I saw the beginning of the Meet the Press Daily Show recently. Chuck Todd, normally a very calm fellow, looked unusually agitated as current events forced him to a topic that left him uncomfortable. He began his show stating that they would center on the debate of this question - is the President a racist?
I'm sorry to break it to you, Chuck, but there is no more debate.
The debate is over.
Trump is a racist. Trump has always been a racist. Trump will always be a racist.
The most recent incident, where he degrades countries, exclusively countries with overwhelming black majorities, saying why do we allow immigration to the United States from these "shithole countries", while bemoaning why we don't get more immigration from a white country like Norway - if this remark doesn't drive his racism home to you, nothing will.
And this, of course, is just the most recent example of his foul racism.
You can go back to the sins of the father, where his father was arrested at a Ku Klux Klan rally in 1927.
Or to the housing discrimination lawsuits of the 70s, where they were openly discriminating against blacks being in the apartments Trump owned.
Or to his condemnation of the Central Park 5, even after they were proved innocent.
Or that he didn't want blacks handling his casino money, that only Jews in their yamakas were qualified for that.
Or him being the primary force behind the biggest racially inspired controversy of our times, birtherism, denying that Obama was American born, and even questioning Obama's college grades.
He began his campaign by calling Mexicans drug dealers and rapists.
His travel ban is largely a ban on Muslims, discrimination based on religion.
He thought the Nazis and white supremicists at the Charlottesvile rally included "many fine people."
I could go on and on and on with specific incidents. If you're not familiar with them, congratulations on your ostrich-like head-in-the-sand existence.
His whole campaign was based on appealing to the worst instincts of white Americans, claiming their misfortunes were caused by an invasion of brown-skinned immigrants ready to take their jobs, minorities (primarily blacks) ready to take their tax dollars so they could live high on the hog without having to put in the time and effort they did, and fancy smartass liberals ready to take away their religion and culture. These appeals helped shape the most loyal part of the Trump base.
So, does this mean you are a racist if you continue to support Trump?
Most likely, yes. No one likes to think of themselves as a racist, and those who are, try to squirm out of it, with rationalizations, convoluted reasoning that helps protect the fragile ego. But it doesn't work. If you agree with Trump on his racial messaging, or you can't see what's wrong with it - bingo! You're a racist!
If you aren't a racist, and still support Trump, because of what you think he can achieve in tax reform or deregulation or defeating ISIS, or taking away women's reproductive rights, than you have simply sold yourself out too far. Silence in the face of blatant racism is tacit support for racism.
If you're a conservative, and you can live with that, I don't know what to say to you. There are many conservatives who have "woke up" and are speaking out against this vile man. He is not only racist, but also mentally unstable, dangerously incompetent, lazy, sexist, narcissistic, a brutal con man with no heart or soul. I could go on and on, and I have in the past and I will again in the future. But some, particularly in my Christan Right dominated area, are not getting it. And if they are, they simply don't care.
And that may be the most frightening thing of all.
No comments:
Post a Comment