• [Trump’s] description of their homelands as "crime infested" deserves some attention, too.
Let's see.
The US is one of 6 countries that make up more than half of gun deaths worldwide with 37,200 in 2016, second only to Brazil.
No other developed nation comes close to the rate of US gun violence.
Data from the Gun Violence Archive reveals there is a mass shooting – an incident in which four or more people, excluding the perpetrator, are shot in one location at roughly the same time – 9 out of every 10 days on average:
196 mass shootings up to June 2019; 323 in 2018; 313 in 2017 as of Trump's accession.
The United States has the highest prison population and the highest incarceration rate in the world.
The incarceration rate of the US is 655 per 100K population; Canada, 114; England and Wales, 146; Australia, 160; Spain, 133; Greece, 89; Norway, 73; Netherlands, 69; Japan is 48 per 100,000.
Compared to countries with similar percentages of immigrants: Germany has a rate of 78 per 100,000; Italy, 96 and Saudi Arabia, 197.
Compared to countries with a Ø tolerance policy for illegal drugs: Russia is 411 per 100,000; Kazakhstan, 194; Singapore, 201 and Sweden, 57 per 100,000.
• Oh, and the real “American carnage” is the surge in “deaths of despair” from drugs, suicide and alcohol among less-educated whites.
"... the US has become 'the most dangerous of wealthy nations for a child to be born into.'”~ DAVID LEONHARDT, NYTimes, Feb. 15, 2018.
AMERICA FIRST!.
3
How to be a White Ally Rule #1:
Never use the n-word. Never. Period.
Don’t quote it and then repeat it. There is no instance I can think of in which you earn the right to say that word. No amount of white sympathy can undo the pain that word (a cruel speech act) performs and effects.
1
Mr. Krugman,
You call Nathan Bedford Forest a traitor, which is beside the point you are trying to make, but if you do consider him a traitor, realize that you must also think of all the colonial Americans who rebelled against English rule as traitors as well. Forest felt he was fighting for his country, as did the colonial rebels.
By the way, this is why the second amendment exists in our Constitution. It is there so that the people can protect themselves from abuse, especially from a corrupt or oppressive government. It is not there so we can go hunting.
"And since we’re having this moment of clarity... "
Don't say WE, or try to put words in our mouths. This is YOUR moment of "clarity".
1
Mr. Krugman,
You call Nathan Bedford Forest a traitor, which is beside the point you are trying to make, but if you do consider him a traitor, realize that you must also think of all the colonial Americans who rebelled against English rule as traitors as well. Forest felt he was fighting for his country, as did the colonial rebels.
By the way, this is why the second amendment exists in our Constitution. It is there so that the people can protect themselves from abuse, especially from a corrupt or oppressive government. It is not there so we can go hunting.
"And since we’re having this moment of clarity... " Don't say WE, or try to put words in our mouths. This is YOUR moment of "clarity".
1
Yes, President Trump is a vicious racist; he's not even pretending to temper his rhetoric anymore. But like everything in his life, his racism also serves a purpose; it is transactional. In 1995, the author Umberto Eco published a list of fourteen characteristics that constitute the DNA of fascism (what he called "Ur-Fascism"). Here are a few:
5. Ur-Fascism grows up and seeks for consensus by exploiting and exacerbating the natural fear of difference. The first appeal of a fascist or prematurely fascist movement is an appeal against the intruders. Thus Ur-Fascism is racist by definition.
10. Elitism is a typical aspect of any reactionary ideology, insofar as it is fundamentally aristocratic, and aristocratic and militaristic elitism cruelly implies contempt for the weak. Ur-Fascism can only advocate a popular elitism. Every citizen belongs to the best people of the world, the members of the party are the best among the citizens, every citizen can (or ought to) become a member of the party.
What's truly frightening is that Mr. Trump fits every one of Eco's characteristics to a frightening degree. So yes, President Trump is a racist. But his racism is part of a broader ideology that can only be described as fascist.
1
As usual it depends on the age and position of who is speaking.
Try being 16 and saying “N N N.” You will find yourself unceremoniously kicked out of Harvard.
Unfortunately, our world is so warped that the words of children are held to higher standard (though taken less seriously) than those of the supposed adults in the room.
Note that “children” also includes 29-year-old Congresswomen. 30 is the new 10. And 79 is the new 40. Just ask anyone over 50.
... part 2
Our country suffered a civil war unseen in the modern era. Post bellum decisions were made in an effort to reunite the country. Like it or not the Southern states are also part of the states of America. The Confederacy was half the United States.
Should the North have killed every Confederate country man after their victory? These days the mass media seems to take that position. People from Tennessee might have relatives that fought for better or worse. Does the USA condemn half the relatives of this country now?
I just don’t understand this NYT position. We either have to work to come together as one country to defend ourselves from threats like China or elsewhere or perish. How is that possible when one half the country is shouting racist at the other half? And the other half is deaf.
What happens to Paul’s position (and many NYT readers) if in fact the country is 1/2 racists? Do we have another civil war? Do we divide into two countries? How does one half compel the other half to follow their beliefs? The Soviet Union and China killed millions to follow specific doctrines. But the US is founded on religious freedom and self-determination. Do we abandon these?
I don’t see how the rhetorical positions of the Republicans or Democrats leads to a unified nation. We are at a disadvantage to China’s mostly homogeneous society and culture. Unlike what many would like to believe the Roman Empire was weakened by diversity. It worked until it didn’t.
The old dog whistle is now a tornado siren, with an underlying chorus of “ Dixie “. Thank you Sir, for stating the truth in blunt language, without equivocation.
He wants to use the N-word, he needs to use the N-word, he WILL use the N-word. At a Loyalty Rally, and on live TV. His Base demands it, and what does he have to lose ? His cowardly Collaborators will express “ concern “ and provide excuses and lies, as usual.
His Base has made a Deal with this particular devil. He gives them permission and approval to Hate, in full public display, and little or no consequences. They give him power, control of “ his “ Party, more Cash and “ Deals “ than Midas, and absolute adoration. For a megalomaniacal Sociopath, NOTHING could be sweeter. Forget the cake and ice cream, it’s Ego and Greed.
I came here from Scotland aged 7. Todai I feel unwelcome. as President Trump attacks Congressionals and Kellyanne Conway questions a reporter's ethnicity instead of answering his question. Petty tyrants use demagoguery to enforce their power. My first President was LBJ. He cajoled; arm twisted and negotiated his way to a Great Society. I cannot countenance Trump/Pence behaving like latter day brownshirts.
56
As my relative from the South said to me about Trump, "He speaks to me..." That says it all.
31
This entire event is being blown out of proportion. When President Trump told the 4 women to "go back to where you came from" could easily be interpreted as "leave Washington, DC" and return to your hometowns." I'm not a Trump supporter per se, but I understand his frustration at constantly being tormented and belittled by the media and members of Congress who are still upset that he won in 2016. Let's give the man credit for a booming economy, tax cuts, and a better quality of life than we've had in a long time. Rather than seeing how we can help the president succeed, the media seem bent on destroying him.
66
”better quality of life" for whom?
154
How much of the feelings of being tormented and belittled are hard-wired into the man's character?
87
Trump's tweet can NOT be interpreted as "leave Washington, DC" and return to your hometowns. Here is what he said as quoted in the NY Times: “So interesting to see ‘Progressive’ Democrat Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world, now loudly and viciously telling the people of the United States, the greatest and most powerful Nation on earth, how our government is to be run.... Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came. Then come back and show us how it is done.”
291
Wearing a "Make America Great Again hat" is like yelling to everyone around you that you're a racist!
When you go to a Trump rally, you scream to America, I'm a racist!
When you tell people you voted for Trump, you confess you're a racist!
45
Can’t he be just banned by twitter for hate speech and for being the biggest troll?
When is enough, enough?
24
But do the rest of the Spanish people and Middle Easterners like being called “Colored”
1
Trump's racist tendencies and blatant favoritism shown to hate mongering white supremists over civilized demonstrators, has been on full display his entire time in office, but good luck getting his flock to agree. They'd be the first to say, "he's not being racist, he's being American!" I don't know who I pity more, the racist fool or his equally racist and feckless followers.
22
Racism came out of the closet when Donald Trump decided to run for the presidency. He ran on a platform o hate. We've had over two years of hate. Charlottesville. Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. The Muslim ban. Foreigners are 'animals, rapists, drug dealers,...' This episode just adds to the litany. Congress can put an end to it.
15
Mr Krugman
Credit the congresswomen for their overt antisemitism. No dog whistles needed!
4
am i correct in thinking that the last openly racist president was andrew johnson who succeeded lincoln in 1865?
3
You give them and him too much credit for any semblance of ever camouflaging their racism; the day the now racist in chief came down that escalator was the day when the "closet " was opened.
12
A racist president and his enabler republican congressmen.
A low point in America, but a sure solution is right in our hands.
Vote them all out!
17
"But there’s no equivalence between even the most foot-dragging Democrats and the G.O.P.’s raw racial incitement, and anyone who suggests otherwise is acting destructively."
If you don't agree with Paul you are a racist? Is there anybody you disagree with that isn't a racist?
1
For over 50 years, the refrain has been: "All White people are racist!!"
Now we hear: "Donald Trump is racist!!"
I'm shocked... shocked.
https://emcphd.wordpress.com
1
Dan asked " We can sit here and criticize the Republican Party for who they are, but they control the Senate, the Supreme Court, the Presidency and most State Houses. If their viewpoint is the minority, why are they winning?"
I realize we tend to want to avoid any comparisons to Nazi Germany and the rise of Hitler, but I would like to remind Dan and others that Hitler came to power through a "democratic" (but highly manipulated) series of elections in which he failed to ever get a majority of votes. If we compare the conduct and policies of Trump and his supporters inside and out of government to what was going on in Germany we are right now pretty close to the 1932-34 time period in Germany.
I doubt Trump ever read Mein Kompf (because he doesn't read) but it sure seems he is following Hitler's playbook to power. To put it another way time is running out for anything resembling democracy in America, and least we forget, for the South, the Civil War never really ended.
14
Bannon: 'Let them call you racist'
Former President Trump adviser Steve Bannon told a National Front crowd in Lille to "wear" accusations of racism "as a badge of honour".
Nothing new here.
17
Here's the way the game was played when I was growing up: Black people were not allowed to own real estate, so some of them bought the nicest cars they could afford. For this, we whites ridiculed them for their foolish and child-like management of money. Blacks were segregated into the worst schools money could buy under "separate but equal." Then, we raised the barriers to all-white public colleges while ridiculing the "Negro Colleges." For this, we sadly deplored their lack of interest in education or their ability to learn, insisting they were handicapped by their inferior race. We levied taxes on them but denied them the right to vote. When they were accused of a crime by a white law enforcement officer, they were automatically convicted by a white jury of OUR peers. They could cook family meals in our homes but they could not dine in our all-white restaurants. We complained about their presence and told them to "go back to Africa," waved confederate flags in their faces and blamed them for being here as we ignored the fact that we had brought them here as slaves, as livestock. What an atrocity! What a crime against humanity! There isn't enough money in the world to pay them back for what they have seen and suffered through. Instead of showing gratitude for their sacrifice, we deliver the ultimate insult: Donald Trump. Stay "angry," you ignorant, selfish white folks!
36
I guess if anybody has the credentials to rap ex cathedra, you do. And you certainly make use of the license.
Trump makes a racist attack on four female legislators of color: no argument here. And then you go on:
"This should be a moment of truth for anyone who describes Trump as a 'populist' or asserts that his support is based on 'economic anxiety'. He’s not a populist, he’s a white supremacist. His support rests not on economic anxiety, but on racism."
Huh? How did you extract all the world-historical stuff from his rant?
Or is there more than the rant? Did his entire constituency stand up and say "that's right; that's what we want---naked racial attacks; we don't care about all that industrial devastation that surrounds us".
Because if they didn't, you are guilty of a non-sequitur. Which you try to obscure by pontificating.
***********
PS. Thanks for not writing baby talk like [the n-word].
1
Yes, reverse racism is definitely out of the closet.
2
Look at his base. How many card carrying White Nationalists are there, celebrating that they have a kindred spirit in the White House?
14
"Racism comes out of the Closet"? What was "some of them (white supremecists, Nazis) were good people"? It's been obvious that he's a bigot for many years. Why the surprise?
8
How many times do people need to hear this? When will thoughtful Americans wake up to the insidious threat that Trump and his white supremacist followers pose to this country?
WHEN?
So many people hear what they want to hear, see what they want to see, and believe what they want to believe. We're all guilty of it to varying degrees. But those degrees vary a lot. Just over 40% of the population wouldn't care if someone they supported went out on 5th ave and shot someone...anyone. Even Trump thought that was unbelievable. Believe it...it's true.
The one thing you can say is it should be apparent to anyone with a brain how the Germans came to accept the Nazi's. We have 40% of this country ready to accept our own, home grown Nazi's.
Sorry to say this, but voting may not be enough. Trump and the republicans hate democracy. Why do YOU think they will accept the results of any election they lose???
WHY?
Better wake up now...all Americans who value the truth and value Democracy...we are about to lose everything.
14
Nancy Pelosi gave trump the green light on this. She came of age when Negros “knew their place” and she publicly bristled at criticism from nonwhite peers. Big mistake. Almost as big as giving a lifelong scofflaw toothless subpoenas. Time to retire, Nancy. Thank you for your service, please take Steny with you.
2
Is he a racist or an opportunist?
He lacks empathy.
He is boorish and vulgar and a ...misogynist.
3
Reverse-racism is out of the closet, too. Don’t subscribe to the Leftist, socialist, non-binary, blame ‘white privilege’ for everything agenda? Well, you must be a racist!
As for the issue of illegal immigrants regardless of color...the American citizenry is under NO obligation to offer up our country as a pressure release valve for the world’s overpopulated Billions... so stop the histrionics!
Nice to see that Krugman mails one in by siding with the crew who feels that if you agree that AOC and the Squad should do less talking and more listening - you're racist. If you believe in securing our borders and punishing those who broke our immigration laws, you're racist. Basically, if you're not thinking the "proper" thoughts, as defined by AOC, Jamelle Bouie, and the Right Reverend Chucky Blow, you're racist.
Guess I'm a racist - who knew?
1
Trump 2020
2
As one ponders history, you have to wonder how someone like Adolf Hitler did what he did. And insist he could never happen again. But here we are in 2019 in a situation that has more in common to that era than differences.
32
This white supremacy needs to be nipped in the bud. These things always start out with vicious name-calling, then continue to shunnings, evictions, physical threats carried out; then they escalate to full-out "racial purification" and finally genocide. Ask any Jewish survivor of Auschwitz-Birkenau, Bergen-Belsen, Dachau, Chelmno, Sobibor, Mauthausen-Gusen, Sachsenhausen. Make no mistake-- this "president" and the GOP would like nothing better than to eliminate all of us, in any way they could. They are the willing inheritors of the Nazi ideology.
26
Trump's "go back home" slur and "love it or leave it" sentiment represent the only two consistent themes of his administration and party. Racism: which is the glue the binds the white-supremacist demagogue to his unhinged and untethered white-supremacist personality cult. And fascism: which conflates leader, nation, ethnicity, race, and religion into a single vile meatball, by whatever means necessary including violence, gaslighting, propaganda, corruption. Both of these are an appalling violation of the aspirations and values that we have never before lost sight of no matter how often we have failed to fulfill them.
12
Amazing to see Trump apologists crawl out from under their rocks to suggest Trump wasn't being racist.
These people project their delusions onto Don while ignoring his documented history of racist actions and comments
and when they've finished projecting ....
Wala!!
Their naked emperor is wearing a fine suit of clothing
14
As long as 'war chests' are necessary for a candidate to establish and maintain significant status' then it doesn't matter whether you are astride a donkey or an elephant. They are from the same stable, drinking the same water and going the same direction.
4
I really don't understand why people don't buy that Donald Trump's is a racist. If his words and actions over the last several years have not been racist then what is?
18
Pres. Trump has done it again.
He has deftly hijacked the media's attention and set the agenda for the whole news cycle.
Trump knows that whatever he says, no matter how ridiculous, THAT immediately grabs the news cycle.
This is the most important thing Trump ever said: "I know how to work the media in a way that they will never take the lights off of me."
This is why he says outrageous, obviously false things. It sets the agenda for the media. Now everyone is babbling about his clearly ridiculous comment.
He must giggle at this...
"I said the STUPIDEST thing today! Get this: I said, Seagulls cause global warming and EVERYONE is yapping about it. Right now, ornithologists are on MSNBC and CNN denouncing me! The Audubon Society just called a press conference and everyone is going to run it live, just like they covered me in the campaign. This is beautiful! Now we can get down to work completely unobserved."
It is classic diversion.
He learned it from Ronald Reagan. Remember these:
"All the waste in a year from a nuclear power plant can be stored under a desk."
"Trees cause more pollution than automobiles do."
"Unemployment insurance is a pre-paid vacation for freeloaders."
"We were told four years ago that 17 million people went to bed hungry every night. Well, that was probably true. They were all on a diet."
All con artists know how to misdirect the crowd.
Did Trump actually utter the words "their countries"? No? That's how he grabs attention.
https://emcphd.wordpress.com
9
Here, here.
2
Paul. Charles Blow covers this issue in every column. You should strive for something less obvious. As to Dems and the race card, where have you been? The Leftists targeted basically older white Americans in their own party. And that was last election. Nancy, Joe, Bernie, these are dinosaurs.
3
An important point to add to this is that, abhorrent as it is, the Republican Party has taken a calculated and deliberate step to adopt the politics of racism. It is an unpleasant reality that the R’s are very, very good at calculating. They have cynically, but effectively, implemented a strategy that has, unfortunately, had a fair amount of success.
The lesson for Democrats is that moral indignation is appropriate (decidedly) but inadequate. We also need to calculate and plan carefully to effectively negate this shameful usurpation of power.
To this end, while the energy and enthusiasm, as well as the diversity, of The Squad is powerful, it isn’t enough. The expertise in wielding the levers of power that Nancy Pelosi has acquired need to take the lead here. Running off half-cocked and brimming with righteous fury may feel empowering, but they are likely to sputter out.
Think twice, act once is the appropriate adage for this campaign.
5
Trump is keeping his base racist base on board and the Republicans are busy rigging the electoral process and approving right wing extremists to court positions. This is not how the Nazis did it last century but I think the desired outcome is the same. Basically the Republicans want to ethnically cleans the country. That would seem what this racst rhetoric implies. The strategy would probably include shutting down immigration, increasing deportation, driving emigration through fear, and as a last resort setting up concentration camps. If this is the strategy we are in the first phase. It is critical to stop this stuff now or before you know it the next phase will be here and so on.
10
Does this racist social media campaign by Trump signal a return to Craniometry as a means test for immigration?
1
Don't these liberal whites hate white people? I heard a Republican cheerleader for Trump denounce Democrats as the real racists. Orwellian speech in the extreme.
5
I am so sick of liberals saying they're frightened. We're only giving more power to the thugs who support this monster. I am not frightened. I am boiling mad.
16
Trump is not intelligent enough to be a racist. He is a bigot.
Does the same now apply to the Republican Party that used to include people like Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Dewey, Eisenhower, Rockefeller, Ford?
1
Lee Atwater, like all Republicans, was a racist fiend who put power and demonizing the opposition to serve the interests of plutocrats above any loyalty to this country and its people.
We don’t want a repentant Republican Party. We don’t want a reformed Republican Party. We want NO Republican Party. We want it tossed to the ash heap of history and the liars, bigots, racists and traitors who make up this criminal cabal impersonating a political party investigated, indicted, tried and thrown in jail where they have all long, long belonged.
NO REPUBLICAN RACISTS IN 2020! NONE! NOT ONE!
12
What I don’t understand is the attitude shared by a number of commenters that it’s somehow hard to tell if someone is a racist so you shouldn’t be quick to judge. As a septuagenarian white guy I’ve known racists and nothing could be more obvious about them than their racism. Of course Trump is a racist!
20
It is absolutely astounding to see Republicans remain silent after these racist comments. May they all pay dearly for this in upcoming elections, and that includes the White Nationalist in the oval office.
12
The wealthy cares only for more money with tax cuts and stock market record highs. The evangelical no longer cares about religion or morality and only worships hate and anger at the “other”. The dying breed of old white men fight to remain on top of the pecking order by voter suppression and Supreme Court approved gerrymandering. When trump stands in front of a microphone or angrily tweets racist rhetoric and those republicans that were once consider decent human beings say nothing, we have entered Hitler territory.
9
Out of the closet? Huh? HI father was in the KKK. His family estate company routinely discriminated against black apartment applicants, and got sued and sanctioned for the same.
12
With Trump, racism was never in the closet. His father was arrested at a Klan riot in 1927. Trump was sued by the Justice Department in 1973 for housing discrimination against black renters. Remember the Central Park Five? And Trump's birther lie against Obama. And all the "good people" at the neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, including the murderer sentenced to life plus 419 years for killing Heather Heyer and injuring 35 others with his car?
21
Is upsetting
Is appalling
Is unfortunate
We have a racist White nationalist seating at the Oval Office.
He plays his bases they say... although how’s possibly that Christians support this man. Isn’t the gospel teachings compassion? feed the poor? Care for the foreigner? Care for the sick? What is going on in America?? Why hate has triumph?? Why we simply witness the fall of the nation? The GOP, many Democrats, the Media is complicit... is their silence... approval to his idiocy??
5
Trumps has brought it to a head.
Citizens and politicians, the time has come to pick and join one side or the other: racist/white nationalist or anti racism/white nationaism?
Which side are you on?
8
What a clumsily-offensive headline. Coming out of the closet is difficult enough without your fumbling parallels between being an oppressed gay person and being a racist.
2
The idea that Trump is "reigniting" racism is ridiculous. He is merely giving voice to it..and thereby..allowing and enabling it. It never went away. It is carried marrow deep in the bones of lot's of Americans. In different regions of the country, for different reasons for sure. On the southern border it's all about immigration, and the supposed hordes of dark skinned people trying to infiltrate our sovereign nation, take away our jobs and divert precious resources. In the South it's a vestige of slavery, with well known deep and malignant roots. Jim Crow may have gone away but there is still a white and black divide and the "N" word is never far from some people's lips. When Vietnamese began coming to the US in the 70's after the war we saw it where they settled. In spite of that resentment they are flourishing. Trump isn't using a dog whistle. He is using a bull horn. And those that don't vigorously object ( his fellow elected Republicans) are complicit in his racism. The children of every Republican congressman and senator will carry the sins of their fathers and mothers for not standing up against Trump.
8
“Biden clearly isn’t a racist”
Corrected it for you: “Biden isn’t clearly a racist”
1
That Trump is a racist is no surprise.
However, he and his many Republican enablers have taken his racism to a dangerous and repugnant new low.
He is calling fellow Americans interlopers who hate this country and ought to leave.
As early as 1958 a white woman told my mother and me to go back to Mexico. Both of us were born in the United States. I would hear this demented demand a few more times over the years.
I could shrug off those words because they came from garden variety racists.
Trump is evidently intent on dividing the nation even more than it already is.
It's one thing to dislike someone because of their color or ethnicity.
It's quite another to brand them as unfit to remain in their native land.
This is what Hitler did. He first rhetorically stripped German Jews of their citizenship, and then he literally did so.
The millions of us Americans of color will not tolerate such talk. Yet for millions of other Americans Trump's hate talk is music to their ears.
Let's not fall into the trap and fail to see that Trump is messaging his base.
6
I believe that all of us with white skin at some time in our lives harbored racism. We were indoctrinated in our homes and by the politicians.
At a very young age and in a school that was not segregated I learned first hand about discrimination. I was a dago, a wop, a guinea, a greaseball, along with the Hispanic kids who were "spics", taco benders and many other slurs.
We banded together in a shared kinship and shared the racism and mental torture.
As I matured I became more aware of being inclusive, respectful and tolerant of others regardless of race, religion or national origin. And I have attempted to ignore the blatant racism of others.
Until Trump and his merry band of politicians that should don their sheets and hoods and burn crosses on Lafayette Park rather than park armored vehicles in front of the sculpture of Lincoln darkened the doorway of our government with their outward or implicit racism.
Trump has brought out the worst of us and exploits those feelings. And there will be dark storm clouds on this country of racial discord-courtesy of Trump and his cowering in fear GOP enablers.
If you support, or do not disavow Trump's comments, then as a comedian would say, you are a racist.
4
Actually, he said go back and fix your countries and then come back and show us how it’s done. It was sarcastic and crass, but not racist.
60
@Max The white supremacist racists in our country had no difficulty understanding the meaning of Trump's words. It is strange to me, therefore, that you do not comprehend his clear intent. https://www.adl.org/blog/white-supremacists-extremists-celebrate-president-trumps-latest-racist-tweets
95
@Max
Excuses, excuses, excuses.
A Republican art form that has been honed to perfection over the last two years.
82
@Max - Trump is not smart enough to use sarcasm. He neither knows what it means nor can he spell it. He is a racist. Read the list in today's opinion section. Own it.
60
"no equivalence between even the most foot-dragging Democrats and the G.O.P.’s raw racial incitement," didn't you just say that Biden needs to make very clear which side he's on? I think you're trying to make a case that progressives such as the squad should be quiet or at least quieter when in fact what needs to happen is every single person in this country needs to check their privilege. democrat or republican or independent. What happens when you decide that you're done with that issue ie oh that's so last century is that is exactly when you're in the most danger of letting Insidious racism rot us from the inside. we will never be done with this fight, so we need to keep fighting!
1
Wallace, Helms , Maddox etc. They led the parents and grand parents of the “ base” . Atwater is correct. In the 60s those guys were careful ,clever and knew when to use the dog whistle to their benefit. Trump does not even use it, Maybe because he really is not very clever. But he is the worse kind of racist ...next he will trot out Ben Carson as an example of his non racial bones. I guess it is better to know exactly what he is rather than have it hidden in the way folks like Helms hid racist ideas in economic platitudes . Trump will keep his base ,but the rest of the voting public needs to wake up......it is not 1936 , but we are working our to something worse.
4
The Constitution was constructed around a fatal Enlightenment flaw: that politicians would place their conscience before a political party. The de facto polar alignment that developed in this de jure vacuum has rarely been destabilized.
For a quarter-century after GD/WWII, America's sole economic superpower status allowed relative egalitarianism, opening the door for civil rights reforms.
Not yet fully acknowledged is how dramatic one decision in particular -- nonpreferential global immigration policy in 1964 (to please the decolonized Third World) -- set up the division of political parties along lines of cultural resentment/anxiety.
Since the economic shocks of the 1970s, a concern over sharing the pie with people whose priorities are alien and repugnant to you has driven the parties into two cultural camps -- protect the status quo (change is a net negative for me), and tear down the status quo (we'll worry about what takes its place later, as long as we weaken those who benefit from the current arrangement). This naturally leads to straight white male dominance of the former, and a chaotic battle for everyone else's priorities in the latter.
Note that the only two Democrat presidencies in the current order were carefully moderate. The 1964 effect takes a while to manifest ... and here we are.
1
I’m embarrassed for Krugman; he really doesn’t have a clue as to what’s going on. For his own sake, as well as ours, I do wish he'd stick to economics. The following is from his colleague, David Brooks, in his latest column:
"Furthermore, Trump has a vested interest in keeping the progressives atop the Democratic Party, and he powerfully influences that party. When Pelosi tried to marginalize the squad, Trump issued a racist tweet against the squad’s members. Democrats responded predictably, and the squad was back as the party’s defining element. Expect this pattern to recur." http://tinyurl.com/y4o8gbfb
Racism or not, this was a political ploy by Trump, and a brilliant one at that; he snookered us all. Yes, Trump is a notorious racist; has been all his life. Nothing new there. But to go from that to inferring that all 66 million of his supporters are racist is a stretch.
The reason so many people voted for Trump, and continue to support him, goes beyond racism, to deep feelings of existential loss. That motivation has been discussed often in The Times and elsewhere. But Krugman apparently has no need to read all that stuff; he’s already made up his mind they’re all racists.
6
@Ron Cohen If you support a racist, you are a racist. It’s a logical existential fact.
11
"Go back to your own country." Not said to the average white American. Racist comment? YES. Was this ever said to mitch mcconnell? Probably not. To his wife? Probably yes. People can parse that comment any way they wish. But those of us who look a little different, have a little not-quite-right skin color, perhaps have a little different eye shape -- we know that comment is racist. We've heard that comment before, and we know it's racist.
12
Republicans should cringe to hear themselves as now beyond the dog whistles and back to blatant racism.
The silence is unbelievably solid and cold.
10
Insects have exoskeletons. Lampreys have skeletons made of cartilage. Slugs are made entirely of soft tissue.
So it’s perfectly possible that Trump, McConnell, Graham, and their ilk do not have a racist bone between them.
8
"Put it this way: The Nazis had some very good generals, too. But the world would be horrified if Germany announced plans to start celebrating Erich von Manstein Day. There are, no doubt, some Germans who would like to honor Nazi heroes. But they aren’t in positions of power; their American counterparts are."
Actually, there are not a few Americans that would honor their Nazi heroes as well.
5
Anyone remember Trump’s Charlottesville comments?
Vote blue no matter who.
11
As disgusting as Trump's message was (as usual), I'm not sure it's racist. I think it's an example of Trump's narcissism, i.e., he's so self-centered that he has to attack anyone who disagrees with or criticizes him. He's that small a man. It's also an example of his ignorance, since he told them to go back to the "broken and crime-infested countries" they came from. In the case of three of them, he means the United States . . . that's the country they came from. So, if he's describing the U.S. that way, where does he get off accusing them of hating America? It sounds like he's the one who hates it.
3
@E Why hasn’t he said this to white Democrats who have been just as critical of him?
6
Oh, the irony of Trump accusing anyone else of hating America, when he clearly cannot stand democracy, checks and balances. laws (for himself), would welcome Russian's help again, and conversely, admires autocracies, hates Socialism except when he wants to collect money from the 9/11 attacks for himself, but is himself actually Fascist, and knows absolutely nothing about American history. No, I'd say it's Trump who is not very fond of American values.
16
Trump's tweet was again women of color. Yes, he is racist, but he also hates women. And his serial sexual assaults -- does anyone really believe they are only alleged? -- are impeachable offenses. here is no statute of limitations on High Crimes and Misdemeanors.
11
This is America, at our best we voted for Barak Obama with an expressions of hope, of progress, of strength. A man with high intellect and souring speech. This is America, at our worst we voted for Trump with an expressions of fear, of hate, of bigotry. A man of legacy who has never earn anything on merit, a crass child of privilege who has no boundary for vulgarity, a bully with a bully pulpit. This is the two side of America; the struggle is to determine, which of these two America is in ascendance
11
If this election becomes a referendum on race, it could hurt the Democrats. Even though we have a low unemployment rate, the middle class, it can be argued, is on the ropes. The Dems should be more about the economy, "It's the economy stupid", like B. Clinton.
Yet over 60 million people voted for Trump even though they heard his speech at Trump Tower calling Mexicans rapists and murderers, knew that he tried to humiliate President Obama with his birther lies and offered to pay his supporters legal fees if they assaulted the opposition at his campaign rallies. They watched him and his mob of supporters verbally assault Hillary Clinton in the most vicious way imaginable. Every one of his voters including our friends and neighbors who witnessed his campaign are worse than deplorable, they are bigots too.
10
Why don't I hear living members of the President's Club speaking out.
7
Perhaps those people who do not like that the country may be changing and want it to regress to a more white majority, privileged society should move to another country. Alas, I fear that no other country would not want them.
1
Democrats need to go on the offensive, not defensive mode. Let Trump go defensive. He clearly hates America and Americans and will make a fast buck at America's expense. He loves dictators...maybe he should move to Russia or North Korea!
6
Professor Krugman,
Your words today are a clarion call to all Americans who have yearned to hear all the window dressing and pussyfooting stripped away from confronting Trump's unvarnished racism.
And the most powerful paragraph in your column is this one:
"[Trump's] not a populist, he’s a white supremacist. His support rests not on economic anxiety, but on racism."
Someone had to say it. You're three years too late (Trump's egregious racism was on open display throughout his career and during the 2016 campaign). But better late than never.
Thanks for firing the first shot from the MSM to hit Trump's bigotry directly in the bullseye. Now we need a chorus of voices in our public discourse to follow your lead.
And the next step is for all sane and patriotic voices across our land to be raised to call Trump's flagrant racism for what it is:
Profoundly un-American.
6
Let's try sympathy--not just for the targets of the ugly bully's hateful speech and hateful behavior, but also for the Republicans whose silence loudly bespeaks acquiescence to it. Yes, their silence is wrong and cowardly. But it doesn't mean they agree with the ugly bully; it may well be because they have been cowed, and they know that to speak out would be to lose their privileges, income, and status. Yes, their silence may well cost the nation its identity and its pride, its freedoms, its environment, and its prosperity. But if it doesn't, if voters throw the ugly bully out, could we not feel some sympathy for the weak and the spineless, who are also, in a sense, his victims?
Maybe we should be thankful that Trumps thumbs are directly connected to the "thoughts" of his few functioning brain cells so we know exactly what he is "thinking" at all times, even if he himself does not seem to grasp what he is thinking. Otherwise his handlers would have him on a very short leash and we would rarely see the guy in public, and then we would only get teleprompter speeches.
3
Trump has been saying racist (and anti-Semitic) things for a long time. The difference this week is that he made the comments about sitting members of the House, three of whom were born in the United States.
As despicable as this is, it is also a distraction from even worse behavior, such as the caging of children and the "standing-room-only" incarceration of asylum seekers.
While Trump deserves every negative comment he gets about his racism, let us not forget the larger picture.
5
How many times has a member of "the squad" made a comment referring to white males? Not racist? They are characterizing people by the color of their skin.
Racism is not a white characteristic, it is a HUMAN behavior.
Like all of our primitive and natural instincts (greed, egocentrism, hate, anger, cruelty...), it's one that we must all master and control, if we want to consider ourselves civilized.
4
@Raz
Exactly. Somehow the fear and loathing of white men does not translate into racism... because they are the wrong color. Just another semantic trap by the PC crowd.
3
Why’s it racist to say, for example, that the Klan is a white man’s organization? Because while I think some of their comments are counterproductive, I can’t come up with much that they’ve said that isn’t pretty much grounded in fact—any more than I can come up with an institution like slavery or Jim Crow that was run by anybody who wasn’t a white guy in this country.
I don’t think it’s particularly helpful to go on about slavery forever. Or Nathan Bedford Forrest, for that matter...but these women aren’t the ones who stuck up statues to racists and traitors all over the South, and pitched an absolute fit when anybody talked about getting rid of them. They didn’t name sports teams “the Honkies,” or, “the Washington Rednecks.” They didn’t write endless books about how alavery wasn’t all THAT bad, cut Simon Legree some slack.
Or shoot black folks at prayer because they were black, or Muslims because they were Muslims, or Jews because they were Jews.
Nor did they lock—illegally—brown-skinned kids up in cages, along with delivering extended tirades about them and their parents as aubhuman criminals.
It’s a lot easier to put up with people who have a point and go over the top sometimes, than to put up with a President who lies continually, and continually screams.
1
These days, becoming a US citizen is not an absolute thing.
It's a matter of individual's choice with one's own reasons.
Omar acts like a saint for some pure causes. Then, I am curious seriously why she doesn't consider helping her original country's people by improving conditions her mother's, father's and all their relatives' and neighbors' country.
She is in such a position now thanks to the system of the US as it was. After grown-up, how could she think the country that helped her to become a decent educated person has some fundamental problems? Even if she does not have to go back to her parents' country, I think it is good for her to reflect on it, thinking about what would have happened to her if she was not in the hands of the US.
2
Speaking of dog whistles, it's time that the NY Times writers stop referring to Confederates as "traitors." History is much more complicated than that, and this label dishonors the hundreds of thousands who felt their allegiance was due to their home states and communities rather than to the national government. The Constitution is silent on the question of secession, and it took a bloody civil war to reunite the country. In 1860, there also was no national oath of allegiance for military officers (although I believe some did take an oath to their states.)
2
@DAB
Blasting Ft. Sumter to smithereens was NOT treason?
The constitution specifically mentions "insurrection," during which time the writ of habeas corpus can be suspended.
6
Believe me, DAB, I would have
been on the side of those who said
“let the erring sisters go”. But that
would have perpetuated the
utterly horrific system of chattel
slavery right on our borders, and
that would have been an enormous crime.
I really dont care what kind of
excuse anyone comes up with
to “honor” confederate soldiers
of any stripe. Wrong, all wrong.
I think if you would just read the
Cornerstone Speech of 1861 you might get your mind right on this subject.
If you like narrative stories you can
read William Faulkner’s “Light in
August” in order to understand the
results of hero-worshipping Nathan
Bedford Forrest.
4
Oh, really.
That’s odd, because here’s the oath some guy named Robert E. Lee took in 1855, upon being commissioned Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Army.
https://americancivilwar.com/authors/Joseph_Ryan/Articles/General-Lee-Service-Record/Service-Record-General-Lee.html
It’s funny (if not funny ha-ha) about how tetchy the “they’re not undocumenteds! They’re illegals!” crowd suddenly gets when the glorious Cause comes up. If they were military officers, they broke their oath of allegiance to the United States. If they’d been civilians, they took up arms against their country.
Those are called, lessee, ah yes, “traitors.” And that goes triple for Jefferson Davis, who ALSO took oaths of specific allegiance to this country.
But tell ya what: ket’s agree to call ‘em, oh, “undocumented disagreers.”
2
I think Trump wants us talking about whether he's a racist or not because he doesn't want us talking about (1) his connection to Jeff Epstein, (2) his financial documentation that the Congress of New York is about to have, (3) his personal financial dealings with the world dictators like the Saudi prince and Putin.
10
Trump is implementing his 2020 election strategy every chance he gets. 1. Say outrageous stuff against Dems. 2. Watch Dems over react IN THE EYES OF HIS SUPPORTERS. 3. Make excuses about what he really said or say more of the same. Trump has said he tests out extreme ideas to see what his supporters like. I believe he is a dyed in the wool Racist, born and raised and never to change. But he has now made it a strategy to be implemented by the Republican Party. No way he wrote those tweets so now his staff are helping him craft the tone and nuance to be most effective. Vote like your life depended on it.
8
Trump has a clear message and appeal to his base. What is the clear message and appeal to the base that oppose him?
2
Huh? The message to thinking human beings around the globe is that djt is a an avowed racist.
Lets hope Trump goes down by large numbers in the election. If his base is so large that he is re-elected then this “base” base is running the USA, into the ground!
7
Trump didn't literally say the n-word or make any race-based pronouncements as the piece implies.
So we are still left debating "statements that may be construed as racist".
That said, I read Trump's statement to make point not about race, but about immigration and radical politics.
I think he was saying if you are an immigrant to this country, maybe you shouldn't adopt a radical political philosophy and tell other Americans that they need to drastically alter their society to suit your worldview. Maybe instead, immigrants should be the ones to adapt to existing American mores.
In that sense, the statements aren't outrageous, but defensible. I know he lumped in non-immigrant Americans (or at least that's how many read his comment, which didn't actually identify which progressive Congresswomen he was referring to.). So you have to criticize Trump for being dumb Trump.
But there is still a more important point that's up for debate: should immigrants try to bend American society or blend in?
3
@Mmm
And what is your herritage? Are you saying that you are not descended from immigrants? That is what the United States is, a nation of immigrants and the descendants of immigrants, the big melting pot. And is the US changing as a result of immigrants? Very likely. Thank goodness... economically, the most productive parts of the country are those regions with the largest percentages of immigrants. And I suggest you stop eating, since the vast majority of food produced on the US is produced and processed by immigrants, under largely awful conditions. You will also need to stop using google, which was started an is now run by at least one immigrant. The list goes on. And oh yeah, then there is Trump himself, his grandfather wasn't just an immigrant, he was exciled from Germany for not doing military service. Talk abou bring me yor poor, ypur tired etc. So much for the statue of liberty. time to melt her down for brass, or whatever she's made from.
5
"Racism", White Nationalism", culture war", "sexism", fascism", "Russia".....these are the words that have dominated media coverage for over two years. They are words I only see and hear about in the media...as I don't see any evidence of them in my daily life.
What do I see in my daily life? I see evidence of the following (none of which is covered in the media):
1. Income inequality at levels never seen in world history.
2. 30 million Americans without healthcare coverage.
3. Unaffordable housing...a flat-out housing crisis.
4. Decaying infrastructure.
5. Over 60% of budget spent on "defense".
6. 40% Americans who can't afford a $400 expense.
7. Nearly Half of Workers Earn Less than $30,000.
8. Federal minimum wage unchanged since July 24, 2009.
Perhaps the corporate media is willfully trying to create a false reality. Perhaps they are pushing the age-old "divide and conquer" tactic for the benefits of the rich and powerful. FOX and MSNBC are each role-playing in this game of billionaires.
After all, they don't want a diverse bunch of Americans coming together and fighting for economic justice. Economic justice would benefit 99% of Americans of all colors, all genders and all ages. The only losers would be the ones in control...the ones trying their hardest to keep us divided.
12
This particular apple didn't far fall from the tree.
"The KKK of the 1920s had millions of members outside the South. It targeted Catholics and Jews as well as blacks, and had impressive success at electing governors and congressmen. It passed anti-immigrant restrictions that remained in effect until 1965. And Fred Trump, the president’s father, was arrested as a young man at a Klan march in New York City."
https://www.thenation.com/article/the-trump-familys-history-with-the-kkk/
9
Trump is betting that trading the racist dogwhistle for a megaphone is a net benefit for him. What he loses in college-educated, suburban "pocketbook Republicans" he more than makes up for in overtly racist MAGA-heads who couldn't be bothered to vote for lukewarm racists like Romney.
But I think Professor Krugman gets a couple of things wrong here:
Krugman says "there’s no way to both sides this," completely ignoring the Republican/Fox News spin that (1) these comments aren't racist and (2) these Democratic Representatives are "anti-Semitic and anti-American." Done and done.
Krugman also states that "Biden clearly isn’t a racist" -- is that really so clear? I think in his heart, Biden is relatively progressive and wants to do the right thing. But I also think he is pretty comfortable with the status quo, and unwilling to seriously question the racist and damaging implications of some elements of his record (opposition to school desegregation, getting "tough on crime").
I sometimes see MAGA-heads on Twitter make a statement to the effect of "You liberal SJWs see racism EVERYWHERE!"
The proper response is not, "No we don't!" The proper response is, "Aah, you are starting to get it!"
The whole Democrat Party has belatedly taken up the race card as a weapon, perhaps not realizing that, while it may have been a sharp political knife 20 or even 10 years ago, it is now a dull blade that everyone understands is intended to stop any rational discussion of race that might not work to the advantage of the left. Mr. Trump has now turned things around, and minorities (and all other Democrats if there are any, anymore) are shocked to see him make use of 'their' weapon against them, one which they think they should control and use exclusively to their own advantage--no one should have the temerity to do that! Leftist response: Hysteria!
4
In many ways my heart goes out to all those Americans who know Trump for what he is; but can only only wring their hands in despair at what the G.O.P. are doing to your once proud nation. The worst of your society has found means to seize and control power; clearly against the wishes of the majority who know racism when they hear it. I have known for a very long time there are in fact 2 America`s. The one of Lincoln, the Roosevelt`s; the Kennedy`s; M.L. King; Barack Obama; and the Statue of Liberty. The other is the history of slavery, Jim Crow, the K.K.K.; Japanese internment camps; and the W.A.S.P. power structure that will never give an inch in granting rights to anyone not of their ilk. Sorry; but that divide has been there for far too long not to know of that reality. Racism in America goes back to 1776 and beyond. Even Jefferson realized it was a flaw that someday would have to be addressed or the U.S. would fail the Constitution that was supposed to be a blueprint for the future; NOT a set of stone tablets from GOD. You can choose to fix what is so clearly broken; or continue to march over a cliff of bigotry that cannot exist in a true democracy. Time to decide.
5
This splendid article, straight down the line, is a gem of rationality. I also commend the picture at the head of the piece. It’s a direct reference to Hitler’s Nuremberg rallies. It’s more than frightening. I remember reading a yellowing pamphlet published in the UK published early in the 1930’s. When no one was publicly pointing to the dangers of Hitler the demagogue, years before the Third Reich, it predicted all that happened until the end of WW2. The Weimar Republic was full of appeasers, and deniers, even some Jewish businesspeople. Essentially the spiel was Hitler was just a populist, in the end things would be OK. We all know the answer to that. Those supporters of Trump, including his Jewish business supporters should stop turning a blind eye to this demagogue. Racism and and anti-semitism are the hidden concubines of authoritarians.History teaches us that disaster, personal and/or general follows appeasement of a tyrant.
6
I wanna say something derogatory about leftists, because I truly enjoy doing it and because it’s become my go-to thing lately. But, yeah, this is mostly right. And I really love the part about this all being about racism rather than “economic anxiety.”
What are the “economic anxiety” people even talking about? “I’m down and out, bro. I think I’ll vote for this racist fool!” Leftists imagine that the reason right-wing fools such as Trump get elected is because they’re able to convince the public to scapegoat minorities and foreigners.
This is wrong. The public already believes that, and so looks for figures who confirm their existing beliefs. But leftists can’t admit this, because of what it might portend for their imaginary future of world peace, human harmony, justice, gumdrops, rainbows, and cotton candy.
What leftists are really angry at is the fact that people are people. If people acting like people is the problem, it will long endure, I’m sorry to tell you. The New York Times isn’t the real world. … Now, I don’t doubt education’s ability to make people better, but I also believe in its ability to make people worse, as evinced by said leftists.
5
Willie Horton, Willie Horton, Willie Horton....
Emmet Till "whistled"....
"Welfare Queens"....
"Drug dealers, Criminals, and Rapists"....
When you have no programs to make life better for all Americans and your actual proposals and programs: Kill the ACA, Tariffs on Imports, Tax breaks only for the Rich and Corporations, and use of Public funds for Churches and Parochial Schools, you must find distractions to keep the voting public from finding out that you have nothing to offer to them.
Racism has worked time and again for the Republicans.
7
Thank you; thank you; thank you Paul! Your op-ed needs to be distributed across the country!
3
We are living through a horror film. The President and his enablers have released the horrible creatures of racism and anti-Semitism from the sewer and they are spreading their slime and rot throughout the nation endangering our Democratic ideals. The Republican party does not have the good sense to see or cannot admit that feeding those sewer creatures for years was a mistake. Of course, there have been some, including Lee Atwater and Ken Mehlman who have shown some remorse for their past efforts, but few of the current beneficiaries of these efforts seems to have either the decency or guts to stand up now to the creatures they have helped unleash.
Can America survive? Is there a hero around who will fight back? Stay tuned.
4
The Representative that was not born in the U.S. and is a naturalized citizen has been here longer than our esteemed First Lady.
4
Newsflash: Trump is a racist!
Mmm okay. Tell us something we don't know. I'll tell you what, you're guys are the journalists, but I'll tell you what is happening - Trump is going to win in 2020.
"No way!" you say.
Look at the facts. Yes, Trump is racist, sexist, transphobic, etc. But he at least pretends to care about the issues facing most Americans - How will I support my family? How will I afford health care? Will I be safe from crime?
Yes, his "policies" on these are complete bunk. Yes, he is a liar and has no intention of fixing any problems except occasionally ones that he creates. But he will still win. Why?
Because he speaks to the struggles of the majority of Americans. Democrats don't. Democrats speak about:
1. Open borders (FYI - making illegal entry a misdemeanor is effectively open borders).
2. Free health care for illegals (FYI - most working class Americans would sever a finger to get free Medicaid, and you want to give it for free to illegals first, nice).
3. Abolishing gendered pronouns.
Seriously. This is our choice. Open Racism or Open Borders. With these limited options I can't exactly blame anyone for voting for the devil they know.
2
Trumps has made it permissible for White bigots to overtly and unabashedly espouse the sort of overt racist rhetoric that Whites had to keep concealed since the late 1950s or at least early 1960s.
6
If “diversity is our strength “ why are we having so much trouble with it ?
Korea and Japan are strong. They let in immigrants very reluctantly, and only for unskilled work.
I remember learning that the Nordic countries have a functioning social welfare system because “they have a homogeneous population. “
Btw I do recognize that skilled immigrants from Europe and Asia have contributed hugely to this country. But they’re not the problem.
6
@David Weber
Actually, David, I would say that white people - and I am one - are the problem. Maybe we are the ones who should return to the European countries our relatives left, if they would have us.
1
@David Weber
I realize that our country has enough bigots -- plenty to spare no doubt -- but I wonder if such a provocative and racially suggestive posting isn't more likely to come from a facility in St. Petersburg?
Just because someone has an opinion that speaks the blunt truth and is based on facts, doesn't mean they are racist. In fact the word 'racist' gets bandied about to suppress people from having opinions that others don't want to hear because they are pig headed and don't want the truth because they can't handle the truth. Precious much.
8
@CK
What blunt truth? Trump is a habitual liar. The Washington Post has documented more than 10,000 lies since his inauguration.
Mexico is not paying for the wall, for example.
Trump has a long history of racism from his housing violations back with his father for which their company had to pay huge fines to his call for the death penalty for the Central Park Five (later proven to be innocent), to his many, many insults to people of color, of countries that are not white, and rants.
This is not the truth. Trump and his cultists don't have the slightest concern for the truth. Racism and bigotry are opinions, and people are free to be as bigoted as they like. They are not free to oppress others, abuse others, or commit hate crimes. See how that worked out for Nazis and KKK Klansmen.
About one of your observations: nothing worries Trump. Except, perhaps, lost of status. Think of your own worries, and then think about how many of them could just go away if you buried them in money.
It's not all of them, of course, but most folks would run out of fingers counting them.
Billionaires don't think the way most of us do. If money will solve the problem, they have no problem. They don't have to worry about being old, sick and broke.
But they do have to worry about being alone. How many real friends do you have, Mr. Trump?
3
He is at it again. If you can't win the argument, accuse your political opponents of racism.
Paul Krugman needs to earn the right to call anyone a racist. He must start by calling out the Democratic Party for its systematic racialization of American politics.
As Mark Lilla has pointed out in these columns, Democrats convinced themselves "that the Republican right is doomed to demographic extinction in the long run — which means liberals have only to wait for the country to fall into their laps."
Seeing this, the Democrats tried to divide and conquer. They turned race against race for their own electoral profit. The Big Lie that white America is racist and is the implacable enemy of the emerging majority is part of that strategy.
How odd that Krugman can hear Republicans' dog whistles, but he somehow can't hear the racism that is daily shouted into our faces by the race (gender and so on) hustlers in the Democratic party.
7
@Ian Maitland: I agree with you on many points. Liberals cry racism way too often and on very poor grounds. They also support the patently false belief that white racism is the primary obstacle to non-white people advancing in this country. And this is very bad for our country, because it is divisive, fosters mistrust, and discourages hard work. So I really do agree with you. And I will add that it is especially galling to hear Ilhan Omar speak of the US as largely a force for evil in the world, when she herself has benefited so much from American beneficence.
However, Trump's recent comments are still racist. I don't agree with Ocasio-Cortez on much, but she and her fellow congresswomen are every bit as American as I am. Suggesting that they go back whence they came is just a racist thing to say.
1
@Ian Maitland
You have it backward--since Trump can't win the argument, he accuses his opponents of not being Americans. But only the people of color...
Trump was one of the leaders of the birther movement against Barack Obama, in part because Obama had objectives that weren't strictly to feed the wealthiest among us. By the way, when will Trump fix health care in the US?
1
@Dave
You may be right. But I personally think that Trump has foot-in-the-mouth disease, not racism. We all know that Trump is a coarse and vulgar man. He derides and mocks EVERYONE, regardless of race, color, religion, sex .... It is only the people whose business model consists in being permanently aggrieved who claim they have been singled out. And try hard as I may, I can't work up much sympathy for the race hustlers who plague the country.
As always, Trump plays on ignorance, fear, and hate. Those are becoming three "horsemen of the apocalypse."
A high percentage of his supporters are just plain ignorant. But they are not "deplorables." A good campaigner can help educate them, but don't count on them to win the election for the opposition.
Another percentage of Trump's supporters should not be deemed ignorant because they have undergraduate and graduate degrees from many fine colleges and universities. Those, like the ignorant, fear change and hate much that is different from their privileged norms. (And, yes, many of them are just plain racist. Powerful white folks are mighty insecure.) They believe they have been using Trump to get tax breaks, regulatory changes, and great deals from the federal government.
But, for all their education, those privileged are sufficiently naïve to believe that Trump cannot do harm to the Republic. One doubts any good campaign will cause, for example, those like Mitch McConnell to vote against Trump.
The campaign winner, as President Obama demonstrated, is the one who gets more of those who generally do not vote to vote. The ray of hope in all of Trump's racism is that all those people he thinks are undesirable will be encouraged to vote.
Maybe the most difficult group to understand is made up of voters who voted for Obama, then voted for Trump. One hopes that this group's numbers are dwarfed and/or a significant number now regret voting for Trump.
4
"Just another brick in the wall." That wall will be broken and it will crumble, and our democracy will emerge stronger. The racist in the oval office cannot restrain himself. He is becoming more desperate and alarmed, and he will further expose more facets of his rabid racism. This is who he is -- an empty vessel of hate, fear, and jealousy of the other. This is where he has taken us. His simmering paranoia gives a boost to his toxic mix. How long can this hate-filled human being sustain this?
He stops at nothing to get what he wants. He is more dangerous under the current conditions. His core impulsivity and incompetence render him unable to address the myriad critical issues for the one who holds the presidential office. He reacts to personal slights, not on behalf of 'We the people."
3
The Republicans keep saying that they are the Party of Lincoln.
That may have been true in the 1860s-1880's, but it basically ended with the last Lincoln Republican-President Grant. Today, the Republicans are the party of the Dixiecrats and the white nationalists.
3
Trump has almost instantaneously pivoted from telling the Squad to go back to their own countries and changed it to if they want to go, let them.
This is insidious, and we must call out the president on this evil twist. The Squad has never indicated they want out, they are members of Congress who have never indicated they hate America and want out and want only to legislate programs that are good for their constituents and the country.
We don't have to agree with the Squad, but we must recognize what they are attempting and not what they are being accused of by this racist rhetoric.
4
This is for all of my fellow white people out there. Please bear with me, because you're probably not going to want to:
If you were born white in this country, you're steeped in racism. Including me.
If you feel frustrated by what I just said, if it hurts you or disturbs you? Then you are not a lost cause. You just need to take a few steps and start working to dismantle the privilege you've always had. Listen: Being born into this system doesn't make you a bad person. Racism was forced on most of YOU, too. You can change it.
This country has racism down in its very bones. We whites have benefited from it. It's all around us, every single day. It's every time someone makes a nasty comment, unchallenged, about someone driving an Escalade to a food bank, instead of just saying, "Black people are stealing charity!" It's every time someone says, "Why do they got cell phones but not jobs?" It's the white women who lock their car while staring when my black best friend comes to give me a birthday present. It's in redlining, in predatory lending, used car sales and everywhere else. People aren't looking for it everywhere, it IS everywhere. Most of it flies under our radar!
But we can do better. We can see it, once we know what to look for, and we can challenge it. We can stand with them, instead of just ignoring it.
Racism is a legacy most of us didn't ever want or ask for. The good news is, we can dismantle it. You can dismantle it. Just start opening your eyes and seeing it.
4
@Abigail: So let me get this straight. As a white person, I'm not bad per se, but I am racist to some degree and I have to work diligently to reduce my personal racism by doing such things as acknowledging my racial privilege. And there is really no end to the work of reducing my racism, no certificate or graduation. I just have to keep working at it and working at it for my entire life.
But if I was anything other than white, then by definition I couldn't be racist and so I would get to skip out on all this endless confessing and atoning. Is this correct?
It sounds like religious dogma, not a worldview based on reason and evidence.
2
@Dave
No Dave, while you might not be racist, you definitely benefit from a racist system. White people know this. Conservatives are very open about these things when they think I am also conservative. But you want tax cuts, so you play dumb.
"Oh, and the real “American carnage” is the surge in “deaths of despair” from drugs, suicide and alcohol among less-educated whites. But this doesn’t fit the racist narrative."
The GOP are eating their young.
4
The racist and xenophobic comments of Mr. Trump should alarm all Americans, no matter which party, race, or religion they belong to. Whatever our believes or disagreements, as citizens we all have the right to the pursuit of happiness within this country. For any President to insinuate that we should exile ourselves for criticizing the policies of our elected leaders is an assault on our democracy and our constitutional rights. The silence of the Republicans is deafening. Where are the Republicans that so admired John McCain?
2
A point of clarification. Trump is not a racist, but he shrewdly uses racism to further his goals. He is a member of the Dark Triad; he is a narcissistic psychopath. As such, he does not possess the emotions of love and empathy or hate and disdain; his emotional state is apathy.
This is an important distinction. When Trump makes racist comments, those comments don't come from his gut. They are planned to elicit reactions from the millions of true racists in America. Future racist comments by Trump must be considered in the context of the racial games being played and the strategy employed.
1
The people of the USA do not deserve the Racist POTUS that they have, I believe that the majority of the ordinary people are not racists, not white supremacists and are horrified at what their racist president is doing to the country. Michelle Obama has appealed to teachers to encourage their pupils to register to vote, she is right and that is the way forward. Vote the racist Trump out then prosecute him.
2
It is a short distance from this kind of talk to Upton Sinclair’s statement:
Fascism is capitalism plus murder.
8
Joachim Peiper might be a better match than Erich von Manstein, though both engaged in massacres, Peiper seems to have been more enthusiastic.
There will be no moment of truth. Think about what you wrote. Truth is whatever they believe to be the truth, and that is that the United States is a white man's country.
1
Hey, Don! A few of the things you will never be able to change:
Barack is a Black Man
Barack is a Black Man born in the United States
Barack is a Black Man who had no need to make big of his college record
Barack is a Black Man who was President of the United States
You, on the other hand are nothing more that the squirmiest of the squirmy and you prove it every day in every way. You, a White Man couldn't even win the popular vote to a woman).
3
Every night America comes that much closer to Kristallnacht. Those who can should consider their options. Or just wait for the knock on their door.
5
Trust me there is carnage in the inner city of Chicago on a weekly basis. 40, 50, 60 persons shot and half a dozen and often more filled on a typical weekend. How would you describe it?
Three of the four have been found to have made anti-semitic remarks. Their protest of the racism which has wrongfully been inflicted by Trump's remarks still lacks a certain reciprocity. If you want me to stand up for your rights where are you when I need you to stand up for mine. Where were you when Louis Farrakhan put together the million man march? Have you condemned Stokely Carmichael excluding white members from SNCC?
4
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez questions Commerce Secretary Ross 03-14-19
https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4786361/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-questions-commerce-secretary-ross-03-14-19
AOC points out allowable/legal corruption in Federal Politics of the USA Today
https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4779400/aoc-points-allowablelegal-corruption-federal-politics-usa-today
I am counting on people of color, especially black women because they seem to be the most astute demographic, and even more especially on the young, of all colors to get out and vote. All the whites, of all ages, who are disgusted with Trump need to get out and vote too, and not for any Republican who supports Trump, at any level. Vote, vote, vote -- that is true people power. And again the young, why are you guys not voting? You have the most to lose.
4
@Caded
I will most definitely vote...but NOT for the party that can’t discern the difference between an American Citizen and an illegal alien....
NOT for the party that obstructs every effort to secure our sovereign borders...
NOT for the party that entices tens of thousands of impoverished foreign migrants with the promise of free health insurance, free medical care, free schooling, drivers licenses, sanctuary from immigration law enforcement, and more ...all at taxpayer expense.
NOT for the party that panders to reverse racists, including Antisemitic ‘people of color’.
Guess whom I won’t be voting for come 2020.
5
@Caded
Could not agree more, thank you!
Thank you for acknowledging the fact that Republicans are inseparable from this President. I have been so frustrated by the mantra over the past few years that (although the GOP supports racist policies) Republicans do not approve of the rhetoric of their leader; that the are actually fair, reasonable and rational people. They are finally having to come clean as the pushback mounts. Let us not forget this moment; when someone shows you who they are, believe it!
6
Three comments:
1) Our President is racist. So are an incredible amount of Republicans (and yes, some Democrats) in office.
2) There is a difference between being a "racist" and being "racially insensitive". If you're not informed, then you can be RI - but if you refuse to examine your beliefs, educate yourself and unwilling to evolve, then yes, you are just R.
3) While we're at it, I wish there was as much emphasis on the misogynistic aspects of both tweets / the Prez / Republicans. Last time I checked, women were 50+% of the electorate. This isn't just a racist slam, it's about women too.
4
Paul Krugman is spot-on, as usual. And he again strikes a much needed blow against false equivalence. To treat Pelosi's comments to the effect that the members of the squad are in the minority within the Democratic party as equivalent to Trump's obvious racism, is false equivalence at its most pernicious. Yet the squad members themselves promote it by using the race card.
7
I have been claiming that that the Republican party is the party of racism since Reagan was President. Conservatives were always righteously insulted and insisted that label did not apply to them or their party. If I have the same conversation today with a conservative the response is exactly the same as it was in 1987. No amount of blatant racism by their leaders will convince a conservative they support a racist party. Apparently there are no racists in the Republican party, just a lot of people how support racist leaders and racist governmental policies.
4
Excellent column. Trump has always been a racist but isn't the purpose of his racist tweets to distract voters from his failures?
4
It is, but it’s also an end in itself.
2
If anything good has come out of the Trump presidency, it is that he has removed the thin veil that has covered up the GOP racist motives and policies for decades. Most of us knew they were there, but It's now in plain sight for all to see. The fact they are dead silent speaks volumes of what they stand for.
6
The GOP still likes claim Lincoln as one of theirs. He must be rolling in his grave.
4
Politicians, pundits and personalities are debating the relative political merits of condemning, condoning, censuring, explaining or ignoring racism and xenophobia from the President of the United States of America. It's not even a question of right versus wrong, just a question of who wins or loses and how. Spoiler alert: The racists have clearly already won.
We no longer have to give Republicans the benefit of the doubt when it come so to race, or fiscal responsibility, or family values, or the rule of law, or national security, or patriotism, or women’s rights.
Over the past two years, they have made abundantly clear where they actually stand on these issues. And the past fifty years were just lip-service and hypocrisy.
6
As ever Trump plays to his base which is receptive to racist remarks such as these, and he can allow media and political opponents to signify their virtue and outrage. He knows he can not afford to lose his base support, and thus key electoral college votes, so he doesn't care if he loses massively on the east and west coasts. His supporters are not outraged by the remarks, on the contrary they see them as signs of Trump's 'honesty' and willingness to say the unsayable, and have become inured to the increasing level of poison spewing out of their masters mouth. Expect more of the same, and across a wider range of subjects.
3
Is it racism or racist to make use of racial prejudice to advance one’s political power? Maybe not, but it is certainly even worse than having racist convictions.
1
"Birtherism" was rooted in racism, and who was more deeply involved in the birther movement than Trump? His most recent statements are simply more proof that Trump is a racist. Republicans failure to comment on Trump's latest behavior simply confirms they agree with him or are too week-willed to serve any useful purpose.
7
I am so, so tired of reading folks write that Trump is a racist. Of course he's a racist. That's as obvious as the day is long.
I want to read stuff that isn't obvious. I want to read articles about real people and real things. "Trump Is A Racist!" That headline was old years ago. Two years of the same column, reheated microwave style for the brouhaha du jour, is enough. If it made a difference, that would be one thing, but there's not a shred of evidence that newspaper columnists who call Trump a racist are moving needles anywhere. Move on, please.
1
I've expected this for some time. And by 'this', I mean the collective symptoms of fear being displayed because white rule is losing its foothold. The twilight of white power that has been so dominant in this country for centuries is approaching. In a decade or two, Hispanics will be the majority population. Today, more that 20 states have white death rates higher than white birth rates. The current immigrant crisis and the overt racism displayed by this administration are symptomatic of a certain demographic fearful that power may soon be out of their grasp. Be prepared, because 'they will not go gentle into that good night...'. This group can deny their racist tendencies all they want, but simply because they don't use the 'N' word all the time does not absolve them. The silence (cowardice) from the GOP is deafening regarding this matter.
Here's something else ominously looming over the next hill for the GOP - Robert Mueller testifies in a little over a week. They should be worried.
3
'President Krugman' ... we can dream, can't we?
3
I have known many immigrants to the US. I have also lived overseas for my employer for many years. All of the immigrants I have known love America and see it as a land of opportunity. The guy picking up my garbage in Florida is a immigrant from Cuba with a green card and he seems like the happiest man on earth. He tells me he loves his job and living in Florida.
The Squad seems to really hate America. Trump has done his usual poor job explaining his position but I do not believe he is a racist. After all, he is married to an immigrant and much of his family is Jewish! If you listen to the woman from Somalia/Minn. you will really hear a racist and someone who clearly hates America!
3
The Left will seize upon anything Donald Trump says as racist, xenophobic, misogynistic, homophobic, etc.
But they will NEVER call out their own for race and gender hustling, Antisemitism, politically-motivated obstructionism, and all the mendacious buffoonery emanating from their quarters over the past three years.
Hypocrites.
5
Just think of Trump as a "planter," a person who owned more than fifty slaves. Colonel Bonespur sits in the quintessential plantation house deciding the fate of scores of colored people, only taking time off to admire the the belles in hoop skirts. The legendary southern hospitality is extended only to his privileged peers and their hired and vicious overseers. Think of the likes of the Tea Party not as New England patriots but as southern militias chasing down and suppressing the coloreds. Making America great again means rescinding the 13th amendment.
1
Dr. Krugman is correct to make a parallel between the Confederates and the Nazis. Hitler, as informed people are well aware, explicitly used white racism in the United States as a model for the Nazi state. Hitler and the Nazis extensively used "inferior" peoples for slave labor. The Confederacy and the Nazis were both regimes based on gross lies and the exploitation of others. The Confederates were using black people similarly to how the Nazis used Slavs, while Confederate (and Northern white) treatment of Native American Indians was a low-tech equivalent to the Nazi treatment of Jews (it wouldn't have been possible to set up gas chambers and ovens during the 19th century, while on the other hand, at first the Nazis intended to put Jews on reservations). The equivalences aren't 100% exact, but they're more than close enough that anyone who, even by implication, defends the Confederacy and its heritage should be ashamed, and our country should be ashamed that in practice they don't have to be. Other forms of white racism in the U.S. have been virulent enough that it's no surprise that Neoconfederates find plenty of allies now. Some registered Republicans voted for Trump because they automatically would have voted for any Republican over any Democrat. They need to come to terms with what this means now.
2
Advice for Republicans. Leave the party!! You were not born Republican for Heaven's sake!
3
In Texas, if a person says he's never had a roach in the house, you can never quite believe anything else that person says. With Mr. Trump's 10,000+ lies, who can believe him when he says he's not a racist? Apparently ~40% of Americans and most of the GOP congresspersons.
2
This ought to be a wake up to those A-Am who think they have place in the Repub party in 2020
3
There are members of my family who voted for, and continue to love, Trump and I have been shaking my head in dismay ever since discovering this.
I will never look at them or feel about them the same ever again — for as long as I live.
November 2016 changed everything.
13
@Kate
Yes, it's disappointing to learn what my relatives believe.
They are members of the cult, addicted to the dopamine he provides.
Never in the history of country has a president done more to create disunity, hate, and division among our citizens. Things are not going to get better between now and November 2020.
9
more proof that chief justice john roberts got it wrong. there is rampant discrimination on the basis of race. it won't be willed away or pushed into hiding, nor is it susceptible to rhetoric suggesting that it's gone. barack obama's election didn't magically erase it; instead, it ignited a fire in those who could not believe it happened to ensure that the pendulum swung the other way the next time around.
5
In Roberts’ own words: “Times have changed.” This gives them a whole new meaning.
1
E Plurabus Unum (Out of many, one.)
This was the defacto motto of the US until 1956 when Congress supplanted it with In God We Trust.
I find this very telling...and troubling as I contemplate whether or not our experiment in liberal democracy can be rescued.
6
Trump is the symptom. GOP is the disease. It has been for a long time, as the Lee Atwater quote makes clear. Thank you for your continuing clarity.
1698
@JoeFF Trump hasn't remade this country in his own image. The voters have. We need to re-frame the way we look at his voters. It's not what they are for that matters, it's what they're against. What I don't think Trump's adversaries will ever be able to grasp is Trump is a political genius. That gives him an immense advantage. Trump knows exactly what he's doing. Trump's crassness isn't surprising, isn't accidental, it's intentional, it's carefully calculated & it's working quite well. It plays perfectly to his base & they love it, so he'll keep doing it as much as possible. From a strategic & tactical standpoint it's brilliant. Trump has come to the conclusion that its open season on liberals & progressives. So he's going to own them any way he can. And from his perspective he has. There's absolutely no downside to attacking, shaming, & irritating them with relentless abandon. The Democrats & mainstream press can rage & shout about his tweets until there's ice on the equator. It won't change the mind of one person who voted for Trump. The more you complain the more he will rub it in your face. Isn't that very obvious at this point? What progressives & their co-dependents will never be able to see is that Trump supporters revel in the non-stop drama, are galvanized when he punches back, are delighted when he spits in your face. Far from being embarrassed by his antics, they're thrilled by it & in their heart of hearts can't get enough of it. He's their hero, their champion.
17
@JoeFF
Trump's insanity is not just racist, but also anti-democratic.
Trump's anti-democratic, dictatorial domination must stop!
If we don't stop Trump very soon, we may lose our democracy! But we may start a new democratic wave, as we reach 2020.
Consider the words of the "Democracy" song of Leonard Cohen. "Democracy is coming to the USA"
Cohen wrote "Democracy" in 1992, but maybe we need it, now. Trump''s insanity can push the nation to a new democratic level.
We need new safeguards to protect and enhance democracy... And I hope the Times will consider the words of "Democracy", now.
------------------------------------------------------------------------"Democracy is coming to the USA"
6
@JoeFF
I think the disease goes deeper than the Republicans whose election to power is a symptom of that disease.
7
I'm deeply ashamed of my country for allowing this man to be in the White House. He is a disgrace. He is incompetent, vulgar, uneducated and disgusting. That Republican Senate and Congressmen fail to stand on the moral ground of calling him out is equally disgraceful.
He should be impeached and removed from office.
6
@Elizabeth
I feel the same way. My heart is broken at knowing the depth and breadth of racism and sexism remaining in my country. I have lived on the West Coast my whole life. Not that there isn't racism here -- I'm sure it exists everywhere -- but there are also lots of pro-diversity, with open-minded people, cities, and government policies. Apparently that allowed me to miss what was going on in the Midwest and South.
He literally called Mexicans drug dealers and rapists the day he announced his campaign, but sure, *now* the dog whistle days are over.
5
When Fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag.
3
@Stephan
"... wrapped in a flag."
And carrying a cross.
4
Why go elsewhere to fix a broken, crime-infested place when we have one of the worst in the world right here. It's called the White House.
8
@Mary Newton
Yep. Democracy: love it and fix it when it's broken. Fascism: love it or leave it--or else.
4
Trump demonizes and scape goats minority people for 2 main reasons:
1. To divide people and give his supporters a sense of 'us' against 'them'.
2. To give weak minded people an easy excuse as to why their lives are not as good as they would like - Blame the immigrants !
This is what trump provides in exchange for their support, and it is classic racism and bigotry. It is Hitler style bigotry. This is straight up racism that trump puts a 'MAGA' or 'patriot' label on and sells to people in exchange for their support.
If you support trump, ask yourself what side of history you want to be on.
If you don't speak out against trump's racism even though you know it's wrong, ask yourself why not.
If you are a Christian, ask yourself what Jesus would do.
We have the solution to this problem, and it comes down to people having the courage to stand up and do what is right.
5
Trump demands that US congresswomen apologize to the people of Israel??? Wake up America, wake up!
3
Consider this: now we know that when he comes for you — and by “you,” I mean anyone who isn’t a heterosexual white man — the wise old Republicans will harrumph for a moment, scowl, and blame... you.
1
If President Trump’s recent comments have made you conclude that the GOP is openly racist, well then I really start to wonder, what caused you to think otherwise for the last four or five DECADES??
This isn’t new, it isn’t subtle, and it isn’t insignificant.
6
"But if hypocrisy is the tribute vice pays to virtue, what we’re seeing now is a party that no longer feels the need to pay that tribute. And that’s deeply frightening. '
Yes, it is; because we need to ask ourselves why they no longer feel the need to be hypocrites. And of course we know why: they feel they have unbridled power, specially after they got control of the Supreme court. Also they know that they have millions of followers who will not question anything they say or do and have basically abdicated their right to think by themselves. They swallow any lie as long as there is an undertone of racism somewhere... and many are armed. We better start preparing for what happens when the Republicans lose the next general election and get another public beating in the Midterms.
I’d suggest that one of the things Krugman’s good article suggests is this: stop yelling “racist,” at Trump.
Of course he is. Sky’s blue, grass is green, Trump’s a flagrant racist.
But what good does shouting that do? I’d rather see a dissection of how he got that way, why Republicans put up with it, what we do about it, and so on.
I sometimes get the impression that people think they’ve done their part with the shouting. You know...like the Python character who says that he ibjected to the Second World War, gets told that EVERYBODY objected to the Second World War, draws himself up proudly, and intones:
“Yes, but I wrote the letter to the Times!”
6
@Robert
Agree. Saying it once in a while, however, is still a painful necessity, no? Or dutifully refuting those who assert otherwise here or elsewhere? Otherwise normalization is the inevitable outcome. The silent acquiescence of Congressional Republicans is very possibly the single greatest source of the normalization of Trump white supremacy.
1
This is not news to those of us who live in the South, and are not ourselves blinded by racism. We've seen our racist neighbors shift from the Jim Crow wing of the Democratic party to the GOP that welcomed them in starting in the mid-1960s with the backlash against Lyndon Johnson's "betrayal" of his Southern heritage by championing the Civil Rights Act. BUT, the GOP would have remained a minority party without a huge influx of money from mega-rich donors who set out to destroy the regulations and tax policies that cost them money and power (See"Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right," by Jayne Mayer). The craven Republican politicians who went along with things they knew were harmful deserve all the condemnation we can heap on them. But lets remember, hogs don't eat if the trough's not filled, and far too little attention has been paid to the role of the American plutocrats who have been filling the GOP's trough for 50 years.
6
Perhaps in the record turnout of voters in 2018, with some encouraging Democratic Party candidate results, there is a turnaround of the non-voting trend in the majority of eligible citizens. We have ourselves to blame, and I guess my thinking was accurate--that things had to get bad enough for the trend to start changing. We've had "winners" of elections by a voting minority who happen to include the radical rightists that have produced those "Republicans" (now the Cult of Trump Personality) who Mr. Krugman correctly identifies as frightening. The hideous movements in the 20th century started with determined, heartless, ruthless citizens in the minority (Bolsheviks, Nazis, et al.). Surveys show that the majority of citizens here support policies that look nothing like what the Republican politicians enact into laws (having conned citizens about the true objectives). Here, we must save ourselves and stop those winners of elections by default.
1
Prof. Krugman, racism has never been in the closet. Consider our historical narrative. Roughly 250 years of slavery; 5 years of Civil War; 10 of Reconstruction; from roughly 1877 to WWI Southern Redemption, "Lost Cause", Jim Crow, Plessy vs. Ferguson (separate but de facto unequal), southern state's rights capture with intimidation, KKK, lynchings, segregation, disenfranchisement, "Birth of a Nation"; the Great Migration; WWII; Freedom Marches, desegregation, busing, Little Rock; the Southern Strategy; continuing educational, wage, opportunity bias, anti-Obama sentiments, Trump's birtherism, Fox News, Trump...
America's leaders? White, wealthy slave owner founders through, Andrew Jackson, Andrew Johnson, Woodrow Wilson, Richard Nixon (his Southern Strategy). Trump is but the latest rewrite of racist history.
For people of color or different ethno-religious backgrounds America has no closets. It's all out there for anyone to see, on the streets, in your face. Look at jobs, wages, schooling, incarceration statistics and the variance in punishment by race. Who is wealthy, impoverished. Government and corporate representation.
America is a gated community. Trump is rehabbing the wall. How fortunate he is not one of the gentlemen/lady bigots who manipulate our national narrative obstructing progress.
How fortunate a racist buffoon sits in the White House, his message a time worn Lost Cause rendering. History repeats. Closets are for those who wont see.
4
Danger...danger. I recognize,he danger in taking an opposite position than 1201 liberals have taken on this article. Many of us who voted for the POTUS were not voting for him but voting against the democratic candidate. I do not like him or his style. The unspoken fact here is that the Speaker of the House and the "four", were at each other's throats and it should have been left to metastasize. I am sure that Ms. Pelosi was relieved when the President stuck his foot and half his leg in his mouth. What I think many of you are dancing around is the fact that AOC and her cronies are in exact opposition to so many in the USA, not because they are people of color, but because of the profoundly insulting and hurtful things they say. What I am trying to present here is that the "four" and the POTUS are birds of a feather and their lack of civility is pushing this country every day towards two nations...instead of one. It would be beneficial to our republic if none of the "five" were re-elected in 2020.
1
No surprises here, that’s who Republicans have been in the last 50 years. I’d rather have overt racism that we can deal with rather than racism that eats our institutions from the inside like worms.
4
What DT said is racist but the comments by Rep Omar not about Israel but questioning the loyalty of people who support Israel which would be heavily Jewish are no different
3
A great deal of Israel’s behavior needs to be questioned - their border expanding colonialism for example. Need some development land, just confiscate other’s land under the banner of national defense. Americans would be livid if any country was doing that to Americans anywhere.
1
@Mikeif you read my comments I wrote that it is not her feelings towards Israel but her comments about disloyalty of some Americans. Why doesn’t she ever talk
about the terrible conditions in Syria or Somalia?
1
I was born and raised in apartheid South Africa. The much vaunted "Rainbow Nation" of Nelson Mandela was not an accurate picture. Most whites are even more racist than before, even in 2019, because they feel that their entitlements as a "superior race" has been stripped away. Interestingly, living in America, I have seen far more racism behind closed doors at white-dominated companies and country clubs than I ever saw in South Africa. South Africa was integrated even during apartheid simply because the population was 90% people of color. In America, most whites barely interact with people of color and are frightened of and threatened by them, wearing the fig leaf of non-racism in what is and always has been a profoundly racist country. Non-white Americans know this very well. It's only the whites who are reliably shocked by it.
441
@Jeffrey Gillespie
Like to see your data on this: "In America, most whites barely interact with people of color and are frightened of and threatened by them" and "most" equals what, you're imagined notions of reality? Assume your "most" doesn't include Americans in the military or police forces or construction companies or federal workers or state workers, right? Nonetheless, South Africa is a failure economically and politically post-Mandela.
6
@Jeffrey Gillespie
You're living in Portland, Oregon. Where the black residents comprise only 6% of the population. (Full disclosure: I'm a former resident and still have close relatives living there.)
I don't doubt that many of the people you know in Portland fit your description. However, in Los Angeles, black and white people are co-workers, neighbors and friends. Not in every single neighborhood or company, but to an extent a thousand times greater than Portland, Oregon. It's a completely different world in that respect (among many others). Trust me on this.
It's a huge country with legions of cultures and behaviors. Get to know it while you're here -- I think it will constantly surprise you.
31
@Jeffrey Gillespie
Portland does have a very small minority population, so I can see that perhaps your conclusion might be limited. However, much of what you say is very true, even in major cities and counties across the US.
This is especially true, from what I've witnesses in my own world:
"Non-white Americans know this very well. It's only the whites who are reliably shocked by it."
10
Yawn: No one was ever really fooled by the dog whistles, not even the dogs.
1
Not to justify Trump, but didn’t you leave out a word in quoting him? As I recall, he said not “back where they came from” but “back where they originally came from,” That “originally” gives him a little wiggle room against the part of the charge against him that says he misrepresented the residency status of three of the women. Of course the gravamen of the charge lies elsewhere.
Thank you, NYT for printing one of the most valuable op-eds that I've seen. It was disturbing to read, but we're living in a very, disturbing country right now.
To have elected an openly racist president, and many other public officials, is disgraceful. To fail to rally around a determination to make our country better, more welcoming, and fair to all people regardless of color, means, gender, sexual orientation, etc. is to take on the collective responsibility for the crimes that will follow.
We are being confronted with a generational challenge. If we fail to confront and defeat our own racism and bigotry we will have no one to blame but ourselves. The current occupant of the White House is the symptom of a disease that we have to root out of our country. We will have no one to blame but ourselves if we fail.
2
Sometimes, when one is cleaning, one comes across a nest of scourge. Perhaps it's cockroaches, or mice or ants or wasps. You shine the flashlight on them, and they scurry and get out. They spread around, running here or there and causing chaos. Later, they might hide in plain sight. You might take frustrated swipes at them. Sometimes you kill them; other times they might bite.
They take a bit of time and patience to exterminate completely. But you will. You have flashed the light into the currently dark place. You have cleaned it out. You have seen it for what it is and you have called it by its proper name. Those things alone guarantee success.
So it can be with human behavior.
I am and will always remain dismayed at realizing how many racists I called friends. But now I know. Now they know. Now we all have a name for previously inexplicable behaviors and attitudes. That is a start. We will no longer be able to overlook or pretend. Not to ourselves and not to each other.
For the young people coming up, the insidious attitudes and subconscious biases and ideals will not easily take root. I really count on our young people to lead us out of this mess that we middle age, late century leftovers brought into this era.
I am an optimist and so should you all be. Don't give up.
3
While everyone is screaming racism, did he attack their race or is there anything else that the 4 has got in common?
Just last week Nancy was also accused by them for being a racist. Can they be criticized by anyone?
5
This would be better if it could be honest about crime rates.
1
Spot-on Dr. Krugman, the dog whistles are gone and Trump, McConnell, et al. have lead us back to the racial climate of my youth, the 1950s. Not to be out done Lindsey Graham calling the "squad" communists has an old 50s ring to it.
Setting aside the racism of Trump and his ilk, much damage has been done to the country since Reagan and his band of suits armed with law and financial degrees moved into the White House and Congress. Reagan provided the smoke and mirrors while the suits were implementing plans to create a strong executive government run by corporations and the wealthy. Racist dog whistles were a means to an end, a way to dupe voters to support strategies hatched in boardrooms and country clubs to transfer power and money from the many to the few.
If you are a boomer you may have noticed that for years laws, intended to keep the poor and the "others" in check or in jail, were passed by Congress; laws that allow corporations and the wealthy to advance their American dream of predatory capitalism with wealthy white guys in charge. As a corollary white-collar laws were passed with loopholes intended to ensure corporate executives and country club members rarely went to jail.
Like the members of the "squad," I love my country and I intend to vote to send Trump home or to lock him up.
3
To clarify
What Trump says & does is broader than racism. Technically, "racism" is defined as:
"a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race; racial prejudice or discrimination" (Merrism-Webster)
Also, there was a lot of discussion in the social sciences whether "race" is even an accurate/meaningful term--now that we know so much about DNA and that lots of us have a mixture of races in our genetic makeup (always good to remind white supremacists and those who believe whites are superior). Ethnicity may be more accurate and is a social-cultural term.
Re Trump: Trump's prejudices and acts of blatant discrimination go beyond racism to include many more social groups of people: women (misogyny), foreigners (xenophobic), liberals/progressives/Democrats. Trump managed to hit all of these prejudices when he told the 4 women of color (all of whom were U.S citizens) to go back to their own country.
So beyond racism, Trump is nothing but a big bigot: "a person who is obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices." This puts the responsibility back on Trump as an individual.
I don't think all Trump's supporters are racists, but as a group, reflect a large array of prejudices--some have 1 or 2 prejudices; some have all the prejudices of Trump.
Basically, Trump is negative, a hater, a bigot. Do Trump fans know this is not a good thing?
3
Pelosi is right to try to pivot the focus away from the “squad”, and the Democrats would be smart to do the same.
Everyone knows Trump is bigoted. This is nothing new and it should always be called out. But these four congresswomen are incredibly polarizing and unpopular outside of their narrow twitter following. And Omar is just as much of a bigot as Trump.
If the Democrats are smart, they would do something, anything, to get the news cameras away from them. The sooner the better.
2
Calling Trump a racist gets us nowhere. Like all his predecessors from Atwater and Reagan on up the ladder, he can deny and refute the label with a mere modicum of plausible deniability. This is the beauty of the dog whistle dodge. “Some of my best friends are n-words.”
What he cannot refute is that the effect of his vile statements and policies is to stir up and legitimize hatred among a certain group of people who seem to gravitate toward any and all expressions of misanthropy. That certain group of people, the GOP base, now has fifty years of dog whistle training to hear the strains of hatred in every conservative message, from Family Values to the Wall. Hatred is the OxyContin of the Trump Party, it is the only ingredient that matters, and everything else is wrapping and window dressing.
Racism is a truly terrible force in American politics, and its effects must be mitigated through enlightened policies, but by now the landscape of racial redress is so muddled (by dog whistles and institutionalized inequities) we must go deeper, to the root that unifies all conservative enthusiasms - hatred.
We must confront the hatred that infects our political discourse as an intolerable, indeed shameful, component to bring to the enterprise of enlightened democratic governance. Indeed our democratic institutions will not survive the current climate of hate brought on by the Trump Party.
For the very few people that do not think that "go back to your country" is racist speech consider this: Do you ever hear such statement made to a white person ?
I know I was never addressed this way while I am a "Caucasian" immigrant here and I know that my middle eastern wife did hear this quite a few times (more so in France). So it is totally about race, it is dehumanizing and insulting as it assumes people know who you are after a single look glazing at your shade of skin.
1
Let's not forget that Ilhan Omar and Congresswoman Tlaib have trafficked in racism themselves. Both of them, especially the former, have resorted to antisemitic innuendo and canards. They are not innocent doves, but part of an unfortunate cycle that Trump has only exacerbated.
7
You all in corporate media gives Trump what he wants and then throw up your hands and pretend you had nothing to do with.
Now nothing else has been talked about but Trump, Trump, Trump and of course the squad and Pelosi.
Corporate Media wins again. Nothing gets done and status quo prevails.
Where is the journalism it is all about ?????????????nothing burgers it is just what Trump does and seems Pelosi wants to play the same game.
1
With Trump, remember
It’s always worse than any
imagination
3
There were people who initially voted for Fascism in reaction to hyperinflation and fear of communism. Despite “Mein Kampf”, there were even some Jewish Germans who wanted to join the Nazi party.
I listened to Reagan in my very first election and recognized how troubling was his rhetoric about minorities and women. I have never voted for a Republican candidate for president because I have always been aware of the bigotry beneath the surface. You are known by the company you keep.
2
Trump is not a racist in the purist use of the term. He is a person that cares only about about money and power. If you are wealthy/powerful, he couldn't care less about what god you pray to, where you came from, or the color of your skin.
He is also terribly cunning as to what it takes to maintain power & control. In business, he could outlast (in court) those that he defrauded. In politics, he knows that he can whip up the base to scare off responses to his most cruel and absurd actions.
So what will it take to fight Trump? First, you have to recognize his playing field as it not political. It more likely resembles that of his TV reality show. There he relies on sponsors and as such, is beholden to them.
Cut off support of his sponsors and you can achieve a great deal. And if you want to expand that abstract, consider the entire GOP.
If you want to impact Mitch McConnell, then we will need a national boycott of all things Kentucky. If you want to go after Susan Collins, then boycott all things Maine. If you want to go after Trump, boycott all things Trump. And if you want to go after FOX, boycott all things (sponsors) of FOX News.
This would have to be a national effort and one with a good name..like "Boycott Hate." And it will require massive marketing and public outcry to take hold.
When Trump spews hateful messages, he isn't speaking to his supporters. He is actually speaking for them.
Boycott and then let's see who is checking out what at the grocery store.
It is ironic that these comments are "moderated for civility," a standard that the current president 's comments would not meet. I wrote a well-received play about Lee Atwater in the 1990s, and I grew up in the apartheid South, so I believe I know a bit about race-baiting. The president's movement has been framed as a white people's party all along. Of course, anyone could join as long as they accepted the tenets of white grievance, regardless of race, and there was substantial truth to the claim that Bill Clinton, with NAFTA, had destroyed the lives of workers in the industrial Midwest, many of whom identify as "white." It would behoove the Democratic Party to stop talking about "white" people at all. There are Irish-Americans, Irish-Italian-Jewish Americans, Indian-Jamaican Americans, German-Greek Americans, etc. The problem is economic displacement, income inequality, which the elite try to disguise by talking about race, race, race. The racist president understands this and revels in it. Race is a hideous fiction foisted upon us all with horrendous consequences. Do not let this dreadful person divide us. A good way to start is to stop using the word "white" to describe anyone. That is the big lie, and once it is exposed as such there will be no "white" people's party to join, no matter what your background is. The Times has chosen not to publish several previous comments referring to this movement as a "white people's party." Let's see if they publish this one now.
1
It's not just racism, it's the paranoid stupidity of it all. OK so you're white and want to live in an all-white neighborhood, or you're Orthodox Jewish and you want to live in an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood, but why does one need to claim that crime is rising when it's not? These are simple counter-factuals. If you want only to associate with people like yourself, why do you have to pretend that the "other" people are criminals and rapists? And no, they are not taking over the country either.
1
@Jonathan
It is the way they justify the mistreatment, harm and death.
Nothing extenuates racism. Nothing extenuates cruelty to children and to one's countrymen.
The Republican officials and the Republican voters who stand with this man are people who would stand by while Jews are baited or children are beaten. I guess they are standing by while children are harmed and people of color, and indeed, all Dems, are told they hate America.
I have no interest in listening to anything a Republican has to say. All is drowned by a willingness to support this horror of a man striking at the integrity of all that America once stood for.
4
@JT
They sure are good at making excuses to cause harm. Seems like they have a lot of practice.
Another classic example of clarity without hyperbole from Paul Krugman. I always read his pieces first.
4
If he told these _people_ to go back to their countries, and it's true America is their country, then don't we have a bigger problem on our hands than just Trump's mistaken assumption they aren't Americans? I think Trump is saying that they shouldn't be Americans, somebody allowed them to be Americans, and that they should go back to the nationality of what they look like.
I don't get it, I thought the national borders were put up to separate the races like we do sheep, cows, chickens, and goats. Why are they all mixed up? They don't get along! I remember from _history class_ that the British drew arbitrary borders in the middle east after WWI and corralled up Kurds, Shiites and Sunnis, making for a horrible fight...
What happened to America? When we got here we cleaned out the natives after _a lot_ of hard work, we kept African workers fenced in like livestock and had a white nation run by white landowners. Why was I told the history of my nation was great if now all of a sudden it's not?
I want to know, I if wanted to start a white nation with people who look like me and therefore don't scare me half to death, why can't I find MY safe space? I want MY safe space where I can be free from all the triggers that cause me anxiety. I want a place of sanctuary where I can live in peace and not constantly worry all the time -- worries you should not bully me over and hurt me and call me names and beat me with, and cower me and chase me and do all the things that terrify me!
Bravo for Republican William Hurd! The only real Republican left who has courage and guts. Donald Trump has turned the party of Lincoln into the party of Jefferson Davis and the KKK.
3
Do trump's comments also apply to Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio?
3
Trump’s government is rounding up immigrants. Next,Trump racially attacks four members of Congress. Must we wait for Trumps thugs to burn Congress? Do we really need our own Kristallnacht? When will Trump turn his venom toward American Jews? Who is next on his hit list: LGBTQ MEMBERS. Americans like the Germans of 1932 had better wake up to the government that already exists and sits in power. The Presidency is a threat to every American that does not believe in the white supremacist view being spewed. These racist views are being trumpeted by Fox News. I fear for all Americans who do not share these racist views.
3
the ancestor's of those now being told to 'go home' never wanted to come to the USA in the first place. It's not like they were on a cruise and decided to jump ship.
1
Large portions of the ultra-rich are acting like poverty pimps. The 2008 financial crisis was largely due to selling mortgages to poor (usually minority) people who could not afford them and then selling off those mortgages as though they had actual value. The ultra-rich now run the media, both traditional and the new right-wing media (Fox, Info-Wars, Newsmax, etc.). MSNBC, PBS, NPR, etc. are pathetic, ineffectual fig leaves. The same 0.01% control elections by financing candidates who will act on their agenda. Sure, some ultra-rich actually provide useful goods and services, but less and less. Increasingly, hedge funds and other tools of financial manipulation control larger and larger parts of the real economy, the media, academia, the courts, think-tanks, and influence a large part of public opinion through right-wing megachurches. As they acquire more power, they use it to rig the system even further. The question is: have they so totally infiltrated all our institutions that they now hold sway over the agencies (state DOJs, district attorney offices, regulatory agencies, courts, etc.) that are supposed to fix these problems? Like the Mexican drug enforcement chiefs who turn out to be on the cartels' payroll. But perhaps, they don't control everything—YET. The 2020 election could be our last chance. To reverse this infernal dystopia: VOTE! VOTE! VOTE!!!! Get everyone you know to vote! Mobilize anyone you can. Pick up the phone right now, and register a friend or relative.
1
Richard Wollfe in today's Guardian: "If there is an 'immigrant' who has failed to integrate in America, it's Donald Trump." Worth reading.
As for Republican silence on Trump's latest tweets. can there be any doubt that the GOP is now a party of racists, and America a country of racism? Adolph and Joseph and Heinrich and co must be guffawing in their graves.
4
Noam Chomsky gets to the real heart of what is going on here in 8 minutes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llzoItQgLOQ
3
@ELB
And that is why progressives are targeted.
AOC points out allowable/legal corruption in Federal Politics of the USA Today
https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4779400/aoc-points-allowablelegal-corruption-federal-politics-usa-today
What is racism? I thought distinction by race that results in monetary loss. Like exclusion from jobs, denial of police protection, fewer education options, separate travel areas in public transport, segregated housing, and so on.
If you define racism more generally, it becomes both less horrific and applies to more people. For example, saying you prefer a country filled by people like yourself, blaming other races for problems, or generalizing by race was not usually called racism.
If mere opinions suffice for racism, then what do you call the KKK-style real thing?
When the kitchen light comes on, the cockroaches scramble to shelter. Republicans are scrambling......not behind a toaster, but rather behind words. I cannot. believe this is the. country. that. I love.
1
@jay mancini
Republicans have for years created this monster within their voting base. This sewer monster is their creation.
I sure hope I'm around when the day comes every single Republican is voted out because of their silence against bigots and racists.
It's mind boggling that in 2019 the POTUS is a blatant in your face disgusting racist. I hope Americans see the 2020 election as a stepping stone into a world where we begin to heal.
2
The current Republican party is the Fascist party now. I have been predicting our march towards civil war for half a year now and this is another goose step. I know, this seems like histrionics, but look where we are and think how rapidly Trump and his loyal racists have degraded this country. It's going to get uglier because Trump is, basically, a sociopath.
1
It's been out of the closet for a while.... but yeah.
One hundred years ago, white people and non-whites lived in a world in which whites considered a status quo rife with racial repression, normal. Non-whites appreciated that white people were indifferent about the unfairness. So they just considered them untrustworthy, arrogant, and so avoided them as best that they could.
That was then. Now, non-whites express their feelings to white people, knowing that they will not be falling on deaf ears, mostly. Out right racial stereotyping is repulsive to most of us, but not to all, and Trump seems to find the people who welcome hearing it.
But life is unfair. The attitude of some non-whites tends to retain the assumption that all whites seek to return to times when they were considered more equal that non-whites, that that is their motivation in what they do. No component of enlightened self interest in the motives of white people, just base selfishness.
I guess that it's what must be expected, but it's exhausting to listen to idiot white bigots in one situation, and then to be told one is an idiot white bigot in another by people using that same invalid reasoning.
“The German authorities looked on without intervening. The name Kristallnacht ("Crystal Night") comes from the shards of broken glass that littered the streets after the windows of Jewish-owned stores, buildings and synagogues were smashed.”
Make America United Again
Please
Where is Stephen Miller who is Trump's Joseph Goebbels and why isn't the media shining a light on him? Every time, it did so in the past he had retreated to the shadows; maybe more consistent exposure and investigative reporting will rid us of his/this 'disease'. He is today's patient zero of racism and he must be defeated.
So much for being PC
Thank you Mr.Krugman
Trump is a thoroughly ugly man with absolute rot in his tiny little heart.
Democrats everywhere need to be aware of what he and the decision deplorable GOP will do to “win” in 2020. Set up the tent my fellow Democrats- and make it a big tent, too. Vote this cretin out.
@Fred Lifsitz
Big tents mean more circle firing so be prepared to defend it. Big tents also need to allow to have representation primaried. It makes no so that we have to lose a seat to republicans if the democrat in the seat is failing to represent and needs to leave.
Not all Trump supporters are racists but all racists are Trump supporters.
Not all Lindsay Graham supporters are racists but all racists support him.
3
Spot-on!
Not only are Trump and the Republican Party absolutely and unapologetically racist.
So are the Trump family's "Democrats," Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump.
So are Trump's biggest donors, Sheldon and Miriam Adelson.
Just a reminder for all you upper-class swells, in case you might deign to care about who you rub elbows with, socially.
2
"Trump’s inaugural address, which was all about “American carnage” "
It's interesting that "American Carnage" is now the title of a book about the Republican infighting that enabled an idiot to take over the party and frighten the others into docility.
1
Fox News and Lindsay Graham have already spun this. They’re choosing to attack the four congresswomen anti Semitic instead for having spoken out against Netanyahu’s apartheid policies while totally ignoring Trump’s heinous comments.
1
But it is OK for the Fab 4 to scream at the top of their lungs- Racism! Racism! Racism! at everyone who disagrees with them. Do you and the other leftists seriously believe that this is OK? Is Biden a racist? Is Pelosi a racist? Are all those who disagree with the Fab 4 racists? According to what those hypocrites and those other politician who are falling over each other to keep out of their gunsights have to say, Barack Obama would be a racist for enforcing US law at the border. For saying he did not have the power to overturn very clear US law on the NIghtmares (Yes some are Dreamers and some are Nightmares) even though only the shiny examples are highlighted on the pages of the NYT and their "analysis!!!" writers.
And those who prevent enforcement of US immigration law and abet evasion of deportation by taking active action to assist aliens with final deportation orders SHOULD be charged with interference with governmental function. Start with Newsome.
1
Support the Democrats and, if you are able, campaign against and vote out the racist GOP.
If you have people who still support Trump in your orbit, shun them.
2
He doesn't mean country. He means go back to wherever it is that people of color, that women of color should hide themselves and not interfere with their white betters: those who bet that fear of difference will motivate votes for the man in the White House; those who delude themselves that because of their white skin color they are better than others.
Something has broken right in front of our eyes.
2
Krugman is right. Trump has knowingly embraced white nationalism in its most virulent form. Oh, he's smart enough to say "I'm not a racist" when he spits out racist slurs. It doesn't fool anyone, of course, nor is it intended to. But it gives the propagandists at Fox and the gutless Republican party a fig leaf they can use to defend him. All the while, Fox and the Republicans go along with Trump's race baiting and they themselves eagerly play the white nationalist card, knowing that these things excite Trump's base. I'm sure there are some "very fine people" at Fox and in the Republican party. There were, no doubt, some very fine people who voted for Hitler. Some of them might even have regretted it when they awoke to find themselves in Nazi Germany. Maybe some of the people at Fox and among the gutless Republican members of Congress will have a similar awakening... much too late.
1
I have a great deal of respect for Paul Krugman, but I disagree that racism is "coming out of the closet." It was never in the closet. It's as American as cherry pie. And is likely the main reason Trump got elected; he offered nothing else, after all. Racism was there for anyone to see in his comments about immigrants (his family were immigrants.) Nothing new.
1
At this writing, America has 554 more days to gasp incredulously at the increasing level of outrage generated by what this vile humanoid figure spews from his vulgar mouth and twittery fingers every day. Today was worse than Day 553 and that day was worse than the one before it, going all the way back to Day One.
So buckle up, America, and do everything possible to slow our top-down national degradation of simple human decency. We know we can't stop it entirely until this malignant cardboard caricature of a "leader" is removed from office by the popular outrage that he, himself, generates with gratuitously cruel and mindless abandon.
381
@John LeBaron Thank you John. Basically it is down to get people out to vote, even as much as white rage, has attempted to disenfranchise that right. This week in Sunday mass, I could see written all over the priests' faces how worried they are in the downward spiral we are currently facing. I live in El Paso, TX and I am just heartbroken that the young people in our nation are seeing what adults are up to.
32
@John LeBaron Thanks so much for this.
13
@John LeBaron
"[...] vile humanoid figure" You made my day. Thanks!
12
President Trump, two words which should rightly require extraction by the Heimlich Manoevre, needs to be replaced in general discourse with the nickname "Bone Spurs", or "President Spurs" if we need to remain formal. Although this suggestion is of dubious maturity, it will be immensely satisfying to a good majority of Americans, and may incrementally accelerate the final burn out.
4
Thank you Paul Krugman for saying what I've been thinking so eloquently and to a much larger audience than I ever could reach.
Think I'll post this on my Facebook page.
1
This is how Nazis Germany started, frightening indeed.
4
The GOP's mask is finally, fully off. Now that the demographics of the country are threatening their power, they've placed their bet on activating enough voters who think the United States is, first and foremost, for the benefit of white people. This is called white supremacy, period. Voting for the GOP going forward is an endorsement of white supremacy. There is no talking your way around it.
460
@Flaco That mask only worked for those who wanted it to work. For non racists, it’s always been crystal clear.
21
Trump is, without a doubt, racist. And many other things, few of them positive.
But.
It is unfortunate that we seem able to see and of course to criticize only that racism that emanates from one side (the GOP) and from one race (whites). Representatives Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib arent .. just a little bit anti-Semtic? No? Really? Among other things they support Laila Halid (one of the founders of BDS) who even today states that the organization exists to "wipe Israel off the map". But - try to criticize them. You will be inundated with criticism.
A would be author may recognize and object only to racism by whites and/or the GOP.
Just because Trump is a flagrant racist does not mean that Tlaib or Omar (for example) are not also racist. They are.
If the democrats want to have a chance to win, it is time to call a spade a spade; White spades, Black spades, Hispanic spades, Muslim spades, Christian spades, Jewish spades, S. American, N. American, natives and immigrants, people here legally and people here illegally.
Claiming that a person is *not* good simply because he/she is [color] or [religion] or [national origin] is rightfully called racism.
But..
Claiming that a person *is* good simply because he/she is [color] or [religion] or [national origin] is equally racist.
"We have met the enemy and he is us."
3
Republicans like Tennessee Governor Lee want to honor traitors, terrorists, racists and murderers. Shouldn’t that speak loudly to Americans? If Democrats don’t take the Senate and the White House in 2020 America is doomed. China faces the same fate eventually with its “conservatives” in the Communist Party and its widespread racism but theirs is decades away. Ours is coming in 2020.
Trump, in his latest comments, has shown that he is ignorant of what racism actually is and its effects on both people of color and whites. Rather than scorn him (which I do), he needs to be treated as someone who is ignorant (which he is) and taught what racism is and how he might change his beliefs and actions. This would need to be done by his own people - white, rich, Republicans (which there are many) who understand racism and are willing to train him (unfortunately, which there are few).
What, you think Trump can be trained?
@Bill
Dream on.
I think that the reason most Republicans say nothing to refute he who shall not be named, is because they are all about personal gain. They want wealth and they're getting it. I seriously don't understand why some people continue to support him. I understand why the uneducated, racist, sexist, homophobic do (they hate like he does), but not so many others. I have a gay acquaintance who supports him. ?????
Lee Atwater was 16 years old when Southern Strategy was said to have been implemented. Ken Mehlman, the other RNC chair who made a fool of himself when he actually APOLOGIZED for the use of southern strategy was 2 years old in 1968 when southern strategy was said to have been utilized.
Now, I challenge ANYONE here, and especially the author of this calumnious article, to produce a SINGLE speech by Richard Nixon that used racial animus to push his agenda. He appealed to the Southerners who were becoming less racist to switch to the Republican Party because they no longer shared values with the Chicago Democratic Convention hippies, drug culture, pro-choice, better red than dead Democrat party. Nixon was the REAL school desegregationist. Nixon had a perfect civil rights voting record: 1964 civil rights act, 1965 voting rights act to enforce the Republican championed 15th amendment, 1968 housing rights act, Nixon desegregated the unions (Philadelphia Plan) thereby giving America its first real affirmative action program.
For reference:
Re passage of the
Civil rights act of 1964
House of Representatives
Democrats 153 of 244 —63%
Republicans 136 of 171 —80%
Senate
Democrats 46 of 67 —69%
Republicans 27 of 33 —82%
Votings right act of 1965
To enforce 15th amendment
House of Representatives
Democrats 217-53 —80%
Republicans 111-20 —85%
Senate
Democrats 49-17 —74%
Republicans 30-1 —97%
Southern Strategy is a lie. A myth. I haven’t even BEGUN to debunk it for you.
1
Trump is just the catalyst to an already racist society. Plain and simple.
You have something to sell, you search to find a group that’s willing to buy. Trump was a life long democrat but nobody over there was buying, so you take your act to where it would sell...lost and disaffected republicans. Give me you tired, huddled masses yearning to exact revenge and I’ll give you a series of speeches that will knock your white socks off. Tell em what they want to hear and promise em the moon, the stars, a robot’s job and union scale. Give them somebody to blame for the fact that they have no education and no marketable skills in the 21st century. Hey, it’s not your fault. I feel your pain. I’m just like you. Person, Peron, Peron...The “others” have taken from you what American citizenship, the founders and Jesus Christ himself has given you. So step right up. A single bottle of what I’m selling will cure whatever ails you at the moment. Together, we’ll cleanse this white, god given, paradise, one illegal at a time and Make America Great Again. It will happen faster if you buy one of these $40 dollar, made in China hats...USA USA USA!
2
Donald Trump famously said: " I could shoot someone at high noon in the middle of Fifth Avenue and not lose one vote", or words to that effect. Watching the reaction of his supporters during the past two and a half years of outrages mounting in intensity and numbers, it is obvious that he was right. There were some four Republicans in Congress who expressed some mild concern for the last outrage, but we only have to read the response of the Senator from Montana to see that what many of us think absolutely outrageous is an inspiring tweet to them. Those who might object to Trump's racist attacks agree that "..those people should go back to where they came for because they are socialists, they are communists, they hate Israel, they hate America".
This is reminiscent of 1930's Germany, where a hard core agreed with the Nazis Anti-Semitism and many enablers agreed with the fear of Boshevism.
What is the next Trump outrage? Should he say: "If those who hate America, Israel and are socialists and communist don't return to where they came from, we will round them up into concentration camps". Would he lose any votes? Then he might say: "those Hate America supporters shouldn't be fed in the camps at tax-payer expense." Would he lose any votes? And if he says: 'We need furnaces to get rid of those starved carcasses". would he lose any votes?
Even internet trolls don't have the nerve to defend Trump on this.
The boil that is and always has been the Republican Party has been lanced. The Republican Party has not been the party of Lincoln since Lincoln. Get ready for the pus to spring forth. Lindsey Graham and Mitch McConnel are the heads of this boil that have been lanced along with the Archie Bunkers and their wives who have been laying low. This boil was lanced in the past by Richard Nixon and Ronald Regan. The maturation of this boil is continuously fed by the racism of ignorant, intolerant Americans and used by the wealthy of this country to exploit the above mentioned ignorant. They helped pass a “crime” bill that incarcerated people of color. The moronic white supremacists of this country think they will get a fair shake from their rich white brothers and sisters. Little do they know they have already been fleeced.
2
Blacks and Hispanics make up a disproportionately large segment of the US military. When Trump starts his race war he will lose because he has not taken this into account.But then again, he is the stable genius.
Nice to see no equivocation here. Trump is a racist pure and simple. Is Trump America?
And of course we know that 'dark-skinned' can be joined by 'slanty-eyed' or just about anything else, including 'dark-skinned' or 'slanty-eyed' or 'Hebrew' or 'Muslim' family members, ancestors and so on. It only begins here.
Well, the Republican Party is represented by white rich people so even if some members don't agree with this garbage, their representatives literally have no frame of reference. Democratic house members are probably the only women of color they meet! No wonder they're scared.
I'm scared.
Great headline. Trump's attacks are xenophobic as well as racist.
This is like standing and watching a volcano erupt.
We are in the middle of watching our Democracy be destroyed by scapegoating and churning racism and fear.
We read about, and see the old film of Mussolini and Hitler riling up their people (well, some of them) into murderous and intolerant rage.
We see Putin, Erdogan, Orban, Duterte, Modi, and the late Hugo Chavez doing the same thing.
And here, in the United States, after 232 years, we are now witnessing the same thing. The last time we reached this level, was in the Southern states that then committed treason, the greatest treason in our history...so far.
There are no brakes. There is no governor. And the ONLY people who really could stop him, won't. Is it terror? Is it greed? Is it agreement with Trump? I don't know but the Republican Party CAN stop Trump. But it won't.
And soon, it will be too late for all of us, just like it's too late for Russia and Turkey.
Dr. K, thank you for saying what needs to be said with no hidden meaning. Trump has revealed his 2020 strategy, and apparently his most deeply held beliefs, openly. He is absolutely a racist. An old-school, pre-civil rights racist. He is basically a "cracker," like a character in a movie, leading the lynch mob because a black man looked a a white woman.
Fellow Americans, we MUST reject this man, his hatred and vitriol, and the party he rode in on. It is now clear the future of our democracy is in peril. This kind of racism turns to fascism which leads to those halcyon days of Stalin and Hitler. This is no exaggeration. Fellow white people, WE are not the GOP. We are not Trump. We are the people that voted twice for President Obama, that supports civil rights, and liberty and justice for ALL.
Non-white Americans!!! You HAVE to get out and vote. What more motivation could there be than a flat-out racist and a party that supports him? To fight the power, you must VOTE!
1
How long must we be subjected to this racist, criminal administration? 2018 was about holding trump to account. Democrats in Congress....DO YOUR JOBS!
Whether Biden is personally racist is less important than his racist behavior in opposing school desegregation.
@NorCal Girl what are you talking about? He didn't oppose desegregation. He opposed federally mandated busing.
anytime someone mentions "racism" it gets hackles up. People want to defend their "own race"; which is exactly what racism is about. There is no defense for a racist and by defending on you, yourself, become, or show a side of racism. It is a word rarely discussed because of these contradictions but, because of this it needs necessarily to be openly discussed at length. No one, NO ONE, likes to be called one or even have someone with their skin color be called a racist; and there are racists of all skin colors. Unfortunately it is those in positions of power and with great amounts of wealth and/or influence whom should be removed from the public spotlight.
Right. Everyone who is not a leftie is racist. NEWSFLASH: Calling folks who voted Trump in 2016 stupid, uneducated, and (now) racist guarantees that they will not be voting Democratic in 2020.
Last, expressing my disgust at legislators who support terrorists (Hamas), express anti-Semitism, deny the horrors of 9/11, and say things like “this is not the country for white people” is not racist.
2
@Stephen Gianelli
"Last, expressing my disgust at legislators who support terrorists (Hamas), express anti-Semitism, deny the horrors of 9/11, and say things like “this is not the country for white people” is not racist."
Then it's a good thing that these things aren't really happening and that you don't live here to fret over these regurgitated right-wing tropes.
Guatemalans, Salvadorans, Haitians... remember Donald Trump's words of inspiration: if you don't like your country; if you hate it there... then you should leave.
Apparently that's what he's always said, so you go ahead and migrate.
1
Thank you for not backing down on the Nazi comparison. As I understand it, we are not supposed to make such comparisons because the Nazis were so totally evil that it diminishes the enormity of their evil to do so. But, we are also called upon to insure that such evil never occurs again. If that's true, then we must recognize how ordinary Germans became inured to Nazism. We now see the Republican party tacitly accepting Trumps overt racism, a willingness to have Putin interfere with our elections, children separated from their parents and put into cages, the erosion of NATO and our alliances, etc. How much more will they tolerate next year? The Nazis began in the early 30's. It took more than a decade before the world realized that they had to be stopped. How long for us?
2
Racial slurs are all the rage in Republican circles.
It is pusillanimous not to call out AOC by name for her ludicrous, abusive racial charge against Pelosi.
2
We have the White Supremacy Party and we have the Democratic Party. All Blues must pull together, The only question in 2020 is “....Which side are you on?...”
Yes, Trump's racism is and especially ugly trait of an exceedingly ugly man, and yes, he is giving voice to the feelings of a large part of the white population (and here's a secret: other ethnicities harbor racist feelings too, often directed against hapless black Americans.) We all have prejudices that favor our own group, and consequently devalue other groups, but this deserves the ugly name of "racism" only when it becomes an active program of attacking and belittling people of color and immigrants. Trump clearly deserves to be called a racist; those like Mnuchin who defend Trump's racism also deserve the name; but those of us who harbor feelings that we reject or fight against are prejudiced, but don't deserve to be called racists. To use the word indiscriminately is itself bullying and counterproductive.
That said, there is a hopeful side to getting this ugly fact of American racism and racial prejudice out into the open, where it can be honestly discussed and perhaps one day resolved. There never has been a truly multi-ethnic society in which all groups are treated equally. The U.S. has the best hope of being the place where racial prejudice is overcome - not only legally, where we've already made great strides, but in the attitudes and behaviors of its citizens. Trump, though he intends no such outcome, is provoking those of us who discover our own lingering prejudices and hate them, to examine our own ideas and actions and to consciously try to change.
1
Thank you for this excellent article.
trump keeps deriding these young Congresswomen, and although I do not always agree with them, they are AMERICANS. They are far more American than trump, who is Russian-backed, insults other politicians/public figures daily, alienates our allies, attacks the free press, delights in the brutish and thuggish activities of murderous dictators like kim and putin, seeks to take health care away from our most vulnerable citizens, and wants to make it more expensive for everyone else, seeks to disable ALL of our social safety nets, and wants to deregulate so that corporations are free to pollute with impunity, sickening and killing us. These young Congresswomen want just the opposite! Furthermore, they are not going to leave this country; they were elected to try and make it better. And they have the stamina and the resolve to take on that task. As far as leaving because they are unhappy, I have never seen (almost) ANYONE as unhappy as trump. He is always insulting people, denigrating anyone who doesn't agree with him, or doesn't have white skin, spewing filth at people, criticizing everyone, ranting, raving, shouting, red-faced, etc. WHY DOESN'T HE LEAVE????? In fact, I know that millions of us would even take up a collection to send him to the moon in a rocket ship--a one-way trip. And he can take the rest of his unhappy republicans along. (Racists, misogynists, xenophobes, greed-driven, corrupt, pathologically lying, arrogant, etc.)
2
This is about being "white" in America. There's a historical side to this. The original "whites" were white, Anglo-Saxon protestants -- most considered outcasts from a Great Britain that had another definition of "whiteness." Of course, not everyone accepted this definition of "white," particularly when it had economic consequences. Not that all Unionists were pro-slave/anti-abortion. They just didn't want extremely cheap slave labor competing for jobs, so a consequence was civil war.
Then immigrants began piling up on our shores.Again, cheap labor. They did not become "white" until after WWII. The "non-white" immigrants proved their "whiteness" as cannon fodder. We needed them! And with a GI Bill and a rebirth of patriotism after 1945, a bunch of former "non-white" became "white." They even went so far as to aid and abet blacks attain civil rights! Ah, the benefits of prosperity! Of course that led to new waves of "non-white" immigrants. And eventually we lost the expanded prosperity. Distortedwealth crept back into the picture. The once privileged "whites" felt less privileged. Whatto do? Regress! Nativism! The "non-whites" must be ghettoized, sent home, victimized. Can't share any of the crumbs that the extremely privileged allow to escape their grasp!The essence of Trumpism! The antithesis of Christianity!
1
Mr. Krugman is too smart a man not to know that he is misusing the word "racism". Is Alexandra Ocasio-Cortes a member of the same race as Ilhan Omar? or of Rashida Tlaib or of Ayanna Pressley? I challenge him to point to any word or phrase in Trump's tweets that speaks of or alludes to race. There is none. If English immigrants or German immigrants talked so loudly about the faults of a country that welcomed them, they'd have got a rude response as well.
I propose that the Trumpites follow their leader's instructions: If you don't love Amerca, leave it. Please go to some authoritarian country, like say Russia, or Saudi Arabia , or North Korea, of Brazil, where the leader is a Strong Man who isn't afraid to kill people. When they get there, they can join the mass, synchronized demonstrations that demonstrate their loyality and love of their dictator.
I, for one, will do everything I can that legal, to insure the election of officials who believe in actual, on-the-ground representative democracy.
The easiest way for Trumpsters to Make America Great Again is to leave.
3
What the occupant of the White House said, "I am only saying what other people think, many agree with me", sadly is true. What he has done from the beginning is saying out loud what a lot of people think. Since his campaign he has made comments that are misogynistic, biased, bigoted, racist, offensive and childish. He has thrown so many tantrums that I lost count. His behavior has just given permission to do the same. The worrisome topic is exactly that: there are many that think like him. Many have chosen to behave like him. Many have kept silent (Republican party). But the sentiment is there. In the same words that this ultraconservative people use so frequently blanding a Bible over their heads as a weapon I would like to ask: What would Jesus do?
1
Alexis de Tocqueville predicted we would someday pay a terrible price for slavery, but he didn’t see that we would pay it twice.
1
I think Americans are finally developing a sense of what the political atmosphere of circa 1930s Germany must have been like.
The world has already seen and gone down that route. We do not need a sequel.
Unfortunately, it is a virus that is infecting not just America but is rapidly spreading throughout the world.
Did everyone see Lindsay Graham on Fox? His invective was possibly even worse than his bosses original rant. You could see the spittle forming in the corners of his indignant mouth.
Invoking the specter of antisemitism to justify his bosses drivel. There is an irony for you.
Will Americans ever learn?
Which way will they turn?
Good for you, Paul. The word has its place in public discourse, as ugly as it sounds, as vile as its intent is, because it is ugly and vile, and should shock.
N-word is anodyne and silly, and perhaps useful in discussions that are trying to avoid being ugly. But not here, not now.
again, thanks
Best one I read so far: When is Melania and her parents boarding a plane for Slovenia, where they actually and truly come from?
I'm old enough to remember when being called a racist was really bad. Neither Trump nor his supporters seem to mind. What happened?
He was, always will be a Birther.
Considering the deep racism in the country it still boggles the mind how Obama got elected, not once but twice. We have it in us to fight this tide of evilness and hatred that trump so perfectly embodies.
The Democrats insistence on perpetuating identity politics, and viewing every issue through the lens of skin color leaves them open to Trumps tactics. This was clear in AOC’s use of the race card against Pelosi. Please stop treating people like their skin color is their defining quality.
When a guy like Mitch McConnell is married to woman of Chinese descent, your cries of racism at every turn look dated. Racism still exists, as do all kinds of other injustices, but we don’t live in the 1950s anymore. Our society is more diverse and pluralistic than it has ever been.
Democrats are the party who should be championing the judgement of people by the content of their character. Stop drawing lines where they don’t exist and only serve to sow discord. And stop perpetuating the myth that people of color have no agency in this country because the deck is stacked against them. There is no crueler lie.
The circular firing squad is in full operation!
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For most people of color, and many whites too, Trump's racism is not a surprise. He was a racist before he ran for office and like others, used racism as a campaign tool. In fact, having lost by 3 million votes in 2016, he relied on the racist method of the electoral college in order to occupy the White House. Racism permeates our system.
I am afraid of three things; 1-There aren't enough whites who are sufficiently anti-racist to make the right decision in 2020, 2-The Dems' infighting will keep anti-Trump voters away from the polls, and 3-a rabid, white supremacist Trump supporter will decide he needs to save White America and will go on a gun rampage.
NYT - The photo at the top of the story is TOO BEAUTIFUL to be paired with this op-ed. You do the occupant of the WH a favor he doesn't deserve. Save it for when he's (long) gone, please.
No ifs and buts - slightly less than 1/2 of Americans are racist, and feel no shame on proclaiming it through their elected mouthpieces - Trump, and the GOP.
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All of the supposedly "moderate" Republicans who voted for Trump in 2016 despite his overt appeals to racists were, in fact, condoning, or at a minimum, willing to tolerate his racism. No doubt, they believed then and still believe now that they cast their votes for other reasons, but at the bottom, they were all closet racists. Nothing has changed. A large majority of "moderate" Republicans will vote for Trump again in 2020 for "other reasons," the big one being that they would rather have a racist Republican president than any Democrat.
2
When the lights go out, some people, usually males, behave badly. Somehow, under the cover of darkness the monsters from the id leap to the forefront. -- It seems the lights have gone off in the United States. We are all responsible for getting them back on before it's too late. Work for a Democratic congress and president, don't look away, keep fumbling in the dark for the light switch.
It all goes back to Josef Goebbels who declared that the bigger the lie, the more easily it is believed. Trump lies and believes his own lies. The Republican party accepts his lies as truth (some evangelicals might even say divine truth). In a divided country truth will not win out and Trump will, in all probability, celebrate a victory a year from November.
Love, love, love Erin Schaff's photograph.
I am one of those people who strongly believes that accusations of racism are leveled far too often these days, frequently on shaky grounds and without the slightest concern for the serious damage these accusations cause.
However, Trump is a racist and his comments about the four congresswomen are racist. It's as plain as day. And any members of congress and the media who hesitate to condemn his racist comments ought to be ashamed of themselves.
3
People who are racist have been taught that! If you isolate yourself and only have friends and acquaintances of whatever race you are makes it more likely that you will be racist. This country tried with the 1954 decision to overcome a racist society- it has clearly not worked. We have systemic racism as is proven by the vast prison population that is a majority of minorities. The same crime committed by a white person often brings a much lighter sentence than the same crime committed by a person of color. We have heard person's of color talk about how they have to talk to their children and tell them to be careful when encountering law enforcement whereas white parents for the most part do not have to have that conversation. It will take a sort of age of enlightenment to overcome the fear that people seem to have of the "other".
It appears that there is no low too low for Trump and it is obvious that Trump and those who embrace him are white racists. The Republican response, nothing! It is questionable whether the U.S. as a democracy will survive Trumpism. For certain, it is so embarrassing to be an American!
Check Trump's legal history in NYC housing and the family racism background.
It is official..and as Paul writes, racism - in the personas of that man contaminating the Oval Office and his oxymoronic Party of Lincoln - is out of the closet. The new attire may be a suit, white shirt, and tie; a MAGA red hat; outfits with red, white, and blue stars and stripes. No more hiding behind white robes and white hoods and masks. The racist and bigot is proud and arrogant. It is the new norm because their "president" embraces this evil; he lives it; he is it. But it goes so beyond the "man who will be without a name" during this comment. This ugly paradigm is cancerous, metastasizing at such a rate that it will soon be inoperable. We can no longer be silent or complacent. Tomorrow is too late. Today we must raise our voices en masse.
Dr K, please keep spotlighting the disgusting racism of the Republican Party and their core voters.
I for one hope that the Dem nominee will get on the debate stage with the Republican leader and ask, what have you accomplished?
Tax cuts for the rich, racism for the poor.
Enough pandering to the bigots. A registered Republican is a registered Racist.
Trump, and his criminal republican enablers, want to stoke a second civil war. Let them secede from the union. Nobody, and I mean nobody, will stop them - no fight, no war. It's time to let the red states go, and all the republicans can go with them. No more welfare for republicans and those in red states.
2
I don’t think it’s scary, I thinks it’s refreshing. Finally the truth. What we have all been wanting from the republican establishment. The truth. And the truth is, Republicans and their followers believe in white america. They believe in white power. They believe in white intelligence, “white is better”. We have been living in The Invisible Man’s America for the last 60 plus years. We keep thinking it’s us. And our wretched selves that deserve all this antagonism from white america because we are inferior. But we lay at night still wondering if it can be true, because we don’t feel inferior. At least now, like with the body cams on the cops, we can document the truth. They do hate us and want us relegated to a cast system where whites rule. Let the sun shine and the truth be heard. For us the job has barely started. We have to come together and feel the power of our numbers. We have to stop believing in their “honesty” and their “piety”, they are the wolf in sheep’s skin and with their books, tv shows, politics and policy tried to destroy our worth. No more, but unlike them I don’t wish for their pain or destruction. I wish for their integration into a great society of all colors, full of love.
El pueblo unido jamas será vencido.
-Dolores Huerta
Thank you, Me Krugman, for clearly illuminating the ugly truth that has been hiding in plain sight for so long. DJT’s supporters, whether they are openly supporting him through the purchase of MAGA merchandise or hiding in their offices refusing to call him out, are now exposed for the racists they are and always have been. No more hiding, we see you plainly now.
1
Paul Krugman who said if Trump is elected the stock market will crash now talks about racism. Not one word about the the four congresswomen's anti-semitism. Hate is hate unless it comes from a democrat.
1
The only strategy is:
VOTE BLUE- NO MATTER WHO
1
What closet?? They were always there, they just don't find white robes and hoods tasteful anymore!! Business suit is a much better attire.
1
That the Constitution from the days of slavery aids this racism needs to be changed.
People have it all wrong when they think that Trump's racist tweets about Democratic Congresswomen are in fact about his racism. Not in the least. Rather, it is a calculated plan on his part to dump his latest wife, so he can go groping for another one. It will be only a matter of days now until the Entertainer-In-Chief piously announces that he very much practices what he preaches and will consequently issue a National Security-grounded Executive Order instructing the I.N.S. to immediately investigate Melania's phony citizenship papers and make her go back to the country she came from, Slovenia. And, of course, he will note that he is just a poor, unsuspecting victim of her deceptions, deceptions that were hatched by Melania with Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden.
By the way, I note that this brilliant bit of intellectual property on my part is hereby copyrighted, because I have no doubt that otherwise other astute, perceptive intellectuals such as Rush Limpo, Alex Darth Jones, and Jerry 30-Years Warrior Falwell would claim my creation as their own.
1
that concentric evolution with no perspective other than repetition, sometimes made up like the one the autocrat intends, which is a kind of old shady boat, badly painted with fat orange brushes and a yellowish and pathetic worm-eaten candle, is the clearest symbol of an acephalic nihilism ... a ship that transports jewels mixed with fresh dung, is nothing but a contradiction with the world of the 21st century; fast, integrated, cybernetic and moral concepts redone for the best. The old and rotten turns around in his "Sea and lake" in search of who else hate, denigrate, vex. He feeds on his twisted imagination, so he can not say "we do not want frontier people with IQ less than 75, nor uneducated people who do not know where they stand in the world. Think (?), That I'm better? Discover that under your salon bust! he is white! . An old white full of Botox, creams of promising origins and Bishop's double chin. Yes. Not brown, yellow or black. Oh, "I'm as white as the poto of an albino baby!
Stick with economics, something you claim to know something about.
1
These racist attacks by Trump on four women of color come from the same dark place in the human spirit that led to Hitler’s denunciation of the Jews, and if not resisted by the American people could lead to a similar, tragic outcome. We are looking at a monster, and that is an apt comparison.
Trumps use of identity politics should remind us what can happen when racial, religious or other prejudices are exploited by politicians to burnish their brands and build their bases. That is why identity politics of any kind, even when it may seem justified on the merits of the issues, should be resisted by the Democrats, if they want to lead the nation in a new direction.
3
Really Paul? Where have you been? Many of us figured this out since the 2016 campaign. Trump is the white supremacy leader in this country.
2
USA of Tan
Eventually, there will be fewer Blacks, "Yellows" and Whites, we will be a nation of Tan - very many Tanners, No?
Trump has done it again. By putting his racism front and center, the dark and disgusting core of his being and the prime draw for his cult, he gets his failures on the census, his involvement with Epstein and his failure with North Korea off the front page.
Trump is mad as Caligula, and Pelosi is enabling him.
If you voted for or continue to support trump, can you honestly and ethically accept the blatant racist words he spewed last night?
He just told the British Ambassador to go back to his country but for some reason this is not racist.
It should never have come to this. Come on, Republicans, where is the condemnation? If this is really how you feel, why should any person of color ever vote for one of you again? To remain silent is to admit you are complicit, and we (and future generations) will not forget where you stood on this day. In 10, 50, or 100 years do you really want to be remembered as the lapdog and enabler of a racist madman? It is not too late to say "enough is enough". Be your best and speak up.
1
Once again a cogent column by Mr. Krugman. My only caveat is his timeline. Racism has been out of the closet since at least Charlottesville.
The sad part is that there are a number of American military bases in the south named after traitors and war criminals who waged insurrection and revolution on the United States. They resigned their Army commissions and fought for a hostile foreign power waging war on the the United States.
Imagine if Germany named some of its bases after Hitler, Goring and Rommel because they were good generals.
Lee stood at the scaffold where John Brown was hanged for doing the exact same thing he did. And Ft. Lee Virginia is named after him.
I am a retired U.S. Army officer and it makes me ill to go onto bases named after these military criminals.
Swamps serve a useful purpose in the ecology.
We now have a cesspool in the White House.
It is ironic that the service members who stand at attention in the presence of the draft dodger in chief honor their oath to protect the constitution and protect the person who is shredding that constitution.
VietnamVet
Words matter and Mr Krugman,you know that better than most...why give these people power by stating its “deeply frightening” ...they thrive on fear ,it’s their fuel ... it’s deeply pathetic is more apt because whether they like it or not the present and the future is multi cultural,demographically,economically and globally and fear mongering racist and fascist attitudes will be left in the dust along with their pathetic spokesmen and women...it cost over 60 million dead to defeat them the last time...let’s hope the ballot box will do what’s necessary this time because politicians will NOT now ,not ever, solve this....ordinary people will...
Dr Krugman, as an old white male, you are of no use to the new Democratic Party except as a voter to be used. You would NEVER win if you actually tried to represent Democratic voters anywhere but the northeast. Because you're not their type as an old white male. Watch how Biden, then Beto, and Buttigieg get taken down in the primaries.
Now just look what we have found out:.....the GOP in Congress
is afraid that they will not be re elected by Trump's ….fearful
bigoted base of voters.
I guess that they are afraid of racial progress and the progress
of civil rights....of the intelligence and the more principled
qualities of their political equals in our governments...
Wake up GOP.....you are becoming more integrated and
there are those who do not recognize that ….people who are
not of the same color or same background are....US citizens
and immigrants just like all of us....with the exception of
those proud and good native Americans...who welcomed
the first immigrants who came to Plymouth Massachusetts.
Wake UP and greet the new MOD SQUAD....four very brave
US Citizens who spoke to us all yesterday...and welcome them as the Native Americans welcomed the first pilgrims !!!
He became Senate Majority Leader, then stepped down from power after praising Strom Thurmond's 1948 segregationist Dixiecrat presidential bid. 2002 Trent Lott
This would not happen today, he would be praised and defended by the GOP.
Republicans are tired of the political correctness that has oppressed their true feelings for decades.
Cold Civil War
Political correctness was a way of oppressing the racist southerners of the "lost cause."
Lindsey Graham called AOC and friends COMMUNISTS today.
North Korea is a communist nation yet TRUMP loves Kim Jung Un.
NUTS
What drives me crazy is the "Oh, that's racist!" response.
Of course, it is, but how useless is that word today?
Everyone, including Trump and his acolytes invokes it to the point it has become simply a way of saying, "That's offensive."
Why not simply catalog the thinks Trump says, that we need more immigrants from Norway, that immigrants from Central America are rapists and constitute an "infestation" that AOC should go back to the dirty country she comes from (The Bronx?) There were very fine people who were Nazis at Charlottesville.
Allow the listener to draw his own conclusions.
Bernie Sanders does this effectively when he says for Trump global climate change is simply a Chinese plot.
Hang Trump with his own words, but forget that worn out word, "racist."
It adds nothing.
Let's see....
We have a racist and narcissistic demagogue who has opened detainment camps for an identified "enemy" , has openly told government members in the opposition to "go back where they came from", promoted nationalists with fascist core beliefs while the leaders who are supposed to be a check on him either just wring their hands or use silence as complicit support.
How long before we are a full blown fascist state?
These events happened extremely quickly in the supposed most well established and Constitutionally protected Democracy in the history of mankind.
When will those who are allowed to stop him do so?
This is a power grab and he is the tool. Stop him and then stop those who have held him up and used him for their gain of total control of our society and its resources that belong to the people. Especially our government!.
1
Racism and misogyny has really raised its ugly head and brought, not only the GOP to the party of repulsion, but our society...things need to change for the better. The so called GOP is not going to do that! It is Racist and Misogynistic.
Obama 2012: "Vote"
Krugman has to be referring to the "dog-whistles" of our Sovietized mass-media, and SNL-Late Night, by the legions to millions, right? You know, Cultural Marxism propaganda by the cohorts et al.
Ooops, politically correct group-think at last heading to the Grand Collective abyss?
Trump is following the playbook of every 20th century dictator.
Us versus them. Whites against people of color.
The main stream media is fake. Believe only the media messages I tell you to believe.
People of color, 'foreigners', 'Arabs', Muslims, women are the Trump scapegoats. They are responsible for all of the things missing from the lives of his followers.
Judges are corrupt unless I appoint them.
Democrats 'hate this Country'.
Do not trust the FBI.
We are in a very dangerous place.
Racists are those who put the illegal intruders above legal immigrants, who evaluate people based on race and gender rather than merit, who would do anything to harm the country by robbing the hard working middle class. Those four women have no regard to law or even common sense, they are the real racists!
The GOP need to be called out for their collective enabling of the most racist president since reconstruction. Everyone of them running for office next year should be called on the carpet by his opponent and made to account for his support, or his silence, or else be labelled an enabler.
I only have two family members. One of them is a Trump supporter. So I have cut her out of my life. Well, she is your "mother" don't you care? I do, but a racist is a racist and this is a cold civil war, so I'm on the non-racist side. To all the racists out there--you will get no quarter from me--ever. Never.
364
@David Bond, do you know Daniel personally? If not, where do you get all the views you impute to him? He did not express or hint at any of them. All he said is that he can't stand close contact with racists.
60
@Daniel
I've had to keep my father at an arm's length away for the exact same reason.
Those Americans who still support trump need to know that other Americans will fight them tooth and nail to preserve the United States of American and our Constitutional government.
45
@J
You are attacking ICE centers with fire bombs so believe me, we know. I support President Trump Proudly. You keep your own father at arm's length because he supports the President? And you want the rest of us to know something? Ok, message received guy good luck with the rest of your life you are going to need it.
3
If Nathan Bedford Forrest was a traitor so was Robert E Lee. If he was a terrorist so was Sherman who killed livestock, burned crops, houses, and made thousands of people homeless. There was a war going on and war is ugly. Southern slaves were freed, forced to move North to large cities like New York City and enslaved in ghettos. There were slaveholders in the North after the Emancipation Proclamation. Most Northerners thought blacks were inferior even though they thought slavery was wrong. So Trump is a racist, I can introduce you to a dozen racist in fifteen minutes. Racism doesn't just exist on one side. "Vice-President Biden, I don't think you are a racist." is tantamount to saying, "You are a racist." It's kind of like saying, "I don't think your baby is all that ugly."
1
Racism grows and strengthens in an economic system that relegates so many people to lives of quiet despair. It is so bad now that White people without high school educations are experiencing increasing mortality rates -- the deaths of despair mentioned in the article. Much of this is happening in the Rust Belt. We knew about the deaths of despair in 2015 with the first Case-Deaton paper emerging just after Deaton won the econ Nobel -- it was very widely discussed.
In 2016, Trump announced that he would win the presidency by targeting the Rust Belt voters and blaming the Clintons and NAFTA for their economic troubles. He would promise to fix their economic problems. Clinton said that she would put her husband in charge of her economic policy, that NAFTA was good, that the TPP would be good, too, and that America was already great. Michael Moore of Flint, MI, famously in touch with the working class, sounded the alarm -- Trump was going to win. Trump then won, but it wasn't because of any of that -- it wasn't what it seemed -- it was because of widespread racism and sexism among The Deplorables, or maybe it was caused by the Russians or Jim Comey.
The problems are economic. Fix them and you'll fix the increasing racism. Racism grows in populations weakened by economic failure. A Black president who bailed out Wall Street and refused to help people with their foreclosures, many of which were caused by criminal bankers, helped set the stage for what we are now seeing.
Okay, I get it. You hate Republicans and everyone else who does not think like and act like you. You're worse than anything you have written here.
2
You’re saying we should make common cause with the white power and neo-Nazi groups who helped elect Trump, just because you have?
I immigrated at 9 years old. One day in school, the class clown told me to go back home. I told him to go back to hell. We all had a laugh at his expense. And then we learned something useful in class.
I never viewed the comment as racist, just stupid.
Trump's comment doesn't prove he's racist, just stupid.
Move on, people. Feigning offense at someone else's stupidity is a waste of time.
2
The occupant in the White House is a master of deception. He sucks 95% of the oxygen out of the room daily. He does this for the attention, but also to have us keep our eye on him, and not what he is doing to wreck our government.
His racist rants have sucked up all of the news cycles and has kept us from looking at what he is really doing: decimating the Farm Bureau of all its scientists, denying immigrants of asylum by changing the rules and keeping us occupied while several important criminal trials begin about his current and former employees.
Our government is being destroyed from within by a GOP that cares little about this country. As long as they have the current occupant in the White House there, who can distract our attention by his hate and stupidity, the GOP and he can continue to destroy our nation, one hate filled racist rant or deregulation at a time.
As I see it, the longer he and the GOP have a grip on power, the harder it will be to repair the destruction they have savaged on us. There is a possibility that we, as a nation, may never fully recover from this...now that's frightening!!!!
If you still support Trump (and the Republican Party that refuses to condemn him) you're either a) a Nazi sympathizer or b) a Good German. Period, full stop, end of story.
Sorry, Trump supporters -- if you haven't condemned him, you're enabling him, and the Statute of Limitations for being a misguided jackass has run out.
2
Black folks, myself included have always known dog whistle politics, and the "Nigger, nigger, nigger" below. Paul, your article is both great and terrible: great that it is being more widely recognized here and beyond, and terrible that it is surfacing so unwittingly! I think most black folks would agree, that we'd prefer the racism to be out in the open - either said or unsaid, the danger and the harm are equally proscriptive.
The left could surely learn from Trump's tweets and his bases' reception of them; recognition of ever-present harm would consume the ever-present danger.
1
The GOP, led by Trump, is just playing the most worn-out pages of the populist playbook: ratchet up the nationalism (in the USA it takes the time-tested form of American exceptionalism) and divert all the blame to some convenient "other" (search for a convenient scapegoat, doesn't matter how plausible).
Of course, the roots of the American malady (shared by most Western countries) run much deeper than what any "other"'s malice may credibly explain (unless you consider the 1% and the plutocracy hoarding most fruits of economic development of the past four decades some perverse form of outsiders, but I'm afraid they are too ingrained within the system for that), so the populist program for restoring whatever country's "greatness" is bound to fail (for reasons explained here: http://purebarbell.blogspot.com/2018/09/the-allure-of-populism-and-demise-of.html).
The interesting thing to ponder is what happens after such failure...
I could not imagine 15 years ago that I would read something this deeply disturbing about our government and our society in the pages of the NYT.
When did we cross the bridge, or should I say pull back the curtain and reveal that we are not a collective of well meaning people who want the same things but differ in opinions on how to accomplish these things? That we are, broadly speaking, two very different clans who do not want the same things, one of which is malicious, destructive, authoritarian, exclusive, closed minded and very dangerous?
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As an economist , Mr Krugman should have pointed the economic aspect of racism .Which is the founding of racism.
But he did not.
And the alluding crime is about that question too.
And for that point it is good to remember Americans that if crime occurrence is low now for the history of this nation, the USA have still the highest violent crime rate in the industrialized world, about 8 times more than in European average, per capita.
The USA have also the highest incarceration rate in the world, by 8 times as well the European average, per capita.
Almost 1 % of American citizens are in jail ( 0.8 % ) .
France , the average in Europe, has 0.1 % .
I will mention again the research on role modeling in social learning theory: People were more likely to copy a role model demonstrating negative/bad behavior and perceived as rewarded than they were to copy a role model demonstrating positive/good behavior and perceived as rewarded for it. Consider Trump vs. Barak and Michelle Obama--which has had the greater impact on American's behavior?
The complicity of 90%+ of the Republican Party only compounds the likelihood that Trump's tearing open the ugly Pandora's box of racism, hatred, xenophobia, misogyny has undermined all that was good about our multicultural country.
Though Nixon, Lee Atwater, Karl Rove, George H.W. Bush (Willie Horton ad), et al. may have dog whistled the Republican Party to power, Trump managed to turn the page on democracy and head us toward demagoguery and authoritarianism.
How many times has Trump spit on the Constitution to issue yet another executive order to do harm and destruction (environment, treaties, immigration, etc.) or get some lackey to trash the spirit of the law in favor of Trump?
All evidence suggests that the Republican party is not actually comfortable with democratic and humanitarian values and now fully supports demagoguery and tyranny (harsh, oppressive, unjust, arbitrary unrestrained power in one leader or group).
The 2020 election may be the most important one in our history so far to distinguish the democrats from the authoritarians, and I am no longer a betting woman.
3
From the beginning of Trump's candidacy I thought the idea that his supporters were motivated by fear was being too kind to them. The fear was supposedly for their uncertain economic outlook. Trump supporters I spoke to overwhelmingly spoke about hatred, not fear. They hated Hilary Clinton, President Obama and black people in general. Trump's supporters will be quick to deny this and claim they are not prejudiced at all. Contrary to their claims anyone who still supports Trump is demonstrating their support is motivated by racism, not fear.
4
Racism is one of many ways that we are distracted from the real problem which is the conflict between the "Haves" and the "Have Nots" i.e the wealthy vs the working people and the poor. America is becoming a Plutocracy and we are to distracted to know it.
1
Trump convinced the Party of Nixon that they need not worry about anything but the 37%. The 37% would vote red no matter what.
With the electoral college and gerrymandered house districts, the GOP no longer needs to pretend that they give a whit about the rest of us.
This new awareness finally allows the White Nationalist Party out of the closet - they can finally and openly embrace those "very fine people". George Wallace would be astonished that Trump, McConnell, etc had pulled this off.
2
No surprises here. Trump's 2016 campaign was based on white male privilege and rage. He did not thinly veil his racism then, at Charlottesville, and certainly not now. Since the "Southern Strategy" of Richard Nixon, the Republicans have embraced racism to win Red States, but have thinly veiled it until Trump. Now they have openly claimed it with their silence when white nationalism was on display in Charlottesville, and when Trump has openly used derogatory language about people of color.
The battle between the four women in the House and Nancy Pelosi is not about racism, it is about a struggle between the politically astute and the politically naive. Trump has stirred the pot (as he intended) with his unbridled racist remarks aimed at the four women.
I am from Alabama, and lived through the Civil Rights era, and witnessed the cruelty of racism inflicted on people of color. I clearly remember the bombing of the church in Birmingham, the dogs turned on peaceful demonstrators, and through it all the peaceful determination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to win justice and equality for those who had been denied it for generations. I remain deeply ashamed of the horrific injustice that people of color suffered for so many years. What I am witnessing now harkens back to those dark days of this country.
We are on a slippery slope heading for an abyss of racism, misogyny, and xenophobia from which we might not emerge for generations to come, if Trump is re-elected.
The Democratic party needs to stop attacking Trump. The people who believe his rhetoric are tough to shift. Instead, Democrats should focus on American ideals, one person one vote, equality of ideas, equal treatment of all, and rights to economic incentive.
They should point out the behavior of the GOP is the opposite of this. That GOP's effective silence on what this administration is saying and doing to our country very clearly demonstrates they put party over country. They would let America sink into Facisim to preserve their red ties to big corporate donors and their seats in Washington. Shameful doesn't begin to describe it, poisonous and treasonous is a start.
Trump's Chief of Communications, on NPR today, defended everything Trump has said and done over the last two weeks. Liberals hate America was his dominating theme. I do not understand how any women, person of color, or anyone who still adheres to the basic values of "do unto others", "love they neighbor", or the basic teachings of the Bible could possibly vote for Trump. Why don't Republicans come up with an alternative to Trump for 2020? What is stopping them? Fear? Fox News? Or are we finding out that indeed Trump has tapped into a human darkness that just cannot now be contained? How bad does it have to get? Who are we?
I never thought I would ever have anything to add to Paul Krugman's wise words. But I wish to draw attention to Nancy MacLean's prescient book: "Democracy in Chains." She points out that racism is the force that animates the Republican party to tear down democracy. We see this before our eyes as White supremacist cheer on authoritarianism and the trashing of democratic institutions, practices, and habits of the heart. This is the Republican party created by the Koch Brothers and the oligarchs who they organized. Trump only seized the moment.
1
Thanks for writing this. I do think Trump’s racism and his vilification of women is a sign of fear. He is afraid of any person or group he perceives as stronger than he is. The republicans who support him are showing their own fear — of Trump the terrified narcissist.
The GOP has long since relied on racist campaign advertising -- some subtle and some not -- like Willie Horton and "white hands." Nixon, Reagan, the Bushes and Donald Trump had no problem appealing to race. It's the playbook.
But now, in order to support Trump, you either have to be a racist yourself, or you don't mind that he is.
What's the difference? And where is the shame? Donald is not sorry.
Sorry Paul--
This is the 100th "moment of truth." The sensational language about his many transgressions don't help. Sadly, they all pass, and our president laughs. Remember when he bragged about grabbing womens' private parts? Or when he said the "Mexican" judge (from Indiana) wouldn't be fair to him? Or when he talked about the "good people on both sides" in Charleston? I could go on, but we all get the point.
The only way for trump and the white mostly male republican senate to be defeated is for the dems to truly represent the young and brown population of america. This means all young 40 and under, voters of all colors. They have been apathetic non voters for many elections because they dont see any reason to participate. Now their very futures depend on their participation to vote out the madman, the orange devil who is the pied piper of his fearful flock of those who flirt with racism to stay elected. We are in a very decisive and divisive moment to go forward with much needed change for the future or backwards and sell our souls to racism, broken infrastructure, broken healthcare system, broken public education system, and unrepresentative government by way of gerrymandering, politicized judicial systems, and no plan to confront global warming. I truly fear we will not make it. Its just too big what we are facing. My only hope is these young people, the boomers and genxers children, could rise up and save us from the worst among us.
1
@Mother
So, reverse racism. Couldn’t read past your first sentence...
This is the strategy for 2020, so there's no need to smoke them out about it. Pure racist politics. It's unsettling that there are so many people who subscribe to these beliefs and like it when trump voices them, but it is critical to beat them back and repudiate their hatred. I don't agree that it's frightening. They are mostly afraid to own up to it and even now don't shout it out, in my experience. Dems better be up to the task ahead of them.
I do not know if Trump is a racist or not, but I know Trump plays a racist on TV.
That said, the overwhelming support for Donald "grab her by the ..." Trump proves that "values" in front of the word voter is and has always been code for race.
That said, this is not a Trump problem but the result of a conscious choice made by Republicans to keep an economic message and policy that benefits the top 1% of voters and use other than economic issues, God, Guns, Gays and above all Race, supported by money from that top 1% to expand their voting base using other than economic issues.
The important point is the problem is not with Trump but with the Republican Party, that it has become, to quote GOP House whip Steve Scalise, "David Dukes without the baggage". David Dukes without the baggage is by definition a clansman with the hood still on/yet to reveal himself.
One final point about "Playing the Race Card". Whenever the poor are being attacked, the race card is being played. Because of centuries of discrimination there is a link between "class" and "race". Therefore when we talk about class and aid to the poor, we are talking about race. Everyone gets it and everyone especially the media denies it. In fact when discussing class and someone points out that race is also being discussed, the media accuses that person of playing the race card. Ignoring the link and attacking anyone who brings up the link allows for the poor to be labeled "those people" not equal to true Americans.
There are many so called White Americans who feel the same way as the members of the squad do. Many of them in Congress. Did I miss the tweet where Mr. Trump tells them to go back to their countries if they don't like it here.
"Every nation gets the government it deserves" (Joseph de Maistre, French philosopher, 1753-1821.)
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The Republicans are certainly not dog whistling anymore. They are loudly proclaiming their racial animus.
Trump clearly believes it is his ticket to a second term. We MUST prove him wrong.
1
Yeah - those four need to help fix their broken country. OH - that's what they were elected to do!
Listenng this morning to Trump officials and some of his constituency attempt to rationalize his racism. It in general amounts to a convoluted twisted mess of denial and deflection. It seems to me that it might be time for the so called party of principles to take a good hard look in the mirror and ask who am I, what have I become and where is my blind denial taking me. At the moment it is taking them down a road that will define them as the divisive haters they aspire to for a long long time.
I pity them because they have lost all concept of what it means to be a good human being.
1
Everyone seems to agree that America is going to the dogs. They disagree only on the cause.
Most of the commentators seem to feel that "diversity" is a positive (and make no mistake, by diversity they mean non white).
Others (i.e. Trump supporters) think "diversity" is the problem (and make no mistake, by diversity they mean non white).
Are both attitudes racist? Or neither?
Good luck America.
This is about being "white" in America. What does it mean to be "white?" There's a historical side to this. The original "whites" were white, Anglo-Saxon protestants -- some Anglican, some Puritan, most considered outcasts from a Great Britain that had another definition of "whiteness." Of course, not everyone accepted this definition of "white," particularly when it had economic consequences. Not that all Unionists were pro-slave/anti-abortion. They just didn't want extremely cheap slave labor competing for jobs, so a consequence was civil war.
Then immigrants began piling up on our shores, principally in east coast cities. Again, cheap labor. They did not become "white" until the period between WWI and afer WW II. The "non-white" immigrants proved their "whiteness" as cannon fodder. We needed them! And with a GI Bill and a rebirth of patriotism after 1945, a bunch of former "non-white" became "white." They even went so far as to aid and abet blacks attain civil rights! Ah, the benefits of prosperity! Of course that led to new waves of "non-white" immigrants. And eventually we lost the expanded prosperity. Distoted wealth crept back into the picture. The once privileged "whites" felt less privileged. hat to do? Regress! Nativism! The "non-whites" must be ghettoized, sent home, victimized. Can't share any of the crumbs that the extremely privileged allow to escape their grasp!The essence of Trumpism! The antithesis of Christianity!
Thank you, Mr. Krugman for so clearly showing the situation for what is.
Your column should serve as a spur for all those who wish to see ours a more truly democratic country in policy as well as in speech.
trump is the visible sore on a sickened body politic. The sore has come about through a long process of deterioration, through Democratic and Republican administrations, of the rights and income of the middle and working classes. Obama kneeled before the banks after their large part in creating the depression of '08, and even allowed bank executives huge bonuses at the end of that year while millions of citizens lost their homes. A minimum wage of only $7.50 persisted through his administration, and Clinton saw to the elimination of the Glass-Steagel act that had forbade savings banks from investing in risky investments, which helped bring about '08.
Careful observers of the state of our economy and nation must take stock not merely of the message of the prospective seekers of the Democratic nomination for president, but their dedication in the past to the essentials of a more equitable distribution of income and rights. In my mind, only one candidate fulfills that requirement and will be sure to carry them out if elected, Bernie Sanders.
1
The German military (die Bundeswehr) does honor some WW II military heroes, most prominently Erwin Rommel. I don’t find that inappropriate.
You fight for where you live. That’s part of the military ethos everywhere.
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The Republican Party, the party of Lincoln. George Lincoln Rockwell
"No more dog whistle, now it's a bull horn"...said April Ryan on CNN just now.
"Biden clearly isn't a racist"? Back this up. Just why is that so clear? What does someone have to do to be defined as racist?
Why is it that such a long- experienced politician as Biden, who was VP to our 1st black president--- "needs to get a clue about how important it is to confront the racism sweeping the G.O.P."?
When it's so blatant, in your face?
Just how clueless is he, and why? Yet he polls highest, and many blacks still support him. So what's really going on here?
How long must we make excuses for him, when we have a long lineup of good candidates?
We are seeing now that Trump's most lasting damage may be to make even mediocre opponents look better than they are. Then things improve but we stay stuck.
@Fast/Furious - "Half a million U.S. troops are currently serving overseas. It's the most diverse groups representing our country ..."
Trump better watch what he wishes for. Our armed forces are blacker and more Hispanic than the general population - the same could be said of other groups terrorized by Trump and the GOP. If they all go back to where they came from, the Defense department is going to be in deep manure. Which probably would make America great ...
Are Republicans that oblivious?
Perhaps a minority of voters are outright racists but it's hard to believe that roughly half the voters of the US support these values.
Fixed it:
"...Democrats need to be very careful about doing anything that even hints at playing the race card against their own party. I understand Nancy Pelosi's frustration with progressives' committment to human rights, the rule of law and saving childrens' lives..."
" .... they should “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.”
They are doing something better. They are fighting a racism and sexism tainted presidency in their (chosen) home. We should all lend them a hand.
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Sorry, Dr. Krugman, but racism has been out of the closet for a long time - where have you been?
1
How many non-white votes can Turdy possibly get after these stunts? How many women really really like his treatment of gals, his payments to hotties to keep quiet and his nutso need to tell any of them in public office to shut up (probably because they are not his type) Yes, that does leave white males I suppose like me but it just seems only a certain percentage of them find putting on brown shirts attractive. Really it seems his only real hope is to keep the election from happening at all. Even his people know that the popular vote will be larger against him than it was last time, and deciding to stain our flag with his filthy racism will be the cause of much of it.
This is the logical conclusion to Nixon's southern strategy. The takeover of Republican party by the racists they have courted for decades is now complete.
What are you talking about, Krugman? Racism has *never* been in the closet. The difference now is that white people like you are noticing.
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"Racism" is a term so overused to smear and silence others that it has lost all meaning.
1
We've all heard Trump say a number of times he's the least racist person you'll ever see. And no doubt he actually believes it. That's why it's not the racists who decide if their behavior is racist. If they did, they'd insist it doesn't exist.
Racism doesn't get millions of followers by being able to recognize their behavior is unacceptable. It didn't happen that way with the Nazis. And it's not happening that way with the Trump clan either.
Pioneers didn't go west, illegal European immigrant invaders did.
Racism from the beginning and racism now. Where are the ideals we used to promote? (in spite of our actions.)
I'd be happy to pay for Trump's return to where he came from: the sewer.
2
... and they say, he has God on his side.
@Flxelkt, Pompeii says god actually send trump! Most people in Israel also are told that
We have a racist president who is also corrupt and misogynistic and spectacularly inept. This has been evident, well, since he was elected by a minority of the country and with the assistance of an enemy power. His party, of which I was once a member, has utterly shamed and disgraced itself by remaining silent or outright supporting his sickening behavior. This is how things stand, and the question is where do you stand? Resist. Engage. Make your voice heard. Make America worthy of its ideals and values again.
1
I have observed South Carolina's Senator Lindsey Graham go from being a well informed moderate (for a red state) and a friend of John McCain's to a ventriloquist's dummy mimicking and defending a racist, authoritarian president. Graham is desperate to be re-elected and he is appealing to the worst people in SC
3
With trump's obvious racism on full display, now we can see the republican party's true color - especially of it's so-called leaders. Their color is white-(supremacist).
They are un-American. They got into bed with this overtly racist president, simply to stay in power -- even though they see trump is hurting our nation and its people.
The republican party has made a deal with the devil. They've trapped themselves. They know that admitting they're in bed with the devil will mean their party goes down in infamy.
We need the media and democrats to keep repeat this over and over and over....
_____________________________________________
• Republican leaders don't care that they are •
• following an overt-racist trump. •
•___________________________________________•
The Republican party is lost.
Neil Young`s searing song;" Southern Man."
Donald Trump has at least three or more opinion articles about him every day. He is in the headlines every day. He gets a billion dollars of free advertising from the liberal press. But very little about his policies.
Not everyone who supports Trump is a racist, but everyone who supports Trump feels its not a deal breaker.
2
The Squad: reparations.
DJT: repatriation?
Dear me, such choices!
Uh, racism has been out of the closet for quite some time. You should hear my relatives at Thanksgiving. Check that, you don't want to hear them.
Ok, now it’s out in the open. We all knew Trump is a racist. He now proudly pulls it out of the closet to show everyone who he is. He does not care! He is appealing to his base of white voters who live in mostly Red States and who support his racism. These supporters could represent over 50% of America’s majority white population. The truth is that perhaps as many as 40% of Americans fall into the Trump white nationalist camp. It’s about the electoral college. He doesn’t care about California, New York, Illinois, Washington, or Maryland. He’s after Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Florida. It’s all about stoking fear about losing out to people of color. The more he talks about this in a direct manner, the more support he will get from this group.
Thank you Paul. Call it for what it is - racism, racism, racism. That is what Republicans stand for above all else. If you are a Republican and disagree, you are a very long way from being self aware
1
My suspicion is that this tweet — I do wish we could stop paying attention to these idiotic, 280-character eruptions — was written and posted quite deliberately to stir up the base, and probably *not* by Individual 1, but one of his behind-the-scenes political schemers.
I base my suspicion on the fact that the tweet, while execrable and peppered with "Trumpy" language, is also precise and grammatically correct. Consider this line: "Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came."
I don't believe the "president" is capable of writing such words himself. He loves the message, but I suspect it was tapped out by others, with a specific goal of revving up the racist "base."
1
They're just standing on the front porch now yelling "Here, Fido."
Sorry, but you can’t just pin this on the Republican Party and gutless sycophants like Lindsay Graham. They wouldn’t have gone all in for Trump’s racism and immigrant bashing if tens of millions of Americans weren’t cheering them on.
Paul Krugman’s analysis is dead on. From the Trump point of view, though, the racism is a constant. It’s always there. What his latest incendiary comments constitute is Trump “hitting back ten times harder” at congresswomen who have burned him in comments and on Twitter. It’s sport for him. For his base, it’s their truly enthralling fantasy, to see these darker skinned female upstarts violently put in their place, which is somewhere outside the United States.
If all you see is what is 'out of the closet' regarding the President you must not have been paying much attention. Know what else is out of the closet? Rampant hatred of everything American, White, Males, Christian and a long list of other things the left has turned their ire on. Go ahead and circle those wagons around the 4 progressives. Voters are watching. Democrats have already lost 2020.
Ya know, the Distinguished Professor is right, of course. But, unfortunately, the opinion columnists at The Old Grey Lady are preaching to the choir.
Sadly, this activity is essentially worthless other than as an intellectual exercise.
We must all talk with our Republican friends about Trump’s racism. If they support it, we must condemn them. If they deplore it and consider Trump deplorable, we must applaud them, and urge them to write and call Republican leaders.
If you voted for this racist president, it’s time to tell him you deplore his racism.
Amen, Dr. Krugman.
And it is about time that the NYT and other decent and honest news outlets start saying what I have been seeing for most of my 65 years on this planet.
The original sin of our country is alive and all too well.
Republicans are racists. And they don't feel the need to disguise it.
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Republican Party of the United States . . .
The main thing trump has accomplished with his latest vomiting of racist rhetoric is to remind the Democrats to defend one another and unite to disinfect our White House of the filth that festers there. Daily, if not hourly trump demands attention, good or bad, he doesn't care which, with outrageous lies. If he's lucky enough to finish his first term, he will not be reelected to a second term. Please God, let this be true.
Yes, let every one who went to America to escape poverty or oppression go back to ‘where they came from’ and leave America to the NATIVE AMERICANS?? No one talks about what happened to them!!!!
What is a white supremacist? It appears to be thrown around a lot and means different things at different times. Would it include people who join a "white caucus" or a "Jewish and white caucus"? Or people who call other white people names if they preference people of color for any reason? Or white people who argue that poorly performing white kids from disadvantaged areas should get some preference on college admissions? Some clarification would help.
@Patrick
In case you’re serious, and are confused by the term, ‘White supremicist’ - just google it on Wikipedia, there’s a very detailed description and many links to additional information, if you are truly interested. After reading this, the questions you’ve posed should be easily answered. Some of the groups you mention just don’t fit at all, and the reading will clarify that. Arguing endlessly without a real factual basis is tearing our country apart, and from what I’ve seen traveling recently in Europe, it’s doing it there as well. Having real conversations, where we listen to each other respectfully without name calling an innuendo can start to turn the tide. Peace.
1
Back to the fifties, or even to the times of "strange fruit hanging", with Trumps cry "where is my Roy Cohn" and the creation of McTrumpism and House Un-American Activities? Paul Krugman is the Cassandra again, are there enough people listening, and ready to oppose the ride Trump & co is promising? The spectre of civil was is havering above your country - preventable if. (...)
No,Paul Krugman,racism has not come out of the closet,
it has been there all the time.If you and other members of the establishmen would not have turned a blind eye to it you would have seen it before.Together with unforgivable hatred between the races,racism will rip apart the country.
1
It is still astonishing to me how history is rhyming in the arc from financial crash (1929/2008) to overt racism (Nazism/Orban-Trumpism). Are we in for war?
Name calling is one thing, inferring that these Congresswomen "hate" America is an invitation to violence. And when did the Democratic left become, according to Lindsey Graham Communists? Weren't we socialists just last week? Sounds like the fascist pot calling the kettle communist. Either way Trump escalates the situation with his casual cruelty and his loose lips. He has the capacity to sink this ship of state and I'm sick of those who wont even admit we're taking on water.
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We Americans have a president who is a demonstrable racist and misogynist. His political party enables him. He also yearns to be a dictator for life.
Democrats and Republicans are at war, and in war the goal is to attack the enemy, not yourself. Democrats need to learn this vital lesson. They must unite, before it is too late.
Their fate will be our fate.
Nonsense! It is refreshing to read a work of fiction on the opinion page. As it is frequently done by a loose-with-the-facts assortment of contributors, might as well change the caption from opinion to fiction.
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Of course Trump is a racist . That is obvious . What I find lacking when people try to make sense of his outrageous behavior is any mention of mental illness . This man has severe personality problems . His narcissism and antisocial tendencies are in the open for all to see . We are living in the times of a new Caligula . That is the ultimate reason there is a new outrage almost everyday .
Trump claims that these Congresswomen are anti-Semitic while at the same time embracing white national supremacists who expouse the same thing. His comments regarding some Neo-Nazis demonstrators shouting "Jews will not replace us" in Charlottesville being "very fine people" demonstrates his true racist/anti-Semitic colors. The last thing he wants is for all Americans to embrace tolerance, love and respect for each other regardless of our religion, ethnicity or national origin. Tragically, our President seeks to divide and conquer us in furtherance of his demagoguery. He must be directly called out on it and held to account by our elected officials regardless of their political affiliation.
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Yes let’s drop the word “Populist” to refer to far right leaders here and around the world.
They are not populists they are Fascists and that includes Trump.
Wake up people of conscience!
M
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Where are Jimmy Carter, Clinton, W, and Obama??? Enjoying their vast wealth in silence. A joint statement from these 4 would help. Don't hold your breath.
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@Big Frank, previous presidents try not to intervene with current presidents because they want the guy to deal with his own mess while they can stand apart and shrug, it’s got nothing to do with me.
My observation: Trump is clever and smart. He uses the tactic of divide and conquer efficiently. His base loves his style of Insulting and bullying. The GOP members of Congress are in lockstep with him. *** He reigns over the country and the world with impunity. He is unstoppable.
The question is, have your ancestors been US citizens long enough for you to be considered a citizen today? What is the magic number? 250 years (1769), 200 years (1819), 150 years (1869), 100 years (1919), 50 years (1969) Conversely, if you criticize the US president, when is it appropriate to tell you to go back to the country your family emigrated from?
Another question is, of course, if your parents weren’t born in the US and you were, is your citizenship as good as someone who’s parents were born in the US?
Additionally, does it matter which country your ancestors emigrated from. If they came from Europe, is that better than if they came from Asia or Africa or South America? What is the pecking order?
What if you were born in Alaska? I ask this because all residents of Alaska became naturalized citizens of the United States when Alaska was purchased from Russia in 1867.
What if you were born in Hawaii? All persons who were citizens of the Republic of Hawaii on 12 August 1898 were declared citizens of the United States.
What if your ancestors arrived on the first slave ship in Jamestown, Virginia in 1619? Is that long enough ago? Or are you disqualified because their continent of origin was Africa?
What if you’re a full-blood Native American? Is that good enough?
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What was left out here is that the GOP has morphed into a fascist party. What is also left out here is that the southern states have created a new confederacy using the GOP as a vehicle. As it stands today, Trump is already having Nuremberg style rallies. The racism has expanded beyond illegal immigration; it has been expanding to Blacks, LBGTQ, women, Asians, Muslims, and Arabs so far. And it is rapidly heading towards Jews, Catholics and non-Northern Europeans.
The parallels of the rise of NAZIsm and Trumpism are very scary. In 1930s Germany, many Germans did not see the rise of Hitler, and the NAZIs, until it was too late. They were dealing with the depression and hyper inflation. The Us is in far better shape than 1932 Germany. However, Trump has a 45% approval rating (90% in his party), which should the 55% who disapprove of Trump.
The US has had its turbulent periods and it managed to pull through. It kept what divides us on the fringes, or pushed back to the fringes. Today, this country is in crisis, and unlike other periods of US history, we have a leader who is not calming and soothing the country, but actually dividing it further.
Racism. bigotry, fascism, nationalism, autocracy, etc. are cancers to a society and democracy. But, complacency is the biggest of the cancers.
America is at a crossroads, like Germany was 85 years ago. Which path this country chooses is in the hands of its people and politicians who value this nation's ideals.
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This is exactly why I love Donald Trump and hope that we get him for another four years. Now that Republican racism has finally been unmasked — the longer those rich, old, white men either spew their vile filth or meekly acquiesce to it — the more likely it is that a vast majority of America’s youth will become both morally revolted by them and politically engaged by their most vehement, and principled, opponents.
I hope that Americans understand that this is what their country is. The sheer stupidity of calling the US "the greatest country on Earth" should have been evident to anyone with a brain decades ago. The US is, by almost any measure, at best a mediocre country. But what is important to recognize is that racism is at the core of the American political system. Atwater's comments and the strategies it illuminated speak to that reality. When Adolph Hitler was looking for inspiration for his racial policies, he looked to the US and lauded its system of segregation as the best model he could find. The US refused to sign onto many foundational human rights treaties because it knew it was violating them through it racial policies. Today, it is blatantly obvious that Trump's continuing popularity and the real threat that he can win another election reveals the pure racism at the heart of so many white Americans. If Trump does win another election, I hope that Americans have the decency to stop calling their country "the greatest on Earth" and recognize it for what it is, and always has been.
Well put. Dems need to focus on Republican white supremacist rhetoric instead of sniping at each other.
Paul Krugman,
For African Americans, especially in the South, have known this overt racism for generations. Perhaps the rest are just now waking to all this.
That’s why blacks are backing Biden. They know what it will take to peel off enough whites to get Trump up out of here.
@Practical Thoughts, have you checked with the black congressional PAC?
Don’t think the racism of the Republican Party has exactly been “in the closet” - more like “in your face” constantly..
Of course there's a way to both sides this. We all know that people who want to provide universal health care for children are the moral equivalent of people who want to put children in concentration camps.
His Catholic and Evangelical supporters didn’t hear it because they are sticking their fingers in their ears and saying “La la la I can’t hear you because abortion.”
I have loved and followed Paul Krugman since I was in my 20’s. I’ve had to defend his positions with family and friends. I agree with 99% of what he writes in this opinion piece. However, I don’t agree with the comparison between the Tennessee governor wanting to honor a dead Tennessee general and the possibility that some Germans might want to honor a Nazi general.
Both situations are more complicated and complex that Paul lets on. It is disingenuous for him to slyly try to make the comparison. The following is a simplification, but so was Paul’s analogy.
The Nazi’s were like a group of thugs who took over the levers of government power in Germany during the 1930s. This is a complex human social situation where suddenly the people enforcing a society’s laws were themselves morally bankrupt. Though many Germans supported them, or were under the spell of the propaganda, many Germans, even military officers who disagreed, were compelled to follow the Nazi laws which controlled the whole of Germany. Once defeated the Nazi’s were thrown from power and today only a minority of Germans would ever consider honoring a general. There was not a civil war between non-Nazi and Nazi Germans.
Our country suffered a civil war on a scale not seen in the modern era. One would have to go back to Roman times to find such slaughter between fellow countrymen. Post-bellum decisions were made to not make the Confederates suffer in an effort to unite the country. ...contd.
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If they had been white and from Russia, Venezuela or Tajikistan, you know he would have said exactly the same thing.
Ive drawn the curtains on all my windows, and wear a ball cap outdoors.
That protects me from the prying eyes of satellites
And the embarrassment Mr Trump brings on our America with his racist tweets and rants
It’s worth remembering how Lee Atwater died, painfully and alone as he was such a despicable person that even the ones he helped get elected found him to be repulsive.
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Trump's support is a complex blend which includes racism, but isn't exclusively racism. "Make America Great Again" also covers the restoration of a brand of morality (as defined by a large percent of people who identify themselves as Christians), traditional patriarchy, and the (racist) continuation of white governance in politics, business, and local affairs. I believe that many strong Trump supporters lean on the "morality" part in their own minds. They have successfully compartmentalized the racist part, and won't own it. The challenge needs to be taken not just to Trump, or Republicans in Congress, but directly to that group of of his supporters who have convinced themselves that it's only about "morality" and not about racism. We need a reckoning on the ground level.
Mitch McConnell, your silence is deafening.
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@Uncle Sam McConnell's sound of silence is hear round the world.
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@Uncle Sam Do you expect him to say anything different than Kevin McCarthy said earlier? Has article stated: "..the mask is off"
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@Rod Birds and racists of a feather stick together.
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We are so predictable. It seems as though we have become robots, each 'side' echoing what they hear on
Fox or CNN or MSNBC, Will we ever judge each situation on its own merit or are we so obsessed with Anti-Trump, Pro-Trump positions that we fail to see what is actually happening. Fairness is gone.
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"Sunday Donald Trump attacked four progressive members of Congress"
Please Krugman elitists like you and the communist racist antinsemic squad will ensure Trumps land slide victory in his re-election campaign. As bright as you are you are the far-left has not yet waken up to the realization that it is a bright new world out there-Trump's world.
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@lieberma No, it is not a brand new world. Trump is exploiting what many harbored for years-racism.
And given the tone of your comment, I believe you fall in the Trump camp.
Mr. krugman and the New York Times should NOT be using the n word in print. I understand and totally agree with the sentiment but even seeing that word printed here is distasteful and unnecessary and feeds into the racist rhetoric you are highlighting as wrong.
Many in the democratic party, like Biden, think that they can win back democrats who voted Trump. I am convinced that they never will because those democrats found a kindred spirit in Trump. Democrats need not try to win them back but to focus on bringing out the youth, black and brown, and women vote. Embrace policies that will give us an equal footing.
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As is usually the case, Paul Krugman gets it right, but can't offer a solution, because there isn't one within one country- the race, guns and "religion" people are not going to change their foundational beliefs. We are really two countries, with irreconcilable value systems. Donald Trump, and American's reactions to him are a reflection of our reality, not the cause of it. For Republicans, democracy is less important than power.
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@John Mardall All political parties put power first.
Wow. Thank you, Paul. I agree 1000% with everything you say. I fear that whether Trump wins or loses next year, there will be a repeat of the Charlottesville march, on a much larger scale, all over the country. We are headed for riots that will make the 1960's look tame, and I don't have a clue how to prevent it.
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So let's turn trump's statement around on him and the Republican Party. It they don't want to live in a multi-cultural county with values and science, then they should move to some country with only one nationality. Most of trump's base would not be accepted by another country as they are too old and unskilled to be wanted. Perhaps we could deport them all to Mars and the rest of us will stay here where we can strive to save our environment from the damages that the Republican Party is responsible for through their neglect and the direct removal of protective laws and regulations. On Mars no one will hear them yell racial rants nor be hurt by them.
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As impossible as it sounds, I can imagine a third term for Trump -- given a second -- in which executive orders result in not only immigrants but U.S. citizens of 'undesirable ethnic origin or religious belief' being held in camps. Progressives would yell -- until a militarized police, a surveilled and paranoid population, and generalized fear took over. A "White Nation" would be the implicit or explicit national goal.
It just seems like a trajectory that, however crazy right now, could transpire in the upcoming years. But then, I've been reading about Germany in the 1930s, so maybe I'm already too paranoid.
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By virtue of their silence, it is obvious that all congressional and federal level Republicans of status as well as all Republican governors and state level officials, are all afraid of Trump. That makes them all willing accomplices in whatever he says or does. There are times in history when silence led to disastrous consequences. *** The US needs another John McCain, but I don't see anyone who has the integrity and the character to stand up.
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@JBonn:
Mitt Romney was asked about trump's racism. He meekly replied saying he didn't approve of it, however he used complex sentences that most of trump's base wouldn't understand. He also did not say it on his own -- he had to be asked, and gave a cautious answer.
Sadly yes, republicans are turning out to be wimps!
I'm a liberal who happens to live in a largely Republican county. Many of my neighbors are Trump supporters. Many of my neighbors also followed similar migration paths to get here, first from North St. Louis City then to the suburbs in North St. Louis County and now to the exurbs.
Some would call this typical white flight. Others (like many of my neighbors) look back with disgust at their once safe and stable neighborhoods, now majority black and riddled with crime and chaos, and believe they were FORCED to leave. That is was no longer safe to raise their families there.
Obviously this is a complicated and emotionally charged issue. We could argue chicken and egg scenarios all day long. But I bring it up because many of the older industrial regions that hold the key to the 2020 election have millions of "white flighters" exactly like my neighbors. And I bet most do NOT consider themselves racist, nor would they appreciate being called that.
So tread very carefully, Dems. While Trump is undeniably vile, not all of his supporters are. And some of them might even be potential blue voters, but only if you don't paint them all with a broad "racist" brush.
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@shstl No...they're all racists whether they want to believe it or not. I too grew up in a large city during the civil rights era which led to 'white flight' first to the suburbs and then beyond. What I know now is that their racism is what I call 'soft' racism. They don't overtly discriminate, use racial slurs, or outright denigrate those who aren't white, but they still cross the street to avoid a black man at night, lock their car doors when driving though 'certain neighborhoods' and believe that they were pushed out of their working class city neighborhoods by blacks moving in who wanted to work hard, raise families, and get their children a decent education too. That's racist, whether they want to admit it or not.
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@shstl:
It's now become very simple.
So simple that even trump voters can "get it":
• Racism is ALWAYS BAD!
• If you support trump, you support racism.
Primal Fear drives him and his base...
His, that he will lose 20/20 and eventually will have to face Lady Justice after decades of avoiding her, and that will hopefully prove detrimental to his con man persona with deep pockets.
His base Primal Fear is feeling of disappearance, almost non-existent in any tangible form, the prodigious forgotten man.
Both of these Primal Fears feed of each other to stay galvanized.
Side by side, paralyzed Primal Fear continue engulfing cowardly immoral senate.
And plenty of moderate democrats have their own Primal Fear...
fear of him being there for another 4 years.
FEAR PANDEMIC is upon us!
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@faivel1:
All thinking "woke" Americans have a primal fear... of trump becoming a dictator.
He has been showing the tendencies... he would if he can find a way (and he's looking everywhere, to find a way). For this reason, trump has been courting the military -- to eventually impose martial law one day.
If 2020 results in republicans winning at least half of Congress, then trump will do as he pleases. This means, if he gets re-elected with a republican half of Congress, we're in big "BIG" trouble. If he loses the election but the Senate remains republican, he gets away scott-free (the Senate will protect him).
Overt presidential racism came out of the closet in 1980 when Reagan started his campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi where civil rights workers had been killed.
Anyone "shocked" about GOP/Trump today is willfully oblivious .
Worse, the victims of GOP racism keep failing to vote.
It's hard to maintain empathy when people ignore their political interests.
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@David Henry:
Or people are prevented from voting/votes counted.
Ask Stacey Abrams... about the vote-tampering that made her "lose" in Georgia.
@IN Don't make excuses for failing to vote.
Thank you for calling on Democrats not to draw their own blood by playing the race card. I hope they will even have the sense to not play the Atwater versions of it: the abstract, fully economic versions of it that "and a byproduct off them is that blacks get [helped] more than whites."
Almost all of us need our government to be there for us. Even those of us living reasonably comfortable lives need to know we won't be thrown into poverty by an illness, a plant closure, or a new disruptive technology that makes our skills obsolete.
Tens of millions more of us, whites as well as blacks, need immediate help just to find food, shelter, and dignity.
We can't continue to have what we've had in the past: policies that seem race-neutral but in fact help only whites. But we can't have policies based only on redressing the past, either. Policies explicitly tailored to benefit only one race will not win a majority of the vote.
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I met my first Black person, a boy about my age when I was 15. It was in Chicago at the Field Museum. Our fathers had taken us there and we happened to find ourselves standing next to each other. We began talking and quickly broke off from the parents and wandered the museum for an hour or more before we were finally corralled. Later, I remember asking my father why people hated Black people. (I must have picked that up in my very rural, very white hometown) His response was: "It's still a white man's world." I'm almost 73 and have never forgotten that exchange. I never heard him say or do anything racist but he carried that attitude from his childhood. You have to be carefully taught.
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When pigs fly. Racism? Yes, but it is not the racism you are thinking of. We must understand what we are dealing with in order to take effective action. Switch on the flux capacitor and dial in one hundred thousand years ago. You emerge in the jungle to the sound of drumming. You see Trump chanting and dancing around a fire while the Trump Tribesmen watch with eyes open bigly, transfixed on his belt of human scalps. The prisoners crammed into cages, waiting their fate.
As modern humans, we did not at first recognize Trump because today he is disguised by a smartphone and Armani. But the chant of "lock her up" makes it clear who it is. The Trump Tribesmen are not modern humans. They have no facility for truth telling nor do they have any need for the truth. Truth, or science, is a trait of modern humans. So we are dealing with a different species altogether. They will tell the truth and gain compassion when pigs fly.
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What complicates things is that AOC the her Squad are just another competing tribe with their own belt of scalps. Liberalism and enlightenment thinking are on the ropes in this populist brawl.
A person whom I had known for many years, a professed Democrat who constantly spoke of how uninformed a family member who was Republican, one day spoke of another family member who had been dating a black man. Even though my friend considered herself an enlightened person the idea of her daughter doing this revolted her. I had never seen her like this before, mainly because the subject never came up.
Ultimately Fox news came along with fear of the marauding rapists. That was the end of her soul and our friendship. When someone announces they are not a racist, but...
They are.
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This article doesn't speak about the worst of the worst, which are the people who are indifferent to all of this. I understand why some folks are racist, and I don't agree with it, but the reason it's still provaassive is those who benefits from it and are indifferent to it.
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Racism was never in the closet. We just chose to ignore it.
Trump is enabled by the GOP, who in turn are enabled by their constituents. Trump pontificates, tweets, and lies with impunity, which suggests that many Americans agree with him. This is representative government, with all its flaws.
AOC’s country of ancestral origin is Puerto Rico, Omar’s Somalia, Tlaib’s Palestine, Pressley’s a nation in Africa. Puerto Rico is a US territory, although many of its citizens consider it to be an independent commonwealth. All of these geopolitical entities have serious political and economic problems. Yet, as Americans the Squad harps on the US southern border crisis, without casting any responsibility on the failure of Central American leadership. It is now America’s problem.
Most hate crimes and mass killings in America are undertaken by white supremacists. Still, unchecked—illegal—immigration contributes to urban congestion and decay and increased stress on government services. Society has witnessed an exponential increase in civic uncouthness and a diminution in the observance of mores, ranging from escalating auto/pedestrian conflicts, to customers inconsiderately picking through fruit at groceries, to more garbage on the streets.
I am a liberal, but at times Trump’s frustration possesses a visceral appeal.
Perhaps that makes me a racist. Or is it about values and the preservation of civil society? Perhaps the best we can work for is a more equitable hypocrisy.
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Like a disease coming to the surface, racism is emerging out of its hibernation. It has never really left us, but like an infection we have the opportunity to kill it once and for all. If we have the courage, the gumption to take on this horrible sickness we may just get the proper immunity that we have needed all along. The younger Progressives are leading the way. Let us support our youth in this cause or all will be lost and we will die from this illness that has riddled human kind for far too long.
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The term “racist”, while accurate to describe Trump and his supporters, but the predictable reactions from both sides of the political spectrum do not give a path to a productive solution.
Better to label Trump a bigot:
Bigot | Definition of Bigot by Merriam-Webster
Definition of bigot. : a person who is obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices especially : one who regards or treats the members of a group (such as a racial or ethnic group) with hatred and intolerance.
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I admire the representatives who are addressing the terrifying erosion of all that has been the foundation of goodness, fairness, equality and liberty for ALL. We are a nation of immigrants living on a space of land that we stole from the indigenous population by committing genocide of the Indians.
They took care of this land for thousands of years and it was pristine. In 200 years of our possession we are devastating not only the environment but the heart of the people living here. In 200 years we have already destroyed so much that the whole planet is affected.
The Indians say, they never “owned’’ the land-they were its caretakers. And what good stewards they have been.
Are we a cancer? destroying the earth, the oceans, the air?
Hold onto your goodness, it is very precious...because the light shines in the darkness and ‘...the darkness grasps it not.’
These lawmakers are the light for me, I admire and respect them for the courage to speak out with so much danger all around us.
And, I see the speaker in the same way, she is a great leader and a force for goodness in the world...I have long admired and respected her.
Let us all work together in the light, live in the light and die in it if need be.
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Very clear and well written essay. Thank you.
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Thank you, Paul Krugman, for this crystal-clear denunciation of the Trumpet's racism and the Republican Party's complicit embrace. It's time we stripped away the polite euphemisms and called their white racism what it is. Every day, the Trumpet and all his enablers demean and degrade, betray and dishonor, all that American democracy has fought so hard for so long to achieve. Thank you for speaking the truth!
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My grandmother was raised in Nazi Germany. Mark my words: we are heading down a bad path under Trump that could end in war and persecution not seen since the camps in Germany and Poland. Trump is really about the normalcy of brutality .... and my fear is that what is normal for a vast swathe of our population could tilt even more far right, with devastating consequences. The silence of the GOP is greatly concerning there are no brakes on the out of control freight train of Trump’s rhetoric. Krugman is correct that it is horrifying. Grandchildren of the Holocaust speak up, its our time to be brave and call it like it is.
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"On the other side, Democrats need to be very careful about doing anything that even hints at playing the race card against their own party. I understand progressive frustration over Nancy Pelosi’s caution and exasperation at moderate Democrats who may be causing that caution; many of us share their frustration. But there’s no equivalence between even the most foot-dragging Democrats and the G.O.P.’s raw racial incitement, and anyone who suggests otherwise is acting destructively."
Oh, yes, there is too an equivalence. Do not hide behind a false "When we do it it's good, when they do it it's bad," otherwise you're just as bad the Republicans and their propaganda outlet and press office Fox News.
Pelosi's targeting of Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and Ayanna Pressley is no different than Trump's targeting. Democrats have to own up to their own racism, and the targets of that racism have no obligation to just stand there and take it.
“I understand progressive frustration over Nancy Pelosi’s caution and exasperation at moderate Democrats who may be causing that caution; many of us share their frustration. ”
Mirror time.
You share the frustration?
She is refusing to do her constitutional job as the Speaker of the House of Representatives because she and her tacticians have decided like the clueless cowards they are that if they stand for something democrats risk losing (what exactly? Do they live in America?) but if they let Trump troll using immigrant children and racism to rile up fascists then democrats calculated outrage will get voting numbers that slightly favor democrats.
Disgusting. Rerun of many democrat campaigns. Losing campaigns.
Pelosi is all in on enabling Trump’s strategy because she thinks she will get a narrow democrat victory for the cheap price of calculated outrage.
But outrage over Trump grows weaker by the day and the racism more strongly anchored and incompetent strategy by Pelosi is the new outrage. Coup chances are skyrocketing.
And Herr Professor perfessur Doctor Doktor enables.
Nothing new about Trump. What is new and no one would have expected after the 2018 elections was the abdication of constitutional duty by Pelosi with the usual sneering you just don’t know what I do when everyone else knows more than she does and are frightened and betrayed by their own side. Again.
And the “squad” relishing the attention tells you what really matters to them. Who they are.
White supremacy is as American as the Fourth of July. Unless and until we understand the origins of white supremacy, and its purpose of maintaining the power of very rich white men, we will not be able to build necessary multiracial movements for racial and gender equity and social and economic justice.
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Spot on! If we do not call out the obvious racial issues we face in this country, then we will fail as a society.
"Biden clearly isn’t a racist, but he needs to get a clue about how important it is to confront the racism sweeping the G.O.P."
C'mon, Paul,
A) Saying, "Biden clearly isn't a racist" is all that needs to be said about the subject. If the Democrats want to lose the election in 2020, all they have to do is seem to be concerned ONLY with racism. And...
B) It's not true. Go back to Biden's campaign announcement: He jumps into the campaign by calling out Trump's response to Charlottesville! How is that not "getting a clue about how important it is to confront the racism sweeping the G.O.P." ?
Epstein must have a very, very bad movie of Trump and the 13 year old girl he has been saving until needed. So long, Don!
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I know many self-professed liberals who never invite a person of color to a party in their homes. Never even consider it even though they work in a mixed race environment. They are quick to point the finger and complain about racism, but they still maintain a social barrier, and often colored people feel the same way about whites. This will change, eventually, but people like Trump keep the barrier alive.
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@Daphne
I am a self prescribed liberal whose small wedding included a Jewish senior couple, a mixed race couple, a recently married about to have their 1st child Indian couple, and my Mormon maid of honor. This was just my side of the wedding. My husband's Lebanese/Irish family was also there. And I myself have more nationalities then I can count on one hand including American Indian. We were married by a woman non-denominational minister. I can't speak for the rest of the country, but my state CA is integrated at work and in our personal lives.
@Rebecca. Congratulations to you. We need more people who stay colorblind when they first meet someone. It’s the only way we’ll ever overcome tribalism.
In one sense, I'm relieved the Republican party is finally "out of the closet" about its racism.
I always knew they were racist since, Jeez, Nixon. They were just smarter about it then and cleverly used dog whistles and innuendo to mask their racism. Until Trump.
But now, there's no hiding the naked, blatant racism of the Republican party, and there's no arguing that if you're a Republican, you're a racist.
3
The unaffiliated or the un afflicted?
I totally agree!
Madam Speaker: the waiting is over; it is now time to launch a formal impeachment inquiry.
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Wow, this article certainly tells it exactly the way things are! Thank you Paul Krugman!
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Republican pols are silent because as Atwater explained, it is a strategy that wins them elections. And as long as the middle continues to feel economically squeezed, and told that 'those people' are coming to take the rest, it will continue to work. They set us upon ourselves over breadcrumbs while they continue to gorge at the buffet.
The predictable outrage reaction plays right into their hands in this scenario. And that is, the backfiring and failure of identity politics, and PC overreach also. See the 'fine people on both sides' , or the 'i'm not racist, your're racist' mentality being stoked.
Fox news loves this stuff, it's moving lots of catheters and viagra.
In the America I was raised to believe was great, racist, bigoted language was abhorred and actions to stop it, admired.
How do we make America great again?
What's surprising is not that Trump is a racist and misogynist, that was evident from the beginning. By their silence, what's clear now is that the Republicans are racist and misogynists.
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If Donald Trump and the racists who support him were able to think critically, the reality that Blacks have the most legitimate claim as "True Americans" would crush them.
The fact is that Africans brought here as slaves have the most "blood, sweat and tears equity" in the Republic. By a mile. Slaves built this country over hundreds of years. The rest of us, I'm afraid, are usurpers, by comparison. Especially Trump.
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"He’s not a populist, he’s a white supremacist. His support rests not on economic anxiety, but on racism."
Oh, I imagine it's a great of both.
I fail to see racism in Trumps comments about the ‘Squad’. No references were made to race. I do, however, see it plain and clear in this Krugman hit piece.
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@William -- 1) How would you describe the behavior of Trump telling these women to go back to their countries given the fact that that the USA is their country? He said how terrible the nations are that he falsely says they came from. He said this to women who are black, Latino and of Arab descent.
Can you explain to me how and why this is not racist? And can you do it with honor by actually and truly answer the question, I'd honestly like to know what you think on the matter.
But still, Democrat leadership fails to call a Dictator a Dictator.
Where is the masculine courage to balance the animal behavior of Trump?
There's one thing about moving from dog whistle to outright racism. It's in the light. We see it clearly. I don't see true racists ever changing their tune, but this helps those of us who do not want any part of racism to be conscious of this putrid part of our society. All we can do is work against it. Everyday. Every opportunity we have.
1
During the Vietnam war, the phrase was "America: love it or leave it". Demeaning, fearful, angry - but not racist. We have not come a long way, baby.
1
Trump has always known that his core supporters were not hypocrits who felt the need to pay tribute to virtue - he can shoot liberal congresswomen Fifth Avenue whenever he pleases.
Racism is the reason trump is in office. They want to make sure that obama was the first and last african-american ever to be president
As usual, Krugman is with the R's on the break. Which puts him - and them - well ahead of the D's.
Good analysis in this article. Regular racists making a living will always be with us. A criminal dictator using racism is an imminent threat to our survival. He also a threat to the regular racists. They just don’t know it yet.
"I'm sorry, but there's no way to both-sides this," says Professor K. I agree. But his newspaper is doing just that. Here's the lede in Carl Hulse's analysis this morning:
"The lack of widespread Republican condemnation of President Trump for his comments about four Democratic congresswomen of color illustrated both the tightening stranglehold Mr. Trump has on his party and the belief of many Republicans that an attack on progressivism should in fact be a central element of the 2020 campaign."
Trump's "comments" are an "attack on progressivism"? That's bland, generic horse-race reporting that has been stripped of all of its meaningful content. Once again, the Times treats the truth as if it were a subject of controversy, and farms out basic reporting to its "opinion" columnists.
Nothing in this world makes less sense than racism. The DNA of all humans is so similar that it renders differences to be non-existent.
1
Trump may be planting the seeds for a full scale campaign race war just in case Harris, Booker or another person of color is on the Democratic ticket. He believes most Americans are as racist as he is. The question is whether he is wrong.
1
Oh, and the real “American carnage” is the surge in “deaths of despair” from drugs, suicide and alcohol among less-educated whites.
So highly does Trump value less educated whites that he shamelessly boasted during a phone call to the President of Mexico he only won the State of New Hampshire because it was 'drug infested den'.
Trump's latest barrage stands in stark contrast to his claim made somewhere around the election that he was 'the least racist person you could ever meet'. I may not have the quote exactly correct, but I am not far off.
Every time I hear the boast "The Party of Lincoln" makes me want to hurl.
1
The entire Republican Party welcomes racism. It welcomes Russian interference because Russia aids Republicans to harm America. The party's goal is to deny their fellow citizens the vote.
A vote for a Republican supports and approves these actions.
2
Trump and the GOP have openly played the race card and given us a hint of how this election will be fought. Their rhetoric will lead to violence as it already has.
I have been telling people for decades that the Republican Party is the party of the Neo-Confederacy. It's pretty obvious now that I was (am) right.
1
Mr. Krugman,
You call Nathan Bedford Forest a traitor, which is beside the point you are trying to make, but if you do consider him a traitor, realize that you must also think of all the colonial Americans who rebelled against English rule as traitors as well. Forest felt he was fighting for his country, as did the colonial rebels.
By the way, this is why the second amendment exists in our Constitution. It is there so that the people can protect themselves from abuse, especially from a corrupt or oppressive government. It is not there so we can go hunting.
"And since we’re having this moment of clarity... "
Don't say WE, or try to put words in our mouths. This is YOUR moment of "clarity".
1
"Well, the dog whistle days are over."
Correct Paul, they're using megaphones now.
4
The daily grind of attention-seeking in the media & current internet age make us all hyper-focus on what's in front of us, but if we take stock of several years, we have a lot to be concerned about:
--White supremacists are organizing regularly
--Single white supremacists have murdered innocent civilians, as well as committing mass murder in a synagogue domestically (not to mention the mass shooting in a Christchurch mosque)
--A radicalized right-winger has tried to target media & democratic lawmakers with pipe bombs
--A coast guard member was caught prior to carrying out his own plot for mass murder
--Rumbles continue about work by white supremacists to radicalize active service members of our military (easiest way to maximize the potential of their domestic terrorism)
--The GOP is entirely complicit as our nominal leader inflames terrorism and consistently encourages white supremacists
That this is all happening is awful, but please be mindful, this is the beginning, not the sum of all the forces of hate & racism that are festering in the US. If we had a president that cared about our national security, we would be pumping money into surveillance of these groups--I am concerned that we will see increasingly more extreme acts from emboldened domestic terrorists who are being given latitude to do what they want.
So Trump is evil, but the "good" white Democrats are apparently immune from racism. The "good" Democrats also created mass incarceration.
This repeats a familiar narrative that there are good racists and bad racists, rather than that we are caught up in a racist society where every white person participates in way big and small, whether we want to or not.
Of course Trump is reprehensible and a white supremacist (different from being racist). But if congresswomen of color feel slighted and that their voices are not being heard, they are right to question why a party supposedly thriving on diversity continually dismisses and belittles those exact voices.
This is the greatest of ironies - Trump is making America great by exposing its racist tendencies and airing it out. Maybe it will go away for good?
Newsflash: To we people of color, racism has never been in the closet. Folks like the author just wouldn’t see it, despite our deafening cries. We were dismissed, ignored and marginalized, and now we’re supposed to join in the pearl-clutching and newfound expressions of outrage. Sorry, but we’ve been there. Where were you?
2
Apparently, according to one White House official, Trump CAN'T possibly be a racist.
He has Elaine Chao as Transportation Secretary!
Good enough for me, eh? I suppose THAT, and THAT alone should be good enough for all of us. According to the "Party of Trump" (Formally known as the GOP), it should be.
These women hate America, after all. Trump told us so.
"He didn’t explicitly say, but clearly implied, that this supposed crime wave was being perpetrated by people with dark skins."
Very clearly implied. He claimed that my home city of Atlanta had huge problems, and he blamed them on its Congressman, who just happens to be African American.
1
Maybe the bigger problem is the unwillingness of the base of the GOP to accept blacks, Hispanics and other minorities as true Americans.
The problem isn’t Trump. The problem is that the GOP is a racist party.
2
The Best Way to Handle this: every time trump goes off, just make a dismissive comment such as "I see old trumpie is going off again" or "looks like somebody didn't get his nap today"
Stop giving grandpa the attention he craves.
3
He is a populist among certain people in this country. Don't just cry my beloved country, act on it.
1
The scariest part is the baffled "What?" from the Republicans. "He's just telling the truth. No reason to get excited. Those four women are nothing but trouble!"
Intelligent, rational dialogue has left the building, and I see no way to get it back inside. We have crossed the Rubicon, but many choose to remain in passive denial in the hopes of maintaining peaceful relations till ... till ... I don't know what.
What do you do when the scales have fallen from your eyes, and it's time to put up or shut up? I'm gonna shut up and hope this is just a bad dream. All things must pass, right?
(Hey, I kinda like it down here with my head in the sand with all these others. Oh, look! There's Lindsey Graham and Mike Pence. And is that Mike Huckabee over there? It's good to be around white Christian men.)
Surprise Trump is a racist!
Surprise Trump is supported by racists!
These racist have been trying to move the goal post of racism in their favor for quite awhile.
There is one party that that is accepting of this.
And there is another party that is not.
Time to be tribal and to fall inline to the party that opposes racism.
1
This is now good versus evil.
2
Time for reflection on William Faulkner's Legacy: The Old People (Harpers 9/1940), Pantaloon in Black (Harpers 10/1940) and Go Down, Moses .
Then there's "The past is never dead, it isn't even past." (Requiem for a Nun).
Queens (the borough, of course) Trump. Might he not be bogus, after all! So much that's past is present, no?
Yale psychiatrists, will you say a word?
"Some like to blow the dog whistle.
Think they're being sly.
One likes to play the fear monger.
Crosses his arms when he lies."
- from Give Me Back My Country
Yes, we can and should call Trump a white supremacist, like many of his followers and more than a few craven GOP politicians. But let's also correctly and courageously call Trumpism out for what it also is, hearkening back to totalitarian 1930s Europe --- a vile, virulent, home-grown U.S. fascism, growing by leaps and bounds simply by much of this country looking the other way as Trump Makes America Hate Again.
1
Racism has become the new equal opportunity.
It was kind of ok if brown-skinned people were making progress, but having a black President pushed the people who now support Trump over the edge into overt racism. These people cannot abide the idea that a black man can be the boss - of their country, no less. And, they could not allow themselves to comprehend that his black family was living in the White House and comporting themselves with dignity, sophistication, and smarts.
I’m tired of hearing that not all Trump supporters are racists. Those that support this lifelong bigot, attend his rallies, wear the red hat, cast their vote for him, are as morally corrupt as he is. I don’t want to “understand” or “dialogue.” How can you dialogue with an ideologue?
The stink of these four years will linger long after Trump leaves office. Eight years - we’re lost.
2
It is so abundantly clear we must vote this nut out of office. I will vote for any Democrat, of course, who is eventually on the ballet in November, 2020. My choice is Kamala Harris, as she has Mr T quaking in his trousers.
But I would really like to vote for the recently resigned British ambassador. His leaked communique was so eloquent, just as Kamala would eat Mr. T for lunch.
1
It is time to quit noting all the outrages flowing from the open gutter who resides in the White House. He is not changing and those that cannot abide his incompetence and continued attacks on civility in our Nation should bend money and effort to erase him from our future in 2020.
Yesterday Trump told us we have to choose:
his racist, misogynist and corrupt policies, or socialism.
Hmmmm.
@SLB:
Hmmmm... "socialism" such as:
• "free" Medicare for our elderly
• "free" Medicaid for the disabled/desperate
• "free" Social Security
• "free" Unemployment insurance
• "free" elementary/middle/high-school education
• "free" tax write-offs for our Churches
• "free" fire departments
• "free" libraries
• "free" police force
• "free" military - to deter Russian Cyber-Attacks
Hmmmm... waaay too much free stuff! (sarcasm)
Paul was doing well until he suggested that Democrats shouldn't disagree over Pelosi's "centrism" strategy. That is a failed Democratic strategy to try and win the same "moderate" voters that Donald Trump appeals to with his xenophobia. It won't work. Democrats need to stand on principle and show conviction. America is going to have a clear choice in the next election; er, if we even have a real election. Putin may already have the results baked in.
Trump is playing the news media like a finely-tuned fiddle. There are many substantive issues that the news media should be discussing: Human rights in China, US infrastructure, US national debt, opioid epidemic, public education, etc. Instead, they seize on Trump's regularly outrageous comments -- as if they are something new -- and vie with one another for the most righteously indignant summary and the morally highest riposte.
What shall it be next week? Relevant news about world and national affairs, or more twenty-four-hour moral outrage directed at the latest Trump utterance.
Time to grow up NYTimes.
4
I’m confused. If a major goal of civilized, thoughtful people is to find candidates who will bring the country together, why is Biden catching so much flack for trying to work with people he might not agree with? Should he be declaring a state of war with Republicans?
1
Stay hopeful. This is the beginning of the end for the republican party. For the rest of our life, we will all remember what the republican party stands for.
4
I wish that were true. Every election I say we are going to see the Republican Party implode. So far, they seem to get stronger.
2
I have long regarded the present hysterical racism embodied in the Republican Party as 'the revolt of the Anglo Saxons', which is borne not out of a sense of superiority so much as a sense of their coming loss of dominance in an increasingly diverse America. It is a possibly last cry of fear and despair as their numbers, already a minority when all elements of our diverse society are tabulated, slip further and further toward a country that will become, no matter what Trump does with immigration, a majority non-white nation. And will be the better for it. Aside from the American revolution itself and that truly unique era, it has been the newcomers who have created this modern country.
6
Krugman gives cover for the Pelosi forces to attack their own, telling Democrats of color they should tone down their "divisive rhetoric". This is nothing more than an open red-baiting attack on the Party's left wing by the Democratic leadership and its supporters, panicked about losing control of farming the issues going into the election campaign, and it has very clear overtones of telling black and brown folks that the DNC doesn't have their backs. The idea that "civility" starts with the victim not the aggressor is shocking. The idea that party unity must be built on sacrificing the very people Trump and Republican racists are attacking is scandalous. Nothing short of a vigorous counterattack that stresses defending working class black and brown people can ensure that Democrats can turn out their votes in 2020, and so far the party leadership and its cheerleaders are showing that they are willing to abandon their most outspoken members of color instead. The Democratic leadership and it's supporters outside the Party are showing their own "colors" right now, and it spells disaster for them in 2020.
Excellent point about the veneration of Confederate “war heros” - they are properly called traitors. Their treason resulted unimaginable slaughter.
Whenever I hear about such-and-such Confederate Something Day I think why not Benedict Arnold Day? Osama Bin Laden day? But in terms of American suffering these two can’t compare with the death and destruction visited on us by the Confederacy.
5
It is a horror reality show because "it is OK to be a racist" and to brag about it and, it is out of line and "out of style" to stand up for the Bill of Rights", like many Democrats and in the media did.
This is birtherism all over again with a criminalization dangerous ingredient and can have Trump re-elected. I wish I heard Biden's voice louder.
You shouldn’t use the metaphor of “the closet” to make your point. That metaphor immediately evokes the image the closet in its established LBGTQ context, and then completely appropriates and dissociates it. The title of this article should be altered. It is confusing, bewildering, and unnecessary.