage the monument? Such things are par for the course for the looney left, and why was Hearns pulling at the sealant, anyway?
By all accounts, the beautification, not to mention the increased safety, of the capital since Trump activated the National Guard last year has been little short of miraculous. You can tell because, unlike ICE agents, Democrats aren’t calling the Guard fascists.
Fountains are flowing, businesses are growing, Capitol Hill staffers in their drab dress and loafers roam the streets without fear. But by all means, let’s obsess over a minor setback to repair a pool unlike any in the world.
The Reflecting Pool is now a microcosm of everything broken in our politics, our focus on meaningless minutiae and blindness to anything that does not confirm our worst suspicions.
The conventional wisdom in Washington circles will suggest that Trump must be furious at Pirro for undermining his narrative that vandals are to blame for the renovation’s imperfections. But I doubt it. In fact, this is the exit ramp from the story that he needed.
In the summer of 1963, King brought the country together around the Reflecting Pool and helped our nation to dream of unity and peace. In 2026, this shimmering oasis in the swamp represents little but Americans’ contempt for one another.
In this case, thanks to Pirro, the proper result was arrived at after all the sturm und drang. But, in the end, the only way to stop such madness is for all of us, every American, to stop assuming the worst about those with whom we disagree.
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