Now that it’s clear President Donald Trump plans to use racist rhetoric, incendiary tweets, and a plan to divide Americans into warring camps as he seeks reelection in 2020, you have to wonder what that means as we draw closer to the presidential election next year.
Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Kathleen Parker, who writes for the Washington Post and tends toward the conservative side of the political spectrum, says she’s terrified of what comes next from Trump, opening her latest column by stating plain, undeniable facts:
“Going out on a limb here: President Trump is a racist. And a sexist. And a xenophobic nationalist. Among other things. Not to name call or anything.”
Despite that, Parker continues, those who support the president don’t seem the least bit put off by the disgusting depths to which he’ll go in order to gain political advantage:
“And all of those observable facts seem to sit quite well with his base of supporters, most Republicans in Congress and, apparently, with the evangelical Christian community whose members have ceded the floor to crickets.”
Focusing on the way Trump went after Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) at his rally Wednesday evening in North Carolina, Parker writes:
“His expression during the 13 seconds that he allowed the chant to reach its desired pitch was most chilling of all. His jutting jaw, his down-the-nose gaze, his seeming serenity in the eye of a storm — all spoke louder than the metronomic mass surrounding him. The king was pleased.”
That scene, Parker goes on to note, reminded her of an iconic moment from the 2016 Republican National Convention:
“That moment encapsulated Trump’s reelection strategy and reminded everyone of three years ago, when retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn led the 2016 Republican National Convention in a similar chant aimed at Hillary Clinton: ‘Lock her up!’ (We’ll resist the temptation to remark on the three-syllable limit when Republicans think aloud.) In the language of ‘Criminal Minds,’ Trump is escalating. Lock her up. Send her back. What’s next? One shudders to wonder.”
None of this bodes well for the future, Parker concludes, and any American who fails to speak now is part of the larger conspiracy of hatred being spun by the president:
“That moment encapsulated Trump’s reelection strategy and reminded everyone of three years ago, when retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn led the 2016 Republican National Convention in a similar chant aimed at Hillary Clinton: ‘Lock her up!’ (We’ll resist the temptation to remark on the three-syllable limit when Republicans think aloud.) In the language of ‘Criminal Minds,’ Trump is escalating. Lock her up. Send her back. What’s next? One shudders to wonder.”
History will remember where each man and woman stood as Donald Trump placed immigrant children in cages and told members of Congress to “go back” to where they came from. And history will not be kind to those who fail to speak up or, even worse, stand and cheer as a would-be dictator desperately tries to destroy us all for his own evil purposes.
Featured Image Via the BBC
