Witch’s brew of naked hate

In 2016, some 47 out of every 100 voters elected Donald Trump president. Hillary Clinton got some 3 million more popular votes, but our Electoral College system handed him the White House. That his base systematically ignores his transgressions is sobering, for it means some 47 of every 100 voters, strangers we pass every day, buy into his witch’s brew of naked hate; fear; fake “facts;” groundless demonization; consorting with our enemies; undermining the rule of law; undermining the press; profiting personally from the presidency; letting COVID-19 run rampant; alienating our friends overseas; and burdening us all with billions of extra dollars paid on imported goods, thanks to his backfiring trade war tariffs. He claims to be a job creator, including jobs for idled coal miners. Four years on, they’re still waiting.

He claims to champion law-and-order, yet he (a) just violated The Hatch Act and (b) pardons convicted criminals galore, even one convicted by a military court martial, to score political points while declaring himself above the law.

Tracking his torrent of lies, The Washington Post has tallied 30,000 told so far, and counting. Even if Biden wins in November, how is the nation supposed to come to terms with the reality that nearly half of us self-disqualified for U.S. citizenship, having in effect disavowed its bedrock principles? How likely is it they would pass the written test immigrants must pass to get U.S. citizenship? They think they are patriots. Are they?

And if Biden wins, how will the Republican Party cure its underlying racist malaise that made it the go-to home of Trumpism in an increasingly diverse America that in fewer than 30 years shall have become majorityminority? Anomalies aplenty to ponder. Ted Z. Manuel, Hyde Park