2020 election is a fight for the very soul of our nation
WASHINGTON » Bring it on.
If President Trump and the Republican Party want the 2020 election to be a referendum on white supremacy, that’s their choice. Voters who embrace the views of David Duke and other proud racists can vote for Trump. Voters who disagree can vote for the Democrat. Simple as that.
It’s hard to see the coming contest any other way. Make America Great Again has completed its sinister transformation into Make America White Again, and we can’t pretend otherwise.
No sensible person should want such a fight. In such a diverse nation as ours, with such a troubled history on issues of race, some pretense is necessary. At our best, we subsume our private prejudices beneath a nobler commitment to the pluralistic ideals enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
But Trump is no sensible person, and he isn’t our best. He’s a demagogue with one effective political move: driving wedges. He’s now trying to open a chasm between white and nonwhite Americans.
I hope Trump’s race-baiting fails — but hope isn’t enough. His shamefully divisive tactic must be called out, labeled with its proper name and fought without quarter. Based on Trump’s public comments and his Twitter feed, he wants the nation focused on race now, not his administration’s corruption. But ignoring his white-power tactic is a bigger mistake than facing it headon. Trump may believe his political opponents lack the stomach to confront him. He must be proven wrong.
Trump demanded four firstterm members of Congress — Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass. (all women of color) — “go back” to the countries they came from (all are citizens, three were born here) and claimed they have no right to express their views.
Last week, at a campaign rally in North Carolina, when Trump blasted Omar, originally a refugee from Somalia, the crowd began a shocking chant: “Send her back! Send her back!” and Trump paused to let the chant gather force, then die out.
White House staff were reportedly appalled — but nobody quit in protest. Republicans in Congress were reportedly aghast — but most refused to directly criticize him.
Trump claimed he disliked the chant, then demanded that those who don’t love the United States — meaning his vision of it — should leave. On Sunday, he tweeted, “I don’t believe the four Congresswomen are capable of loving our Country. They should apologize to America.” On Monday, he called them “a very Racist group of troublemakers.”
This will be part of Trump’s white-power appeal — that minorities who brave raising their voices are the “real” racists and are to blame for any hardships afflicting whites.
Democrats, independents and Republicans cannot pretend this is a normal election. Republican officeholders and candidates who stand by Trump must be pressed: Do they believe all Americans, regardless of race, have a right to participate in our democracy, or not? Do they believe Americans who disagree with Trump should leave the country, or not? Do they agree with white supremacists that whites are somehow threatened by “racist” minorities, or not?
Anyone tempted to support Trump for economic or other reasons must be constantly reminded that if you vote for Trump because of his tax cuts, for example, or his uncritical support of Israel, you’re also voting for his racism.
This is nothing less than a fight for the soul of the nation. Everyone must take a stand.