As the President says, there are "many fine people" among the neo nazi, anti semitic mass murderers out there. Fine people. Fine.
2
"It looks definitely like it's an anti-Semitic crime, and that is something you wouldn't believe could still be going on."
—Donald J. Trump
Evidently he missed that whole “Jews will not replace us!” situation in Charlottesville last summer. Maybe Javanka can fill him in.
8
Trump is doing no different than Charles Manson (and Hitler) in terms of lighting and fanning the flames of hatred as a means to further obfuscate his transparent plan to enrich the billionaires at the expense of everything else. Its that simple.
Furthermore the very rich are overwhelmingly white, the NBA and Kanye West not withstanding. To enrich the very rich in league with a viscous lack of empathy for anything or anyone else, is, in effect, Fascist, and overwhelmingly White Nationalist.
Of course, the reality of this almost factually demonic man, is that climate change will finish the very rich off like all of us, and , of course, the ignorant bigots making up most of his "base" are being fully conned.
And let us not forget...we are all one "race"...descending from a small band of apes in what is now Africa. Everything about the far right is disgusting, not the least of which their Dear Leader, Trump.
8
The country can only be turned around at this point by the president, which means he must declare White Nationalists and Neo-Nazis enemies of the American people.
Will he do this? Highly unlikely since he needs their support.
So where does that leave us? In limbo waiting for the next shoe to drop, another shooting or bombing.
Thanks Donald Trump for destroying what took more than 200 years to create. You are truly a racist pig of epic proportions.
I think the Jews in Pittsburgh have suffered enough so why don't you stay home and leave the grieving to the victims' families.
8
Neither side in the current political 'war of words' (logomachy) is covering itself with glory, but I have noticed that liberals, who think of themselves as the 'educated class', as opposed to rightist 'ignoramuses', tend to make the mistake of thinking of words as substantial things, like stones, that they can fling at their opponents to real effect. They seem also to think that, once they have made what seems to them a logical argument for or against something, they have 'won' and the discussion is over. In some sense liberals are innocents or, less politely, lightweight political dilettanti; ineffectual wish-projectors.
1
It's bad enough that this is yet another lazy copy-paste "Trump is a racist" NYT column that I've already read a thousand times. No, this time you've twisted yourself into quite the awkward pretzel trying to use a racist nut who didn't support Trump precisely because of Trump's lack of racism, into proof that Trump somehow is racist. Trump wants strong borders, and some nutcases like Bowers think that Jews are behind the caravan, therefore Trump must be an anti-semite. This is just too ridiculous to entertain. And Richard Spencer said that Trump is a true nationalist. Therefore.... what? Yes he's a nationalist, which is hardly the same as being a racist. And did you ever stop to think that racists might support Trump not because Trump is a racist like them, but simply because he's a conservative like them? What if we found out that Satanists and child molesters voted disproportionately for Hillary, does that make her a Satanist child molester? Trump is a jerk, no doubt, but to blame him personally for this anti-semitic violence is lazy and dishonest, and feeds right into the distrust of the media that is such a big part of the problem.
3
Trump lied about a caravan of angry brown young men infested by gang members and "Middle Easterners" (read: terrorists). It was a bald faced lie, but it stirred up the Republican base, so consequences be damned.
One consequence was it put the Pittsburgh shooter over the top, as he clearly expressed. Jews are behind this caravan, he wrote, and he's shooting as many of them as possible!
The right will be horrified--horrified!, that anyone could dare associate Trump with driving this monster's hatreds.
But he did. And after Trump read his prepared statements, he went off script and became himself again-- stirring up more hate before the day ended.
We have a sociopathic nationalist (not patriot, nationalist) as president. And it's chilling.
www.newyorkgritty.net
One consequence was it put the Pittsburgh shooter over the top, as he clearly expressed. Jews are behind this caravan, he wrote, and he's shooting as many of them as possible!
The right will be horrified--horrified!, that anyone could dare associate Trump with driving this monster's hatreds.
But he did. And after Trump read his prepared statements, he went off script and became himself again-- stirring up more hate before the day ended.
We have a sociopathic nationalist (not patriot, nationalist) as president. And it's chilling.
www.newyorkgritty.net
3
Trump is solipsism personified. Every word that comes out of his mouth has the sole purpose of self-aggrandizement and profit. His whole being is driven by an insatiable need to win. I’m not sure he believes half the stuff he says except in that it furthers is agenda. The Republicans have cut a deal with the devil. Trump? Not so. There’s no one to cut a deal with - he is the devil.
And, not to mix metaphors, but to destroy a blood-sucking vampire you expose him to daylight. Our daylight is the vote. Pull down the curtains.
2
When Reagan ended the "Fairness Doctrine" first we were bombarded with "Shock Jock"s" as the barriers of traditional decency came crumbling down, then "Hate Radio" continued to further explore how low the common denominator can fall by culturing devisions.
2
The simple fact that he was elected speaks volumes about the mind-set of the country...and the Electoral College. If you read history, you cannot but be very, very afraid of our future as a (relatively) free country. He told us, over and over, what he was, and he was elected. That is not on Trump, it is on us!
47
@Jean Boling
Not us, the majority of the votes went to Hillary
6
Trump creates the climate that emboldens racists.His words sprinkle hate like water on flowers, and we are now seeing the full bloom of this racism.
2
To Cheryl from Va.....You just made my point. Take a deep breath and calm down. All of your arguments against Mr. Trump's actions as President are backed only by talking points issued by the Democratic Party. I won't debate with anyone who has not taken the time to investigate why, for instance he has rolled back regulations or why he has reached out to countries who are our perceived enemies. As to the republican majority please remember that it takes 60 votes in the Senate.
I would also point out that Donald Trump has been President for less than 2 years while the democrats and President Obama held the White House for 8 years before that. Why weren't our immigration laws changed, or why wasn't social security etc. reformed? I am sorry to say that from my observation politicians operate under the banner of me first ,party second and country third.
In closing may I suggest that you watch the conformation hearings for Bret Kavanaugh then maybe we can discuss incivility.
Trump's endless talk about Mara Salvatrucha (the MS-13 gang) is a total bunch of lies & distortions. MS-13 was formed right in the United States - in the early '80s in South Central Los Angeles - as a gang to protect Central American immigrants from being preyed on by African-American & Mexican-American gangs. It's original interest was in listening to heavy metal (hence it's gang hand heavy metal signal). It rapidly became violent & spread throughout the US. An estimated 47 states have chapters, including at least one northern Virginia, within miles of the White House. They are not well organized & by no means the most dangerous gang in the US (the Crips & Bloods have far more members). They are run centrally from LA. The irony is that, for the first 20 years, any MS-13 member who was convicted of a crime was sent to jail. But, in the early 2000's, George W. Bush changed policy so that gang members would be deported to their original Central American countries. It was US immigration policies that created the gang chapters throughout Central America. There, MS-13 began to work with corrupt politicians (who are paid by US taxpayer funds) to literally create the terror that now drives their victims in a life-or-death exodus to reach our border stations & appeal for amnesty (which is legal in US statutes). Don't let Trump kid you that we are in danger from MS-13 from Central America. The real danger is from the in-country gang that has been run out of LA for 35 years.
2
Perhaps a little context before laying blame on politicians for crazy people. Robert Bowers, the gunman who went on a killing spree in a Pittsburgh synagogue Saturday, was apparently not a Trump voter and had been an outspoken critic of the president in the crackpot corners of the Internet he frequented. Far from inciting violence against Jews, Donald Trump has welcomed a Jewish son-in-law into his own family, along with the conversion to Judaism of a beloved daughter. As president, he has been nothing if not unstinting in his support for the Jewish State. Robert Bowers was not a normal man interested in politics but incited by Donald Trump or the Republican Party’s rhetoric; he was a murderous man with anti-Semitic views antithetical to Trump’s party and his very family. Cesar Sayoc was not an otherwise upstanding Republican driven to mail bombs to prominent liberals by President Trump’s words — he was a freak with a rap sheet as long as his arm, including a previous bomb threat that had nothing to do with politics. The idea that Sayoc would not have been a threat to anyone if Trump had not inflamed him with trash talk about CNN or the Democrats is nonsense. Liberals know this, but they do not care: Sayoc and Bowers are clubs with which to beat Trump and the Republicans. No Republican president has ever been spared liberals’ wrath because he tried to appease them. Liberals don’t think conservatives or Republicans should be polite. They think they should lose.
Trump's recent tweet is not going to help calm things down. Again he lies that the immigrant caravan is an invasion. In fact, Trump is the real danger to the US with his combination of moral depravity, stupidity, and hatefulness. GOP, he is your creation, and you are complicit.
TRUMP says: "Many Gang Members and some very bad people are mixed into the Caravan heading to our Southern Border. Please go back, you will not be admitted into the United States unless you go through the legal process. This is an invasion of our Country and our Military is waiting for you!"
Which of our home grown lunatics will heed Trump's call for violence? Does Trump even care?
TRUMP says: "Many Gang Members and some very bad people are mixed into the Caravan heading to our Southern Border. Please go back, you will not be admitted into the United States unless you go through the legal process. This is an invasion of our Country and our Military is waiting for you!"
Which of our home grown lunatics will heed Trump's call for violence? Does Trump even care?
4
Thank you, Charles, for saying what has escaped many of us....that our President is not sufficiently alt-right. Imagine....just imagine what this means.
3
Charles, why do you only blame Trump now, you used to call all Republicans as racists. For you, Regan was a racist, both Bushs were racists, and so on. But for you, people like Sharpton and Farrakhan are civil right leaders. People with common sense understand your problem. The word is being simply used to attack political opponents and not to deal with real racists.
3
Trump of course is only a part of the latest wave of racism, bigotry and contempt for minorities in America ....America has never been a nation free of racism and bigotry it is a staple of the culture of America
Our most profound document the US Constitution sanctioned slavery and defined Black Americans a fraction of a human being....It also affirmed that Women and Native Americans never shared any parity with White Americans
This foundation of contempt for Non-Whites and Women anchor Trump's proud arrogance that he is a NATIONALIST
America mirrors Trump much more than the nation wants to acknowledge
BLM
Our most profound document the US Constitution sanctioned slavery and defined Black Americans a fraction of a human being....It also affirmed that Women and Native Americans never shared any parity with White Americans
This foundation of contempt for Non-Whites and Women anchor Trump's proud arrogance that he is a NATIONALIST
America mirrors Trump much more than the nation wants to acknowledge
BLM
2
You don’t reason with people like Robert Bowers or Dylan Roof or Devin Patrick Kelley. They don’t need a speech or a sermon or a lecture.
Please be careful, Mr. Blow. Courageous journalists are precious and vital to a free press.
4
The most radical, severe form, strain, of nihilism is when you can distinguish anymore between up and down, high and low, good and bad, the sublime and the slime, and etc. ... and don't care.
It's too much of a hassle, burden to get active in thought, memory, imagination, will, and so much easier to just go with the numb flow. And that's the state of being of most TV.
Here in Australia we have a party called the Nationals, who are a rural-based, very conservative party, currently in power as part of a two-party Coalition that holds the majority in Parliament. Recently, they’ve discovered that white supremacist group members are joining their party in an attempt to influence policy.
Their response? They are expelling every white supremacist they can identify from their party.
Wouldn’t it be nice if the Republicans did the same.
2
The false, hateful, and divisive language used by the man currently occupying the Oval Office is putting US citizens in danger. His primary responsibility is to protect the citizens of this country -- he has failed in this and he has no place in a leadership position -- especially that of president. Toxic is the right word and he is spreading this on tax payer dollars!
2
America looks at our leaders as chosen representatives of us all, for better or for worse. White land-owning males were our leaders for most of our history, and those who were not white, nor male, nor necessarily land-owners, were imagined to be content with this representation.
Then we elected Obama and the imagined content became suspect. We followed with the nomination of Hilary and it exploded. The white male Empire was under siege.
For those with eyes to see, racism is America's most persistent problem.
1
While Trump's continued verbal abuse of those who are different from him and his base and his continued appeal to bigotry, fear and hate in his rally speeches is both appalling and alarming, it should not come as a surprise to anyone in America - even those who knew nothing about him previous to 2016.
Trump showed his true colors to the nation after Charlottesville when he said that "there were fine people on both sides."
Mr. Trump, fine people do not march behind Nazis flags.
Trump showed his true colors to the nation after Charlottesville when he said that "there were fine people on both sides."
Mr. Trump, fine people do not march behind Nazis flags.
2
Trump's answer to our nation's discourse is to arm schools, houses of worship and maybe grocery stores will be next.
1
Between the hideous acts mentioned 2 women were killed in a grocery store simply due to their race. It is heartbreaking to see the culmination due the poison that has been generated by Trump and condoned by the Republicans.
Trump doesn't hold rallies for the midterms, there is no content. He holds revival meetings that are entertainment for people to feel free to
cheer negativity, violence and outrageous lies.
Trump is Elmer Gantry as president, hollow and opportunistic
1
My heart aches whenever these all to frequent mass murders occur. How does a person get to the point in their life where an assault rifle and number of kill shots is the only solution they have? It is easy to put blame on public figures and yes, I can see where Donald could incite one to violence. He encourages violence against the media and Democrats at every opportunity. This does not mean that one must react with violence. It takes a village, you can bet that if I had seen the pipe bomber van I would have contacted law enforcement and hopefully they would have taken action.
We need to take care of each other. If we see or hear a wrong being done we need to speak out in that moment. Get to know your neighbors, sit on your front porch to see and be seen.
Most importantly read a variety of newspapers and know what is going on in the world. Don't rely on TV news Know your elected officials and call and email them often, they work for you. VOTE and make sure your friends, family and neighbors are registered. Offer to drive them to the polls or early voting, help them sign up to vote by mail.
This country is a mess and we have the power to change it. My thoughts and prayers to all of those impacted by the shooting at the Kroger store, Temple and those who received pipe bombs.
Be kind
We need to take care of each other. If we see or hear a wrong being done we need to speak out in that moment. Get to know your neighbors, sit on your front porch to see and be seen.
Most importantly read a variety of newspapers and know what is going on in the world. Don't rely on TV news Know your elected officials and call and email them often, they work for you. VOTE and make sure your friends, family and neighbors are registered. Offer to drive them to the polls or early voting, help them sign up to vote by mail.
This country is a mess and we have the power to change it. My thoughts and prayers to all of those impacted by the shooting at the Kroger store, Temple and those who received pipe bombs.
Be kind
1
Yes, Mr. Blow, the toxicity is indeed potent coming from someone who has never apologized or taken responsibility for any bad outcomes directly or indirectly attached to him for his entire adult life. Never apologizing while always denying responsibilty and always deflecting blame elsewhere are signs of strength, dominance and leadership in the reality distortion of Trump. Up is down and out is in when challenging Trump. How can anyone win an argument with someone who constantly makes up "facts" to fit their own narrative while doubling down on the denial of reality-based facts to represent the truth. Trump will be videotaped saying something ourtageous and inflammatory and then deny it entirely even when the unimpeachable documentation of his comments are offered as evidence. It is maddening enough for those of us who consume news and live in a fact-based reality so it must be absolute insanity and torture for fact-based journalists (not working for FOX News) covering Trump when their reporting is routinely ridiculed by Trump as "fake" The constant repition of Trump's most toxic themes on race, the media and his Democratic "enemies", especially viewed through the lense of his frequent rallies where the mob led chants of "lock her up" and more, ratchet up the simmering rage and hatred among his faithful base to full boil heat. Not surprising that the weakest of minds among his base are emboldened to channel that rage into truly heinous and inhuman acts.
2
Once upon a time Alexander the Great threatened his people with punishment if his beliefs were not adhered to. Nothing has changed when you have a modern population that can read and write, yet still LISTEN TO and carry out the wishes of a WOULD BE , but never WILL BE, leader of the free world. It makes us look and feel rather small doesn't it? Still fighting off the same old demons of yore, and I mean ante bellum America.
It is impossible to keep a huge ship afloat when you keep changing Captains every four years. Time to take a popular vote and decide once and for all who we are so people can make plans. It might be that some people will want move to countries who are more hospitable to their ideals. Much easier than keep trying to make a silk purse out of a sows ear. One giant voting day for all the marbles, Religion, Capitalism, Socialism, Political Parties.
I dare this Nation to really exercise their right to vote, else a Constitutional Convention will take place and someone else will do it for you. Five states left to convene one.
On target, Mr. Blow. Hillary should have never used the term "deplorables" in her campaign. But in hindsight, she was so right. Trump has encouraged and empowered a depressingly large number of deplorable people in our society. The only answer will be a repudiation of all Trump supporters (at this point virtually the whole Republican Party). People can have deplorable thoughts, but those thoughts and ideas have no place in our government. And any deplorable illegal activities must be punished.
1
I truly hope that Trump does not visit Pittsburgh or that if he does the Mayor and the Jewish community insist that a statement be made in his presence that sensible gun control legislation is the best way to decrease these attacks whether in schools, houses of worship or anywhere in the nation.
It's a familiar scene. We've seen it in movies and TV shows: In the common room or rec. room of a place for the insane — a bold and proud one stands tall on a table or chair and yells out loud inane nonsense, etc. ... The crowd gets excited, more and more agitated, as they shout along. A ruckus gets going and grows. They'll run rampant and wreck a lot.
That's how history happens more often than we like to admit. We're not the rational angels our ancestors dreamt (and some still do) of becoming. We're a mess of impulses. And the one plausible solution on the way is for the machines to take over ...
1
Toxicity seems to be the continuing thread in Mr. Blow’s column today as well as the comments on it. How can our democracy survive when its leader continues to blather about fake news? And how can the necessary message to combat this tactic and neutralize his lies get to his base. I shudder to think that the majority of folks who follow him are like-thinking people. Or that they aren’t horrified at these recent turn of events. Or, inexplicably, how our elected officials don’t call him to task for his hateful and spiteful statements.
Are we in real trouble here?
@Richard Brody
Depends on how many of our fellow inhabitants are insane, and how many who perhaps are not quite as insane just follow along.
This is about gun safety/gun control and the lack of mental health treatment in this country. Lest we forget, 58 country music fans were gunned down just over a year ago in Las Vegas. When we talk only about which community is the target today, we lose sight of the real problems and slide into the tribe talk again. We are all Americans and we are suffering from lack of gun control and lack of available mental health care. (and yes, an insane, vulgar criminal of a president, but we all know that by now. He is a problem, for sure, but this all started way before political Trump.)
I can't stop screaming. Entropy is encroaching.
1
@wendy vega
If you can still scream — there's still some energy against the entropy. When you can't even scream anymore, only droop mute, that's when the entropy may be irreversible.
If you can still scream — there's still some energy against the entropy. When you can't even scream anymore, only droop mute, that's when the entropy may be irreversible.
Much of Trump's toxicity comes from what he chooses not to say. A terrible event could happen and and Trump could let a few days go by, then tweet something glib or even inappropriate. Conversely, Obama always hit the right note at the right time. We always knew Obama could walk through events with eloquence, with grace. Tragically, Trump is the direct opposite of Obama. Time and time again, with almost every issue, every tragedy, every event, Trump hits the wrong note and has terrible timing.
1
Isn't it apparent by this time that any normal markers used to define what a president is and what a president does do not, and will not ever, apply to Donald Trump?
He relishes in breaking all the norms. It has worked for him splendidly. I mean, he is sitting in the Oval Office.
Our problems as a nation go far beyond those stoked by Trump. Let's face it, there are regional disparities in the United States that have led to the tribalism we are experiencing now. Years ago when I visited my girlfriend in Texas she advised me not to mention that I was from New York City.
I asked her why. Her reply? They want to hang New Yorkers here. Yankees aren't welcome, she said, and she was not referring to the baseball team.
I took Army basic training in Columbia, South Carolina in 1967. It was a hundred years or so from the Civil War, but it was clear to me that northerners were not well liked in that state. I used to write home to my parents that "they were still fighting the Civil War here."
Conversely, I would imagine a person living in the mountains of West Virginia wouldn't exactly feel at home in mid-town Manhattan.
Trump is only a symptom of all of this. And while he didn't start it, he certainly has ridden it all the way to the White House.
7
@Len
You make a false equivalency. People from West Virginia and places like that come to New York all the time, and I doubt they ever feel judged or hated like a big-city Yankee might in the South. New York is a more accepting place, period. It's not like there is hatred "on both sides". It only flows one way.
3
@Len
Abbie Hoffman: “I tell Nazis I'm a Jew and I tell Jews I'm a Nazi.”
You should have told everyone you were from New York, then impress them with your best behavior. Make them reconsider their assumptions.
Abbie Hoffman: “I tell Nazis I'm a Jew and I tell Jews I'm a Nazi.”
You should have told everyone you were from New York, then impress them with your best behavior. Make them reconsider their assumptions.
1
Trump = Republican Party.
Republican Party = Trump.
7
We all know that the president is making America less great, but in the realm of evidence, there is a difference between the bomber and the shooter.
The bomber poses a threat to Trump because it's hard to explain how a guy living in a Pence-mobile could be a Hillary Clinton operative. On the other hand, if the shooter had worn a red hat, the connection would be clear, but so far it is not to the point where it can be definitively tied to Trump.
Trump can play the roll of all three characters that Dorothy meets on the road in The Wizard of Oz.
He has no heart, brain or spine. He could also play the Wizard.
What Talent.
9
In the 1960s it was often said that if you are not part of the solution, then you are part of the problem. Trump is clearly part of the problem of hatred of the "other."
7
I read Mike Livingston's comment and agree with him. EVERYONE, Trump, the republicans, the democrats, the media, including this news paper and Charles Blow, 24 hr news cycles, late night night TV, the list goes on, is responsible in some way shape or form. The hatred for President Trump is at the epic center of it all including his behavior and the fact that he had the audacity to defeat HC in the last election. We are all living in a toxic environment and our leadership and the media is fueling it.
Remember one thing...bad behavior is not contagious it stems from a conscious decision to act and behave in a manor unbecoming.
Presidents come and go but Senators and Representatives are there for the duration as long as they can get re-elected. What America needs desperately are term limits for all members of Congress. The Founders wanted citizens to serve and then go home to their real employment.
We are fed the issue of the day while the real issues languish on the back burner. Immigration, Social Security, medicare and medicaid reform. The national debt, the deficit, all of no concern as our leaders via for re-election. America is going to pay a price and very soon.
1
@Fred
I can't speak for others but I don't think twice about Hillary Clinton. The election was two years ago. She's not in office or running for office. She has absolutely zero bearing on my dislike and disgust regarding President Trump. Everything from his hateful, fear mongering to his hurtful policies (taking away health care, passing giant tax cuts for corporation and the wealthy, rolling back environmental protections, rolling back consumer protections, etc etc). His blatant lying about things like the democrats are to blame for weak immigration laws or their lack of help making changes (really?? He has had the majority in both houses he could be passing any legislation he wanted) His lying about passing better health care and not taking away protection for pre-existing conditions, which his administration is actively in the courts trying to do. His refusal to get tough with the Russians and alienating our allies. His bullying and childish name calling and making fun of those less fortunate. His mindset that there can be no bipartisan compromises that anyone he disagrees with or anyone who disagrees with his is his "enemy" and instead of debate and polite discourse to resolve differences and find compromises; he only wants to attack and denigrate. As president he has made zero effort to be president to anyone but his base. Rally after rally with hateful rhetoric. I could go on and on. The bottom line is he is directly responsible for worsening public discourse.
I can't speak for others but I don't think twice about Hillary Clinton. The election was two years ago. She's not in office or running for office. She has absolutely zero bearing on my dislike and disgust regarding President Trump. Everything from his hateful, fear mongering to his hurtful policies (taking away health care, passing giant tax cuts for corporation and the wealthy, rolling back environmental protections, rolling back consumer protections, etc etc). His blatant lying about things like the democrats are to blame for weak immigration laws or their lack of help making changes (really?? He has had the majority in both houses he could be passing any legislation he wanted) His lying about passing better health care and not taking away protection for pre-existing conditions, which his administration is actively in the courts trying to do. His refusal to get tough with the Russians and alienating our allies. His bullying and childish name calling and making fun of those less fortunate. His mindset that there can be no bipartisan compromises that anyone he disagrees with or anyone who disagrees with his is his "enemy" and instead of debate and polite discourse to resolve differences and find compromises; he only wants to attack and denigrate. As president he has made zero effort to be president to anyone but his base. Rally after rally with hateful rhetoric. I could go on and on. The bottom line is he is directly responsible for worsening public discourse.
2
The Republican Party and 45 are direct beneficiaries of white nationalist demagoguery and racial divisiveness, and they welcome the adulation. The incredulously indefensible remarks by the besieged chief executive that he did not know David Duke, Christopher Cantwell, and comparable archetypes fomenting and inciting racial hatred and promoting anti-Semitism rings hollow. The GOP and 45 gladly welcome both the monetary contributions and the electorate support but are especially reluctant, if not just down right refusing, to expressly condemn these leaders and their neo-Nazi, Ku Klux Klan, white nationalist groups for fear of immediate backlash. They will not bite the hand that feeds them, and understandably so. The Republican Party resorted to developing the 1968 Southern Strategy to convince a part of the electorate that George Wallace’s perceived extreme imagery was inherently incompatible with the GOP’s alleged ‘moderate approach’ of Richard M. Nixon. The strategy paid off. Nixon won. 2018, compared to 1968, has produced a far more violent streak, and not confined to racial issues. The violence transcends race, religion, xenophobia, anti immigrant, and LGBTQ fervor. The Republicans and 45 constantly deflecting blame by vilifying the media for unfair press coverage is an extreme effort to otherwise justify their myopic position of reassuring racial superiority proponents that the GOP and 45 are their staunch allies. Their base is eroding, though, quickly. Race matters.
5
with all his thinly veiled references to traditionally racist beliefs and overt encouragement to the commission of acts of violence against those he views as the enemy, he has emboldened and empowered this filth to crawl out from the holes where they've mostly been hiding for years and to commit acts of vandalism, violence and even murder because he's let them know in no uncertain terms that he considers them 'some very fine people' . . . he is absolutely an accomplice to all of this madness and somehow, someday and in some way must be held accountable
4
Trump's supporters and most Republicans deride civility and decency towards others as "political correctness" and go out of their way to be vicious, racist, and divisive as supposedly fighting back against "political correctness."
Not all Trump supporters are racist,
but all racists are Trump supporters.
9
@Alitha Young
Bowers wasn't.
When you have a president more concerned about election coverage than bomb makers or murderers, it’s an open invitation to the fascist rabble to grow.
7
It is not hard to figure out if someone is a racist.
If it quacks like a duck it's a duck...
Trump has clearly told us who he is from the moment he took that escalator down at Trump tower and spoke about Mexican rapist and drug mules than again his "very fine people on both sides" statement after Charlottesville and now within the last 2 weeks Trump saying he is a Nationalist and druming up fear and hate of the Honduran migrant caravan... All of these racist and nationalist dog whisles by Trump are quickly followed by the racist KY killer, the Megabomber Trump supporter and the attack of the anti-semite killer of 11 Jewish worshipers.
Clearly Trump represents the worst of America and inspires support of racist and fascist among us who now feel free to act out and speak out without much fear from their fellow Americans.
6
As usual Charles has a god grasp of the reality we are currently in...
2
Charles, thank you for bringing Trump’s growing rabid nationalism and anti-Semitism into the light of day. I believe that the media has been timid about reporting about the anti-Semitism that has been so obvious since Trump took office.
Trump’s inability to call out the neo-Nazis in Charlottesville was just the beginning of his giving oxygen to this evil movement. His hate filled rallies designed to energize his base have become a trademark of his brand.
Trump does not see Ivanka as a Jew, after all she has his DNA and his blood running through her veins. Jared is not a “genius” just a useful idiot to engage Jewish voters.
7
I am Jewish. I do not feel that I have been targeted by an anti-Semitic wave. I do not believe that Trump is a Nazi sympathizer. And I believe that those who see genocide on the horizon need to take another look.
3
@michjas
Everything progresses in stages. The ground is being prepared. Genocide is common in history and has a magnetic attraction for authoritarians.
Everything progresses in stages. The ground is being prepared. Genocide is common in history and has a magnetic attraction for authoritarians.
@michjas: I am not Jewish. I do not feel that I have more wrinkles than when I was 25. I do not believe the planet is round. And I believe that those who fail to see the real desire for genocide in the words and actions of some “very fine people” need to take another look.
1
@michjas
"I am Jewish. I do not feel that I have been targeted by an anti-Semitic wave. I do not believe that Trump is a Nazi sympathizer. And I believe that those who see genocide on the horizon need to take another look. "
Lucky you?
Try taking your head out of the sand.
"I am Jewish. I do not feel that I have been targeted by an anti-Semitic wave. I do not believe that Trump is a Nazi sympathizer. And I believe that those who see genocide on the horizon need to take another look. "
Lucky you?
Try taking your head out of the sand.
It's time for us to throw the terrorists out of our country. White Christian men have to go.
4
Another point needs to be made. Not all Republicans are racist, but virtually all American racists are Republican.
10
Another excellent article Mr Blow. Thank you.
As anyone around NYC knows Trump is a racist
However you couldn’t convince your colleague Ms Dowd of how awful a person Trump is. While Trump flirted with Nazis she flirted with endorsing Trump.
6
There is an anti-Semitic stain to one party but it is the party whose last president worshipped at Rev Wright's church for years and the one that cannot find the courage to denounce and fully disassociate from the vile Louis Farrakhan.
4
@JB Look, a squirrel!
Oh, no, Trump is definitely a racist.
3
Trump and the gop assure isreal we are their allies. Then they tell african countries we are your aliies. They make trips to saudi arabia and praise the crown prince, who was certainly behind kashoggi’s barbaric murder. If the israelis did the investigation they would have the evidence by now. But how are jews, blacks and muslims being treated by trump and the gop ? Jews are massacred at s synanogue by the same elements- the extremist right wing that trump and the gop get their votes from, the extremists who call jews ‘globalists’ , borrowing from nazi and fascist manuals. Blacks are shot by white supremacists and white police. Trump and the gop spews racism and vitriol directed at blacks. They constantly cut the social programs that blacks need to overcome almost 300 years of slavery and repression. Maybe trump and gop think the world does not see their atrocities. They do.
5
Not all Republicans are racists, bigots, intolerant, homophobes, misogynists, greedy, selfish, and incapable of
empathy...but...most racists, bigots, intolerant, homophobes, greedy, selfish, unsympathetic people are Republicans.
4
Trump's vulgar antics, disgusting as they are, pale in comparison to his criminal acts for which he soon will be answering.
PROSECUTE RUSSIAGATE!
7
@tbs The energy Trump puts into demonizing selected groups like immigrants, African Americans, liberals, etc., is an astonishing contrast to his indifference about the evidence of Russian meddling with our elections. It is hard to think of an innocent explanation for Trump's position on these issues. I think the underlying motive is to bond with his followers over hate and fear, since neither Trump nor the GOP has anything of substance to offer the voters, except that Trump and the GOP hate the same people those voters do. (The motive with Russia is likely money for the Trump organization)
And a RICO prosecution of the Trump and Kushner Crime Families.
Point extremely well taken. As always, Trump being Trump wants to have it both ways. He wants to be a Nazi Sympathizer to the Alt Right and a Defender of Israel to the Jewish Community. Therein lies the art of the fraud - supposedly being so much to so many while cloaking the hate under the guise of plain speech. And the Con goes on!
3
"As always, this cautionary note must be included that...maniacs are responsible for their own actions...it is almost impossible in these cases...to attach the words of one person..."
This is so untrue. Hitler was the most outrageous example of his words inciting the population towards massive massacres of Jews.
Trump is Hitler re-incarnated. We need to acknowledge this and deal with it.
There can be no pussy footing around with this fact.
4
I grew up in a little town outside of Pittsburgh. A town that was built by immigrants. Immigrants who came to America for a better life, freedom and a chance for their families to become successful. Pittsburgh is a city of immigrants and hard working people. It is a beautiful city with hope. It is a city of Mr. Rogers as so many people have said.
I say to myself every day, what is happening to our country. We are becoming a country of hate and demonstrate on a daily basis a lack of respect for people who are different, who are not white, who are gay and speak with an accent. Most of my family had accents. But did that make them less of an American. Absolutely not.
I watched on TV young African American young men and women chanting "lock her up", "build the wall" and "CNN sucks". I was appalled and speechless. Who encouraged these young people to say these horrible things? Then I looked at the TV and saw Ben Carson and Donald Trump standing there laughing and encouraging these young people to chant these horrible words.
I was an educator before I retired and like to think that I am still an educator. I never taught hatred and if I saw a student say something hateful, I made it a teaching moment. Neither the Donald Trump nor Ben Carson stopped and told the young people that what they are saying is appropriate and wrong. Instead both men stood there an laughed.
Donald Trump does not have morals, empathy, or understanding of democracy.
8
Yes, Charles, Emperor "Trump's Potent Toxicity" (or Cancer of Empire) is inexorably spreading/metastasizing into the very organs of our 'body politic', and before it gets to Stage 3 'we the American people' (like a good doctor) will have of smarten-up and get 'Woke' to 'expose' via diagnosis, and then expunge (or surgically and non-violently 'excise') the "Toxicity" of this cancer of Disguised Global Capitalist Empire.
3
Whether Trump and the Republicans are actual racists or they use racism to energize their base, the outcome is the same. Shootings and bombs. I think they would be ok with all the violence as long as their donors keep sending in the checks.
3
Reading other writings and watching tv news discussions, it appears that more and more mainstream people are finally catching up to Charles Blow and his anti- Trump observations. Keep it up Charles.
2
The entire reason we lay responsibility outside of just the criminal who pulls the trigger is so we can take action to change. The point of blame is not to shame, although shame has a place, and it is not to punish, although punishment will come. The point is so that we, as a society, can identify the problems and fix them.
In light of that, I blame Trump. Now let's fix it. Our next chance is a week from Tuesday.
5
Trump is indeed a catalyst for and stimulus of many ills afflicting in America, including racism and anti-Semitism. This was both obviously predictable and widely predicted before he became president.
It is useful and important to continually point out that what was patently foreseeable three or more years ago has obviously come to pass over the past two years since Trump's elected to president. At some stage, however, it becomes even more important to move beyond square one and on to root causes and tangible remedies.
There can be no really effective remedies, however, without finally acknowledging that Trump is also a symptom, and finally admitting that most of his popular support is based not on people liking him but people disliking the establishment politicians he rails against.
You stir the pot.
Trump is vocalising what millions of Americans think: hate jews, blacks and Latinos, media is enemy of the people, the world is dumping on US and more hate, hate, hate.. He has figured out that these are "his people" who will stick with him no matter what because he hates just like them. The Republican party in their obsession with power will adopt the hate platform. This is all too sad because America used to be the shining star in the world and there are millions of Americans who are decent, law abiding and caring. No more.
2
Is part of where we are today, because time has silenced the voices of our family members who lived through the past horrors of World War II and racism in America?
3
not all Trump supporters are racists but all Racists support Trump.
3
Elsewhere it was simply reported that the Tree of Life killer was not a fan of Trump, which seemed to let him off the hook, and made me question whether I was crediting him too much for the epidemic of hate.
Thank you, Mr. Blow, for connecting the dots.
This also explains to me how Hitler fit into his world.
At least we have Charles M. Blow to clearly parse what's going on here when others fail to give insightful analysis. And, thankfully, since Trump doesn't read, we shouldn't have to worry about Mr. Blow becoming a target.
I look forward to more columns by Charles M. Blow in these fraught times.
2
"...cautionary note must be included: Homicidal maniacs are responsible for their own actions.... is impossible ... to attach the words of one person to the deeds of another."
But from whence does a homicidal maniac come? How is one made? Are they born that way? Can one be sculpted into being?
Some people are driven by voices within their heads to commit the most horrible of crimes. Others are driven by voices from without. If you can take an impressionable young man and convince him to become a suicide bomber...why can't you take an impressionable man and turn him into a homicidal bomber?
Speaking of homicidal maniacs; I'm not aware if hitler killed anybody with his own hands during WW2. But, I'm certain that he didn't personally meet, instruct and convince every single SS officer that ended up doing the heinous and unspeakable acts against the innocent on a daily basis. Despite this, nobody questions that hitler was responsible for the holocaust (trump's friends notwithstanding).
A year ago trump proclaimed that the swastika clad, MAGA wearing fascists marching in the streets were good people too. Two days ago, a synagogue was attacked by one of those very men. If hitler was responsible then, why wouldn't trump be responsible now? Granted, his rhetoric is different but the modus operandi is the same. Find a few targets. Make lies about them. Scare the impressionable in the population. Rile them up. And let them loose. Stop apologizing for trump.
3
Blow engages in his "own strain of racism" which has potent toxicity.
Giving a despicable and hateful Spencer a public forum in Blow's Opinion column is a dream come true for Spencer who otherwise is ignored as he should be.
Again, Blow's demagogic political rhetoric is part of the problem not the solution.
2
Mr. Blow, fest article! What does your colleague, David Brooks, think of nationalism now?! Hi sorry column last week was distressing! Trump proudly said, “I am a Nationalist, okay?” He asked his supporters to use “that word.” In Germany, “that word” has been outlawed since WWII.
Trump is toxic and spews evil.
2
"Still there is clearly something happening on the ground that is undeniable."
Blaming Trump for the shootings - OK. But when a Sanders/HRC supporter gunned down Republican congressmen, did any - ANY - of the Op-Eds blame Sanders?
1
"Homicidal maniacs are responsible for their own actions. It is almost impossible in most cases to attach the words of one person to the deeds of another." Mr. Blow, I really don't think you meant to imply by this that Hitler bears no blame.
1
It might have been Joseph Goebbels who once said that if you tell people a lie one thousand times it becomes the truth.
Today, when Democrats tell people the truth a thousand times it becomes 'fake news.' And regardless of what the particular issue, crisis, crime, scandal or day of the week it is, that's how the game is played and will continue to be played for the next two to six years.
Unless you vote.
2
Don't let the GOP and FOX outlets, and other right wing media off the hook.
They're becoming more and more blatantly racist and antisemitic.
3
Trump is merely using the ugliest segments of American society to achieve his aim. Hitler did exactly the same during the early 1930s. More to the point, however, is what does that say about America and Americans, the world wonders?
2
Florid alcoholics are surrounded by their enablers: the wife who calls in to his work to report he has "taken ill" as he lies in alcohol-driven stupor; the child who takes care of the home because (usually) her father will not, etc.
Racists have their enablers as well, from those who choose to remain silent to social media titans who neither identify nor expunge their screeds from distribution.
An addict to alcohol or other drugs will continue to abuse their substance of choice until they have consequences they cannot escape.
An addict to racism will do likewise with a cascading descent into darkness ending in murders in Charleston, Charlottesville, Oak Creek and now Pittsburgh.
This week, we are all Jews. We are all Democrats checking our mail. We are all Sikhs, just with invisible turbans.
Addicts to alcohol and to racism need consequences from the schoolyard with its bully to the digital cesspool of social media with its filth purveyors. If we fail to recognize either, we support each and, in the process, destroy ourselves.
Enough.
1
The people who voted for Trump are just as guilty as the shooter in this past weekend's horrific act of terrorism.
2
Trump's problem - and the country's problem - is that Trump and the GOP cannot win without the hate. If Trump were to suddenly become magnanimous and call out supremacists and racists, he would lose 10% of his voters. He's going to ride this thing into the ground as a winner in his own mind.
3
More frightening than Trump's sick behavior is the extent of the ignorance of those American's he's able to manipulate. How can a country this rich continue to produce so many uneducated?
3
@Janet Clark
Unfortunately the answer to your question is simple: GOP policies that have stripped funds from education budgets. Instead of representing public education as something that benefits every citizen, whether his/her family has children or uses public schools, they have depicted it as an enormous wasteful sponge.
For a bitter laugh this sad week, imagine if the GOP could magically swap its attitude towards public education with its view about the criminal justice system.
Unfortunately the answer to your question is simple: GOP policies that have stripped funds from education budgets. Instead of representing public education as something that benefits every citizen, whether his/her family has children or uses public schools, they have depicted it as an enormous wasteful sponge.
For a bitter laugh this sad week, imagine if the GOP could magically swap its attitude towards public education with its view about the criminal justice system.
The current President has been successful at dividing the country in favor of white Christian men. Until this President is out of office we need to more representatives who seek to unify all of us and will speak words and take actions to drive white nationalists back into closets and under rocks.
1
Trump has many flaws but he does love his children and grandchildren some of whom are Jews.
1
Thank you thank you Charles Blow. Your column continues to be just what the doctor ordered - a doctor with a keen mind and an aversion towards his prescription pad. I equate Trump with a poison toad, and have found many similarities:
"Toxic Toads
At this time of year, toads are rearing their 'oh so ugly' warty heads and causing terrible troubles...
Toads exude a milky white toxin mostly from poison glands behind their eyes, but elsewhere on their body as well. They squeeze this poison onto the surface of their skin when they are under threat. When treated roughly, they can even squirt the poison up to two metres.
The toad's poison is also dangerous to humans and deaths have occurred. Some adults have even been affected when they absorbed the poison through cuts in their skin after handling a toad."
2
Now you know what makes them "Deplorables" to everyone but Trump.
4
Not all racists are Nazis. Over 60 million people voted for Donald Trump, and I dare say that there was a bit of racism in all of them. With our many beliefs, we lay the groundwork for all manner of mischief. In the near future, we will program the human mind in a computer using a "survival" algorithm, which will provide irrefutable proof as how we trick this survival program with our ridiculous beliefs about what is supposed to survive - producing minds programmed de facto for destruction. When we come to understand this, we will begin the long trek back to reason and sanity.
See RevolutionOfReason.com
1
After the events of last week, we have a President who does not give a fig about Pittsburgh, just like after Charlottesville or Parkland to name a few of the horrible events of the past 2 years. He is clueless, heartless, corrupt, selfish, ignorant.....Mr. Webster does not have enough adjectives to describe this man. In the words of Barbara Streisand herself, this man is like Humpty Dumpty. A big fat egg that will eventually fall and crack. Go Dems next Tuesday, resist, persist and vote! We will not be intimidated by the GOP and their puppet President. America is better than this.
2
Calling Trump a racist may be giving him too much (or little) credit. He is a sociopath whose ego (and speech) plays to anyone group that supports him. He has no real, true feelings except those that feed his self esteem. He is a very sick man who needs serious mental help. Do they still do electric shock treatment?
6
How curious that Charles Blow says nothing about the most dangerous anti-Semite in the United States---Louis Farrakhan--
who sat in a row that included Al Sharpton and Bill Clinton at the recent funeral of Aretha Franklin in Detroit. Our former president was widely criticized by the Jewish press for warmly shaking hands with Farrakhan. Are his followers supporters of Donald Trump, or am I missing something? Charles Blow's narrative here is really off-base.
2
@WiseNewYorker
There's nothing curious about what is obvious.
I would like to see the "Equal Time" and "Fairness Doctrine" reinstated for all television and radio broadcasters. That would cut down on a lot of the hate spewing out of Fox, Limbaugh, etc.
Also, I would like to see the Dems host an alternative to the surly Sarah Sanders White House briefing. Every day a different Democratic House or Senate member could take questions from the media & speak on the Democratic response to the days events or talk about proposed Democratic policies.
8
You read my mind. I just made the same exact point somewhere else. Republicans are providing an incubator for white national extremism. The deepest racists and Nazis are indeed responsible for their own actions. However, Republicans are complicit in their actions by providing them with an environment in which to flourish. It's like putting a mouse in a snake cage and then blaming the snake when the mouse gets eaten. Trump and company knew exactly what they were doing when stirring up racial hatred.
You don't go on national television and declare yourself a "nationalist" without knowing exactly what that word means to white supremacists. It wasn't a mistake. Trump doesn't even dog whistle; he uses a fog horn. For all the cheering Trump fans, they know whats going on too. Weak claims begging ignorance or the lame justifications defending policy are embarrassing to watch. You look at someone like Cantwell and you have to say "If you're marching with Republicans, you're marching with this man."
For the record, Cantwell was also quoted as saying "I think that a lot more people are going to die before we're done here, frankly," This as he brandished an arsenal of assault weapons. Keep that in mind when Republicans distance themselves from white nationalists while still relying on their vote. A Republican vote is part of that tolerance.
72
Alas, the only difference between this and the Overland Park KS attack of 2014 and Los Angeles JCC in 1999 is the number of dead. Same thing with Toulouse and Mountauban in 2012, and HyperKasher in 2015. Not even discussing Paris 1982. Just the number of deaths. Same motivation. Doesn't matter who's in power. Obama, Clinton, Trump, Holland, Mitterand...four of five of them are on the left, and Jews still get slaughtered. It's not leaders who are toxic, it is people's hearts.
2
I am not accustomed to painting people with a broad brush. Still, any decent person who supports Trump has to look him/herself in the mirror and see who their fellow Trump brethren are. Whether they want to admit it or not, they are in league with these racists, anti-Semites, homophobes, and misogynists. That’s who they are. Period.
5
What to a surprise - Mr. Blow is going with yet another another Trump is bad, Trump is evil, blah, blah, blah . . generic column from Charles. He sure sounds like he has lost it and seems incapable of rational discourse - he is obsessed. A lot of the characteristics of an addict or someone who is bipolar. Too bad, he would have a lot to ad to a vigorous exchange of ideas if he were not so myopic.
2
Trump constantly fans the flames of fear, hate, and bigotry because he knows his power is dependent on his angry racist base.
3
Tuesday, November 6 - Vote!
1
So why don't the Dems have a plan? Why don't they turn it around and straight out accuse Trump and his Vichy Repubs for the disorder?
Why not say, with one voice, Let's go back to when America was relatively peaceful, when we got along better!
Vote against every last Republican who has let it come to this!
The Dems are losers.
2
@Mark Woldin
Gun control would help the Democrats because it might stop from shooting themselves in the foot.
2
I don't think I'm particularly insightful, or empathetic. But I just can't understand the source for the hatred we see. It's not that Trump has called it into existence, rather, he has given permission for people to be full-throated in their hatred. That's a terrible thing, indeed, but where does the hatred come from? And how can we make it stop? It's just bewildering to read the garbage the purveyors of this anti-semitism, anti-black, anti-woman, anti-[your group here] put forth. It makes no sense. It's clearly not related to reality. But they feel it so viscerally - how does this happen? Once we know that, maybe we can devise ways to nip it in the bud, to see first the common humanity before we worry ourselves with the trivial differences.
3
If there needs to be a reckoning with the darkness that resides in the hearts of some Americans, the evil racists and Nazis must be made aware that they will not win.
More anti-Trump women aged between 20 and 30 can surround the White House and the Capitol Building than the complete total of pro-Trump men AND women of all ages combined. Then let's add the other women of righteousness, those who care about equality and do not preach hate.
Trump has enabled the vile hatred. Let there be no doubt of this fact. He is incapable of dialogue to calm the situation. He is a sociopathic narcissist and his ego will soon destroy him.
I want to know how he can look Jared Kushner in the eye after Pittsburgh. Trump will have to hide his blood-covered hands from his son-in-law.
Trump has dug his own hole of misery and miscreant behavior. He will soon crawl into it and be a memory, a terrible one to be sure, but one we will get past.
3
Kushner is just another criminal Trump sycophant. The Kushner Crime Family is no better than the Trump Crime Family. Kushner has no shame so Trump has no reason to feel shame around Jared.
It somewhat surprises me in this day and age, that a goon squad of dead-enders and economically impotent do-nothings have such an impact on our democracy. All of them have connection to the current administration. Absolutely pathetic. Wake up America. Fight hard but fight fair. Vote.
3
Trump uses his rallies now as pity parties for his ego as the walls begin to close in on him. His cult eats it up. So, we have Trump, his cult, Fox News and others who are peddling hate now 7/24.
Why is this not an indictable HATE crime? Last weeks assaults on what Trump calls his enemies is proof, and is in direct response to their provocations.
He is doing these rallies for his ego and it is on our dime. Emoluments, while a serious crime, pale when compared to his effect on our country and our democracy.
Herr Trump leading the Third Reich revival.
5
Trump is to racists, as gasoline is to arsonists. He is an accelerant that makes it easier to speed and intensify racist hatred.
4
As the son of a Holocaust refugee whose relatives were wiped out in Germany, I felt a duty to trudge through Hitler's turgid and boring treatise Mein Kampf. In the final chapter I perked up at the phrase, "(Jews) systematically these black parasites of the nation defile our inexperienced young blonde girls." This unfiltered glimpse into the mind of a monster captures the essence of racism, fear, jealousy, envy, self-doubt and lack of self-esteem. Donald Trump with his constant boasting about his sexual prowess gives himself away in the same manner.
5
From the Birther statements to his blame of the media, Trump has been behind conspiracy theories for his entire election cycle. He is a danger to this country with his lies and distortions of the truth.
Trump needs to be removed from office.
8
As long as NYT continues to preach to the choir, nothing will improve. You have to create some kind of mass intervention for those poor fools who's minds have been poisoned and abducted by Rupert Murdoch.
1
I did not think that this would happen as quickly as it did. But read "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" to understand Trump's game plan.
-get elected in a democracy
-take over all decisions in government from experienced people
-find a scape goat and attack them
-dog whistle to the racists
-lie about your beliefs, intentions and actions
-hold rallies to jack up your followers
-get support of the business interests
-attack your neighboring states
Next step to come:
-take control of the government with some excuse, and turn this country into a dictatorship. I am afraid it may even happen by the time of this November election.
6
When you play the game of racial and ethnic hatred, show utter contempt for responsible journalists and espouse violence as an acceptable response to groups which urge fairness to their fellow Americans, you lose the ability to pick and choose whom the armed bigots will target.
Donald Trump is now reaping the results of the nasty seeds he has planted, and Charles M. Blow is absolutely correct that Trump cannot act surprised or offended that the neo-Nazi white supremacists are giving in to their fulminant anti-Semitism.
The next ten days are crucial to our Democracy, and let us hope that everyone who wants to end this nightmare acts with restraint and courage.
3
“Flirted”
‘You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.’
"And slime had they for mortar."
3
The right wing fanatic appears to have heeded President Trumps hysterical ravings about ‘invaders’ and quite possibly thought he was “working towards” the president in the same way that naive German citizens “worked towards the Fuhrer” in a previous generation.
Trump and his white Nationalist Republican Party are not interested in avoiding the horrors of the past, they are using it as a playbook.
3
This is the NYTimes top pick for comments" The country does indeed need to calm down. But when everything is Trump's fault, it doesn't help much. People need to take responsibility for their actions and stop blaming others."
Way to go with the both-siderism NYTimes... Conservative pablum about being responsible for one's actions to "balance" a pretty mild Blow article about the public health effects of the hate and hysteria that the *rump administration purposefully cultivates.
It is obvious that the Mango Mussolini foments fear and violence among pathetic little men with grudges and guns. That is the explicit point of his "rallies", of his calls to Lock'em Up, of his racist comments.
A "responsible" president, oh conservative commentator, would get on TV and condemn in clear and uncertain terms violence against ANY and ALL ethnic groups. A responsible president would say that violence has no place in well functioning democracy. A responsible president would foster trust in the government and judicial system, not just the police and military. *rump is incapable of providing the leadership to calm the country down because he thinks his fan-base thrives in chaos and fear.
So, NYTimes, please don't "feed" us your favorite comments from the right in an attempt to show us the middle road. We know what a responsible person would do. It's just painfully clear that our leadership is utterly irresponsible.
5
I may not live to see the day, but, oh, do I long to see that day when the white people in this country are in the minority and forced to take their role as first among equals. That should, at last, end these fantasies of the white nationalists of taking back their country. In fact, if they haven't noticed, whites represent a minority in the world today, maybe 30% of the population of 7.5 billion.
1
Mr. Blow is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts. Trump did not say that Nazis at the Charlottsville protest were "very fine people"; he said that there were very fine people on both sides of the then-debate about whether to remove the monuments. He also blamed both sides for the violence, which is true to the extent that Antifa also engaged in violence that day. Mr. Blow's suggestion that Trump was praising neo-Nazis as fine people is blatantly false, and yet the left wonders why there is so much anger and vitriol in the country.
3
@R.P.somebody that is apparently inside Trump's head. His very fine people were carrying torches and yelling Jews will not replace us. Just a night out on the town for Trump.
3
@R.P. exactly. And it once again proves that Trump is correct in assailing the fake news press. The MSM just makes stuff up to fit their narrative. Oh, not completely made up. It loosely fits the objective facts, well enough so that the typical reader who is only paying half attention will accept the Times version of the facts. This is analogous to the narrative that Trump asked the Russians to hack HRC. Not even close to what he said.
And CB's column is basically a fact free zone. For the last 2 years he's been spewing as much anti-Trump venom as he could regardless of events on the ground. Before that it was railing against white racist cops who got up every morning hoping to get a chance to kill a Black male. He pushed the Ferguson narrative "hands up, don't shoot" long after it had been shown to be false and after the officer involved had been twice (once by the state once by feds) cleared. And CB has never mentioned the dirty little secret that Black violent crime rate is 3.5x greater than whites, the homicide rate 7x. And no one in the Times focuses on the inner city murders, the daily killings on our streets, but jump on any mass shooting in order to attack Trump, repubs, NRA, etc.
1
The nation is only a week away from taking away at least some of the power from the nation's worst president ever since independence.
If that doesn't happen, the next 2 or 6 years will be darkest ever in the history of US. And who knows, if Trump starts a major war; the darkest spell ever for the entire planet.
2
Even Gillum's cheeky comment to DeSantis avoided the basic truth of it. There's no reason to qualify it. Trump and his people are racists.
2
The brown shirts of the 1930s led to the rise of fascism and a
tyrannical ruler. It's as if the brown shirts of the past have been replaced by the red hats of the present.
9
"... I’m simply saying the racists believe he’s a racist.”
Exactly. Like, the modern GOP may not be inherently racist but if David Duke is on your side then you either kick him out or...
I take it back. The modern GOP is inherently racist.
3
@Albert Ross
Not that the left isn't racist, it's just that when the other side is aggressively so then we don't feel the need to examine our own shortcomings.
How can the media (theTimes included), just gloss over recent executions of POC by white nationalists? Why aren’t the people killed this week in Kentucky factored into all the hate you are accounting for?
2
Your piece today, "Trump's Potent Toxicity", is one of your best since you started writing 10 years ago in the New York Times Op-Ed Section. Thank you again, Charles Blow. We who have become your choir since 2008, and have commented on your brilliance and elegant truth-writing, hope against hope as you do that there will be changes for the better in America.
There has been blood shed in the name of anger and hatred. Our president is the king of hate-garbage and his collection grows every day. After the Tree of Life Synagogue massacre in Pittsburgh Saturday, -- by a white American man who wanted "to see all the Jews killed"-- Trump tipped his maga cap to our better American angels (in hiding today) by mouthing dutiful words of unity, grief, etc. and yet, off-script our president condones acts of violence among his loyalists and followers.
If our 45th pres is not removed legally under rule of law, he will be removed illegally. Since Donald Trump has held sway, long before he ran for our presidency and -- shockingly -- was elected in 2016, we have been kowtowing to American carnage under his banner. We have been enduring the unendurable, bearing the unbearable from our unfit, ignorant, widely-loathed commander in chief. Our president is a hellish Henry Hill, leading the parade of hatred in America. Trump is our home-grown nationalistic "Music Man". The Pied-Piper of the white nationalists parading in our divided country today.
4
Leave it to Mr. Blow to find cause and effect where there isn’t any. Could Trump tone it down . Yep but so could many Democrats. These wingnuts act out , always have and always will and Trump has very little to do with it. Btw America is not “egalitarian “ and hopefully never will be. It’s been tried in Britain before and Thatcher rescued them.....Venezuela is a recent example. Capitalism lifts all boats Mr. Blow.
1
This country--my country has not been infected by Trump. Trump has merely laid bare the the infected rot of racism, antisemitism and incredible hypocrisy that this country has always had. We have to deal with the truth of what our country really is and how we came to be where we are.
We need to stop talking about having a national conversation about our problems and actually HAVE the conversation. But to have it, we have to have ALL of the truth. Those facts are documented in our painful history that we must face. We have to talk honestly about how much people of African decent built this country and how they were and still are systematically excluded from it. We have to talk about how we turned thousands of desperate Jews away from our shores and right back to their deaths in World War II. We have to talk about Japanese internment, the Chinese Exclusion Act and the forced sterilization of Puerto Rican women in the 1960's. We have to talk about how the 1% used racial, ethnic, and cultural fears to scare most white people to support policies that hurt their own interests. We need to understand all of this to realize how we have failed in fulfilling the promises of our own Constitution, to avoid mistakes we are making now like trying to decimate LGBTQ rights and demonize immigration.
It's time to be honest. Only then can we begin to heal and maybe one day, forgive. There is a lot of work to do.
2
@kas Amen, no reconciliation without truth.
@kas
We must go all the way back when the early settlers slaughtered the Americans who had been here long before the white man. It seems that the destruction resulting from manifest destiny is in the white man's DNA.
Read the stories in the WaPo and the Guardian newspapers about Steve King's supporters and racism.
Rep. Steve King’s Iowa supporters brush aside concern about his white nationalist views
https://wapo.st/2PWRHUq
'He's so openly racist': why does Iowa keep electing Steve King to Congress?
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/oct/26/hes-so-openly-racist-why...?
Two disgusting reactions in light of the Pittsburgh massacre:
1. The failure of "mainstream" Republicans to recognize that their party has been hijacked by hateful, know-nothing racists; and
2. The hypocritically pious tears of "liberals" today, even as many of them sought to explain and even justify the murder of over a thousand Jews, including scores of Holocaust survivors, from suicide bombs during the second intifada.
1
Please don't forget or overlook the two elderly black people killed at the supermarket.
4
Trump and Trumpism is nothing less than a metastasizing cancer on this country. Period!
3
Charles, I recommend you read a comment by Richard Luettgen over at the main editorial. He argues as do I – often – that we need a more careful analysis and presentation of data concerning acts of racism/discrimination that occur daily in our USA.
This would be done ideally by a national commission but there is no chance of that being done. Therefore the NYT appears to be the best place for continuous record to be kept and presented, employing the graphics that can reach a high level here at the Times.
Group after group in the USA is taking a stand against other self-named groups or the USCB’s races and ethnicities, all created by racists long ago but preserved in full here at the Times and by the USCB.
Each incident needs to be named with analysis of the action, clear identification of the perpetrator, the expressed reasons for the choice of target, and what made it all too easy for him – usually him – to kill. Such a record must be available for even a president who practices all embracing racism except when he is physically embracing Saudi Arabians and a few other dictators.
Take a look at Erik Bleich The Freedom to Be Racist, a study of the infinite variety of racisms practiced in European countries and the USA, and then tell your editors it is time for them to move on, to end use of the USCB system and try to learn about racisms.
Please read Luettgen.
Three columns so far today trying to link Trump to the synagogue shooting. You can't get much lower.
1
Just as the country was learning about the mail bombs, two African Americans were murdered in a supermarket in Kentucky. These deaths, this occurrence of yet another hate crime, cannot be marginalized. The persistence of hate is a toxic cloud over us all.
2
“First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
H
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”
1
It does not matter whether Donald Trump is a bigot or an anti-Semite: he empowers bigots and anti-Semites because they are a critical part of his base.
91
Fine essay, Charles. Yes, trump certainly attracts these flies. There are antisemitic people who are for trump, and there are antisemites who are against trump. It comes with the territory.
CNN showed the West Texas episode of the late Anthony Bourdain series last week. In it was a segment that showed a young man wearing a Trump/Putin tee shirt. God knows what's in the small minds of these people.
The problem really does lie with the lack of education of trump supporters. Many are just too dumb to see that trump incites his racist followers; some trump people may deny racism, but their lord and master trump encourages it.
The main goal of trump is to seek attention. He gets this by performing outrageous acts that entertain his irresponsible audience. Trump has Fox Noise to support him. He and Fox depend on an uneducated population. Educated people are a bane to trump; they question and are skeptical. Racism is unacceptable to a confident, educated person.
Trump gets attention by dividing this nation, and racism is an effective way for him to do that. Trump, the paranoid schizophrenic, sees the nation as composed of those who are for him and those who are against him. He riles his supporters to hate those who are against him.
So long as trump is the lying, traitorous, egomaniacal, fascist lunatic, there will be a large body of intelligent people who are against him. This leaves him his followers who are racist, either explicitly, or implicitly.
1
Donald Trump has people of Jewish faith in his own family. I do not think Trump has produced an environment of racists and Nazis. They were there long before Trump took office.
14
@Sandra J. Amodio,
Of course they were. Nobody is arguing that they weren't. But when a presidential candidate is endorsed by the former grand wizard of the KKK, and at first pretends not to know who that is, then half-heartedly disavows the endorsement after being hectored into it by a reporter, and when that president hires blatant racists like Stephen Miller and Steve Bannon as advisors, and then equivocates when torch bearing racists and anti-semitic white supremacists march and violence and death ensue, it makes those racists and Nazis feel that their vile beliefs are more acceptable, that they have a friend in the Oval Office, and it emboldens them to act on their beliefs.
Why is all that so hard to understand?
36
@Sandra J. Amodio
Produced it? No. Continuing to throw gasoline on it? Absolutely.
65
@Sandra J. Amodio, true enough, but his continuing words and actions enable the racists to crawl into the light of day without shame and manifest themselves in many more ways.
21
One should add white in front of Trump's nationalism. The social media is the home of this cave dwelling troll. This largely toxic sewer of hate brought to the world by Facebook and other internet outlets has befouled US politics. The question is how long people will let this swamp creature hold the highest office in the land. Or empower him with his feckless R allies in the congress.
2
Didn’t Donald Trump say that the Tree of Life Synagogue should have had armed guards at their doors? Is this man crazy? Had he said, “no house of worship should need to have armed guards at their doors” I might consider that he had learned something in the past days. But instead he flies off for yet another hate filled political rally. Any wonder some of us are concerned that a rally more akin to Nuremburg might soon be in the offing?
Is Donald Trump a racist and an anti-Semite? The honest answer should be yes, even if his son-in-law is a Jew and his daughter converted to Judaism.
4
Never let the truth get in the way of a good lie. Trump's "both sides" comment was not about the tiki torch marchers that night in Charlottesville. It was about the protest and antifa counter protesters the following day or whatever. Maybe the climate of anti-semitism was fueled by Obama palling around with Farrakhan or Clinton sitting with Farrakhan at Aretha Franklin's funeral. The left tries so hard to tie Trump to people he doesn't even have an acquaintance with, while ignoring the photos of Obama and Farrakhan, and Hillary Clinton with Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey, and Bill Cosby. There's what the left wants to believe, and then there is the truth. While the media wants to see Trump bring the country together (really?), they launch into invective calling him and his supporters racist, anti-semitic and evil (see: Howard Dean on MSNBC).
1
@TL
"The Truth," that is ANY truth seems to have escaped your one-sided, purely partisan remark.
3
Racists, Nazis and fascists naturally believe Trump's election to be a vindication of what they consider to be their silent majority. Along with conspiracy sites (which Trump never accuses of being Fake News) and the ongoing hateful speech and lies spewed by the president himself , it is only a matter of time that this turns into action, action which they consider to be justified and openly called for - no longer dark thoughts that need to be hidden.
2
Are the gilded couple too dense, too stupid, too convinced wealth and privilege protect them and theirs -- she from her father, he from his father-in-law and from the hate and murder that man has inspired and will continue to because he is so degenerate and sick?
Apparently they are in denial - or they would walk away right now if they shared so much as a shred of decency: They would walk away and tell him it is enough and enough and enough.
But they won't.
They don't understand what it means to hear, much less to say, "And then they came for me".
3
Thank you, Charles, for staying persistent. We can always count on you to provide some Blow-back to Trump and his callous supporters.
When radical Muslim clerics preach radical Islam and violence ensues many blame those clerics so.. when President Trump preaches Nationalist rhetoric and racist and political violence ensues it stands to reason - blame the president.
2
Trump hasn’t just “flirted” with Nazis and racists. He’s also actively courted dictators and poisoned our national discourse with his endless lying and name-calling. This misogynist and self-proclaimed “nationalist” is truly unfit to serve as the president of our once-proud democracy.
3
Trump's impotency rests in his ignorant immoral insecure intemperate narcissism. Trump is not a leader. Trump is an echo and a reflection of the worst demon nature of the 63 million Americans who voted for him including 58% of the white voting majority.
Trump is a putrid pimple pustule of an enduring innate white supremacist socioeconomic political educational demographic historical American myth meant to legally and morally justify black African enslavement and separate and unequal black African Jim Crow.
Trump is not man enough to fire anyone to their face. And no one ever feared a Trump tweet or snarling snarky Trump speech. Unlike Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin who sends his foes to mental institutions, hospitals, prisons, urns and coffins with a smile and smirk.
All of Trump's bombastic buffoonery is meant as a distraction from him preserving, protecting and defending whatever Trump is hiding from the American people in his personal and family income tax returns and business records. And to distract from Robert S. Mueller, III' s investigation into Russian collaboration, coordination, cooperation and conspiracy hacking and meddling along with obstruction of justice by Trump and his malign minions.
2
This is a moment of truth for the United States. We already saw where the majority of whites stood on November of 2016, 63% of white men and 53% of white women giddily voted for Donald Trump, after seeing his ignorance, immorality, stupidity, constant lying, disrespect for others, racism, misogyny, white supremacy, basically a horrible human being, but he was their white savior. He has proven to be worse human being than imagined, yet most of these people still support Trump. Is it still a majority of white people? From the numbers, white men are still solidly behind Trump, white women, especially the more educated, seem to be moving away. But if you're a person of color, LGBTQ, Muslim, or anywhere on the margins, mainly non-white, it's disheartening to know that the majority of white people back this sub-human monstrosity. We'll see what happens in a few days in the Midterms. Sadly, I'm not hopeful.
3
To slightly alter a famous recent zinger from Florida gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum (he was referring to his Trump loving GOP opponent): “I’m not saying Trump is an anti-Semite, I’m just saying anti-Semites believe Trump is an anti-Semite”.
4
Since day One when Trump floated down that escalator and gave his hate speech to kick off his campaign, he has been spewing hate for "Others." On that Day One, he knew exactly what he was doing, to gain the support of and tap into the ire of his most radical base. Trump has continued to give radical "Nationalists" permission to commit acts of violence against African Americans, Jews, and all immigrants through what he says and does not say.
" It took the importuning of his Jewish daughter and son-in-law to craft a powerful statement of outrage at anti-Semitism after Saturday’s slaughter at a Pittsburgh synagogue. " This statement says it all.
2
Wow. That body language in the photo accompanying this story: where have I seen that before?
4
Have the Democrats spoken out about these horrors lately? Have they said ANYTHING? Just Obama, I think. The Dems seem to me to be a bunch of wimps.
1
Trump spews hate on pretty much a daily basis. So to be clear the President of the US spews hate daily. Almost every tweet, certainly at every rally (and there are a lot of those). He's just hateful and angry and negative. He encourages a negative, angry, fearful world view at his rallies. So he is validating all of those who feel the same.
It's one thing when it's your neighbor or co-worker or even a local politician. This is the President using the bully pulpit of the office of the presidency to spew hate and support hateful ideas. It should not be a surprise to anyone that someone is answering his dog whistles.
As my Dad used to say ... Tell me who your friends are, and I'll tell you who you are.
No wonder we are now in tribes. You either listen to Rush and Sean and Laura or you think that these people are filled with hate and want nothing to do with them.
Sort of limits conversation about politics, doesn't it?
I still have Republican friends, although I am a proud liberal. We each think the other is not just wrong, but stupid. Of course, they also think I am hopelessly naive and I'm pretty sure that they are mildly racist.
Maybe we are both right.
In any case, we are not as close friends as we used to be.
3
@C.L.S. Like it or not, evil is wrong, period. Both sidesare not “right.”
2
I am not calling Trump a Neo-Nazi, but the Nazis in USA thinks that he is one of them. I am not calling Trump a White Supremacist but they all revered him and talked about him in their community as their leader because of his words and deeds. I am not telling that there are many US citizens who are politically uneducated and blind followers but I am telling, their biggest chance for redemption is coming in November.
5
“According to an annual report by the Anti-Defamation League issued earlier this year, the number of reported anti-Semitic incidents in the United States surged 57 percent in 2017..."
Antisemitism also surged in 2016 following Trump's inauguration. The rise in antisemitism in the past two years parallels a similar surge in overall hate crimes according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Is it just a coincidence that hate crimes have surged since Trump entered the White House?
Do you think Trump's calls for his supporters to punch people in the mouth or rough them up have nothing to do with a rise in violence and expressions of hate towards minorities?
Do you think his targeting Muslims and immigrants from Mexico, Central America, Haiti and Africa do not incite white nationalist racism and violence?
But here's the problem. Trump is only saying out loud what Republicans have long whispered. His hatred on non-whites, non-heterosexuals, non-Christians is their shared hatred. Republican denials, calls for civility, and condolences are perfunctory expressions, mouthed words, followed by NO action.
Trump is not just dividing Americans he is targeting minorities, Jews included. Kushner is totally unacceptable to Trump's pure-race white supporters, but Trump can overlook his Jewishness because he sees money. For the same reason Republicans can court Jews for money while they keep their white, Christian constituents inline with subtle racists whistles.
After Jews, who is next?
4
Trump, flirting with extremist chaos Aug 2016 “By the way, and if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don’t know.”
5
After the rampant shooting deaths of unarmed schoolchildren, people in movie theatres, discos, ball fields, shopping malls, and yes--even Churches, do you think America has gotten the picture yet?
Or have to they forgotten the tiki-torch neo-Nazi thugs in Charlottesville, Va., and all the other white supremacist rallies normally held under cover of darkness that have suddenly sprung into daylight?
Is the recent shooting in Pittsburgh what it takes to crystalize the problem this country is now facing and to finally recognize the source of so much dissension?
At this point, it's hard to imagine just what it will take.
And how much longer we'll be able to stand it.
2
It turns out that Trump is a true deplorable who enables the deranged alt right and racists with his conspiracies, his code words, his angry rhetoric, and dishonest demagoguery. He creates the toxic atmosphere in which hate,anger, and violence can thrive! How did this unqualified and despicable man become President? It reflects poorly on us as a nation, on our honor, and in particular on the Republican Party and the Religious Right!
It is truly pathetic!
4
Well, the racists clearly do believe Donald Trump is a racist and that should be good enough for the rest of us. Every vote cast for a Republican in November is a vote for racism and a move towards totalitarianism. We can only hope that after seeing who Donald Trump is these last two years Americans send is enablers packing. The truth is that Donald Trump is THE enemy of the people.
3
Donald Trump is the most vile and poisonous President in the history of the United States. His oxygen is to divide us. He will never apologize. He seeks to embolden violence against “the other.”
We must fight this man and the ugly Republican Party backing his autocratic tendencies. This will be the fight of our lives. He won’t back down. He must be stopped.
5
Those are significant statistics. I guess I should not be surprised that anti-semitic violence surged 57% the first year Trump was in office, 2017. Now in 2018 a record-breaking mass murder of Jews in the United States. Sad.
3
@Marvant Duhon
Some whine that Trump has a Jewish son-in-law and (converted) Jewish daughter, and that Trump has bragged that rather than allow blacks to touch his money he has Jews in yarmulkes count it, so he can't be anti-semitic. Bigotries are mutually reinforcing. Trump's vileness against blacks, hispanics, muslims, liberals, reporters and others inspires not just crazies who only hate the groups, but broad spectrum crazies.
1
To paraphrase Lincoln: You can fool the people you need to fool in the states you need to fool them in, but still you need a boost from the Russians.
When will the electoral college go the way of the dodo bird?
2
@John
It should have been null and void in 1865, when the 2/3's compromise became null and void.
Both that compromise and the electoral college were give-aways to the slave-owning South. It allowed them to boost their numbers to gain parity in population-based representation (never mind that those counted could not participate in or benefit from what they were counted for, and hey, breed the slaves, more of them and we get even more representation) and the electoral college, whose ranks are chosen, you guessed it, based on the number of congressmen per state, which increased as the slave population increased.
1
At the end of the year the FBI will publish stats on murders in this country.
Let's all get back together when they are published for 2018 and look at the breakdown of murders across racial demographic groups.
You can even throw in killings by law enforcement officers.
Let's see what they say.
1
“Bomb stuff”.
Can you imagine any other president uttering such words?
3
You would think that any normal intelligent adult would find the words of condolence to come effortlessly after a tragedy like the tragedy at the synagogue in Squirrel Hill. You wouldn’t need to express your grief and sorrow with awritten script and tella-prompter. George Bush didn’t need a script or promoter when he stood on a pile of rubble in downtown Manhattan. Barack Obama didn’t need either after the tragedy at Sandy Hook. That’s why Trumps attempt rang so hollow. So scripted. Lacking any true emotion.
3
I disagree that dumps words are not the match that lights the noxious gasoline in the minds of some very sick people. He IS responsible for fomenting hate, fear, and mistrust. History will not be kind to our first anti semitic, racist, misogynist president. But, today we must yell, scream, march. and vote to stop him.
3
Charles;
You forgot to mention that Trump also eats children.
While I think the vast majority of us NYT reader agree that our president is a nut job among other things, but supports mass murder?
I mean, really? How much lower can you go here?
2
As Andrew Gillum who is running for Governor in Florida said to his opponent .
“Now, I’m not calling Mr. DeSantis a racist. I’m simply saying the racists believe he’s a racist.”
Just replace any Vichy Republicans name for 'DeSantis' and you get the picture.
3
This is so right on, and we have to recognize it. It might have been too late after Trump got away with his Charlottesville garbage—we must vote now, and scour his enablers out of power!
Charles, you failed to mention the most recent widely viewed reprehensible anti Semitic comment. It was made by Louis Farrakhan, and was probably seen by millions. As I am sure you know, Mr. Farrakhan compared the Jewish people to a certain type of insect, as his amused audience laughed with him is a disgusting and dangerous display of bigotry.
I don't pretend to know what was in the mind of this despicable shooter. And quite frankly those who might exploit this unspeakable tragedy for political purposes are shameless . But, if people must blame and point fingers, I would place Mr. Farrakhan in the forefront of those whose words might encourage anti- Semetic violence.
1
It is astonishing that, following a week of pipe bombs, murders of two in a grocery store, and assassinations in a synagogue, trump cannot muster a shred of decency or real empathy, nor control his nasty, ugly rants even long enough for the dead to be buried. For trump, there are 'enemies' to be attacked and nothing can curb his compulsion to ridicule. When he bleats about a 'crazed & stumbling lunatic,' the only one I see fitting that description is trump himself.
5
A provocative argument, I must say, Mr. Blow. I have never heard it argued that JFK should be held responsible for his own assassination, but I see your point: he did criticize Communism and Lee Harvey Oswald was a Communist. But I do wonder about what I understand to be your claim that Obama should be blamed for the killings in Charleston, Dallas, and Orlando. It is difficult to deny your main point, namely, that “our national dialogue about diversity and inclusion, about acceptance and egalitarianism, is poisoned…” Still, although Obama can be blamed for poisoning the well of reconciliation by his refusal to condemn the ideology of the Islamic terrorist who murdered over 50 gay Latinos in Orlando, I for one never felt that he should be blamed for the racist murder of Dallas policemen despite his frequent criticisms of police in Ferguson and later in Chicago. Your argument seems to be that one’s rhetoric is incriminating, making wholesale claims of innocence impossible. This is harsh. It is, nonetheless, worth considering.
1
@David
What a screed of irrelevance.
NOTHING Obama did comes close to Trump.
The JFK straw man? Who would argue "he" was responsible for his own assassination? That's preposterous but a very good example of a horrible argument.
4
This disgusting excuse for a human read a speech that in no way was what was in his mind then soon thereafter resumed his hate rhetoric.
I have never despised anyone more than this waste of space that occupies the Oval Office, that is when not being stroked at his rallies or cheating at golf.
I just read that the Jewish community of Pittsburgh has told trump to stay away.
4
Ever notice that about the only criticism avowed racist’s direct towards Trump is that he is not racist enough. That should tell you all you need to know.
4
God almighty the amount of hate that is out there for Jews, people of color, anyone with a different sexual preference and so on.
These fringe extremists and unhinged lunatics were always around in our free society but now they have a leader, Trump. That is why they are so emboldened to move from pent up hate and anger right into release of violence.
We have to stick together as a community of mankind in all this and not let them win out.
We need an American president in our WH and not someone who hates most Americans and American democracy because he cannot be the sole ruler or dictator.
We can't wait until 2020 and watch more lives taken in his name as his rhetoric is killing us all, literally. Impeach and remove and replace Trump.
4
I fear that critics and Democrats are clueless about Trumpism.
They ramble on and on, but their words are soon forgotten.
Trump and Trumpsters repeat threatening catchwords, on and on.
================================================
By repeating the same threats over and over, they dominate.
For example, if Trump says"fake news" once , it is soon forgotten.
By saying "fake over and over, it eventually takes hold on voters.
I hope that critics and Democrats will not believe that: "Sticks and stones may break your bones, but names will never hurt you."
I hope that Democrat will fight back, with repetition, repetition...
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Man is a creature who lives not on bread alone, but primarily by catchwords." (Robert Louis Stevenson)
How can you possibly draw a link between an anti-Semitic attacker and a president who has gone farther than any other to embrace Israeli nationalism and territorial aggression?
@James Thomas Trump does not try to be consistent. If a position advances his power, he holds it. He supports Netanhayu because Netanyahu is cut from similar cloth as Trump. Both want to dominate without concern for what is just and right.
“Trump flirts with racists. Trump flirts with Nazis….courts their support and defends their action.”
I think we all are on board with these statements. And we all agree that none of this would be possible without backing by the Republican party. And this is crucial: spectacularly impactful decisions are made every day and we are not paying close attention, because every day fireworks are lit on the main stage. We have a show every day since Inauguration Day. We can’t help but watch. And every now and then somebody takes one of those unexploded firecrackers and sets out on his own and what follows is not scripted: and then real people get hurt and then we are shocked, and the president is temporarily contrite. But how are these unscripted collateral events calculated by the people behind the scenes, the people who never held office but hold the reigns of power? Is there a point when the Mercers or Kochs or Adelsons of this world say ‘enough’? Will they be able to put this genie back in the bottle? If history offers any guidance, we can’t count on them. They have their own agenda, and their agenda is not our agenda. A populist, nationalistic, xenophobic, antisemitic and violent storm is brewing and we all have to stand up against it. And if we don’t, we don’t have a republic anymore. Vote like everything depends on it, because it does.
2
Trump is a hater. Trump's hateful rhetoric contributed to all three domestic terrorism events this past week by white nationalists.
Why do none of the spineless GOP congress take action?
4
We have one chance to stop this spiral into disaster, and that is to vote next Tuesday. That ogre who defiles the White House could have stopped it but chose instead to pour fuel on this fire. Now's the chance. Don't blow it.
2
If we could only stop blaming Trump for the racism this country was founded on. Millions of people, mostly white men and women, voted for Donald J. Trump, knowing exactly who and what he was and stood for. Just as history didn't begin on September 11, 2001, hatred in this country of people of color and Jews didn't begin the day Trump announced his candidatcy for president of the United States. Genocide against the indigenous people of North America, theft of their land, slavery, wanton violence against women. I'm sure Mr. Blow is well aware of the thousands of African Americans lunched, jailed and worse. How about the total destruction of the "Black Wall Street" in Tulsa where hundreds of African Americans were murdered; hundreds of homes destroyed and looted; every black church, school and hospital burned to the ground. No one came to the aid of blacks. Instead the entire state of Oklahoma denied that the atrocities actually occurred. America denied it. America continues to deny it's history of extreme racial hatred. Trump's incessant lying and attacks on others and "our most sacred values" feeds into this need to deny and not accept responsibility for the damage wrought by racial hatred. Once the denial ends so will this nightmare of hatred.
44
@JOEA
Neither Charles Blow nor any of the commenters here are blaming Trump or the Republicans for the racism, anti-Semitism, misogyny and xenophobia that has existed historically nor that is exploding into the open all around us, so you are attacking a straw man. Whether this is because you miss the point or are trying to derail the conversation is unclear.
What I understand Blow to be saying is that the unending vitriol that spews from the mouth of the leader of this country against anyone he doesn't like or with whom he disagrees has created a toxic atmosphere.
The language and attitude that this President projects clearly imply approval of the simmering aggressive antisocial and violent beliefs of white supremacists and their ilk. It is all encouragement to them.
He doesn't have to come right out and say so, but everything he does say and does do implies it; innuendo, lies, the refusal to condemn the violent extremists in Charleston, and attacks on the media, etc.
I certainly agree with you that as a country we pick and choose what we want to remember of the past and what we want to forget. We are happy to let history swallow many of the most egregious examples of racial hatred and to deny their existence.
But this is a different question; this is demanding accountability right now, present day, from this President for the toxic atmosphere in this country that his actions have created that some see as permission to commit the atrocities we are seeing.
Neither Charles Blow nor any of the commenters here are blaming Trump or the Republicans for the racism, anti-Semitism, misogyny and xenophobia that has existed historically nor that is exploding into the open all around us, so you are attacking a straw man. Whether this is because you miss the point or are trying to derail the conversation is unclear.
What I understand Blow to be saying is that the unending vitriol that spews from the mouth of the leader of this country against anyone he doesn't like or with whom he disagrees has created a toxic atmosphere.
The language and attitude that this President projects clearly imply approval of the simmering aggressive antisocial and violent beliefs of white supremacists and their ilk. It is all encouragement to them.
He doesn't have to come right out and say so, but everything he does say and does do implies it; innuendo, lies, the refusal to condemn the violent extremists in Charleston, and attacks on the media, etc.
I certainly agree with you that as a country we pick and choose what we want to remember of the past and what we want to forget. We are happy to let history swallow many of the most egregious examples of racial hatred and to deny their existence.
But this is a different question; this is demanding accountability right now, present day, from this President for the toxic atmosphere in this country that his actions have created that some see as permission to commit the atrocities we are seeing.
13
@JOEA A demographic shift in America will solve this.
2
Jennifer Rubin wrote an excellent column in the Post today which could serve as a companion piece to this one.https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/opinions/wp/2018/10/29/enough-platit...
1
I disagree with, but respect, John Kasich and Nicki Haley. I disagree almost completely with Bill Kristol, but watch him converse with care and civility with liberal pundits. Steve Schmidt and David Frum embody patriotism. I am proud of the country that brought forth a Lincoln, a Frederick Douglas. But not of the country that brought forward Trump. After 11/6, I fear the America I revered, the one that tried democracy and was based on enlightenment thinking– the one that often stumbled badly, but always headed toward the light will be gone.
I see no ethical way to support anyone who runs as a Republican. Doing so empowers a storybook villain in his war on truth and the promotion of hate. I will try to avoid buying anything advertised on Fox News. I've had enough and I don't need to calm down.
8
While the First Amendment protects free speech, it does not protect yelling “fire” in a crowded theater. Donald Trump has been yelling “fire” in the theater of American society and government. As in a crowded theater, people will get hurt, not because the person yelling “fire” kills them but because the chaos caused by the recklessness is bound to cause destruction. What Trump has been doing is a violation of the intent of the First Amendment, and he needs to be held accountable.
Will this weekend’s events wake people up to Trump’s recklessness and destruction? I hope so, but so far, all we’ve seen are flickers of hope. In November, we have a chance to find out whether those flickers will reignite the democratic ideals Trump has been turning into a raging dumpster fire.
2
Just take a look at Trump’s own rhetoric, especially at political rallies, and you’ll see plenty of words advocating harm, sowing the seeds of violence — shoot, throw, knock, slam, punch, beat. Divisive, inflammatory, Trump takes his cues from despots of the past and present, reveling in thuggish words, emboldening “very fine people” holding extremist views. He’s the antithesis of presidential, and amplifies the worst in human nature.
We can do much better than this.
Use your voice to put a necessary check on this imbalanced administration and its enablers:
VOTE. In every election.
Don’t throw away your right so many have sacrificed for.
4
Donald has characterized the Honduran migrants as "terrorists," "criminals," and "middle-easterners" coming as an invasionary force that must be stopped by the army.
He does this to win an election. The last invasion resulted in 14 arrests at the border. Surely CBP can manage that.
The bomber and the shooter committed the most grievous offense by diverting the headlines away from Donald's endless campaign.
1
Mr Blow says that it is almost impossible to attach the words of one person to the actions of another. You cannot be more wrong.
The discipline of the whole military command is based upon one man The Commander in Chief telling other men and women what to do. And, by the way, Trump's suggestions are also heeded by the angry, gun addicted, wannabe warriors, sitting around ready to go without a military structure controlling them.
2
We can place blame in many places, from Trump to the GOP party who has allowed and encouraged, often, the policies and individuals who preach hate-filled rhetoric and encourage invective. Add guns to this mixture and toxicity gives way to old-fashioned violence as on the frontier. One could suggest that we have our own war going on between forces of evil and while not as clear-cut as "good," between trying to get along with each other rather than killing each other. Racism blends with anti-Semiticism blends with invective from Trump about Mexicans and others and add our propensity for our own war, that of citizens using the 2nd Amendment for nothing good but to buy assault weapons used or manufactured for "real" war and here we find outselves. Shocking indeed. But here we are.
It appears that an avowed anti-Semite was goaded into action believing that he needed, according to his online postings, to save “his” people from being “slaughtered” by “hostile invaders”, i.e. refugees. Donald Trump’s xenophobic, racist calls to action inspire and motivate people like Bowers. While he may not have pulled the trigger, Trump’s hateful rhetoric makes him complicit with these and other murders. He needs to be held accountable.
6
A person who incites another to a crime will become a part of a conspiracy if agreement is reached, and may then be considered an accessory or a joint principal if the crime is eventually committed. In the United States , a person who learns of the crime and gives some form of assistance before the crime is committed is known as an "accessory before the fact".
1
Trump has a pathological fear of two things: 1) losing and 2) the prospect of seeing his subpoenaed tax returns on the front pages of every newspaper on earth.
If the midterm elections don't go his way, Trump will conjure up every flimsy pretext imaginable and declare the results invalid the following day. With their jobs and countless cushy perks on the line, Republican lemmings in Congress will be only too happy to follow him over the cliff into a full-blown constitutional crisis.
While the nation holds its collective breath, possibly for months, much havoc can be wreaked both in Congress and in the streets of America.
It will end up in the Supreme Court.
And THAT, my friends, was what the desperate campaign to seat Kavanaugh, and tilt the court 5-4, was all about. Just the latest gambit in a long, long Republican game going back decades.
But we have a fighting chance.
If a truly historic voter turnout--Democrats, Independents, principled Republicans--can deliver, not just one or two flipped seats, but a Democratic House with an overwhelming majority . . . well, that might give even a tilted Supreme Court pause.
That is why the Republicans must be CRUSHED at the polls.
1
Thank you, Mr. Blow, for this article on the toxicity of the current occupant in the White House.
Everyone needs to get together, and work for the common good, not for the vile, vulgar, and baser instincts in all of us.
2
Excellent article. Hope POTUS reads this. Probably not.
1
It is about a lot more than Trump -- it is about his supporters, and the Republicans in congress who do nothing, and the right wing billionaire donors like the Koch Bros, Adelson, the Waltons, the DeVos', the Uhleins, the Mercers etc etc etc...and the Federalist Society and their agenda to pack the US Supreme Court with right wing ideologues who will simply enhance cases like Citizens United and oppose those in support of human and union and similar rights.....
2
Hate and lies are core values for Trumpublicans. They will take anything they don't like and blow it up to make it appear 10 times worse. Those aren't just poor Honduran families seeking asylum, those are gang members and middle eastern infiltrators from ISIS paid by George Soros to somehow get into the United States and cause trouble.
And then Trump and his base also pretend that the Democrats are somehow behind the caravan. As if the caravan would help Democratic candidates....how? But as a nation, should we take in some refugees? Haven't we always taken in refugees? Not everyone in the caravan qualifies as a refugee. So...don't let anyone in that can't provide some evidence that they might qualify. Do what we are doing now with the people who show up at the border every day. The caravan is no different.
Oh, and while we're at it, stop separating children from parents.
As for the anti-Semitism, isn't it ironic given Ivanka and Jared, and moving the embassy to Jerusalem. But this is about power. Trump plays to the people with power and dumps on the people without power. It's the bully attitude writ large.
The time to stand up to the bullies is now. On November 6th, go to the polls and
VOTE OUT ALL REPUBLICANS
4
The leadership of this country sets the tone and the example. The leadership of trump and the Republicans in power is appaling and indefensible as trump ignites hatred and the Republicans stand by as is deaf.
1
You are too nice to Trump in your article. Every other word out of Trump's mouth is a lie. He trades in lies and conspiracy theories. Truth and facts have no meaning for him. He talks about George Soros, a holocaust survivor, as if he were behind some ill intended conspiracy when in fact Mr. Soros has been promoting democracy throughout the world. This is slander of the first order with strong anti-semitic overtones. Trump is not a baby. He knows exactly what he is doing and saying. So even though Trump may not be the person who pulled the trigger in that synagogue, he bears considerable responsibility for fomenting a political culture of lies and conspiracy theories that makes such a despicable act more likely to happen.
2
Thank you, Charles, for properly identifying the bomber's targets as "Frequent... targets" of Donald Trump. I find it frustrating and appalling that in most press reports they have been described only as some of his "critics". This only serves to obfuscate the connection between his active hatred and the acts of this bomber.
2
Trump and his campaign advisor Brad Pascale, have incited fear and anger through rallies and ads. It has worked for them, as now they are doing it on a bigger scale saying the markets could crash like 10 years ago if you don't keep Republicans in office. This kind of fear mongering and hate cannot help but trigger the crazies in anyone vulnerable, as it scares even us normal folk that America as we know it is falling fast. Last week in a discussion similar, someone wrote that Trump says the mandatory things he is supposed to say and then goes off script back to his usual "rallying" cries and refrains. Another said it seems he has no idea NOT only how to be president but to even hold a rally on substantive issues. The 'red meat' for the base is ALL he's got, as he won't study plans, policies, or pretend to be curious about the real workings of government. He is a fake president. He should have never been a candidate, as the Republican Party failed in vetting him. Racists relate to him because they consider him one of their own.They identify with his fear of anyone different and anger towards those who find a way to succeed despite the things stacked against them. It's anger fueled by jealousy, which unabated has always led to violence since Cain and Abel. The Trump campaign keeps adding fuel to this anger and it can't help but combust. The Republican Party is responsible for not declaring multiple ethics violations, as they continue to want to win the battle at all costs.
3
I am beginning to think that there is some sort of lemming-effect that is in our DNA. When I read the news about what is happening not only in this country but around the world, there appears to be an eagerness by a fairly large percentage of the people to create enemies. As a species we seem to have a need every other generation or so to create a conflagration, fueled by hate, that causes as much death and destruction as current technology allows.
2
We must face the question of whether free speech requires tolerance of hate speech and incitement to violence. While as a long time member and supporter of the ACLU and its mission, the quandary posed by watching the escalation of violence against those perceived by purveyors of hateful invectives as evil causes me to question where to draw a line. Until now I have maintained that active support of positive messages and respect for others regardless of their ethnicity, culture, country of origin, sexual orientation or even political views was the most effective way to deal with hatred of "the other." I must now question if that is enough. When Mark Zuckerburg contends that the best way to deal with Holocaust deniers is with positive messages, watching a rise in anti-semitism and now inexcusable violence at a synagogue in Pittsburgh causes me to desire more than simple positive messaging.
While I am opposed to regulated speech, I cannot support hate speech and incitement to violence. Whatever we ultimately decide as an effective approach to this quandary, we can begin by demanding greater moral leadership from those in positions of leadership, including politicians. This should begin with our President who appears often to be a prime offender of this ideal. November 6th is an opportunity to express a desire for more civil discourse. Let us all do so enthusiastically and conspicuously by voting our principals.
3
@BruceC: Speech gets a whole lot more responsible when the speakers must identify themselves. Anonymity on the internet is bad policy.
1
For those who jump up and say you can't blame Trump for any of this, I ask, how is it that Trump gets credit for all the things you wish to give him credit for and he gets excused for all the things you want to excuse him for? Doesn't it at any point feel as though you're just making it up? Doesn't it at some point become your fear that you're being eclipsed by increasing national diversity driving you to embrace a racist demagogue? There is little point in arguing what Trump wants from his endless rallies. It is right there on the screen.
8
All politicians of both parties who do not speak up loudly are complicit in allowing hate to fester and turn into violence. But one cannot deny that the presidency is a bully pulpit. Trump has done nothing but harm to our democratic values by inciting hatred with his destructive nationalist rhetoric. When he fails to condemn hatred and violence in the strongest terms, he is guilty of contributing to it.
I'm wondering how the Kuschner feels about all this.
The lies and attacks will continue because they work. The GOP demonized Pelosi and Hillary to the point that members of its tribe became unable to sustain any rationality when discussing the truth of the allegations and innuendos. Trump crushed Lyin' Ted, Little Marco and the others in the same manner. Soros is just one of many.
You can slice it up any way you want, but the USA has become--not 100%, but to far too large a degree--a country largely populated by citizens lacking in critical thinking skills, ignorant of The Other (and therefore easily manipulated), and afraid that its abundant comforts and "freedom" are under siege. Ever since Willie Horton, the GOP has known that the politics of fear work. This will destroy the country, if not eliminated.
I will not hold my breath.
3
@Michael G
It started way before Willie Horton. Way back to Tricky Dick Nixon.
It's way too easy to get a high school diploma in the United States. People "graduate" with the absolute minimal in mathematics and absolutely no philosophy / critical thinking skills. How is this allowed, never mind accepted remains a mystery. There are millions upon millions who are quite comfortable existing in willful ignorant and undereducated bliss and at the same time these people consider themselves "intelligent," which is a symptom of their undereducatedness. They obviously know when someone is smarter than they are, but they resent that.
Until Donald Trump is removed from office the vitriol and horrifying evil rhetoric will continue spewing from his mouth. His poison effects those around him, and through the media it spreads nationwide and internationally. Words DO matter. And he knows it.
1
While Trump is the messenger, the message finds a welcome home in the GOP, a party where bigotry is an natural part of its members lives akin to breathing.
If you had an ancestor that- owned a slave, fought for the Confederacy, watcheda lynching and spit on a student trying to integrate a school, you vote Republican because the party advocates for and glorifies the bigotry and hate which so many Republicans’ ancestors, particularly whites in the Confederacy, dedicated their lives.
When the history of this country’s ruin in written, my belief is that future historians will write that Lincoln’s decision to let the Confederate States back into the Union is when this country signed its death warrant.
I am appalled by some comments still defending Trump and his subtle, relentless instigation to violence.
Under his leadership this country is becoming step by step a reign of selfishness, injustice and dubious integrity.
This administration exists only for the ability to capitalize on naive Americans, an undeniable fact.
1
It is true that no one particular storm can be directly attributed to global warming, yet global warming makes storms more frequent and powerful. It is also true that no one particular act of violence can be directly attributed to Trumps hateful rhetoric, but his rhetoric makes violent acts more frequent and deadly. This social climate change may well have similar long term consequences that are now inevitable as a result of physical climate change. With hard work and persistence we can perhaps reverse this social climate change. Regrettably its too late for global warming.
In the 'divide and conquer' strategy of the GOP to win elections by sowing hatred and fear (so that they can do the bidding of their .01% puppet masters), there's bound to be casualties.
But rest assured, in the end it will all be worth it when the only taxes left are those on earned income, the social safety is all but eliminated and businesses are once again free to defraud consumers and pollute the planet at will.
Wise words from Albert Einstein come to mind. "The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it. " It's in every human being's best interests and well-being that all of us as individuals promote equality, compassion and sanctity of life for others. Racism exists because we allow it to exist. It is the responsibility of every American... people of all cultures and heritages to stop the madness.
6
As the number one voice in the country it is pretty darned safe to imply that his words, more so than any others, can have drastic and immediate consequences. He is and should be held fully accountable for his personal selection of whatever vitriolic words of the moment he chooses. He uses them with intent and could seem to truly care less what the consequences might be. Good leaders understand the need for careful choice of words. So to do despots who rely on fear and hatred to divide.
5
The president is leading the country with constant double messages. Condemning what happened in Pittsburgh but delivering speeches and rants on twitter that give voice
to division, fear, and bigotry.
The president is not leading on sensible gun safety measures like universal background checks, banning assault weapons like the one used in Pittsburgh, or red-flag laws that would prevent the mentally unstable from owning guns, but speaking out at rallies about body-slamming reporters.
We need leaders that live for decency and hope not fear and discord, who confront tragedy with sympathy and resolve to make things better, and who lead with ideas that can unify the country not the current toxic environment of intolerance.
4
Trump is America's Hitler. No, I am not being hyperbolic. Germans in the 30's had somewhat of an excuse for electing a demagogue. They were in tatters since the end of WWI. Hitler was looked upon as some kind of savior. America is not in any way shape or form in a similar situation. The only threat to America comes from White America who fears their loss of the massive majority and control they once had on America. As that continues to slip away, White America has taken to the bunkers, put a hate monger in the White House, and a group of White Nationalists Fascists disguised as Republicans in both Houses of Congress. This is what happens when Whites get scared. It is now incumbent upon the rest of US., the best of US. to counteract this last gasp of White Suppression. Not until all of US. are endowed with equal rights can we be free. Step aside White America, before you're pushed aside into the ash bin of history.
DD
Manhattan
30
I've made the comparison to Hitler since the Republican primaries in 2016. While Trump may not be a genocidal maniac, he is the spiritual heir to the fascism and the use of the Big Lie.
One point of difference with your post... This is not specifically how whites act. This is how humans act when they feel threatened. History is replete with tribalism and wars of prejudice and bigotry among people of all skin colors. One need only look to the slaughter in Rwanda for proof.
3
According to your logic Obama is responsible for the murders committed during his time as president, well maybe just the ones in Chicago. It's not helpful to think like you do Blow
6
@Jimd -- "It's not helpful to think like you do Blow"
Helping what?
Blow is trying to defeat Trump. It helps that to blame him for every bad event possible.
On another day, Blow might well be helpful about the murders, but that isn't for the week before an election that might trim back Trump.
4
@Jimd - you really do not understand cause and effect, do you?
Try some simple comprehension: Mr. Blow is not saying Trump is responsible for all these murders; it he did say that he has helped create the atmosphere. On the other hand, yes murders occurred all across the US under Obama, and W, Reagan, Carter, etc.... but none of them encouraged folks at rallies to punch their enemies, or suggest a “2nd Amendment remedy...”
1
The Trumpstein's monsters are coming alive!
1
Flirting with Nazis is like being a little pregnant.
10
The racists are now out in the open, wrapped in the red, white and blue wearing those stupid MAGA hats, toting their bibles. Trump has given them the ok to come out of hiding, from under their rocks and join him. Body slam, bomb and shoot all you want he says, I'll cover for you.
The Nazi brown shirts have arrived in America.
9
He's not flirting. He's one of them. I'm so sick and tired of all the tiptoeing around. Trump wanted the bombs to reach their destinations and go off. He wants more Jews killed. As long as it keeps his voters fired up. This is a man who celebrates the leaders around the world who kill their own citizens. Stop acting so damn surprised. The Republicans in Congress need to be the target of our dissatisfaction. And the newspaper, which is on the side of "we must change the rhetoric on both sides" is going to be the end of us. Time to declare this an emergency.
If you lived in New York City, you already knew the guy was a bigot. Then he came down the gold escalator and condemned Mexicans and MexicanAmericans while announcing his run for president in front of paid supporters. If you have supported him since then, if you have supported him since before then when he questioned Obama's birth certificate, you are complicit in the deaths of everyone who was killed in hate crimes this weekend. You are responsible for encouraging the bomber doing Trump's bidding. And if you vote for a Republican in the coming election, you are a hateful bigot.
19
I think that Trump finds the Jews around him to be useful tools. He said during the campaign that "they" (he and Ivana?, he and Melania?) did not want Ivanka to marry a Jew, but she persisted and after a couple of years, prevailed. I think if you could dig under the skin, you would find a person who at heart is an anti-Semite but finds it convenient to hide it.
13
I think it is very important not to dilute what happened in Pittsburgh yesterday with more general discussions of racism, gun control and other more vague liberal ideals. The attack on the synagogue was very specific - it was down out of a virulent hatred of Jews. The same hatred that fueled the church shootings in South Carolina several years ago. It was not a random act of gun violence - but a targeted attach on Jews - those same Jews who control the media, run the banks, control Hollywood and are way too "influential." The coded language that is meant to attack Jews is not unique to the far right - many on the far left use the same codes in different contexts along with their dilution of Nazism to mean all sorts of racism in which sometimes Jews are an afterthought. The level of anti-semitism on the far left and right in this country is terrifying. It's time to call things what they are - this started long before Trump - but he has certainly fanned the flames to the best of his ability
4
@Dana Nazism makes people tools of the state. Liberalism makes the state a tool of the people.
2
>
The lumpenproletariat (google it) are a big part of DJT's base. I'm not sure where all the surprise comes from. Marx spilled a lot of ink on the lumpenproletariat. Nothing that has happened here so far is remotely original as to history
So let's see what the American people have to say on Nov 6. Let's see if the Millennials can pull their bacon out of the fire
Let's see if the human animal is going to shine at mid-day as the optimistic humanists think is its natural state and walk out of the darkness it appears to always find itself in.
A small wave will not be enough nor send the appropriate message to the GOP for 2020. If the humanist's argument is correct, people really are decent, it should be tsunami.
I mean, we, Bernie and the Russians put DJT into the WH with a very good economy...... Just stop for one moment and use the material between your ears to imagine what lies ahead when the economy nose dives; what crazy person will we follow??
Again DJT is not the problem here; he's just the effect, but the causal chain places the blame on the Crazy Ape
"Humans use what they know to meet their most urgent needs –even if the result is ruin. History is not made in the struggle for self-preservation, as Hobbes imagined or wished to believe. In their everyday lives humans struggle to reckon profit and loss. When times are desperate they act to protect their offspring, to revenge themselves on enemies, or simply to give vent to their feelings."
John N. Gray
4
@Prometheus
Bernie Sanders endorsed and got behind Hillary Clinton for the general election. He even campaigned on her behalf. Please stop blaming Bernie for Trump. He is NOT complicit.
@Tom Bauer
Bernie and has tribe caused deep division in the Dem party, which the Russians then drove a wedge in.
Bernie did Luke warm support HRC, but he failed to motivate many in his tribe to vote for HRC
Had Bernie, who had no chance getting into the WH, not divided the party, HRC would be POTUS, the SCOTUS would be liberal for the next 30yrs.......
There are 3 things that Bernie supporters don’t yet realize:
1) the damage they have done; 2) politics is chess not checkers, and 3) the world doesn’t care about your hopes, dreams or wants.
1
With all that has been said about the current white house occupant's inability to "act" presidential, let alone be presidential, contemplate the following.
Imagine this self proclaimed [White] "Nationalist" receiving an invitation to speak at the memorial service for the victims of the Tree of Life Congregation mass murder.
I know what your thinking because it's what I'm thinking, "I can't possibly imagine it.For the evidence reveals that #45 possesses no compassion, no heart, no soul, no nothing. In other words he is devoid of every trait that defines our humanity in the eyes of the creator.
1
Trump IS his own Hazardous Waste Site. And we we all be paying for the extreme clean-up, for decades. Begin in November. VOTE a Straight Democratic ticket. A Country is a beautiful thing to WASTE. Seriously.
4
Donald Trump has shown us many, many times that his willow bends the way the wind blows. He is indifferent, and has no center of morality. That which garners votes is his entire focal point, from day to day, rally to rally.
Everyone gunned down by a pathetically disturbed maniac will be "brought to Justice" and "prosecuted to the full extent of the law', and throw in capital punishment if that's what his "base" seems to want.
There's no room for politically motivated violence in America, he says, but compare his words after the Charlottesville murder to today's and yesterday's speeches about Pittsburgh. There were no elections on the line during the time of Charlottesville.
This guy knows how to manipulate the lesser informed, racists mobs that support him. Trump is not the sharpest tool in the shed but he is cunning. The fact that he is our commander-in-chief still feels like a nightmare almost 2 years after the election. I believe that there are more good people in this country than the ignorant mass that attend his rallies. How do we motivate these good people to VOTE. I've seen a lot of calls for "love" on social media this weekend but its clear that "hate" gets the people to the polls.
4
Paradoxically, Trump is the King of Identity Politics, the ''disease'' those on Fox News and the ''right'' accuse liberals of having and spreading. He is a promoter of whiteness and some skewed Christianity, he's a sower of discord. A skilled divider, who doesn't have the ability nor the inclination to unify all God's children. He simply doesn't have it in him, to our detriment and peril.
Trump says he could 'tone it up'.
Great, just what we need,
more hate and bile from 45.
3
Will Trump tell the world that he does not WANT the support of racists and anti-Semitic people?
Will he tell them they’re WRONG and that he does not want their support for his policies — because his policies are not racist and not anti-Muslim?
Will he stand with Jews and Muslims and African-Americans on stages at his rally, and demonstrate the unity he so reluctantly preaches?
Will he say that his nationalist views are inclusive — that we are all Americans, and that we welcome people from every country?
Is it that difficult for Trump to proclaim these American truths?
I wrote it already before the election: "Whether Trump is a genuine racist or only plays one on reality TV is immaterial: he has given aid and comfort to the genuine racists in our society, emboldening them in a way that has not been since the 1960s." And yet, for some not even Trump is racist enough!
1
And it's pretty clear that the racists who do support Trump- certainly feel he is one too- or they wouldn't show up. Trump's job description is clear- he represents all Americans--not just the vociferously loud fringe......
This is not normal. Please find a past equivalent of the "Lock her up!" chants. Or a national politician grinning at those chants (about the only time he smiles). The birther lie was matched in ignorance by some of the things said against FDR, but again, not by national leaders. The hysteria Trump is spreading about the caravan, with 2000 plus children in it, is appalling. By the way, he is the most ignorant man in the White House in nearly a century.
2
Trump has encouraged and facilitated and rekindled reactionary, racist movements and actions, breathed new life into dead ideas. This very much includes anti-semites and neo-Nazis.
Trump has given himself considerable political cover in this latter regard by supporting Benjamin Netanyahu and having a Jewish son in law -- Trump is nothing if not shrewd -- but now, with this mass shooting at a synagogue, we see yet again that Trump's words and actions have consequences, not only for immigrants and Muslims, but also for Jews. If it wasn't obvious before, it should be now: Trump is no friend of the Star of David.
Just today there was an article in The Guardian revealing that the intelligence services of the Soviet Union and its client state, Czechoslovakia, were interested in Trump as early as the mid-1980s, as part of their efforts to recruit influential assets among the American elite.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/oct/29/trump-czechoslovakia-com...
The qualities they sought in prospective recruits were, "corruption, vanity, narcissism, marital infidelity and poor analytical skills". There must have been shouts of eureka when they found Trump.
4
Any nation that permits unlimited access to firearms has descended into a state of barbaric anarchy. Now Trump wants Americans to take pistols to synagogues and churches to protect themselves from his admirers. If I were a young Jew in America today I would seriously consider the possibility of moving to a less dangerous country.
1
Gillum's commentary is the bottom line. Some candidates let the racists believe that they are racists. They pander. Gillum has done us a service in making it clear both that all supporters of the other candidate are not racists, but the candidate has indeed empowered racists.
Trump goes for the cheers, for the punchlines, for the rousing adoration of the crowd, without any care for what his words actually mean. To him they simply mean ratings - and Trump has always been about the ratings.
But in doing so, Trump has unleashed a demon, and we can't seem to put it back in the box. Right now, people who hate are emboldened to say so; and the crazies are emboldened to kill.
Will our better angels prevail? Will we see the value is hearing what Andrew Gillum is really saying, or will we promote the demon because we believe the fearmongering and the underlying messages of intolerance and hate?
1
Wake up! Trump supporters, including those in Congress, don't support him in spite of his bigotry, they support him because of his bigotry. That is the main reason I left the GOP. Scales from eyes. The GOP has shown its true colors, regardless of the beliefs of a few dissenters. The GOP has chosen to become the party of white nationalism. End of. The midterms will show all Americans and the world if this nation is redeemable.
4
The poison that is now corrupting the American soul is maybe best summarized by three iconic phrases that now pervade right-wing websites:
America First. This phrase epitomizes the belief that there is an "authentic" American culture that is under threat by various foreign elements, whether they be liberals, socialists, people of non-European backgrounds, or people with non-traditional beliefs and lifestyles.
Don't Tread on Me. This phrase from the Gadsden Flag captures the essence of a widely admired myth of an American hero—the militiaman, the police officer, the patriotic individual—who will stand his ground to defend lives, liberty, and property from whatever threats surround us.
Molon Labe. This phrase attributed to the Spartans and now so beloved among Second Amendment extremists expresses both a love of guns and a belligerent defiance of those who might limit the possession of weapons or, more broadly, the perceived right of individuals to choose to use force against those they perceive as threats.
Combine this sense of threat, this belief in heroic self-defense, and this love of weapons and you have a recipe for the pervasive violence that is poisoning American society today. America First, Don't Tread on Me, Molon Labe. Together they will destroy us.
1
Trump’s modus operandi is as predictable as it is despicable. What is worse is his enablers. Let’s start with so called Fox News. If America and the world was smart, we all would focus on driving Fox News into bankruptcy. Unplug the megaphones.
1
I hope the FBI is scrutinizing everyone who has ‘liked’ the posts of the Pittsburgh shooter, the Kentucky shooter, the Florida bomber, the US President and all the other while male terrorists. That is the scary part - all the followers who validate and encourage, and may be induced to copy.
1
Donald Trump debases our country every day he remains in office.
Vote republican and you are complicit in that debasement.
Sometimes you are what you appear to be and Trump and his apologists are just what they appear to be.
7
The GOP made a deal with the devil. Trump showed America who he was during the campaign and the GOP decided that as long as Trump was white, anything white was better than a black person in the Oval Office or a woman.
Trump turned out to be the brash, harsh loud voice of the worst of GOP policy decades old. The racism, bigotry, xenophobia previously whispered writ large in Trump's words and given cover by Jarvanka and 'friends' of Trump. Trump has used this seesaw for his own political advantage since he was moved down his golden escalator June of 2015.
He has manipulated, cajoled and poked every day since. He's very good at it and gives himself just enough plausible deniability to allow the GOP Congress to be comfortable with it all.
His scripted words are hollow, he even says so himself. Rally mode is Trump's be all and end all.
It will never ever be Trump's fault for anything. He will blame everyone and anyone as he needs. It's not about America and never has been. It's all about Trump his ego and his greed.
Mr. Blow, it is all relevant re your statement that even Trump's racism seems mild when compared to Bowers. This unstable, egoist was elected to a position which dictates that he represent ALL segments of our democratic society. He has failed miserably. He of all people is the most racist and bigoted. His character is so deeply flawed, soul so irredeemable as to seek out the most ignorant and hate-filled as his base. Yes, this violent racism and prejudice has always been and will continue to be an undercurrent of this diverse, richly woven tapestry of a nation. But Trump has single-handedly unearthed it, dug it up from contaminated, disease-infested, parasitic dirt and soil.
This man gets no free pass from me. I will go to my grave blaming him for all the grief, pain, and heartache which has befallen my beloved home in not even two years' time. Hate begets hate. But let us remember that good begets good.
4
Thank you Mr. Blow. The only thing we can do with the emerging explosive racism that you discuss is to push back, relentlessly against this tide of hate. Drown out Trump--give him a taste of his own medicine, but with the opposite message. Saturate the media with a hopeful message.
1
What Trump does is give his permission for his followers to be vocal about their hatred. When the crowd chants “lock her up,” he gives that creepy grin of his. He never says, “no, come on folks, let’s put a stop to that,” no matter how out of line the crowd gets. One of McCain’s finest moments was when he interrupted that woman saying Obama was an Arab. He immediately put a stop to her ridiculous conspiracy theory.
Trump feeds on the energy of his crowd, even if it’s hateful energy. They really are identical to the crowds at pro-wrestling matches. If you watch (hard to do, I know) when the yelling and cheering dies down a little, he’ll throw them some red meat about the border, the caravan or the press. Trump absolutely loves it! The rallies are what energize him.
This is a frightening time. I don’t see us coming back from this. Our country is too far gone.
The problem is not so much that the racists and anti-Semites have become part of Trump's base. The problem is that they are the cognitive elite of that base. They have a coherent, if deranged and hateful, world view. The rest of the base is just full of mindless automatons endlessly re-broadcasting memes from Fox News and other "conservative" media. Sooner or later the mass of automatons will-- if for no other reason than lack of intellectual heft and moral fiber-- begin to gravitate towards that seemingly tiny fringe. This has already begun to happen. And it was Trump who opened that door and walked through it.
7
Trump is a symptom, not the cause.
1
A reasonable person cannot watch even a few moments of coverage of Trump's public gatherings without noting the similarity with the Nuremberberg rallies. Whether by design or not, that is the effect. When the president taps into the deep resentments and hatreds in his followers, there are consequences. Weak minds, hateful people, bigots, anti-semites and the mentally unstable obviously feed off his never-ending vitriol and the results are predictable. All signs point to more violence and the man in the Oval Office is pouring gasoline on the fire.
16
Since Nixon's 'Southern Strategy' the republicans have been giving a shout out to the white nationalists and because of this alliance they have been winning elections. They need the 10 - 15% of the population that is white and racist to win elections.
Too bad that the religious right and center right conservatives don't reject it but they are willing to allow this sickness to spread to achieve their other goals.
5
"“I’m not calling Mr. DeSantis a racist, I’m simply saying the racists believe he’s a racist.”
I believe that the same could be said of Trump, although he engages in his own strain of racism."
Well, I believe that the same could be said of the author, whose article content over the past several years can easily be construed as his own strain of racism, as well.
Does that put the President on the same level of morality as the author ?
1
It's columns like Blow's that drive even further hatred and create even more "potent toxicity."
Speak instead to the failings we all have, even those who see them only in others.
4
Did Trump change his hair color? I could have sworn that it used to be much lighter. (Not that this has anything to do with anything.)
Don't forget the Kroger assassin. He went to a black church, found the doors locked and so went to a supermarket and assassinated two elderly black people there. The Kroger killer, the MAGA-Bomber and now this man who killed all those people in Pittsburgh. Please don't make excuses for any of them. What strikes me about these three hate-filled assassins (and assassin to be) was how well thought out their crimes were. These were not random acts of hatred. They selected their targets very carefully and thought about their crimes before committing them. We need to look more seriously at the role of the Internet in radicalizing men like these. Donald Trump--I have no more words. Noam Chomsky recently referred to the Republican Party as the most dangerous organization in human history. The old professor is NOT a man prone to hyperbole. We need to accept that we have one political party and another that has now dedicated itself to destroying the republic. If not then why are they enabling this madness? They have the power to stop it and yet refuse.
2
A mob boss makes “suggestions” about how to “take care” of enemies and counts on his followers to take the hint and act. Trump is basically a classic mob boss.
8
This is supposed to be a deadly flu season, while social networks seem to be turning increasingly deadly, as if fomenting the next crisis into occurrence by instant authors of hatred. There is no vaccine for social networks, or is it "nutwork" as some reporters have proclaimed?
This discussion of the bully in the Whitehouse is useless. The constitution created a position of power for the President with no real way to remove it from power. We need to wait for his term to expire. This is the crisis of our time. The sovereign country we live in belongs to the people, not just haters, bigots and billionaires. We the people have one last chance at the ballot box. The Republican Party is against voters. They discourage voting in order to maintain their misguided power. They enjoy war and hate to further this ideology.
1
Let no tragedy go unexploited.
3
@Daphne,
I assume you're referring to the refugees from Honduras traveling over 1,000 miles to try to escape near certain death of them and their children at the hands of drug gangs.
Drug gangs fueled, by the way, by the millions Americans in need of a 'bump' or two of cocaine to make it through their days.
Fascism is the use of race to separate people so they don't pay any attention to their lack of financial class status. It works great if you are a rich person trying to secure your finances for the next 1,000 years. The snake oil storytelling allows anyone to see their grievances reflected in the wording of the fascist leader and blame someone else. I suppose America was due for one of these guys as almost every country in the world has dealt with one. It is history and I suppose we know what to do. Right? Right.
1
Words have been weaponized in our present paroxysm of hatred, intolerance and insanity. The internet has become a pipeline of putrid petulance. There is much talk of censorship to try to stanch this flow of filth, much of it inspired by the false courage rendered by anonymity.
It seems to me, if people had to identify themselves and stand publicly and fully behind everything they posted, they wouldn't take as much liberty with their words.
3
Of course Trump deserves some credit for stoking up the haters. He has the biggest bully pulpit in the world and he is never more disingenuous than when he reads off the teleprompter about how sorry or outraged he is about the latest disaster affecting the good people of our country.
Every time I think he can no longer shock or horrify me, he sinks to a new level. The man is a bottomless pit of vile, pathetic adoration of himself. Have you noticed that the only time we see him smile is in the company of the haters (i.e. his rallies). By the way, how do you suppose he keeps up with his television obsession when he travels so often?
If we don't hit the election booths come Nov. 6, we deserve everything that happens to us.
1
Just incidentally, synagogues are Jewish by definition. It is unnecessary to modify synagogue.
3
"Andrew Gillum said: '...I’m not calling Mr. DeSantis a racist, I’m simply saying the racists believe he’s a racist.' ...the same could be said of Trump..."
DeSantis and Trump aren't racists? I think that's letting them off too easily.
There are racists like Spencer and Cantwell who loathe Blacks and People of Color with visceral hate that defines who they are. They're obsessed with hating Blacks and pursuing their race hate agenda. They look about and see every Black as a trigger for hostility and conflict. They don't deny their hate, they wave it like a rebel flag.
The other kind of racist denies they're racists because to them racial stereotyping that drives prejudice is just common sense. They think of themselves as normal and decent people -- but also world-wise and knowing of people who are, you know, different. This is the racism that dare not say its name.
That's why Trump doesn't think it's racist to tell a Black accountant he doesn't want Blacks counting his money. To Trump that's just shrewd business like wanting "short guys who wear yarmulkes" to count his money because everyone knows, right? No need to say it out loud because it's just how things are.
There are racists to whom Blacks are very visible. Then there's the other kind to whom Blacks are invisible. To some their racism is emotional. To others it's intellectual and matter of fact
Either way the injury and injustice are the same.
11
I can't share my thoughts. They are too angry and disillusioned to divulge.
1
Elections have consequences.... such as bringing the fringe into the mainstream
I think probably 15-25% of Americans hold hateful views of Jews, non-whites, and those not on the political right. Their actual numbers may or may not be increasing, but the inhibiting effect of heretofore accepted societal norms is being replaced by conspicuous and orchestrated approval. Nobody should be surprised that some who were previously on the edge now feel free to act in their ersatz righteousness.
1
The online picture of Trump is interesting. The photographer caught our leader striking a pose that is a spot on copy of another leader. I’m certain people who are familiar with the Nuremberg rallies would see the resemblance. Is this a random coincidence or an example of hero worship by our leader?
Poor Rob Bowers!
I bet that his dad didn’t take him to watch the Brooklyn Dodgers play at Ebbets Field, like my father did. I’m certain his parents never told him that he was walking without crutches, because of a Jewish Fellow, Jonas Salk.
One night in 1972 a very pretty girl tackled me and washed my face with snow. We married in 1974 and our song was “Let’s Stay Together” by Al Green. Guess what? We did!
Instead of a wonderful dad and a pretty wife he had the greatest human of all time tell him it was okay to be a “Discarded Soul”, a hate monger who ruined his life and the lives of many others, as long as he voted his way.
3
I think if the Founding Father's envisioned of a Trump, there would likely be a few more articles in the constitution with ample protections to ensure such a travesty would never endanger the country. His and the Republican Party's coyness to welcome the truly degenerate of this country to sure up their base and win elections is tantamount to compliance with their racist mandates. Has the RNC or Trump said anything to denounce Megyn Kelly's racist diatribes, be they her insistence that there's only one Santa Claus and he's white, or her latest confession of a racist moment regarding her hidden fantasy to dress in blackface? I think not, ergo they are what they covet.
1
Thank you !
Thank you again !
Yes Trump is a nationalist and a disappointment to the far right
Your column is so important because you explain what it is to be a nationalist and just how radical nationalists are —as even Trump disappoints.
There is such denial about this. So deep. Even David Brooks a few days ago wrote in the NYT that he was a “nationalist”. Somehow the thinking goes if you say nice things about nationalism then nationalism will be nice.
There is nothing nice about it. It’s a horror and a threat, It’s a movement that seduces marginalized and mentally unstable people encouraging them to act out their rage in violent ways in order to terrorize the population and gain political power.
Please keep writing!
1
We can only blame ourselves, the voters, for the sad state of American democracy today. People have allowed themselves to be willingly hoodwinked by an obvious huckster. It is just shameful and truly sad. We all have to Vote these morally base people out of office next week.
Charles, a pure White Nationalist Trump was rightly barred from the city of Pittsburgh, PA by all the townspeople after one of Trump goaded White Nationalist assailant barged into the morning Sabbath prayer meeting in the local synagogue and killed 11 totally innocent Jews.
As per the perpetrator's social media account ,he wanted kill all the Jews because of what some true Jews were trying to do in America : Resettling the refugees so that they can have better lives than what they had in their home countries.
HIAS, the Jewish group whose members were resettling the refugees here and in other countries after they either witnessed or heard about the tortures and massacres and expulsion of Jews from Europe before they came here.
All that those noble folks from the above group wanted to do was to help the current refugees settle in America just like the Jews were allowed to come here as refugees in between and after WWII.
But just for that noble cause 11 members of this congregation in PA had to give up their lives only because of the toxic atmosphere that Trump has created in America by telling his supporters from very early in his campaign rallies for presidency, "Beat up the people who're protesting and I''ll pay for your lawyers' fees."
No wonder from beating up Trump's opponents in campaign rallies, his hard core supporters are now engaged in killing Trump's opponents when they hear the same type of rhetoric coming out of their president's bully pulpit, the White House.
3
Thinking that Trump must have called his buddy Wayne at the NRA before making a statement about the killings at the Tree of Life Synagogue. He then pitched the worn line that if a security guard had been on duty the outcome would have been different.
How's that for leadership?
Thank you Mr. Blow for the clarity on Trump's tyranny. He has given voice to those who believe that they are victims of minorities, much as Hitler and Stalin did. Of course, the right will jump all over any Trump critic and defend him saying that he has not incited any of the violence or terrorism we saw last week. They want everyone to believe that Trump is a victim, which is the strategy that has riled his base convincingly. The repeated big lies Trump tells are also from the fascist playbook. I could go on but the point is that if we do not learn from history, we are doomed to repeat it. Remember that Trump's "America First" slogan was used by those in the US who did not oppose Hitler in the 1930's. That was no coincidence or accident on Trump's part. It was another of his dog whistles to the right wing terrorists we now see committing atrocities here. If this is too unambiguous, then be it so. The truth about Trump must be understood if we are to preserve our democracy and freedom of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
3
It appears that most of your column is quotable, and some quotes may even go viral.
All I know, Mr. Blow, is that I will share your column on Facebook.
What I really want to know is this: how many people will finally realize the racial & dictatorial threat, from the Trump regime, on our horizon and act accordingly ?
Please vote blue: for the sake of our Republic, for the sake of the World. Yes the Democratic Party is not a perfect institution, but it remains the one institution that We, the People of the United States, can still use to obstruct and still peacefully overthrow this current fascist regime.
If, by some miracle, we flip one or both Houses of Congress, beware an extreme-right lame-duck Congress ready to do mischief. There is almost 2 months of time between November 6, 2018, and January 3, 2019 to effect such mischief --with the help of the despot in the White House.
sincerely,
a former Republican.
"Trump’s party is a petri dish for diseased minds."
- Jonathan Chait
Trump is the logical next step for a party that has long used racism, xenophobia, and conspiracy theories to further their political power.
Trump's use of anti-Semitic memes and conspiracy theories are well documented. That he has Jewish members in his family is no more exculpatory than having female members in his family excuses his proud misogyny and his bragging about sexual assault.
Trump believes he can demonize the "Other" to his own benefit without the risk of blood in the street. Or at least the "wrong" kind of blood. History shows he is dangerously mistaken.
Industrial scaled hate is not manageable. This will get much worse before it gets better. Time to push back hard. Vote. Send the haters home.
4
So true and the GOP by their silence are complicit. Tax cuts and judges are not worth the price of tolerating a president who divides our country using verbal venom inciting violence. The world no longer looks to America as a moral leader as Trump embraces dictators and attacks our long term allies. Trump does not like democracy or the free press no dictator including a wanna be one who is a pathological liar does. Voters of all persuasions need to at least vote in a democrat House to at least rein in this erratic demagogue who is frantic to be our Dear Leader in mold of Kim of North Korea his role model.
3
Donald Trump delights in blowing dog whistles - and now he’s summoned the hounds of hate.
You own this, Mr. President.
3
Dear Charles Blow,
I couldn’t read your article … it is one sad and maddening thing with this President hour after hour, day after day, week after week, month after month, and year after year.
While waiting in DC for a card shop to re-open yesterday afternoon, I heard occasional cheering from around the corner and walked toward the sound and to Freedom Plaza (in the shadow of the tRump Hotel) where a pro-tRump rally was being held! Yikes!
A “WalkAway Movement” event was taking place, made-up of people from an assortment of races (primarily a shade white),who were swearing their allegiances to tRump, God, and the love for the America they comport; and emphasizing their walking-away (nay, running away) from liberalism, Democrats, and the lawlessness they detest in America!
When I was walking through the gathering, an African American minister was on stage speaking. He was warning the audience that Democrat politicians wanted to take the word “God” out of the pledge of allegiance. He then said they must vote for tRump so that removing god and banning religion would not happen. He then led them in shouting the pledge of allegiance!
I sat later staring at my coffee — really astounded at the high number of black women & men and the white women on the plaza in MAGA hats or in their Sunday finery (even on a Saturday) — waiting for the card shop to open!
What is happening to our country? A rhetorical question, no doubt!
Some of Trump's supporters are not racists but all racists are Trump supporters.
3
Whether the white supremacist crowd thinks Trump is enough of a hater to meet their approval, he is definitely the instigator of violence and threats. Every disturbed American has heard the same language we have: Trump supporting the body slamming of a reporter by a congressional candidate, beating up protesters, supporting racist and anti-semitic marchers in Charlottesville. Each one of us processes threats and vile language in our own way, but there is no person who can honestly say that Trump has done or said anything that will put the brakes on the actions of the small percentage of his followers who are prepared to commit heinous acts against those who are not white, Christian, and straight.
1
The people who support Trump do not change and will not change. He is a 70 year old man. Men who are 70 do not change and will not change. The average American who is horrified by what is happening here must change this country by voting all these horrible post t-party types out of office and institute laws to protect the rest of us. If we do not succeed we are in clear and present danger of a fascist takeover in the good ole USofA. This dystopian message has been seen since the 70's in so many ways but now it is looming over us all like the jets over the Towers in NYC. We either save ourselves or we perish.
4
Our granddaughter, who is 6 years old, asked us why Trump always says bad things about people. Her innocence is precious. To preserve that innocence I told her parents to try their best to shield her from Trump's venomous mouth. She does not need to be exposed to evil at such an early age. She will read about the horrible legacy left by Trump later on in her lifetime.
1
"his own strain of racism."
Yes, this is a very special form of barbarism. It is designed to promote and build Trump Inc. It is a racism invented for shilling the brand. And completely deniable.
But very profitable. Of course.
3
Charles, there is no question of Trump being a racist and it is definitely his own strain of racism, but for so many citizens to see it and comment or take it as permission for them to allow their deeply-held feelings to show in public is astonishing. I do believe that social media [whatever that encompasses since I don't belong to it and can't comment first-hand] due to the internet allows people to hide behind their monikers allowing them to believe they will not be known by their true names so can say whatever is in their hearts. It's just terrible to know so many people carry the same hate as Trump feels and makes me question what went wrong with their early education, or their family lives, or their spiritual lives. I can't just blame Trump because the congressional republicans have allowed him to do and say whatever he wants without calling him on any of it, so they are just as guilty as he. To think of the many incidents where he has been on the world stage and done/said so many horrific things is truly remarkable since they have said nothing to the contrary to him. Trump 'reads' from a teleprompter without any emotion or empathy [absolutely like a 3rd grader] and I believe he does not understand the words/speeches written for him to recite. This is not tolerable for our nation. He must be held to account. We have never been closer to a Nazi country than we are today and it's FRIGHTENING.
We all have our biases, but those who support Donald Trump belong to a cult. They are incapable of taking in any information that doesn't confirm their beliefs, and incapable of resisting the state-sponsored propaganda of Republican media. His hateful rhetoric has ginned up the haters; his boast about killing someone with impunity has become chillingly prophetic. I don't know what this man really believes, and I don't care. Please, let's get as many of his toadies out of office as we can, for all our sakes.
While Trump as an earlier comment remarked, is trying to have it both ways on the white nationalist issue, where in God's name are the Democrats? Without getting into the gutter with him, their spokespeople should be on TV daily fact checking him remorselessly on his flirtation with the white nationalists, on the lies he spews continually, and questioning how an extremely rich Manhattan real estate developer could really be believed to care about the economically struggling people of this country, rather that he is using their justified grievances to build power for himself. Think of the serpent offering Eve the apple. It was of course to buy himself influence. Democrats, please get with it and provide some counterpoint.
"Our national dialogue about diversity and inclusion, about acceptance and egalitarianism, is poisoned, and Donald Trump is holding a rather large pouch of poison."
Blow raises a straw man to begin with.
National dialogue on diversity and inclusion? Is that the one where "white privilege" is the accepted starting point in every instance? The one where it's assumed all whites are the beneficiaries of inter-generational real estate wealth?
Progressives and liberals have poisoned that dialogue many times over in the last 50 years so save the outrage and your false narratives about race in America.
How about Steve Scalise and others who were almost killed by a Sanders supporter ? Is Sanders to blame to ? Of course not. I am not trying to compare atrocities but we should all get away from the current situation where the New York Times only remembers victims at the hands of right wing activists and Fox News only recalls victims at the hands of left wing activists. The press on both sides has become so politicized it's not facts reporting any more but rants and opinion pages.
2
I just watched Black Klansman last night and I was alarmed to see a news clip of David Duke (Mr. KKK) over the credits where Duke praised Donald Trump shortly after that Charlottesville monstrosity. I know few here need convincing that the President courts racist groups but it is worth reminding people of this additional piece of evidence. When all you care about is 'winning' it really doesn't matter what your supporters think.
1
After the horrific events last week we are all wringing our hands . We should be horrified but not surprised . Trump started his campaign claiming that the sitting President was not born in the USA . Later , already President , he equated the behavior of the Nazis at Charlottesville with those that were protesting against them . What we are seeing is not the usual political rhetoric and spinning . It is rhetoric design to instill fear ( the caravan ) and divide the nation . His intention was to use that fear and division for political advantage . The unintended consequence was to stimulate deranged people to horrific acts . I am pretty sure he cares very little about the human toll . He cares only about winning .
1
I'm not sure which is worse - racists, or the politicians who pander to them for reasons of their own.
1
The president, Agent Orange, trying to explain away a bomber attempting a mass assassination of two presidents, a secretary of state, a US attorney general, two congresswomen, an ex-CIA director, an ex-NSC director, Soros, Steyer, DeNiro, a US Senator, a vice-president, CNN news organization, and perhaps one or two more people are directly responsible for this crime. The same goes for the eleven people slaughtered in a synagogue and an unknown number injured included five SWAT police officers. The reality is that Trump is the Arsonist-in-Chief, who shows up after the crime with a garden hose. I don't buy it for a minute. The white supremacist bomber to the anti-Semite who was driven by hatred for Jews and immigrants has a thread from Trump and his inciteful hate speech of the "other." We are in the abyss now. We could see it coming. Protect yourselves.
2
We are now at the point whether the useful idiot joke matters. Trump is raucous entertainer, with a tinge of evangelical fervor. All part of politically incorrect behavior. When nothing he says makes sense or matters until a disturbed individual moves from angry to action, a warning bell should go off.
Shocking people to vote, inflaming passions, using fear as motivation to vote comes with a price. Trump is clueless, sees himself a stable genius, one who is having fun, incapable of grading his own conduct as destructive. Surprised anyone might suggest a link between him in the recent uptick in violence.
Gorsuch and Kavanaugh in exchange for an amoral Forrest Gump is that a good deal?
3
Is what’s in the bottle the fault of they that open it? Honestly, we should all be putting a cork in it, most of all . . .
3
Let's say Ivana Trump wasn't lying when she made it known that her former husband slept with a copy of "Mein Kampf" next to his bed. That would explain his concentration camps on the border, for one thing. That would dispel any further doubts. His lack of empathy for anyone but self and mini-mes muddies the water a bit - it's tempting to think he just hates everybody.
But I think he really is a racist - and I hope he gets kicked out of office and sent to prison before we have to find out for sure. For certain he's surrounded, and counseled, by card-carrying white nationalists, some more mentally ill than others. There is a definite, unmistakable agenda: a propaganda campaign, set in motion from the very start - (propped up by the Russians, of course) - to undermine democracy in the U.S. by consciously "sewing division and hatred". As Charles Blow mentions, the anti-"caravan" brainwashing had a profound influence on the perpetrators of last week's horrific crimes, and even in the midst and aftermath of these crimes taking place, Trump was unable to let go of his divisive game-plan. He's so obsessed by it, he couldn't, or wouldn't, hide it for fear of loosing followers. What is most incredible is that he is openly turning this country into a vicious fascist state, and we are still questioning whether or not he really means it.
6
@JCam
It will be interesting to see whether Republicans get a bump in the polls by Trump's attempt to characterize the caravan as a potentional armed invasion of the United States.
Trump doesn’t pull the trigger. He is the leader who yells “SHOOT”.
18
The point that is missing here is not whether trump is a racist (he is) or that the racists do not consider him racist enough (they don't). The point is that trump, an amoral, is out for himself and if racists will help him make some more money and power he'll go with whomever does so.
Incitement to riot is a crime. Handing a full gas can and a match to an arsonist who uses them to burn down a building is a crime. Offering to pardon a person who will commit a crime for one's benefit is a crime.
The crazies are not the only ones responsible. There are unindicted co-conspirators.
1
I liken Trump to a volcano. In his rallies, when he really feels like he is in his element, he blows, and white-hot hatred goes spewing everywhere. Most of the time he is relatively dormant, but he does have mini-eruptions frequently, as in his "fine people" comment about Nazis in Charlottesville. But a volcano is a volcano. It cannot make itself into a green forest. Nor can anyone else do so. It is what it is, and the only remedy is to plug it up with massive resistance, mainly at the polls, but elsewhere as well. The pundits will criticize us whether we appear too aggressive or too mild or too in-between. We have to do what is right to rid ourselves of this monster and his acolytes.
It's noteworthy that according to an audit conducted by the B’nai Brith Canada, vandalism more than doubled across Canada in 2017. So while there is no doubt that President Trump's reptilian character stokes hatred and fear, there's something else going on beyond the borders of the United States. The underbelly of humanity is rising ...
1
@Anita
It would be better to contrast the rate of incidents (both verbal threats and physical violence) of racial and ethnic hatred before and after Trump appeared on the world stage. Also, contrast the rise of fascist leadership around the world under the guise of "populist change". It may be pointless to start a which came first chicken or egg argument but it is naive to think that Trump has not emboldened throughout the world the "underbelly of humanity" of which you speak.
With an average life span of less than 80 years, it is at times difficult for people to place a singular event into the context of history's long arc. There are many ways in which to define anti-Semitism. However characterized, it is most certainly history's longest lived hatred. The first anti-Jewish riots took place in the Egyptian city of Alexandria three centuries before Jesus. From the Crusades to the immolation of the Jews of York (c. 1190) to the explusion from Spain in 1492 to the pogroms in Eastern Europe to Holocaust of World War II, it has always been open season on Jews. Forget spray painting swastikas and overturned headstones: even here in America, Jewish institutions are attacked with deadly force about every three to five years. For most Jews, and certainly for me, I am shocked at the horror of Pittsdburgh. However, I am not at all surprised. Furthermore, it transcends Trump, and cheapens the victims to correlate the event with him. My response to this violence is to redouble my faith, and try to live an even more Jewish life. That is how I can honor the dead and take away any triumph the Jew haters of the world may have over what happened this past Sabbath.
3
poison is in the air, poison is in the water, and the poison is spreading with help from the president and his party
The most important people in politics are those viewed as not fitting in, and therefore at the bottom of the true society. They do not have to be numerous but they must be easily identified as different, as ‘them’.
They become the reason why ‘MY’ life is not better and supply a focus or target for simplistic claims for change.
Trump is a master at detecting the relevant group for any audience. His wall to keep out rapists and murderers, for example.
His followers believe he is seeing the world through their eyes. This energises them to act against ........ ( insert today’s group).
He will continue to stir up trouble until a new LEADER can stand up to him and defeat his lies with facts and honest logic. The tragedy for the USA is the republicans have proven that they don’t have one and the Democrats don’t seem to know where to look.
1
More fake news.
President Trump has never encouraged any acts of violence and has repeatedly and consistently criticized those who engage in violence.
No wonder nobody believes the MSM anymore.
2
Please be especially careful these days, Charles Blow. The truths you regularly utter -- what are you, a patriotic citizen or something weird like that? -- put you in the crosshairs of Trump's most devoted followers, now more fully emboldened than ever to snuff out anyone who dares to question our very own, home-grown Autocrat.
It is clearer than ever that MAGA really is MAMA: Make America Murderous Again [though it is hardly as if we've ever stopped being devoted to the destruction of some group or other, internal or external].
1
The problem at its heart is "tribalism." The "American experiment," as represented in the U.S. Constitution, was/is an articulated intention to integrate tribes under a common tao (way of being,) so that "out-of-many" there might be one. That this is not an easy achievement should not be surprising. This is why the choice of leadership is so very important.
Violent anti-Semitism has long existed in the US. The lynching of Leo Frank is a notable example. However, unlike systemic racism against Blacks, anti-Semitism in America was largely perpetuated by hate groups. However Trump, not some fringe group, now espouses that hate.
Trump gained power by advancing and exploiting a white nationalist movement, not a populist movement. Whether Trump's an anti-Semite and racist at heart is irrelevant. He gleefully exhorts massive adoring crowds with dehumanizing rhetoric appropriated from white nationalists he champions. It defines outsiders as seeking to defile, pollute, and ultimately destroy the insider community. It's rhetoric which revolves around 3 themes: identity, purity, and security.
Hate is mainstream because Trump, a self-avowed Nationalist, falsely told his supporters that there were "criminals and unknown Middle Easterners" in the caravan, a claim with no basis in fact, meant to imply that terrorists were hiding in the caravan. It was one lie upon another. Fox commentators also lied, saying the caravans were being sent to the US by wealthy Jews.
Trump's rhetoric is directly connected to violence and death. A white nationalist and vicious anti-Semite, armed with a military assault rifle, murdered members of the Jewish community because they were Jewish, and because their humanitarian organization, HIAS, rescued those facing persecution all over the world, including non-whites just like those in the caravans Trump vilified.
104
@Robert B Not only does Trump fail at any kind of positive leadership, he also is remarkably relaxed about Russian attempts to disrupt American democracy. He puts us at risk by stirring up people with extreme views and plenty of weapons, while he fails to protect the country from Russian or other foreign meddling.
4
@Bonnie His adoration of Putin and his power sickens me. Putin detests America and would do just about anything to destroy us. Now he has Donald on a leash and Lord only knows what "secrets" Donald has revealed to Putin.
5
I'm not sure just how much Trump has caused these nut cases to come totally unhinged. I do believe however that we have no chance of peaceful unity of any sort in this country with Trump as President. His agenda is not one of building a stronger America, nor one of tolerance. The sooner he is replaced, the better.
1
On August 6, 2016, Eugene Robinson, op-ed contributor to The Washington Post, wrote the following in an opinion piece: "Words have consequences: Trump’s unhinged rhetoric is going to get somebody killed. . . . Brace yourselves, because it’s all going to get worse."
And here were are.
In the last days of October 2018, many "somebodys" have just been killed by deranged, rabid Trump supporters. Yes, it has gotten much, much worse.
Every day we think we've reached the nadir, but Trump finds a way to descend from it.
It took the horrible war with Iraq, a near-meltdown of our financial markets under George W. Bush, and a recession like most of us alive have never seen before, to overcome Republican gerrymandering and voter suppression and put a Democrat in the WH. How many more deaths of innocent people by gun-toting, hate-screaming, ferocious Trump supporters, and how much more racism, misogyny, anti-semitism, pandering to terrorists and dictators, robbing of our Treasury to further line the pockets of oligarchs, separation of immigrant kids from their parents, hatred of Muslims, climate science denial, and attacks on our free press by Trump will it take to put a Democrat back in the WH in 2020? Will there be anything left of our country by then?
168
@ALB
OUTSTANDING post!!! Bravo!
8
There is a direct line between Trump's venomous speech and the violence against racial and religious minorities. He has been the great enabler for hate groups which here-to-fore had been restrained by established societal norms.
Turning over the rocks, giving prejudice voice and refusing to call it out is Trump's forte... all for his political purpose.
There is no push-back from Congressional Republicans! Those that have a shred of self-respect are leaving government.Those remaining have abandoned American values and the principles of our founders. Trump and his supporters have blood on their hands.
Vote as if American democracy is at stake. It is.
4
In customer service, a fundamental principle is to set expectations correctly. If you can create an understanding of what a customer should expect, then after they've purchased they behave as you want them to. Your interactions take place within boundaries in their heads that you've set for them.
That's what Trump is doing. He has created an understanding in Americans brains that his products -- hate, fear, rage, and even murder -- are what we should expect. He moved our boundaries outside of what was previously unthinkable, sane, and moral.
So although he didn't make the pipe bombs or pull the trigger in the synagogue, both he and the shooter, he and the bomber, are responsible. They were just operating within the boundaries he laid out for them.
We need to reject those boundaries and return to the ones we've operated within for centuries: tolerance, justice, truth, integrity, compassion, and peace. We don't always stay on that playing field, but even partial success is better than the boundaries Trump sells.
1
there is no question that anti Semitism and racism is, at the least more blatant, if not on the rise, since the election of trump. he and the republicans in Congress, are a disgrace but mass shootings have been occurring in this country for many years. the issue, as I see it, still comes down to military style weapons in the hands of people with a history of violent attitudes, tweets and crimes. if every racist in the world should suddenly disappear, we would still have mass killings. many of these atrocities are not racially driven. we need stronger controls on gun sales and on social media. take away their platform to spread hate and initiate universal background checks.
Trump has encouraged racism, misogyny, xenophobia white nationalism, hate and anger, and made it acceptable to give vent to it. People no longer veil their prejudices, they revel in them. Trump's flame thrower rhetoric of hate and anger is an incendiary device that lights the fires of rage in some people, who then act on it.
Words matter, and have consequences. Trump is absolutely responsible for the consequences of his words the same as anyone else is. The Republican apologists for Trump who are making the rounds of the news shows and saying that you cannot draw a straight line between Trump's vile rants at rallies and the action taken by Sayoc are being disingenuous.
Trump has been a clear and present danger to our country since the day he took office. He encourages and empowers people who hate. White nationalists see Trump as their great white hope. He legitimized them with the remarks he made in Charlottesville.
I fear things will only get worse. The GOP has now fallen in lock step behind Trump, and are kissing the ring. There is no center left in the Republican Party to oppose Trump. Those who raised any opposition to Trump in Congress are either leaving or have had their voice silenced by death. Our only hope is that we will at least take back the House in November.
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@Diana
I think that is goose-step, not lock-step.
5
In church yesterday, my reverend discussed the portion of the Sermon on the Mount dedicated to anger. Jesus and later Christian thinkers admonished followers to be slow to anger and to deal with it quickly; otherwise, the anger festers and eats at the heart and mind. I thought of the synagogue killer and the Trump bomber and how they all used social media to fuel their anger addiction. Trump, Fox, et. al, use the tactic to continuously, as Maureen Dowd quoted a right-winger in her column, "rile the crazies." With a constant diet of anger and hate and little ability to think critically, the "crazies" are easily riled.
I feel sorry for these people, but I am even more worried for the rest of us who must live with them. When will they and their stockpiled guns go off? We had three hate attacks in one week alone, so it's just a matter of time.
Sadly, we lack leadership with an ounce of sense regarding the long-term effects of this kind of continuous riling. Trump, Fox (Murdoch), Kochs, Adelsons, Mercers, et. al, only think of how the craziness distracts people from their thievery and fattens the bottom line at the same time.
Vote and protest for a more sensible and compassionate way.
It's very simple -- there's a direct line between what happened in Pittsburgh on Saturday that runs through Fox News, the Republican Party, and President Trump. Anybody who professes not to see that is either blind or deliberately disingenuous.
191
Thank you for this, Mr. Blow The Republicans, of course, are trying to feign shock and dismay that anyone would connect Trump and his reckless talk to any of these situations. They claim that both sides do it, since Democrats are saying unkind things now in trying to hold Trump and his propaganda network, FoxNews, accountable. But when they say "both sides are to blame," all that means is that they want to shut us up. They know what they've done. They just don't want voters to figure it out.
1
About ten days left. The GOP and it’s lunatics grow more desperate. When will gov. records be destroyed? I hope the lower public servants have hid them away from the Trump agencies heads and legislators. Given the brazenness of GOP corruption and conspiracy I think the criminals will not accept defeat graciously! The Dem leaders need to plan for a win as if a certainty, thereby also securing the crime scene! The GOP has always relied on offensive strategies and caught the Dems flatfooted. Are Dems thinking the law and order will protect them while the sheriffs are themselves crooks? Vote, win then after two months actual new governance begins.
With the exception of Nixon, American presidents used to only have "opponents" rather than "enemies". Trump, however, needs his base to be emotionally involved with him on a daily basis, and the best way to do that is to make them furious. To go one step beyond, the best way to make them furious is to make them frightened.
That is why Trump's call for unity, "peace, and harmony" after the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting ring so hollow. Unity, peace, and harmony are anathema to Trump. They are his kryptonite.
1
Trump is like lighter fluid on a grill full of charcoal.
Our energy should be focused on encouraging the 40% of Americans who didn't vote in 2016 to turn out on Election Day.
1
Racism is in the DNA of America. Until we have truth and reconciliation sessions to bring an end to the neo-Confederate Cold War, started by Andrew Johnson, and currently offered permission to thrive in this country by the current administration, we will not have put an end to the Civil War, which has ravaged our country.
1
What is the business model of Gab? How do they pay to run the servers that propagate their hate messages?
If it is advertizing that subsidizes Gab, then boycotts are in order.
If some individuals are subsidizing it, they need to be exposed and shamed.
1
Racism in America?
I don't believe Americans really want to or even can overcome racism. I don't believe racism exists necessarily because of "hatred of the other". I believe racism no matter how much people put away hatred fundamentally exists because people, ALL people, literally do not know how to categorize themselves except in concepts such as race, ethnic group, religion, etc. and furthermore these divisions are enshrined in Constitution, enshrined most starkly in freedom of religion but implying other categories of self-conception as well.
America is essentially involved in a zero sum game when it comes to race, ethnic group, religion. No one wants to give up being white or black or Christian or Jewish or what have you. Imagine telling people they must interbreed, that they must visualize an American racial/ethnic group identity beyond all current race categories, that they must suppress all religion as well, etc. Now tell me who would go for that and why?
The most progressive, enlightened policies in the U.S., typically multiculturalism/socialism, have just increased the riot of identities against each other. We're all racists. What is the difference between white nationalism and left wingers hoping for future demographic decline of white people? It's a zero sum game played out in some minorities having preference over others and majorities triumphing in areas even including language (English, Mandarin), and is a failure of human future self-conceptualization.
My late grandmother was an unabashed racist, who had virtually no contact with the individuals she despised. (she’d have been an enthusiastic Trumpist.) After she made a loud racist remark in a restaurant, I told her point blank that if she ever again said anything akin to what she’d just uttered, it would be the last she ever saw of me.
So, I’m finished with trying to “understand” Trumpists. I’m tired of earnest news articles, visiting diners in the “heartland” to talk to Trump supporters. Just this weekend, I saw an ad for Alexandra Pelosi’s show venturing outside “her bubble.” Enough. (And where are the right-wing attempts at outreach? There aren’t any because they aren’t interested in anything but “owning the libs.”)
I can find common ground with individuals who disagree with me on issues, who have a different perspective born of different experiences. I cannot find common cause those who believe they are entitled to their own facts. Who willfully believe lies. Who subscribed to conspiracy theories. Who lack basic empathy.
And there are moral absolutes. I cannot tolerate their hate. (And my intolerance of their hate is NOT the same as their intolerance of African-Americans, Latinos, Jews, Muslims, and LGBT individuals.) Their tolerance, at best, and open embrace, at worst, of overt bigotry, racism, homophobia, and xenophobia is not worthy of my respect.
If their is an Other to be feared, it’s not Latino migrants: it’s angry white people.
4
These people have been living under the bed since our country was settled.Throughout our history, people in power understood this and, aside from a few dog whistles to get votes or soldiers, worked to keep them under the bed.
Now we're seeing what's under the bed. You can blame Trump for letting them out. But the real problem is what's been under the bed all these years.
It’s about ME, it’s about ME, its about ME.....that’s not about me. Another profile in courage.
1
Pittsburgh should not welcome Trump to make an appearance on behalf of the victims. Trump is the instigator of all this. He can argue he is not, but we know he is. Vote he an his henchmen out before more deaths come from his solipsistic obsessions.
4
Thank you Mr. Blow for calling out the hate at it's source.
NYT editorial board seems incapable or unwilling to make the connections between trump's hateful rhetoric and the rise of hate crimes since his election.
The connections between trump and these hate crimes are undeniable - We need to talk about how this hate speech affects us, and NYT has seemed unwilling to address this issue.
I had MSNBC on earlier today. They were running clips from his Illinois rally held yesterday. Par for the course, he was ranting about Sen. Warren and Maxine Waters. And then I see the response from some in the crowd written on the screen: "Shoot her too".
No matter how the midterms turn out, things are going to get much, much worse, either because Trump's cult is emboldened because of winning, or more angry because they lost (and that anger will be fueled with non-stop conspiracy theories of rigged, illegal voting, China hacked the votes, etc.).
Constitution suspended? Troops ordered into the streets of US cities? I'll be shocked if it doesn't come to that before Trump(ism) is done with you.
Shame, shame, shame on all sane "conservatives" and others who see all of this and choose to ignore it because power begets benefits for them.
I just want to cry, so many times a day now.
4
The TV network news programs need to stop reporting Trump rallies where he implies/placidly condones violence towards his opposition. Unfortunately this isn’t news any more, it’s the “new normal” and implicitly acts as a campaign ad for Trump supporters, so disgraceful (excuse the Trump admonishment).
Trump has claimed he bears no responsibility for the massacre in Pittsburgh, implying that his words did not stoke the murderer's rage. Trump may well believe this assertion, because, to a man who neither reads nor writes anything more substantive than a tweet, words lack importance except as a tool to encourage fools to follow him. The idea that what a person says or writes could express her deepest beliefs about life and the world around her, that these words could shape her behavior, for good or ill, would strike him as absurd.
In the Trumpean universe, only self interest, defined narrowly as anything that helps an individual gain an advantage over someone else, motivates actions. There is no room in his worldview for a philosophy that could connect a person to a community that shares her beliefs. So, nationalism, either of the benign or malign variety, would leave Trump cold, as would any other set of abstract ideas.
For the president, anyone who takes words, and their meaning, seriously simply plays to his advantage in the political wars. In this sense, he resembles Joe McCarthy, who always seemed astonished, in private, that the victims of his public slanders reacted angrily to his words.
We have elected as president a man who, in the deepest sense of the term, is illiterate.
1
Vitriol, Anger and a 7x24 spigot to keep the tap flowing with social media, fake, faux and Fox News. The Anarchists, John Birchers, America Firsters and Trumper’s make our Nation a little smaller, a little darker each day. The toxicity clouds the water of conversation and thoughts with a stain of supremacy.
Yellow journalism is alive and well, the biases of bigotry broadcast their sirens call to receptive audiences. Will the ship of a nation be smashed on the rocks of Scylla and Charybdis? Can it be righted with civility, understanding and compassion?
Although it is darkest just before dawn, the blue and golden hour seems so far away. So very, very far away. Perseverance in the face of adversity is the miners lamp to help guide the way. The tunnel of troubles, a time of tempests requires it.
We as a Nation, as a People are greater than the sum of the sins splashed across the screens. We are.
1
What kind of nation are we becoming? There is increased violence leading up to our election. We have a leader who calls his half the country an evil violent mob and smiles as his mob shouts “lock them up” to his opposition. Our coming election will be marred by voter suppression and foreign manipulation. Are we great again, yet?
Almost every time we see the violence of the bigots, information is gathered from their social media posts. Is any reasonable person left who thinks that these venues deserve free-rein in the name of free speech?
There are arguments that these posts give law enforcement a way to track malevolent individuals. Is there evidence that this ability is worth it? Is it worth leaving these platforms for hate to their own devices: https://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/watch/adl-s-greenblatt-says-social-media-spr... . I linked but a single example--just google "anti-semitism on social media" and take a look for yourself. Only a small fraction of these are actually removed.
When a president preaches hate for political advantage it is up to Congress to stop him. When Congress looks the other way and does nothing about it, it is up to us, the people, to change Congress. Vote Nov. 6 because the future of our country depends on it.
1
As you state Charles;
"It is almost impossible in most cases to attach the words of one to the deeds of another"
My logical mind tells me, yes this is so. My heart whispers to me otherwise.
I've chosen to see donald dictating to the pipe bomber where to send his packages, dictating his most revered enemies.
I see donald's finger on the trigger along with that of the Pittsburgh murderer.
Unfortunately my anger and hatred toward these 'white supremacist" is rising to the same level that they dwell in. A level multiplied millions of times could have disastrous consequences.
1
There are two things happening here. First, the toxicity of the personality of this president. Agreed. Let him be replaced by Nikki Haley, Mike Pence, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, or Paul Ryan (preferably Haley) in 2020. But any Republican, including Trump, is on issues of policy better than any Democrat. That's why GOP people are standing by him, not because of his charm, grace, tact, and spelling skills.
Then, the caravan. Mr. Blow (and NYT readers), what would you do about it? There are only two choices.
a) Admit them through asylum hearings that could put them on American soil for years before their hearings, we have plenty of room.
b) Declare Mexico a safe haven and block them at the border, every nation has a right to control its own immigration process
1
We can no longer sit back and just watch. Vote! Vote for leaders who want to bring us together instead of dividing us. Contact the companies that advertise on Fox News and ask them if they condone the hate mongering and the marketing of conspiracy theories. Spend your money in a way that is consistent with your values. Call out hate wherever and whenever you see it. It's time for the silent majority of good and decent people in this country to stand up!
1
Mr. Trump is neither a good enough human nor politician to have called the would-be bomb victims. The thought of him even trying to say anything meaningful to the synagogue survivors, let alone succeeding in providing some comfort, is absurd.
George Washington visited a synagogue in Rhode Island, in part to make clear that the new country did not distinguish between citizens of any, all, or no religion.
Mr. Trump shows that some privileged white males have regressed in the past 200-some years. Unless enough voters say "not in my country", the US will have regressed as well.
"Nationalism is a political, social, and economic system characterized by the promotion of the interests of a particular nation, especially with the aim of gaining and maintaining sovereignty (self-governance) over the homeland." This is actually the definition of Nationalism. It has nothing to do with race. Mr. Blow if you only have the tool of victimization, everything looks like racism.
1
Although it may be impossible to prevent any and all terrorist attacks, when Trump sows a climate of violence as a matter of course, making it almost appear normal, the recurrence of the 'shootings' will likely rise in frequency and intensity, as demonstrated recently, and last month, and last year. Trump is a discriminator (racist is a misnomer as we humans belong all to one race, the human race), especially on folks that look different than himself, thrashing the richness of our diversity, and the need for inclusion. Although our main 'enemy' in this capitalistic society is it's deep inequality, we must recognize the need for compromise in our politics, and solidarity as well. Justice demands it. Besides, it's the right thing to do.
It's intolerable that duly-elected Republicans do so little to protect those citizens that they represent from President Donald Trump. Are They frightened of him? Are they concerned about their own political aspirations? Regardless of their reasoning, they should all go home for good and encourage Donald Trump to find a place to retire (that shouldn't be difficult...)
These people have proven themselves to be unworthy of participating in a democratic government--they are sick and too many of us have lost hope because of their spinelessness.
When trump campaigned in 2016 in california, he was met by a large group of protestors. He demeaned them as 'thugs from across the border' and said 'we should be letting in more europeans'. if the caravan was all white european he just might let them in. his problem is not that these are people trying to enter america without a visa for whatever reason, but that they are brown, poor and central american. Another point here. the vast majority of people, millions of them, that live in america without documentation are farm workers, construction workers, service workers(restaurant workers, maids, cleaners, gardeners, bus boys, cooks,golf course maintainers and so on).they mostly live in border states-california, texas and nevada. they do jobs that nobody is willing to do for very low wages. their employers are farmers and small business owners who are-you probably guessed it-wealthy white republican farmers and small business owners ! 70 percent of farm workers and at least 25 percent of all the maids and women cleaning offices are undocumented. california's central valley is a republican stronghold. if the illegal immigrants are booted out from there the whole country's agri business will tank and these wealthy republican farmers and small business owners will all go bankrupt. california's agriculture supplies 66 percent of the country's fruits and nuts. trump and the gop are massive hypocrites.they are pandering to illegal immigrants while publicly bashing them as criminals.
2
Trump says that gun control would not improve the mass shootings problem. Trump took $35 million passed through the NRA by Russia.
4
Class action suit against Trump and his supporters for inciting violence and gross negligence?
Trump is simply the USA's reactionary id on display, without filter or euphemism. The solution lies deeper than impeachment or unelecting this President which could only serve to put this force in remission, eating for its next mobilization. The American economic system must stop creating so few winners and so many losers to have any hope of survival. That won't do it entirely but it would be a good place to start.
2
The best thing we can feasibly do in response to our zero character president is to vote blue next week. Trump carries a big chip on his shoulder against the “east coast elites” who have never liked him. He fights them with a base (no pun ink tended) racism and his endless stream of insults. I will support a huge rally when he is out of office.
Voters need to demand that their politicians clearly denounce hate of all varieties. This includes the silent majority type hate that Nixon brought to the GOP and still exists today.
How right you are. And the least of it is not the anti-immigration ideology whose potency is headed for a showdown on the southern border. There is evil afoot in faux legitimate groups (I won't name them because of personal reasons) connected to Session and Stephen Miller. These groups are extremely well funded and have no compunction in fueling the extremists in this country who would love to pick off immigrants entering on the border. My prediction is we are still heading for the worst American has yet to see in itself.
Sadness abounds at all of this.
When can I stop screaming?
The Horror.
2
"I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality.
I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word."
Martin Luther King, Jr.
1
Trump’s influence is much worse than mere poison. His toxicity has already caused so much civic pollution that the White House could be categorized a superfund site. I am counting down to Election Day on Nov. 6 when hopefully the goodness of the majority of Americans will prevail, and the clean up can begin.
1
NYT - does every article and column about the politics and antics of our federal government and its president need to include a photo of the current occupant of the Oval Office? We know how the nan looks and behaves. Enough of the picture barrage. We never had that under other Presidents. It’s detrimental to health and sanity.
5
To all those who said in 2016: "Let's give somebody new a try, maybe he'll shake things up," is this what you wanted? If not, get to the polls in November and in 2020, and Vote Blue! We must unite as Americans to stop this sickness!
Supporters explain away the tone-deaf Trump by saying he is a transactional kind of guy. Like “So, you want one pound of baloney or what? I ain’t got all day.”
Who else could speak about the killing of 11 innocent people in their house of worship with so little conviction? He’s not so lackluster at his rallies, when crowds feed that ego, and his appetite for applause seems boundless. He proceeds with the same baloney, an artery-clogging stump speech attacking Maxine Waters, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, etc. It’s Pavlovian.
And what an accommodating crew he has backing him up. Ari Fleischer says it is “misleading to compare Trump’s behavior to his predecessors because he was elected to be different from his predecessors.” Different - like deviant?
Trump’s message is - whether you’re dead or alive, get out of his way. I wouldn’t do business with him.
I am not sure if trump is truly a racist, a bigot or even a xenophobe. In fact, I doubt he has any well formed and consistent principles or convictions at alI.
I am quite sure he is a malignant narcissist who will promote his goals of self aggrandizement and adoration by whatever means he can. He will say anything, adopt any position however vile and advance any conspiracy, even if it is contrary to the best interests of the nation. Indeed, one might say ESPECIALLY if it is contrary to the interests of the nation.
By so doing he has brilliantly exploited a vulnerability created by Congressional Republicans, who in their zeal to make President Obama fail, created a culture of antagonism toward traditional government and spawned what is now a large part of trump's rabid base.
We note that "he" and Pence were making themselves audible after Squirrel Hill, insisting that "you couldn't draw a connection" between his hate speech and hate-supportive speech, and hate. What one loves about "him" and his henchpeople, is the their admission that there's loveliness on the side, also, against which they slam the door of human rights.
There will always be those on the fringe who commit mayhem. In my lifetime it began in Dallas in 1963, and continues to this day.
But what makes this era different is the enduring image of screaming MAGA cap wearers, egged on by Trump, who through HIS EVERY SINGLE ACTION, sets the tone of hate that is poisoning our country.
To those who who attended his disgusting rally Saturday night, I hope you’re satisfied that your leader didn’t cancel. After all, he was having a bad hair day while 11 of your fellow citizens were gunned down that morning attending religious services.
1
Politicians in every country get too much credit for good economies, and too much blame for down economic cycles. The same truism can be said for deranged mass killers like the most recent in Pittsburg or the aspiring pipe bomb maker.
I think it is too big a leap to link tough Trump immigration and border talk with lunatics.
Those who chose to do mass harm are much more energized by the ease with which they read and communicate online with other like minded, hateful people. From online ISIS recruitment and publications to Neo Nazi's, online social interaction is as real and impactful as speaking in person. Often alienated or socially marginalized in everyday life, online connections serve as powerful substitutes for real life socialization.
Efforts to shut down online hate speech forums are legally more difficult in America than many other nations, but enough is enough.
1
Mr. Blow does a commendable job of assembling forcible quotations from other sources. His pieces are more often digests, though, than op-ed columns. One reads him to reacquaint oneself with what one has most likely already read elsewhere. The sources he quotes are reliably more memorable than his framing sentences. Things have reached the point where one can skip the framing devices entirely and go straight to the lengthy quotations without missing much of anything. Why not just present the quotations under a heading such as "What Others Are Saying"?
Unless Trump makes a clean, clear statement against racism, he is implicated condoning it. The time is now to take a stand against bigotry and violence. He is allowing hate crimes by not taking a stand against them.
You got it, Mr. Blow. And the base doesn't care. The Evangelicals, the GOP, they are complicit.
We know what Trump is about, now we'll see what this country is about. November 6th will gives us a clear idea of our values.
1
Abraham Lincoln encouraged us to listen to our better angels.
When Donald Trump exhorts, we should listen very carefully: the devil is in the details.
I have already voted. The waiting is hard; to see if America recovers its most cherished beliefs about equality and justice.
"December 23, 1776
THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. "
-Thomas Paine
We simply must once and for all, get it out of our heads that Mr. Trump is going to change his rhetoric or firmly and strongly denounce hate groups. He will utter words that sound nice, but his fist is clenched and his belief is the same.
We say that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, and Mr. Trump's father was a man with bigoted racist tendencies, so I'm wondering why we are so surprised that Mr. Trump behaves in such a manner.
We who are not part of his base have every right IMO to believe he does not consider himself the president of ALL the people, as he deliberately and with malice offends every value we hold dear.
And apparently he can't understand why we despise his behavior.
Since his I am a Nationalist statement there has been a flurry of events.
Blow points out something very important. Trump and his minions may be attracting racists but that doesn't mean they control them. Their prejudice after all is based on lack of logic. They aren't reasonable after all. And I don't think Trump is the originator of this attraction for the Republican Party. The big difference is that Trump has taken the subtext of the Republican Party, dating from Nixon's Southern Strategy, and made it the text. This isn't going to end well.
While it's undeniable that Trump didn't personally mail pipe bombs to the people he relentlessly denounces, and didn't personally shoot up a synagogue, it is also undeniable that his hateful-with-allusions-to-violence speech, delivered at frequent intervals, validates something in the minds of those who would act upon their own hateful, bigoted ideas.
He expects congratulations that he can tone down his bellowing for a few minutes here and there (before resuming unabated), but he gets none from me. This loud, ill-mannered, intellectually deficient, damaged creature who accidentally became president still -- after 646 days in office -- can't or won't recognize that the POTUS is a proxy for the nation's conscience. Part of his job is to appeal to our better angels... and he refuses to shoulder that responsibility.
No use preaching to the choir in this forum, but the past week has only heightened the importance of a Blue Wave next week. I can think of no higher calling for every good citizen than to vote for candidates who will stand up to, help neuter, and perhaps even investigate, the self-dealing oaf who sits so disrespectfully in the Oval Office.
4
Trump and his FORTY rallies prior to the midterms- His invective against President Obama years ago should have been MORE than enough without all this unessesary bloodshed. BUT here we are,
not only no wiser, but getting shot to death left and right because the deplorables have been unleashed and free to roam around freely now, with lots of ammo, guns of every size, even bombs left over from their 4th of July stash. Every time I hear "Lock Her Up" I look at the man with the microphone and wish somebody would put HIM in handcuffs and haul him off to jail. Oh yeah, I forgot- he "won" the election "somehow". And so the country must suffer for Two More gut-wrenching years and countless tragedies while all of his cronies get convicted and sent to prison. I just hope the Pentagon isn't going to buy into this hoax that he can send men and women into battle whenever he has one of his delusional episodes that we have to attack some county his son-in-law doesn't get a loan from. And this tragedy in Yemen is horrible beyond words and WE can stop thousands of children from dying
of starvation. The Caravan is a distraction from the real problems in Central America- where we supposedly are setting a good example of how self-government and democracy really works- uh yeah, right. Another delusion. America needs to get its collective head examined...and the sooner the better.
3
Cheerleaders don’t win football games but they are out there for a reason.
82
Andrew Gillum's insightful comment “I’m not calling Mr. DeSantis a racist, I’m simply saying the racists believe he’s a racist” should be extended to include "and Mr. DeSantis does little or nothing to discourage that belief."
The same could be said of Trump. Thus, by allowing (encouraging?) racists to believe they have support or at least sympathy in high places, they both provide aid and comfort to racists, and are to that very significant extent complicit.
143
@NLG Well said!
3
While all but the most egregious hate speech needs to be protected, ALL hate speech should have social consequences.
The opprobrium of our neighbors is an appropriate and important moderating influence in society.
So it's time to start publishing the real life names of people who voice support for hate speech. Let these anonymous conspiracies of hate wither in the cleansing light of honest public discourse.
Each time that anonymous social resonance contributes to a crime of hate and violence, why wouldn't it be appropriate to publish the real names beside the public domain contributions of those who participated in that resonance?
This is not a call for criminal investigations or prosecutions. But alas, in the realm of social media, the center does not have the tools it needs to balance or convince an anonymous fringe. Transparency, responsibility, and accountability could be those tools.
3
@kilndown flimwell
1. Who gets to define "the most egregious hate speech"?
2. The more the haters have a social media presence, the worse things seem to get. Is there evidence that publishing their names, calling more attention to their affiliations, will work for the public good?
3. At what point, with what horrific event, do we decide that some of this is yelling fire in a crowded--and very large--theater.
4. Do you really believe the Founders could have conceived of the corrosive effects of these social media? If they did, would they have written something into the Constitution to try to mitigate those effects?
5. Why not work together to develop the tools to bring some of this under control? This has to be done at a national level--state by state will not work. (If the Senate can pass an opioid bill 98-1, maybe--if that can sit down--the can begin to work towards these ends?)
6. Some of that social resonance is not so anonymous: https://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/watch/adl-s-greenblatt-says-social-media-spr... .
7. Admonishing people to do the right thing is not enough.
The country does indeed need to calm down. But when everything is Trump's fault, it doesn't help much. People need to take responsibility for their actions and top blaming others.
55
@Mike Livingston
People need to take responsibility not only for their actions, but their words, especially the President. Was it responsible for Trump to suggest that the Tree of Life congregation was derelict in failing to have security guards and that the victims are themselves somehow responsible for this tragedy? Is it responsible to discourage all sensible gun legislation?
No, everything negative is not Trump's fault but he is to be credited with nothing constructive.
219
Trump is definitely not helping the situation, when he says he wants to punch a reporter and asks people at his rallies to bodyslam a dissenter. Or how about when he suggested that maybe some of the 2nd Amendment people would take out Hillary Clinton.
I agree that we should all take responsibility for our actions, and that includes Trump and his divisive, inflammatory remarks. How about he man's up and owns his responsibility in this twisted time?
82
@Mike Livingston - yes take responsibility. Trump has been encouraging bigoted violence regularly, it is documented and Blow and others are trying to get him to take (some, not all) responsibility. We are seeing how that goes.
56
My local Democrats have tracked my paper mail-in ballot and know that I have already voted, as it is a matter of public record. They are texting me asking for help knocking on doors and making phone calls to encourage progressives to get out and vote on November 6. I plan to help with that as much as I can over the next week.
If you have not already been doing so, please consider helping in your area, too. With the election right around the corner, working proactively, together, is the best way we can put a check on Trump and his enablers. Staying active also serves as good stress relief, knowing that you are doing something tangible for the cause.
7
@Blue Moon, high schoolers 18 years and older have to keep the momentum going, enlisting their peers to get out the vote. Their future safety depends on it.
6
It is time to turn the emotional cost of this prejudice into economic action. Marches are fine but a message with greater impact is now necessary. A two or three day “flu” epidemic of minorities, and supporters of human equality, would be of greater economic and societal impact than rhetoric. Revisiting Dr. Martin Luther King’s Ideal’s of inclusion and honoring his message through action is necessary once again.
1
With the soon to occur midterm elections we will see what the true character of the American people is. They will either reject the hatred and division of Trump and his far right Republican cronies or they will accept in order to further their own narrow agendas. At this point there can be little doubt as to what Trump stands for and what will become of this country if it continues.
The 2016 election was the first test and the US clearly failed. If we fail this next election perhaps redemption is not possible for this beleaguered country. I think that it is quite likely that the US will continue to fracture and degrade and ultimately tear itself apart. That is certainly what is happening today and I see no sign of it ending any time soon.
7
If it is a political rally, the leader at the stage has a responsibility, to understand at what is been said.
People in the crowd are listening. While many can be inspired, there is at least one person who would take one step further to become emboldened.
Words matter. It is the choice of words. They have a meaning, and that is what makes the difference, and result in a consequence. To ignore this, is where we have a problem.
3
One viable solution might be to have socialist, moderate and progressive Democrats reconcile their differences, and work in a concerted effort to save the Republican Party.
There is little to do but vote. We can still stop this, but everyone must go to the polls next Tuesday and vote against every and all Republican candidates. Even you in deep red states, like myself here in Louisiana, must vote. We must increase the vote count on the side of the ledger opposite to Republicans. It may be like adding a single grain of sand to a large beach, but that single grain will make a contribution.
6
Should we be surprised that right after Trump declared himself a "nationalist" the dark forces of bombing and gun massacres were unleashed by those infected by his toxic rhetoric of hate? It's shocking of course, but it's also a warning to all who believe in a civil society supported by our Constitution that the midterm election is about "the rule of law" and the misrule of Trump. This election is all about Donald Trump and Republicans who support his threat to our democracy. The very survival of our Republic is what is at stake on November 6.
178
So bottomline: VOTE - the future of your country depends on this election.
3
"However, it must also be said that Trump has produced a toxic environment of intolerance in this country that is deep and wide."
You got this right, Charles. However, POTUS is doing more than poisoning the polis. Trump, unfortunately, is also an "igniter," not a "uniter," and the nation is just as likely to perish by fire prior to his poisoning of all our institutions.
9
I'm simply hoping that there is a cadre of people, government officials, military leaders and others, working on a plan to get rid of this cancer on our government sooner than later. We simply cannot go on for another six years with this man in the Oval Office. He will not be removed by impeachment and could possibly win in a landslide in 2020. By then, the nation and whatever it stood for at one time will be finished. Personally, I'd love to see him removed bodily by the Marines.
9
Democrats have nothing to fear about illegal immigrants being rounded up and expelled from california's and texas farms. The farmers who employ them are all wealthy republicans. If trump and the GOP dare expel them, the GOP will loose all of rural america, and all 50 states, by 2020.
3
Like any cult leader (this one being Cult 45), Trump says words that gets them riled up, leading to action.
It doesn't matter where they come from, but he appeals to loners and lost souls, and while they might not have voted for him, they hear him and take it to heart - and to action, as we have seen, in all its horror, this week.
(Thank you for your usual eloquence, Mr. Blow.)
12
There have been calls for civility between the political parties. But, how can you be civil with people who promote racism and religious bigotry.
Our nation was founded on the principles that all races were created equal and everyone has the right to practice his or her religion as they see fit. If the racists and bigots are not evil at the very least they do not support American values.
5
From time to time Trump has to make a statement showing concern about some tragic situation or the other. Watch him. It's always the same. He is simply reading a faux expression of concern written by somebody else and he then, showing his true character, launches into a free-wheeling, hate-filled spiel in which he blames Democrats or the media for the problem at hand. The man is totally devoid of any empathy for others.
10
What happened in Pittsburgh was another Charlottesville moment . Donald Trump as president sets the tone for just how the people of our country relate to one another . His divisive stance , and his defensive combativeness, are ultimately massive failures on his part to lead the country as Head of State .
Does he bear some responsibility for the person who sends pipe bombs to his adversaries and critics? Indirectly, yes. Does he bear responsibility for what happened in Pittsburgh? We will always have unstable people inciting violence and incendiary acts but unfortunately the president has given carte blanche to extremists in this country to act out their fantasies, largely because of the recklessness of his words.
I am a citizen of the United States . I am not a member of the press. And I know from watching this president nearly every day that his behavior and his actions are that of a neo fascist . His actions are never that of someone who would wish to help heal the country or take responsibility for his own actions when he has made a mistake. He is not a strong enough man to acknowledge ever making a mistake, and I doubt he ever will.
14
There's a sickening sense of glee visible on Trump supporters' faces. For the first time, they can live their deepest, darkest hatreds and prejudices out loud - and their president will cheer them on and praise them. There's an excellent article about what's going on in the minds of Trump supporters: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/mind-in-the-machine/201609/the-p....
What's obvious from the article - Trump supporters' minds aren't going to change. That means we need every anti-Trump voter to vote Democratic, matter how progressive or centrist you are, next week and in 2020. Trump's time as president, and the most elaborate con of his career, are up.
8
I really can not understand this - how are some people, armed to the teeth - shot but still alive taken into custody. And then others of color, shot to death for having a phone, another for reaching for his license (after telling the policeman that he was armed), shot and killed. As a person of color, it scares me.
28
We are in very dark days, indeed. I fear greatly, not for myself as I am a senior citizen, but for my children and grandchildren. If I were a religious person, I would pray.....but other than that.....I fervently hope November 6th somehow turns the tide, and we come back to some kind of "normal" in this country, rather than the evil and hatred we are witnessing daily, from the office of the presidency which should be uniting the country not dividing it.
NOVEMBER 6! Vote!
5
The only way in which Trump has been a "leader" is to lead in hate.
Does the world really need more walls?
Are there really "good people on both sides" when one side carries torches and shouts "Jews will not replace us"?
Do we, as Americans, really believe we should never welcome the stranger? (That's not advocating for "open borders" by the way; compassion for and welcoming of the stranger is one of the central tenants of Christianity and Judaism.)
This list could go on and on but what I'm trying to say is -- leadership matters. Trump is a symptom of a much larger sickness, but his position as the figurehead exerts influence on the direction of this country.
He is leading us into hate and division.
We can turn it around. We have to turn it around unless venom and walls and internment camps and sexism and racism is what we think America is about now.
10
Trump will ramp up the hate speech even more if the Dems take the house. Either way, he will continue to incite violence. The information in the Mueller probe will come out as well, even if he fires Mueller. Then what? I suspect the violence will get worse regardless of what happens, because Trump will do whatever he thinks he must to protect himself from the truth about his criminality. The GOP will help him because they are desperate to hold onto power. They know that they must cheat as much as they can.
8
When Trump pronounced that he is a nationalist just this month, it was not surprising. He has ranted against Muslims and Mexicans, accusing the latter of being “rapists” as he ascended the latter to the presidency.
His dark picture of America enunciated in his inaugural address portended how he would govern our country, ratcheting up his base about harmless ‘caravans’ of people seeking the time honored tradition of refuge from violence in their home country.
It’s all about fear of outsiders with Trump’s rhetoric but that can all begin to change in about nine days. It will be a beginning of a National referendum on Trump and the start of identifying a viable candidate for 2020.
We’ll survive Trump just fine.
4
There is a cynical and greedy group of people who are using hate and demonization of the "other" to maintain power and make money for themselves and their oligarch patrons. Trump, the Republican Party, Fox News, and their financial supporters, Rupert Murdoch, Koch Brothers, Robert and Rebekkah Mercer, and many more, are all responsible by their rhetoric for pushing their constituents and others into violence.
The Republicans are also brazen liars and their party run media are happy to make money promulgating them. They plan to take away health care and pre-existing condition coverage and are now lying about it to try to get elected. GOP in Congress have voted over 50X against what they now want us to believe they are for. They have filed a lawsuit, and many individual GOP Senators/Reps have signed onto it, to take away pre-existing condition coverage even as they say to voters they are not in favor of the position they are in court fighting for. They created a 17 billion deficit in the Budget as of 9/30/18 because they gave a huge tax cut to the wealthy (and a small one to a few middle class people as cover, for PR), and they now plan to cut back or eliminate Social Security and Medicare to close that gaping hole.
The only way to stop the hate, violence, and gutting of our society for the wealthy is to make sure to VOTE. Early voting is going on today in many states. Right now there is no check on their ability to do anything they want.
5
I would have thought that, at this point of horror, at least some of the elected members of the republican party, would start asking themselves how they would feel if a pipe bomb killed an ex-president, a beloved actor or even just a normal guy delivering the mail. I would have thought that some sort of objective conscience would kick in and they would ask themselves whether they want to be associated with a leader who is poisoning the very foundations of American values. How do they look their friends and families in the eye, full knowing that they support a man who incites hate and division and could be - albeit, indirectly - held responsible for the killing of innocent people gathered to pray on a sabbath, discrimination of any and all sorts, harassment of blacks and minorities just going about their every day business.
When the storm passes and Trump is just a bad memory, people are going to remember who stood where and with whom. The children of elected members of the Republican Party are going to remember, too.
21
The words you are looking for are “stochastic terrorism”.
By his words and deeds Donald Trump is creating an environment where acts of terror are increasingly likely; he’s offering legitimacy to the fringe elements on the right. We’re seeing a peak now as tensions build in the run up to the election - they feel threatened even as they have never been more empowered.
But the thing to remember is this: the Republican Party has been cultivating this base for decades with their dog-whistle politics and culture wars. They and the right wing media machine have nurtured them and their worst instincts. They and Trump must all go. The choice has never been more clear.
243
@Larry Roth Your post says it all. Thank you!
3
@Larry Roth This is not a partisan issue it is a humanity issue. If we see or hear wrong it is up to us to speak out against it in that moment. One doesn't ask "oh, before I speak my mind on this topic what party are you with." I no longer align myself with a political party. I am me. I am not GOP, Dem, Indie or Libertarian. I am still able to vote.
Dear Mr. Blow, I'm weary of commentators reciting the vileness in America for the umpteenth time. Doesn't it become protracted handwringing?
We should need to direct attention relentlessly to how vileness can be avoided: What families can do to face the mental sickness near to them, what neighborhoods can do, what local governments can do to amplify easy access to good enough mental health services. What America can do to get rid of GUNS FOR LEISURE (and sick acting out)!
We've got to stop the interminable handwringing and show leadership in journalism that we deserve to see in political life.
We neededucational leadership across the board: with political professionals, in communities, in schools, in families.
We've got to battle handwringing through fixes and solutions and innovative thinking and commitment.
46
@gary e. davis
Thank you. I agree.
Isn't it a paradox that we have more and more people living closer and closer to each other, yet, we are so far apart.
1
@gary e. davis Seems to me you are handwringing about handwringing without offering much in the way of how to get done the things you suggest. What fixes and solutions do you offer for leadership?
And do you really think this country will give up the guns? Sadly, I don't.
5
@Bull
I agree however we know how to address the issues we have no political will to do it. Politicians run for office to be rich and forget about the people who put them in office. You can tell by number of visits they make to their districts vs the junket trips they make overseas. How many town hall meetings take place. The gift for white noise is all around us. Always thinking about the next election and doing nothing in the here and now. We know we should be paying teachers more money, we know we should be fixing our infrastructure but our politicians won't do it. We know we have medical crisis all around us but we don't do anything. The CEO of Sloan cancer center was on the financial take how does he have time to develop a cure for cancer when the money is the disease.
Till communities with the help of corporations who want to do more than give out happy talk like hiring minorities, bring back real jobs, reinvest their money back into American communities have boards that are accountable to the public. We are going to be forever in a circle and the extremist will always be there because nothing will move forward in a positive manner.
Maybe this mid-term will be a defining moment and politicians will realize that the playbook has to change because people will not accept this hate anymore.
We the people know what needs to happen and we will make it happen by exposing these corrupt politicians.
3
Speaking about the unspeakable criminal act in Pittsburgh, Trump has, when addressing the crime as one of antisemitism, been careful to stay on script. As soon as he came off script, he mused that if only an armed guard had been present the whole thing would have been avoided. And therein lies the challenge.
My money is that by this time next week we will have been told by Trump that there were very fine people on both sides of the recent bomb assassination attempts, and very fine people on both sides of the synagogue gun massacre.
5
Since comments are not open, just wanted to thank NYT's David and Ian Prasad for keeping track of every corrupt move and deal by the toxic Trump administration. They give a bad name for business leaders as well, because not all business and commercial individuals are corrupt, but the Trumps and Kushners, take it to a whole different level, seen mostly in corrupt administrations abroad.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/28/opinion/trump-administration-corrupti...
Keep up the good work, History is witness and is recording every minute detail. Future generations are owed this.
5
What concerns me is what overplaying your hand will look like in the coming months. There is no doubt that at this point Trump is overplaying a bad hand---even is bluffs are looking amateurish. But, if the democrats do take the house, and do call his bluff, what does the next shuffle look like? It would not surprise me at all if the democrat do win, that he declares a state of emergency---migrant terror groups are heading for the Capital--- surrounds Congress until he gets his wall and internment camps. The same day, he would have fired his generals and put Flynn or maybe one of his sons in charge of the Department of Defense.
2
I am still unable to fully comprehend, fifty years after the death of Martin Luther King, the persistent and pervasive level of racial hatred existing in the hearts of millions of Americans. Yes, Trump horrifically encourages haters to be more vocal, and to act on their impulses, all to win elections. Such conduct is undeniably reprehensible. But Trump didn't instill a previously non-existent racism in millions of Americans. Contrary to a recent Supreme Court decision, racism has not been eliminated, in fact, it has not even been diminished. Trump is not the problem. Racism is the problem, racism taught to children at a young age by their parents, pastors, teachers and peers. The dilemma facing America is how to re-educate or un-educate this large segment of the population. My only solution is integration- allow whites to live, work and worship with minorities, to develop friendships with people who are different. Unfortunately, racism itself precludes integration.
85
@Disillusioned. I wish integration worked better, but I've known a lot of white people who, one on one, have lived in integrated neighborhoods and have black friends but STILL act with racial bigotry when talking about groups of non-whites. It's beyond me how that can happen, but it does.
3
@Disillusioned
Agreed up to the point at which you said "Trump is not the problem." When the president of the United States speaks and behaves in a tone and manner that incites violence, that encourages it, that glorifies it, and that applauds it (anyone who can body slam a reporter, "he's myy guy") is very much the problem. Yes, racism is at the root. But for people who, for the most part, have nothing else of accomplishment in their lives, who hear "you're my guy" if you punch a perceived opponent, that's often all they need to act out their erotic fantsasy of smacking a reporter, slapping a woman, reporting a black family for barbecuing in a public park, shooting up a school, sending pipe bombs to the "opposition" and shooting up people peacefully at a religious service. So, yes, indeed, Trump is a big part of the problem. This stuff did not happen with such frequency---and bravado---when Obama was president. And when it did, Obama did not smugly, almost gleefully send an implicit "job well done" to the perpetrators by tweeting "fake news" or "there are fine people on both sides."
12
@Disillusioned "My only solution is integration- allow whites to live, work and worship with minorities, to develop friendships with people who are different. "
Allow? What's stopping them?
7
Last week there were also two people killed in a grocery store in Kentucky by a gunman because they were black. Their names were Vickie Lee Jones and Maurice Stallard. They, too, were apparently victims of the same toxicity. Don’t let them be forgotten.
1286
@Vanessa Hall I have been talking about this for days and days and have yet to encounter recognition from many people who normally would have known about it. Is this where we have arrived? We need numbers to respond to even the most aggressive anti-humans among us? Waiting (waiting, waiting, waiting, ....) for the president to respond to any of these heinous crimes and to attempt to lead. Vickie and Maurice, we honor your names.
51
@Vanessa Hall
I’m glad to see this attack mentioned. Unfortunately it has been over shadowed by even worse. I believe I read that the killer first tried to enter a church, but found it locked. I keep wondering if he had been able to get in how much worse the carnage would have been.
42
@Vanessa Hall Thank you for connecting these two horrific events. I am Jewish and I had heard about this attack, and how that white male terrorist couldn't get into a black church though he tried. It is not lost on me that we must all unite against hatred and bigotry spewing from Trump via dog whistles to his base. We are all in this together, and must remain vigilant together, if we are to preserve what America was truly meant to be.
35
“Asked whether he [Richard Spencer] considers Trump an ally, Spencer replied that while he didn’t think of Trump as ‘alt-right,’ he considers the president to be ‘the first true authentic nationalist in my lifetime.’ ”
And Trump has made it clear he considers himself a "true authentic" (or to be clear, "white") nationalist, because his ongoing use of coded language gives the alt-right reason to support him.
10
What is new is that republican leaders like Kevin McCarthy, Charles Grassley, and Mitch McConnell are going on cable shows and spouting the far right conspiracies...that is new - it gives legitimacy to the frauds. We need new guardrails as the republicans have chosen to drive through all that is right and fair to hold on to power.
21
I see alot of comments here, but how many of us are willing to sit down and discuss issues face to face with our opponents? the problem is that we as a nation do not engage until will have a tragic incident. How many of these Angry white men and women feel left behind, not so called "White Privledged" and feel ignored or dismissed from contributing to solutions. Many feel marginalized and not considered or given options for tuition, welfare, housing that they feel go to underseving people of color. We need to show more kindness and re-engage with all people to stop the hate and misinformation that it out there now destroying us.
1
@Hello
Thank you for saying what needs to be said. People who speak of white privilege have obviously not spent time looking at rural poverty in this country. There are a lot of problems in this country and a lot of finger pointing. But in reality, as The Center for the Study of Hate and Extremisim at the Univ of California reports, incidents of hate crimes have been steadily growing over the last 5 years. We have become a nation that picks sides and screams at each other. It's time to stop, listen and try to find common ground.
I've said it before, all anyone really wants is a decent job, food on the table and a roof overhead. Access to good healthcare and education is also critical. If we can commit to a path where everyone can find their way to these basics, everything else will fall into place.
Your call for tolerance and understanding of people with uncontrolled hate is puzzling. Their inability to cope can not be solved by my "understanding" their reasoning. The majority is at least civil to these people, but we can't ignore hate when it becomes violent.
1
I don’t think that Trump has the ability to conduct a campaign without using fear and loathing to attract and to motivate people to vote as he’d like. He doesn’t have the positive feelings about people that it takes to raise up their feelings to help them feel good about themselves.
4
Very succinctly said. Now we must vote and keep our powder dry because these right wing advocates will obviously not go down without a fight. Civil War II is upon us.
8
We just had a president who did not incite violence, is not a racist, and is not a misogynist. He pulled us out of the Great Recession, despite the GOP working against him. He used prudent policies to keep jobs, inflation, and the battered housing market stable. The stock market recovered and made sizable gains, continuing to this day. He understood not to overheat the economy and to impose regulations on the banking industry so we would not have another tumultuous crash. He knew not to drag his country down in the folly of vengeful and petty trade wars.
He did not eviscerate the social safety net to pay for senseless tax cuts for the wealthy and massive spending on defense. He promoted robust and equitable public education. He did not have ties to dictators worldwide, for personal gain. Members of his staff were not under criminal investigation.
He made the U.S. an integral member of the Paris Accord and brokered the Iran deal. He never dreamed of tearing up the INF, which protects us from a nuclear first strike. He respected the Constitution and the oath he swore to protect it. He understood that immigrants represent the future of our country. He did not prey on his fellow citizens with fear, simply for the sake of fear.
Now we have a president who relishes in lurching us from one chaotic crisis to another, simply because he enjoys it. Is this the result of some natural cataclysm? No, it is of our own making. It is unforgivable if we do not work to correct our mistake.
38
My parents were staunch Republicans, but I remember, as a little girl, watching JFK's inauguration and feeling so inspired by his good words. Like most of my generation, we were inspired to give back, join the Peace Corp. get physically fit and so on. I wonder what children today are thinking as they see new hand grenades thrown on the dumpster fire every week by the tantrum in chief.
I often wonder if Trump wakes up just thinking what can I destroy next?
What messages are we sending to the next generation?
20
"It is almost impossible in most cases to attach the words of one person to the deeds of another," according to Mr. Blow's column.
When that "one person" is the President of the United States, Donald J Trump, what is "almost impossible" suddenly becomes a whole lot easier."
9
The tragedies that occurred this week are heart rending. But who in these communities would ask Donald Trump for a thoughtful, heartfelt eulogy? It's just not there in his personality. Politico is saying he has 9 hours of free time during the day. No wonder he tweets all day. No wonder he attends rally after rally. You cannot change the minds of people who voted for him. They will never see that the person they voted in to be the President of the United States is nothing more than a product of white privilege who has no empathy for tragedy. He cannot understand the perspective of others. Just like so many of his followers.
8
''...but now that they have an inch, they want a mile.'' - and there you have it.
It could be said about the privileged elite in general, that continuously want more and more and are never satisfied. It is not that taxes are ever low enough, or government ever neutered enough. (at least towards them) It is not that education is privatized enough, or health care as well. It is not that there can ever be peace, but there has to be constant war and agitation.
The division comes from the top in the guise of this President, and right on cue, people are taking them from him. They can openly salute the way that they do, and attack (verbally or literally) without cause, other than ''other'' as an excuse.
This President has to be removed (either by impeachment, indictment or electorally) at the first possible moment, for there to be even a chance at healing, or coming together.
Until then, the hate permeates from the top.
7
when the supposed leader of the free world incites violence through provoking public speech and is not accountable, this result is not surprising.
4
Trump is the very public amplifier for all those who align themselves with Absolutist/Purist movements in America that seek to solidify the boundaries/borders/walls that define them from us. Those inside those parameters are the good legitimate people, those outside are illegitimate and eventually become legitimate only as targets for the fear and hatred that is brewed inside the ever-tightening circle called “us.”
There is a lot of energy, negative energy, in those groups both inside the USA and around the globe. Trump, and others have tapped that energy in their search for personal power. Trump is surfing a wave of negative energy. I pity those inside the circle they define as us because one day the circle will tighten to the point where they are now deemed illegitimate and them. In the end the circle always tightens to the point where there is only room for one. Eventually, Trump himself, because he really isn’t sufficiently pure, will be forced out by the purest-of-the-pure. In the meantime the carnage will get worse unless enough of us wake up and make it end.
1
If we believe that Trump's violence-tinged, scapegoating rhetoric has nothing to do with the hateful criminal actions of individuals, then we must also believe that his inspirational, unifying messages have no positive power to influence individual behavior either. Maybe Americans have lost faith in and respect for their political leaders and consider their words empty and meaningless. Better human beings and better orators than Donald Trump, most recently Barack Obama, have certainly appealed to our better natures and called us to unity, civility and respect for our fellow citizens, apparently to no avail. Maybe the thing is, too often the high-minded words of past leaders have not been matched by their executive and legislative actions.
1
@abigail49
"If we believe that Trump's violence-tinged, scapegoating rhetoric has nothing to do with the hateful criminal actions of individuals, then we must also believe that his inspirational, unifying messages have no positive power to influence individual behavior either."
I am drawing a blank here.
Could you identify anything Trump has said that is inspirational or unifying?
All I can say is that I hope the women of this country can save it from a completely unfettered Trump. The men clearly won't do it. Remember, we could not even get the equal rights amendment ratified by the requisite 3/4 of the states. The US with an unfettered Trump will be unrecognizable in 2020.
9
@James Ricciardi
Actually, we only need one more state to ratify the ERA. There was a full-page ad for that just the other day in my Arizona newspaper. (Nevada ratified March 2017 and Illinois May 2018) That makes 37 states. The national ratification deadline is still contested, though.
6
My children have a Jewish father; my daughter-in-law is Vietnamese; my grandchild is biracial.
I'm petrified for all of them.
8
Mr Blow, calamitous news, at a personal or national level, have only one merit: to make us face facts without embellishment, unless we like to deceive ourselves. America has made great contributions to the advance of civilization in modern times, but it has never really faced or atoned for its greatest sin, slavery. That bad fairy brought two 'gifts' to the christening of the nation: racism and the Second Amendment. The evils of racism are evident and, sadly, widespread across nations. The Second Amendment is a unique American perversity: there is no purpose in owning arms others than being able to kill people, and no civilized nation can be based on the killing of people as acceptable or worthy of support, other than in war. The obvious consequence of massive numbers of people owning a massive number of guns is that they will use them. It's as simple as that.
Having had sufficient dinners with educated, 'civilized' Upper West Side libertarians through many visits to New York, I don't need to hear the views on guns of their rougher brothers in Texas or Iowa. Until America as a community faces its ugly original sin, these lamentations, by now as regular as a clock pendulum, are pointless.
1
Let's not ignore the fact that Trump lies about the people he uses as enemies, in the words of the Ten Commandments, bearing false witness against his neighbors. It is critically important to recognize that falsehood is at the heart of the Trump movement.
7
Talk is cheap for Trump, but the cost is and will be high. He won't be able to escape paying the price.
3
Trump knows exactly what he is doing. He is in a race to the railroad crossing against the Mueller freight train. He knows that he is in a race against time, and his only hope - and his family's hope - is to create as much chaos as he can, and undermine the institutions to such a point that the charges brought against him will be as worthless as the institutions that brought them.
10
Yes, true. But where is economics in this year's politics? Muted, always muted.
When do we face not just the corruption, but the economics of such an unequal society? When do we face the billionaires, the hedge funds, the private equity funds, the CEOs and Boards of Directors? The nation is owned by a few. When do we face that?
And by face, of course, I mean politically, with policy. Let's talk wealth tax, raising the top rate, carried interest, write-offs, etc. We are so, so slow to deal with our grotesque inequality. So slow to have real discussion over how to destroy the poverty that destroys so many, and create the 'more perfect Union' and focus on the 'greater good'. We are lost until we commit to loving each other more than loving our money, property and power. We have the very worst of all President's to do this; so, we must do it ourselves; there's over 300 million of us. US.
163
@ttrumbo Very well said. Lack of universal healthcare alone will bring this nation to its knees, and already has devastated so many. The best way to save money? Humane national policies from universal healthcare to abolishing the death penalty and free, accessible birth control and higher ed. All of this is extremely practical and doable but the REPUBLICANS would rather spend millions on a bloated military and violent, global interventions and millions more on death penalty appeals than on more civilized (and less expensive) criminal justice, birth control, universal healthcare (and dental and vision), and affordable higher ed. The United States of America is extremely sick (literally) and is being led to its doom by mentally ill, sadistic corporations and the white 1% and their bought-out Republican sycophants.
3
The deaths in Pittsburgh were collateral damage.
In any war, there will be collateral damage. Trump and his most extreme supporters believe that they are in a war.
No one could know how the collateral damage would manifest but, it would manifest.
4
Is it possible that despite getting less than half of the popular vote, the majority is in agreement with his policies and attitudes?
I wonder if the bomber and the gunman voted in recent elections. To think that Americans would rather take up arms than vote is as scary as it gets and suggests more of the same given the absence of restraint and oversight in Washington.
2
What a heartbreaking loss and degradation of life. Deepest condolences to all family and friends of those who attended this synagogue, and to Jewish people everywhere.
Where I grew up, hard work and respect for others of all walks of life were required for success. If you worked hard, at whatever you chose to focus on, and treated others respectfully, you achieved success.
All Americans need to decide whether honest discussion, hard work to iron out areas we can agree on, and a little looking out for the other guy, is the path they would like to take in the future.
5
Trump or no Trump is the crucial issue of our age. Everything else in American politics is secondary.
26
Bill Moyers has pointed out the danger of the demise of the Fairness Doctrine in the media. Previously in our media history, no single point of view could dominate a news program; equal time was required for all and there was a much more civil discourse. These days, both the left and the right have a 24/7 opportunity to control the tone and content according to their viewpoint. It was during the Reagan era that the Fairness Doctrine was dropped, and the danger of disinformation was reinforced by the Clinton Administration when it signed the Federal Communications Act of 199(7?) into law, allowing fewer corporations to own more and more stations. There is some truth to Trump's "fake news" claim; if not outright fake, it is at least skewed.
7
@Denny
But Trump doesn't say skewed news. He says fake, which implies that it is made up. The vast majority of the stories reported about Donald Trump are in fact accurate and certainly aren't being made-up out of whole cloth. This includes the reporting on his own words, his own past business dealings, his own alleged tax evasion schemes, his own behavior towards foreign dictators. What is fake, or intentionally misleading about the reporting on these topics? Trump simply uses these charges of 'fake news' to undermine the legitimacy of any media source that calls him out on his transgressions. If they were saying glowing things about him he wouldn't say their news was fake. Trump is a champion of fake and intentionally misleading 'news' as long as it supports his 'winning'.
Reporting that is critical or biased doesn't necessarily make it fake. What makes any news fake is a deliberate intention to distort facts in order to mislead the intended audience. In this regard the so called conservative media consistently leads the way, and its not even close.
2
@Sean Sean, you've got no argument from me. I was trying to be even-handed and to practice what I preach!
Let's not kid ourselves. We are now engaged in our 2nd Civil War. I hope the FBI works closely with police departments throughout the country to protect our polling places--which number well over 100,000 nationwide--on November 6. I know my polling place in Madison, CT. does not use a metal detector. People can walk in and out freely. Does anyone at this point really think it's paranoid to suspect that Trump's base of crazed haters will try to suppress a "blue wave" by bombing or shooting up select polling places?
39
@WDG All they have to do is to deter a few blue voters. At this time the tacit threat may be enough. We all have to stand up to this bullying and not let it succeed. In my opinion, the entire discussion about open carry of guns is just another way to communicate threats to people with different points of view. They cannot really be that frightened.
1
@WDG yes. I think you've been watching too many movies.
Leadership. Abraham Lincoln referred to "the better angels of our nature" (in context of "We are not enemies, but friends")--meaning that there are worse angels, too.
Such being our mixed individual and social nature, political leaders can awaken, develop and direct opposed aspects already in us. Demagogues such as Trump have a talent for calling on the worse. History shows how they are responsible for what ensues.
22
Trump and his supporters (mostly Republicans) will never admit that their words and ideas will do anything but make America great again. The problem with that is their definition of great. They want to exclude, not include. And the more people they can exclude, the greater they think America is. This flaw has always been in the American character, but now it has a champion in POTUS and his political party. I shudder to think what will happen, if the American people allow this to go further than it already has.
103
Politics can get ugly — it has always been this way — but in the past, when the election is over and the job of governing begins, presidents have taken seriously the need to be president of all Americans. George W. Bush, after he lost the popular vote and was put in office by a court decision, reportedly obsessed over this problem. He made pains in his actions and words to fulfill that necessary role, even as much of the country cried foul. He did not seek to make political hay out of the country’s divisions the way that President Trump does. Instead, he worked hard to do the opposite. I hated much of what 43 did — taking us into two unwinnable wars, overseeing unprecedented war profiteering, gutting the grant programs that had enabled me to get a college degree, defunding health insurance subsidies — but I had to admire the way, after 9/11, he stood strongly against the vigilantism faced by millions of Muslim citizens and residents, even as the more extreme people in his party beat the drums of hatred and fear. And Bush’s principled stand made a difference in countless people’s lives — including, no doubt, a few misguided would-be perpetrators.
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@Chad
Although I'm a lifelong Democrat, I gave W full credit for his post 9/11 speech to Congress. I told my teenage sons (at the time) to watch their President deliver this wonderful speech. But Dick Cheney lurked in the shadows and his hunger for Middle East oil resources brought out the worst in the administration. Too bad W didn't reject Cheney's influence outright. I think, and there is evidence to support this, that W and Cheney are not very friendly today.
6
@Chad
Too bad Obama didn't follow Bush's leadership example. Obama left the country more divided than it had been in a long, long time...and helped give us Trump, the gift that keeps on taking.
1
@Chad Yep, but it's still kind of a dark day when one misses the humanity and "statesmanship" of George W. Bush. I cringed at the time, but this dumpster fire is an order of magnitude worse.
9
What I can't understand, is that the people around him, his family,
cabinet, etc., don't understand where all this is heading.
Would the tax cuts be worth a civil war?
Republicans had better vote for democrats this time around.
225
@Stephen. You mention the family around Trump. I wonder too...Jared and Stephen Miller, both Jewish. Have they sold their souls to the devil as well?
For What? Power and wealth?
I’m not optimistic. Not at all!
11
@Stephen They don't care about anything but $, like him.
5
"However, it must also be said that Trump has produced a toxic environment of intolerance in this country that is deep and wide. He has flirted with the deepest racists and Nazis and it has not gone unnoticed, least of all by them."
People thought that Hitler was a nothing. He was responsible for the murder of 6 million Jews and 1 million Roma, and countless others including the Germans who he was supposed to represent.
This country is in the midst of a real problem and it's worse than Trump being incompetent or a con artist. It's that he and the GOP are inciting these people and then denying any responsibility for the results. They are exacerbating it further by continuing to make irresponsible and racist statements. When will we see the American version of the Nuremberg Laws? Or will they simply revive the laws that existed in the segregated South and apply them to every minority that isn't "white" enough for them or heterosexual enough for them?
I'm sure that not every person who voted for Trump is getting what s/he bargained for. But there are more than a few who are and they are dangerous to the continuation of our democracy. I've never, in my life, heard a president threaten the country if an election doesn't go his way. Yet I find myself quite concerned with what will happen if the Democrats do win more than a token seat or three. What will be done if we speak and Trump doesn't like the results?
331
@hen3ry Carl Bernstein of Watergate fame reported a week ago Friday night that Trump is thinking about law suits if the elections put the democrats in charge of a house of congress. The plan is supposedly to then nullify the election. Carl Bernstein is a very responsible reporter so we should all be worried.
29
Very well said. I don’t know where people THINK atrocities begin, but it’s not usually with an immediate construction of camps. A great many Trump apologists seem to be under the impression that they can ignore Trump’s rhetoric, allow him to dominate the DOJ for his private purposes, position loyalists within the other branches of government... and then just snatch power back from him if he turns out to be every bit as unhinged as he routinely presents himself.
19
And I'm not saying that all people who support Trump are racists. I'm only saying that they're all supporting one.
624
@stu freeman When you support a Nazi you are a Nazi. When you support a racist you are a racist.
11
@stu freeman
Well said.
1
@stu freeman
The simple test is whether they support, or go along with racist policies. That's all it takes to be considered a racist.
Identifying racism is not difficult.
The simple test is whether they support, or go along with racist policies. That's all it takes to be considered a racist.
Identifying racism is not difficult.
5
It’s becoming apparent that the device you are looking at right now is the deadliest , most powerful weapon around . There’s no going back .
55
TRUMP WILL TRY TO NULLIFY THE MIDTERM RESULTS:
Excuse me for being slightly off-topic, but in the not-so-long run, this warning will become highly relevant to the discussion at hand.
People get ready and pay attention. There is already talk within the White House of Trump trying to nullify the midterm results, should the Democrats win back the house. (He's being backed by Russian trolls who are already calling the election results illegitimate.)
His plan is to say swarms of illegals voted, then declare victory for the Republicans. In the ensuing constitutional crisis, he would try to completely reverse the election results.
This doesn't come from me or some online conspiracy theorists. It comes from veteran White House reporter Carl Bernstein who has impeccable qualifications and reliable White House sources. Please read:
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-2018-election-illegitimate-democra...
What can you do? Send this information to everyone you know. Expose it now, so the White House will have to go into bunker mode and abandon its plan.
283
@Philip S. Wenz. I go one step further and worry that trump will make a try to suspend the election. On 9/11 the ongoing primary election in NYC was suspended because of the terrorist attacks. Considering the incredible circumstances, it was justified and the election was held 2 weeks later. I worry trump will find a way to justify suspending this election. If this happens, the elections will never be resumed.
96
@Philip S. Wenz
I'll go even further.
If Trump were to lose the 2020 election, he would nullify those and if he did win he would try to find a way to stay in office after 2024.
He has no intentions of going away.
23
@Philip S. Wenz Horrifying thought but not beyond the realm of possibility since Trump did claim he would not accept the presidential election if he did not win our first clue of his desire to be America's first dictator.
16
It is more than a cliché to say that words have consequences. It's the literal truth.
Words are the one and only means we humans have to communicate, and when members of Congress, Parliaments or National Assemblies, Presidents or Kings are (deliberately?) careless about what words they say, or omit, the consequences can be world-changing.
The words of King Henry II "will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?" were a death sentence for Thomas Becket.
198
@mancuroc
"Words are the one and only means we humans have to communicate . . . ."
Really? So when I, for example, open the door for a stranger I am not communicating with that individual? Please tell that to the last 75 or so years of 1A jurisprudence in the Supreme Court (Hint: look to West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette).
Hair Twittler, alias tRump, wants us to believe his words are extremely effective in causing people to adore and vote for him but utterly incapable of causing people to spew hatred and engage in violence.
6
@Logic
Opening a door may say something, but it is not equivalent to encouraging supporters at rallies to beat up protesters, alienating our allies, or praising dictators.
And has Trump ever opened a door for anyone?
You also seem to be overlooking relatively recent Supreme Court decisions allowing the weakening of voting rights, equating money with speech, and giving corporations more rights than people.
Really.
That was about as massive a back-handed compliment as I’ve ever read. “Homicidal maniacs are responsible for their own actions. … However, it must also be said that Trump has produced a toxic environment of intolerance in this country that is deep and wide. He has flirted with the deepest racists and Nazis and it has not gone unnoticed, least of all by them.”
I suppose that back-handed is better than no compliment at all.
Two murderous and hateful criminals, one an attempted mass murderer and the other a certified mass murderer. Trump has not minced words in condemning both, and has opined that the perpetrator of the Squirrel Hill outrage should be condemned to death for his actions.
Trump has “produced” no such toxic an environment of intolerance. That environment has existed in America among our worst since our founding as a nation. Indeed, that environment has existed globally for as long as we’ve been human. Whenever its exponents have been pushed hard enough by their lights, as they concluded they were in 1960s America, they’ve pushed back murderously. No decent American supports their actions, and Trump has made clear that HE doesn’t. It’s happening globally as ancient ethnic and racial redlines are being crossed by an unconquerable and increasing pressure to diversify cultures and peoples. Those who regard themselves as the “losers” in that fight are not going gently into that good night.
However, critics of Trump have a case that because he’s championed …
21
@Richard Luettgen wrote, "Trump has not minced words in condemning both, and has opined that the perpetrator of the Squirrel Hill outrage should be condemned to death for his actions." Yes, Trump can read from a script as well as anyone. It's not hard to tell when he is.
492
@Richard Luettgen: Well enough said, Richard, except that we are NOT all playing a role in the atomization of America. Nor can we ALL be regarded as haters. Yes, I can certainly attest to my contempt for the current occupant of the Oval Office but, no, I don't hate all of those who've chosen to support him- in spite of their ignorance and extreme susceptibility. Most of all, I hate The Donald precisely because he's our chief executive and precisely because he'd sooner play one demographic against another than unite the nation by appealing to our better angels. My own hatred, limited as it is in scope, does not in any case carry the same significance as that exhibited by Mr. Trump. No does anyone else's.
12
@Richard Luettgen yes, you would fail to understand how Trump's words are setting things in motion. Trump has made it clear that he does support such actions. He likes the congressman who body slammed a reporter. He thinks that the synagogue is at fault because they didn't have armed guards at the doors. He and the GOP, by continuing to "govern" the way they do and by saying what they say when it comes to people who are not "generic" Americans are giving racists, bigots, anti-Semites, and white supremacists the green light.
Trump and the GOP have made their choices quite clear. They will represent the richest among us, the whitest among us; in other words the economic elites, a few of whom are actively engaged in wrecking the country for everyone but themselves.
247
"Therein lies the uneasy alliance: The white nationalists, neo-Nazis and alt-right are energized by Trump’s election, and yet many find his white power positioning falls short of their own......That doesn’t mean that Trump doesn’t court their support and defend their actions."
The president, as usual, wants to have it both ways: send signals to white nationalists that he's got their back, but maintaining his cover of not being anti-semitic because he supports Israel, as well as his daughter and son-in-law.
But I maintain that once the nationalist geni is out of the bottle, even Donald Trump can't just stuff him back into the bottle just because things become "inconvenient."
The president is playing a dangerous game, as became apparent this weekend. Because hate is hate, just as likely to unleash the Bowers of this world as the Florida mail bomber.
This has been a horrible, poisonous, untenable week for an America increasingly under siege by the forces and feelings unleashed by this vitriolic president.
During his inaugural, the new president gave a dark, dispiriting speech most memorable for his declaration, "this American carnage must stop."
I think he got it backwards, frankly, because what he said then is what he should be saying now.
406
@ChristineMcM Patricia Barber sings "...she likes the matches and smells the gaz..."; Trump is not smart enought to understand the result of his ferocious speech against some people nor he is understansding the normal reaction to his acts.That is why he file bankrupt SIX times; he does not learn at all! Vote in November for the Democrats,please.Best
4
Kushner himself, in desperate search for a billionaire lifestyle, is a traitor to his people and an enabler of anti-semitism. As low a specimen as they come.
10
@ChristineMcM Such a poor excuse for a man, is he.
5
Maybe you’re positive you aren’t racist, but that you favor Trump. So you’re willing to love the guy that the racists love for whatever reason. And therefore you’re willing to make our Nazis and Klanners happy along with you. I know, all candidates and Presidents have something wrong with them. I certainly disagreed with many things Obama did. But we’re talking about Nazis and the Klan here.
320
@Dagwood: Commenters use words race, ,racism racist so casually, yet few can define what the word means, or r aware anthropologists who exhume remains of victims of dictatorships deny word has validity! Consensus is it does not. Why is author not mentioning this fact? Moreover, words like white and black r too vague to have meaning. Clement Carrasco, former policeman from Oran when it was still a sleepy French prefecture and who deserted to join the OAS, always said who knows where we all come from!Ironic that left blames Trump for the fusillade in Pittsburgh at the synagogue, when his grandchildren r of the Orthodox faith, as well as his daughter and son-in-law.Orthodox is much stricter than reform I am told by my son who graduated from Ramaz! We should be commiserating with Pres. TRUMP, not blaming him!Israel's Ambassador to the US, Ron Dermer, egged on by an MSNBC interviewer to blame Trump for recent outrage, astutely , adeptly mentioned that there is far more anti semitism ON THE LEFT, and on college campuses.Recent video available on Youtube. shows Pamela Geller trying to defend the First Amendment to a group of left wing students in a speech at Bklyn. College, rudely interrupted, intimidated by some wearing hijabs shouting "Long live ISIS!"More amazing: students were egged on by faculty advisers present. Author and commenters r entitled to their opinions, but should realize wisdom in ambassador's remarks! I was impressed!
@Dagwood
You may not have liked Obama or his policies. Obama respected the presidency, and is a cultured and dignified man. Look who's in office now. How different it would have been if Hillary was in office.
12
Kowtow to Donald and there’ll be
A Nation with full Unity,
Let amoral Don
Foist his edicts upon
Us, we’d live brotherly, sisterly.
All but the vindictive Press
Immigrants in deep distress,
Lock-her-up Hillary
Shooters, two or three,
And any man caught in a dress.
Concentrated evil is he,
A White House of moral debris,
A head, cliche-ridden,
With reading forbidden,
All the Fox TV you can see.
220
@Larry Eisenberg
Excellent, and pithy too. Good work!
3
This entire essay undergirds the fact Pres. Weasel 45* is unfit for office and to serve as commander-in-chief; he should be removed under the 25th amendment.
Whether his actions are implusive or compulsive are no matter, this POTUS has demonstrated time and again by daily word, action, and deed that he is a clear and present danger to our citizens' safety, security, happiness, and general welfare.
This one reason alone merits replacing every GOP'er up for election, so the Legislative Branch can fulfill its enumerated duty of being a check on the Executive Branch.
Though, we're certain the Mueller Report will cite plenty of high crimes and misdemeanors, in addition.
256
@R. Law
We should expect exactly nothing from the Mueller report. Mueller doesn't support the idea of impeachment of a sitting president, and the report will probably not even be made public (except by leaking, as per usual procedure). And they certainly will never find proof of collusion by Trump himself for the simple reason that he never wanted to win in the first place. This has been corroborated by many people, including those who were present on election night. There was crying (not for joy) and disbelief. Michael Lewis talks about it in "The Fifth Risk." And much of the incomprehensible chaos in the beginning of the administration can be attributed to Trump's disbelief that he would win. It costs millions of dollars to transition, and Trump, cheapskate that he is, didn't want to spend the money on it since it would just be wasted.
Forget about Mueller. He isn't going to save us. Neither is impeachment.
26
@Margaret - The only thing that will 'save us' will be the day in Nov. 2020 when His Unhinged Unraveling Unfitness and Pence wake up knowing they will need private homes again after noon on Jan. 20, 2021.
As for the Mueller Report, we trust the Special Counsel will be just as diligent as the Watergate prosecutor, and make sure the sitting Grand Jury has the Report to release itself, same as in the Watergate saga - bypassing Congress and the Justice Dept. if need be to get the information to the public.
Meanwhile, the die has already been cast as to what the nation will have to endure to be sure that not only America's citizens, but the rest of the world, knows that democracies function to be sure no person is above the law - American law simply does not allow a POTUS to flout the law (they're not norms, they're actual laws) and be excused because it's inconvenient and time-consuming to enforce the law.
All of which is why we must have a Dem Senate as well as a Dem House by dawn on Nov. 7; the longer the lawlessness is paraded in front of us, the more damage is done, and the harder it will be to rectify.
All of this has been brought upon the nation by the corrupt GOP'er gatekeepers, who very well knew they should never let such person as djt anywhere near a ballot slot - but the craven fools bet all this would be worth it for judges, tax cuts, deregulation. They are wholly to blame.
94
@R. Law
I agree that this POTUS should be replaced, the sooner, the better. What makes me hesitate is the fact that the Pence waiting in the wings is worse.
4
Hatred as I see it is reflected in the faces and body language of trump supporters at his rallies. They are white and they are very angry. And yes some of them will commit a horrible crime or at least support it, cheering on the perpetrators. This is a very dangerous time we live in.
625
@Jordan Davies: And at the same time they'll demand that people who HAVEN'T committed crimes (or even been charged with one) get "locked up." So there's that...
97
@Jordan Davies
In the WSJ on 10-25 Peggy Noonan wrote that Trump supporters are not angry at his rallies, that they are having "fun," that they don't leave "whipped into a rage; they leave in a good mood." As long as there is this kind of disconnect between what you and I see on those faces, and what so-called moderate Republicans see, nothing will change. Things will only get worse.
16
It was obvious from the first that Trump was going to try straddling both sides of the fence when it came to hate. David Duke enthusiastically embraced candidate Trump, even saying that Trump's success encouraged Duke's own run for office. Trump dragged his feet in denounce Duke, lying that he didn't know who the man was, later claiming not to have understood a question about the endorsement. When Trump finally denounced Duke, he did so sounding resentful and deeply insincere.
That's how Trump still is about bigotry; he'll happily exploit it for political gain, then will generically criticize prejudice when he has to. There's no having it both ways here.
411
@NM
In literature & art, the devil is always pictured as two-faced....
1
Thank you, Mr. Blow, for once again having the courage, the analytic thinking skills, and the professional talent and honed skills for putting into it all into to easy - to - comprehend written words — that — as this piece so eloquently does: speaks truth to power. So very important what you wrote. So very truthful what you wrote. Thank you.
350
We have in this nation, a large, highly developed infrastructure of hate that exists primarily for profit and also for acquiring political power. The power is needed to produce more profit.
Some people listen to Limbaugh on the radio, then later switch to Hannity. When they come from from work, they watch Fox News until bedtime. Any gaps can be filled in with internet hate sites and the hate garbage flows incessantly to their Facebook and Twitter accounts. We have a stream of hate moving at high speed 24/7.
We have no leadership to oppose and moderate the flow of this hate. To the contrary, we have a leader who capitalizes on it and maximises it for power and profit. We had a leader who was the complete opposite but the haters hated him so much they never understood a word he said or anything he did.
Reciting a few prewritten lines, in a half hearted fashion, composed by an operative, is not opposing hate. It's just a smokescreen to allow Trump's people say, see he opposes hate.
No he doesn't. He makes his living off of it. He thrives off of it. Ask a drug addict if he hates heroin. Sure, he will say. Then he says, you got any smack I can score? I need a hit.
That's Trump. He is the hate addict that utters a few words here and there about condemning this or that, then he goes right along spewing his hate speech and asks for more. Trump is a hate speech addict and he has created a nation of hate addicts by selling them the addictive hate drug.
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@Bruce Rozenblit. The Germans had a belly full of the consequences of hate during WWII. Perhaps that is why they have laws that actually prohibit this kind of hate speech. They still have right wingers but the language is toned down quite a bit. And lucky them, I don’t think they have easy gun laws either.
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@Bruce Rozenblit. The Germans had a belly full of the consequences of hate during WWII. Perhaps that is why they have laws that actually profit this kind of hate speech. They still have right wingers but the language is toned down quite a bit. And lucky them, I don’t think they have easy gun laws either.
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Blame American free speech laws. Hate speech, and the promotion of targeted hate is very illegal in the rest of the Western world outside of academic protections.
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We need to get past the things that have gone unnoticed and start demanding of ourselves to move to act on them.
Trump has been straddling two conflicting political philosophies: white nationalism and what Americans understand as conservatism. But the two have become one and the same, increasingly, since 2010. While the GOP has bled a lot of voters, it also gained a sufficient number to win the 2016 election.
Trump's allies are his rich peers. While many heads of the largest, wealthiest corporations have done the politically-expedient thing: begging off sitting on his boards, leaving office as soon as goals were met (the Tax Scam Bill), all too many have remained on board, through Charlottesville and now Pittsburgh.
Many of those allies are members of my own tribe and for the last two years, I've publicly lamented many times that this is something which my brothers and sisters should publicly decry and disavow. I renew my call today to publicly denounce and shun anyone who remains with Trump.
11 people died in Pittsburgh. Two people died at a Louisville, Kentucky Kroger supermarket, bombs were mailed out - all of these events lead us back to Trump and his many incitements to violence. This blood is on his hands.
Trump ordered the flag to fly at half mast for the victims in Pittsburgh. He should have done the same for the victims in Louisville, but didn't. It's time to tune Trump out and reject his actions.
What Trump did while we weren't looking
https://wp.me/p2KJ3H-2ZW
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@Rima Regas you are so correct. The media skims over things that are of major importance. An adjustment is needed. PLEASE.
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@Rima Regas In your comment, you said about the Republicans that they have "gained a sufficient number to win the 2016 election." Trump got slightly less than 46% of the total vote in 2016 but the key was the 88,000 +/- in the three traditional Democratic states that made him the Electoral College winner. The Clinton campaign assumed incorrectly that it had a lock on Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania and even discouraged increased campaign activities in Michigan just before the election. Big mistake.
It appears from many indications that the Republican party is shrinking and in trouble, but various actions, including gerrymandering House districts and voter suppression efforts, often let Republicans win anyway.
On policy issues, most voters support what the Democrats stand for when they are asked straight forward, non-biased questions. When the voters are buried in right wing propaganda from Fox Noise and other sources, they hate everything about the Democrats, just as the operators of Fox and other outlets direct them to do.
Trump could be the last gasp of a dying party. We will know one way or another in a few election cycles. Meanwhile, we must consider how to improve the influence of actual voters in our democracy, increase the numbers of those who vote and remove or lessen some of the undemocratic aspects. Much work lies ahead.
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Doug Terry,
Nice to hear from you!
I did write that because was it not for the loss of blue collar voters in the middle of the country - voters who traditionally have always voted Democratic - Donald Trump wouldn't be president today.
He won sufficient voters in sufficient states to garner a sufficient number of electoral college votes. Until our system of election is changed, that is what any candidate must continue to aim for in elections.
All the talk about the popular vote is propaganda and not rooted in the most basic of civics and political science, and aimed at soothing angry masses after a terrible loss.
But the rules are what they are and until Democrats can somehow regain the upper hand, those rules will continue to be in force.
As for the last gasp, I used to think that.
But without making conscious changes to how we educate our society and without actively ensuring that the vast majority of Americans share a common font of knowledge and understanding of it, I'm afraid we will continue to diverge and live in realities in which even common events are not agreed on. We are living in an age of cognitive dissonance and the second rise of Jim Crow.
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