The left is the party that is becoming the party that cried "racist".
Just about anybody and anything that is against their agenda automatically gets slapped with that moniker as well as being called facist, or white nationalist, etc.
12
We have been told time and time again that Trump is racist.... but we have also been told by "Progressives" that everyone and everything is racist. Libs have used this charge of racism now to the point that it no longer holds any meaning. When everyone is a racist Trump does not stick out in the crowd. Also this charge of he's a racist and if you support him you're a racist only instills REAL racism and animus. Be careful Libs you're playing with fire. 2020 will tell.
10
Instinctive and unthinking? I doubt it. Remember, his mentor was Roy Cohn.
7
The litany of Donald Trump's racism extends back long before his presidency. He and his father redlined applicants to rent their apartments and houses. They paid hefty fines. He's still bitter. After Hurricane Maria, he tried as hard as he could to limit recovery aid to Puerto Rico. He's called Mexicans 'drug dealers and rapists'; he's taken children whose parents seek asylum and put them in 'concentration camps'. He now will not accept anyone crossing the border to obtain asylum. I have not completed my list of his crimes. When will the litany end?
6
Should we consider that the charge of racism may have lost much of its sting?
The NYT and other progressive sites frequently opine that all whites are racist. Progressives admit that they are racists, most others do not. Racism and western culture are blamed for most of the world's problems. Whites need to acknowledge their white privilege and racism, and then they will know how to change things for the better.
All this may be true. However, will this line of reasoning help Dems more than Trump?
Consider that four to six battleground states will determine the next election. What if whites who voted for Obama vote Democrat? Or, what if some other modest number of independents, most of whom are white, change their vote, Dems would win.
Now, remember progressives. You call all whites racists.
When you call all white voters racist do you think that they really care that much when you call Trump one?
Trumps "go back" comments are as detestable as they are indefensible. Explain to white voters, who live in battleground states, why they are so terribly wrong and damaging to our country without calling him a racist.
If you can't do that, then part of Trump's next win is on you.
9
Okay, for arguments sake I agree that Trump is a racist. But what name you call Ms. Omar who hate everything white? I just want to know as an immigrant of color that is not white.
9
A racist man implements racist policies with the backing of racist supporters! It is really that simple.
10
Donald Trump copied George Wallace’s 1968 presidential campaign, only substituting “Make America Great” in place of Wallace’s “Stand Up for America”. Same racism, hate, and ignorance. Key differences are Trump lies much more often and has a worse haircut. Also, while going to U of Alabama in 1968, I do not recall Wallace ever going bankrupt, cheating electrical and plumbing contractors, and paying off porn stores. And, Wallace later apologized for his racist actions. Trump is much worse than George Wallace ever was.
Republicans, think about what your leader represents.
11
It's going to be tough, trying to drag the likes of you and your leader into progress. You are duped and conned by the one you follow. He, my friend, doesn't care about YOU but by the time you figure that out, well, we can't wait that long.
1
"pretended to be Swedish"
Not Norwegian? especially after "Midsummer"?
2
the GOP is morally bankrupt.
9
Let us not forget that this sort of racism was used as an excuse not to allow Jews fleeing Nazi Germany and other European countries to land in America. They were sent back, usually to certain death. It's time we do better and be the melting pot we purport to be!
5
Dis you find an honest bone ?
2
Silence when one must speak tells the world volumes.
At a campaign rally in 2008, John McCain responded to a woman who stated Obama was untrustworthy and that Obama was an Arab.
McCain, with courage and grace, responded to the woman, “No ma’am. He’s a decent family man, a citizen that I just happen to have disagreements . . . .”
McCain broke silence. Trump remained silent when his crowd began yelling, “Send her back.”
If we are to believe Trump, “I don’t have a racists bone . . .,” we would expect him to be like McCain and tell the crowd, “She is a citizen and has the right to stay.”
But of course, Trump stood silent as the crowd continued with its racist chant.
I guess Trump still has bone spurs that prevents him from showing the courage John McCain showed in McCain’s lifetime.
15
Agree, individuals deny they are racists, because it is an ugly admission and they know it or they are totally clueless and have little or no experience with minorities. Trump is the former.
3
A third ignominious thread that is being used is sexism.
4
The question that ends this article has a clear answer:
"How can members of the party of Lincoln today protest the label of racism, but not the racism itself — in a man who for 45 years has shown himself to be a racist from his mandible to his metatarsals?"
Because the Republican party has been the party of racism since the "Southern strategy" -- Trump is no aberration but a culmination of the Racist Party.
Vote.
10
Trump is a disgrace to our country and to the human race.
5
Each and every Republican, at every level of government, should be made to complete the following public statement: "I ________ [endorse/reject] Donald Trump's racism, venality, and cruelty."
2
Yep, Trump walks and talks like a racist. No doubt about it. And my personal belief he is.
But it's more dangerous than this. Genuine racist or not, he is using the genuine racists' hatred as a tool. He is stoking their leaky unbalanced boilers for, first, consolidating political power for America's plutocracy and, second, to stoke his own unhinged ego.
Trump is a white, wealthy New York elitist. He drinks the finest wines, wears the most expensive clothes and jewelry and eats only chef-prepared meals.
Do those people at his rallies really think he has any use for them other than as dupes and henchment? Do they think Trump would use them for anything other than to get votes and to unclog the Trump Tower toilets?
Got news for those MAGA folks: You're not getting past the gatehouse at Mar a Lago and you sure aren't getting jetted in for a Trump/Epstein debauchery-fest.
2
Don't forget the republican southern strategy. Every NYT's story about djt should begin by labeling him a racist.
1
Mr. Kristof, I have a bone to pick with you. :-) I wish I were as creative as you in your story structure! I chuckled as I could see all his racist bones doing their job delivering delivering explicit and implicit racists tasks. Great visuals.
On a somber note, with racists attitudes now infecting our Presidency and the entire Republican Party, the time for "sadness" or "disappointment" is over. Only action is needed. Blue state residents should help red state efforts in any way possible. Ask local party leaders how to help.
6
All these responses against racism reveal its underlying motivation. Racism is in everone who believes they are superior to someone else. All of us in moments of weakness seek approval from others to prove we are OK.
So the projection of our denial of our own failings into another being brings us a sense of temporary relief, especially if we can get others to support our projection into a scapegoat.
Trump has removed the political corectness of not letting our weaknesses govern our behavior when we feel vuknerable. He is the personification of projecting his own weaknesses into a victim the is unable to face in himself. The proof of this is in his inability to accept his own failings and the need to bring them up repeatedly .
1
Arguing about whether Trump is or is not a racist is a distraction and is not a winning 2020 debate a Democratic candidate. The relevant characterization is that he is an incompetent executive. There are irrefutable facts to back this up. Prior to his foray into politics, his business career is marked by multiple bankruptcies and the type of under performance that results in heads of corporations loosing their jobs. In the 2+ he has been president, any objective measurement of his performance vs. goals tells a story of failure and incompetence.
6
Want to convince people Trump should lose re-election.........give people not so extreme and radical alternatives. Even the Times editorial and opinion writers are helping him to get a second term.
4
Trump seems to be one of those unfortunate people that make themselves appear bigger to themselves by making other people appear smaller.,Trump suffers from inferiority worry, somewhere in him there is a nagging fear that he is inferior to a lot of the rest of the human race. This he makes come true by his actions nearly daily, when he insults, denigrates. belittles, manhandles, makes fun of, mistreats, calls names, fires, drives out, anyone who seems to threaten his fragile ego. Also when he pumps up his base into a fury of hate and bile that satisfies his needy ego for a short while.
This fragile , needy shell of a man acts loves to blow himself up to his base. It is all a scam, smoke and mirrors, and will blow up the minute the genuine article appears in the presidential picture and captures the imagination of the general public. May it be soon.
4
Good job, Mr. Kristof. Your humor added to what we experience as the daily telling of Trump's malevolence made me chuckle. No harm in that.
1
As someone who worked in the executive boardrooms of casinos for over twenty five years we all knew about trumps racism, his comments about black employees and entertainers, you are now just seeing what was an everyday occurrence in the land of trumps businesses. What is sad is that he found the underbelly of hatred that he embraced all his life and rode it to the highest office in the land. Says a lot about us as American citizens and even more about the so called evangelicals that were hiding their inherent beliefs until trump made it OK to crawl out from under those rocks.
5
Trump's tweets this week were designed to distract from the Epstein case and serve up more red meat for his base. That will only take him so far before the rest of the news catches up to him.
1
What is the scariest is not that he is changing the GOP, but that he is changing the country.
1
Steven Colbert seems to be the only public figure who has the guts to tell the President what he thinks!
5
“Trump’s family, alarmed by anti-German bigotry, pretended to be Swedish”. The Trump family has apparently passed on the ability to lie to their future generations, and it worked. They have had generations to perfect the art of lying even when the first lie they told was debunked, Trump doubles down on his initial lie, as if telling a lie to further the first lie, would render the first lie, somehow true. These are the things that five year old kids who are caught lying do, they either tell a lie to cover the first lie, or the will say, well what about my friend Donald he lies all the time. To which most parents would answer, I don’t care what lies your friend Donald tells,
Trump was either never taught that lying will get you in trouble, it’s unethical, etc, etc. or he discovered early and from his father that lying is a good thing, like greed is a good thing. It’s hard to fathom how low the Republican Party supporters and it’s elected officials have sunk, they have sunk to the lowest common denominator, name calling, clearly oblivious to the potential downside to acting like a bunch of juvenile delinquents. Not to mention how they are viewed by the world, it’s like their reputations as elected officials isn’t important. They are bigots, anyone that sidles up to Trump, or the Republican Party is the same. Normal people won’t take the time to separate the chaff from the wheat, the truth from the lies, their party is about crushing their own constituency.
I am a white male who grew up in the deep south and I often have to check myself for signs that institutional racism is rearing its ugly head in my thoughts or comments.
My home for the last 25 years has been what many think is the most liberal city in the country. And the unique way San Francisco truly celebrates diversity is one of the things that has kept me here.
Yet those racist thoughts still pop up from time to time. Racism is insidious, and if anyone thinks they are free of it I suggest they do a more honest examination of their psyche.
I think it's critical to recognize that it can be hard to rid oneself of all traces of racism..it's the first and most critical step in helping others rid themselves of it.
Owning our errors and apologizing for them goes a long way. And that's something I find missing from our current president, his administration, and most all politicians.
3
Apart from the issue of DJT's racism: Even our poorly regarded recent presidents had some redeemable qualities to emulate. Ronald Reagan is still remembered by even his detractors for his geniality and his sense of self-deprecating humor. The senior Bush is recalled for building and sustaining international coalitions, and the junior Bush for his relaxed personality around a glass of beer if for nothing else. Bill Clinton is admired for his brains and for his empathy for the less fortunate even if the latter quality sat uneasily with his otherwise sordid character.
Yet, when one looks at Trump, the picture is a total disaster. There is no quality of character or intelligence that is visible in him that one can cite as exemplary to anyone in one's circle. Congenital mendacity; childishness; cheap self-glorification stunts masking deep insecurity; greed; predatory sexual behavior and serial marital infidelity; ignorance and a tendency to glorify it as better than curiosity and knowledge; racist bigotry; a semi-illiterate grasp of English; impulsive and breathtakingly self-contradictory words and actions; arrogant and boorish treatment of democratic world leaders and adulation of the worst authoritarians-- the list is endless. How anyone can stick with him in the face of all this tells us that the rot is both wider and unfathomable. Please gear up and vote, and mobilize others to vote, for a half-decent person from the opposition ranks. Ditto for the Senate races.
2
I think it's notable that Trump's most vicious attacks have been against women--first, with Hillary Clinton, and now against these four congresswomen. I'm glad that the world is starting to call out his racism, but let's call out his misogyny also. His hatred of women is stunning and visceral.
1
It's amazing how effectively Trump distracts from scandals that can really harm him such as the Epstein affair. Major media just plays along. The most recent accusations against Trump of sexual assault have been virtually ignored. Trump obviously lied about his frienship with Epstein but who cares when major media can get more traction with Trump's sensationally "racist" attack of the "squad"!
Can a sitting president have an EEOC complaint filed against them? He clearly broke this law? Or does the whole sitting president only protect him against the big stuff like campaign finance fraud, emoluments, hatch act violations, hate speech not protected under constitution (inciting violence at his rallies)? And who knows what will be unearthed with Epstein...
I'm glad the writer cited the housing discrimination suit back in the 70s. The influence of Fred Trump and Roy Cohn are there for all to see yet disbelief is rampant. Imagine the dinner conversations between the German immigrant father seeking acceptance from the WASPs in Manhattan and a young Donald who grows up to be just a joke in their eyes. It must have been a treasure trove of resentment and bile toward others and win at all cost lecturing.
Central Park Five racial opportunist, birtherism and his continuous attacks on people of color etc.
Trump not only have many racist bones, he's got it in his heart, mind and soul. The virus is being spread and his party is showing a profile of cowardice.
It is a bone-chilling situation indeed. I do not see a way out of this fast-moving current dragging us all down to insanity. It really does not matter if you can prove that Trump is racist. It is a trap to divide people with a similar worldview and in a way, it will put them solidly in Trump's camp of nationalism. Our outrage will not help the situation. We need a long view - we need educators at all levels of society. Nick is really good at writing such articles as this one. Unfortunately, politicians are not trusted, and, as a result, they cannot be educators. Parents cannot explain why this is wrong to their kids who are going to school and will repeat Trump's language on other friends. We need education in our own history - especially, the ugly part of our history so that we cannot repeat them. Our schools are refusing to teach the dark past. As a result, we are very vulnerable as a population. Anyone who challenges the rosy worldview from a position of privilege is going to be vulnerable to Trump's brand of nationalism. How dare she questions America that accepted her family and gave her the opportunities? That's the part got stuck with people who heard the rant and no one saw her as a citizen with equal rights.
By November 2020, voters will see racism and white supremacy merely as another option.
Trump will have muted, by dint of repetition, the worst effects of the charge.
Why must everyone who disagrees with Trump be labeled a liberal. I'm not.
1
trump's remotest ancestors were East African, we know, from the region including Somalia and Kenya. Rep. Omar could do us a solid by accompanying him to the Somalian countryside and dropping him off amidst his many cousins. And then she returns to Congress and likely a parade in her honor.
1
“A house divided against itself, cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become lawful in all the States, old as well as new — North as well as South”...Abraham Lincoln.
No matter the issue, what is different in the year 2019 between all Americans and between the 7.7 billion humans on earth???
Let’s look at the X-ray of Nick’s home state of Oregon, which was once a “White Only” state, yet nearly a hundred years after the law was repealed, Oregon remains mostly a” White Only” state with a population of 85% White and less than 2% people of color.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregon_black_exclusion_laws
1
AGREED. So what? How does this help anyone at all.
1
I'd propose the theory that Trump actually doesn't have any HUMAN bones, that following logically from the likelihood that he's non-human.
The time has come for America to face some hard realities
One of these realities is that in this country, there is a VERY SOLID SEGMENT of the population that see themselves only, as the "real Americans".
This segment is comprised mostly, but not entirely, of White people who trace their heritage in America, back to six plus generations. This segment is located mostly in the heartland and southern states. Most of the people of this segment consider themselves as patriotic, American nationalists, with no bigoted or racist sentiment. This segment is proud that is was their fore parents who built America (slavery notwithstanding). In fact this segment will even express some accommodation for the descendants the slaves (Black Americans).
This segment however, sees the eastern and western coastal states as inhabited by migrants or at best, first or second generation migrants, with no real patriotic love for America. They see the White people in these coastal states as liberals, progressives, socialists and advocates of open borders. This segment does not see the inhabitants of these coastal states as "real Americans".
In the face of the current immigration crisis. the Solid Segment in a state of panic. All they see is a tidal wave of brown and not-white people populating the country. They are circling the white wagons. They will NOT allow their America to become a brown America. They will do whatever it takes to return their champion to power; or else: look out!
Trump and his Christians.
Christians and Donald Trump.
Trump Christianity.
Trump is showing us whole the evil people are.
But, I already knew. Because, all the decades of my life as I have voted for peace and justice, the Christians, in their bigoted majority have voted against - and largely prevailed.
Can you imagine a country where all the races got along in peace and acceptance? There would have to be no GOP. I can dream can't I?
1
Racist indeed. There is already a confluence of GOP leaders and right-media promoting the notion that these four women are trying to turn our country into a socialist country and the GOPis already pivoting to make it an election issue. What a crock of nonsense. With our deeply engrained capitalist system that is not likely to happen any more than Trump being contrite for his transgressions. Too many lobbyists in Washington protecting our laissez-faire system.
I fear the civil war the GOP and their ultra-right-wing followers have been stoking since the 70s on talk radio and now on Daily Stormer, Breitbart, Info Wars and other websites, is around the corner. Don't forget, they have been arming their followers for 50 years and telling them where to point their guns and who needs shooting. Further, white supremacists have been murdering us in our homes, streets, schools, universities, and businesses for decades. How long will the rest of us put up with this and what can we do about it if we don't want a shooting war?
1
The short answer is yes, this country was greater than it has been since Reagan, and Gingrich. The Republican Party started the long slide into the swamp when Reagan informed the public of the nine most terrifying words in the English language are, 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help”. Reagan started the idea that government can’t do anything right, only corporations can, which that dove tails with the idea of “privatizing” the government. Look at the prison system, nothing but abuses of inmates, while the Warden and others get millions in bonuses, by the way, that’s tax payers money they are using to give themselves bonuses. The same thing in Mitch McConnells Kentucky, coal is in a downward spiral, they continue to lay off workers, file for bankruptcy, while paying multimillion dollar bonuses to senior management.
Yet these politicians keep making promises that they simply can’t keep, and those coal producing states are suffering because the Republican Party has done nothing to address the decline in coal, and by the way, that trend will continue. Mitch has short changed those that have repeatedly re-elected him to do do just that, instead he’s lined his own pockets, while not funding the black lung medical fund. Yet, Trump disciples ,eep right on buying into his lies even though they aren’t any better off today, than they were two years ago.
6
Brilliant. Just brilliant. Now we will have to see what our democratic muscle can do.
2
We really need to stop calling Republicans "the party of Lincoln" in this futile attempt to call out their better nature. It is technically true, but badly misleading. The Republicans and Democrats swapped places decades ago. Now the GOP is the neo-Confederate party, while the Democrats are the pro-civil-rights party. With Trump, the change is complete: he is far more Andrew Johnson than Abraham Lincoln (and not Jackson, as he likes to imagine).
9
I appreciate this well written and documented column. I would have added as Pogo and others have said, "I have seen the enemy and he is us." There is a lot of anger and hate out there. Also a lack of critical thinking, personal responsibility, kindness and humanity. Politicians like Mitch McConnell allowed this to become what it has which there is no reason to elaborate further on.
5
Because America got to the moon first I guess we just assume America can succeed at anything America assigns it’s name to. Likewise then must also must be the case with the great American experiment, regardless of what aspect of humankind it attempts to experiment on. When I look up at night and see the moon I realize there’s plenty other out there we can’t even come close to conquering. Basic human animal nature might just be that infinite universe beyond down here on earth.
1
So, Kip Brown is an absolutely reliable source?
Where did that president get his racist bones?
Trump’s mother immigrated to the United States from Scotland. Trump’s grandfather immigrated to the United States from the territory that became a Germany. They were part of the 1850-pre WWII European immigration to the United States. Everything I’ve read of that time period says that European immigrants had to “prove themselves white” against xenophobia they met in the US; they may have brought existing biases from Europe against or for various groups; and one assimilation strategy sometimes used was to take on attitudes of racism.
They were also leaving a country and a life behind and their children and grandchildren were going to come to terms with that in different ways. Donald seems to consider himself comfortable with women born outside the US (Ivana, Melania, international models) and seek approval from “strongmen” - Putin, then Kim, Duterte, Xi. He did not root himself to the American tradition of dissent; no Quakers here, no Underground Railroad, no consciousness of the Declaration of Independence, no Confederate surrender, no Bill of Rights, no victory of the struggle of millions. Instead he speaks money and opportunity, and inherited the wealth of, ghastly but true, a corrupt white first-generation immigrant landlord! Is that what Dad Trump said to Mom Trump, “bad immigrant”? Push on this. He doesn’t see past his nose. Unlike many kids of immigrants he has no understanding of what makes the country continue.
4
Heard an interview on NPR today with a college junior who attended the Trump rallies in Greenville, NC the other night. He is a member of the college republicans group and said that about half the crowd wasn’t chanting and those who did chant “send her home” were just trying to show their support for Trump; ie they didn’t really mean it. As he framed things, Trump stands up for American Christian-Judea values and Democrats are attacking them. I realize that we live in a bifurcated media landscape where Trumps words, behavior, and history are spun clean by conservative media before being released to the conservative audience and that same media is casting all outside the conservative media bubble as un-American. Still, main stream media needs to do a better job of countering this pretzel logic by engaging directly and continuously with the Trump base.As today’s NPR interviewer asked, isn’t having the freedom and the guts to challenge damaging policies and giving voice to concerns a basic responsibility for all citizens in a democracy? We know what violence can spawn from such intolerant and racist rhetoric when one side demonizes the other: Martin Luther King, Bobby Kennedy, Kent State, Malcolm X, etc”.
The young man reluctantly agreed that free speech was a first amendment right but the went right back to “ defending our values”.
Point is, the message of this piece needs to be taken directly to the Trump base. You are just preaching to the choir.
6
And this column doesn't even mention the two worst examples of racism:
1. The attempt by the Republican Party and its base to erase the memory of our first Black President. This actually started when Obama was still in office, when Mitch McConnell violated the constitution by refusing to bring Merrick Garland's nomination up for a vote in the Senate. Continued when Trump foolishly withdrew from two reasonable treaties, the Iran Nuclear Treaty and the talks of TPP, which both would have clearly favored American interests.
2. Birtherism started by the human slug, Jerome Corsi, and picked up as a racist battle cry by Trump. The low point of the 21st Century so far.
15
What a splendid lesson in the analysis of our president's skeletal structure. Of course, the spine has been missing for decades. And the GOP is so reluctant to accept that the basic cause of racism and bigotry is ignorance. And the GOP seems to have cornered the market on ignorance. But the illiterate Trumpster claiming there isn't a "racist bone in my body," forces us to reexamine his racism and recognize he's absolutely correct! His entire body is racist, not just one bone.
8
Actually, the anti immigrant sentiment started before the American Revolution. Benjamin Franklin, speaking for many his fellow colonists in Pennsylvania, said the following in 1751:
Why should Pennsylvania, founded by the English, become a Colony of Aliens, who will shortly be so numerous as to Germanize us, instead of our Anglifying them."
2
And yet for all of this he is going to trounce the democratic candidate in 2020
Trump is simply the man in the mirror staring back at the American people
We are now, always have been, and will likely will be for a thousand years a deeply racist people If Democrats look closely they will see the exact same image
Minorities are tolerated only in subservient positions Some justification is always created to discount success
MAGA Were we ever Great?
4
Between 1933 - 1941, there was a population in our country who had survived the Great Depression and were economically vulnerable, they were also xenophobic isolationists who did not want our country to "interfere" with a certain fascist who was hurting people in Europe. They were antisemitic, anti-catholic, and some of them were really into the Klan.
They would chant, "America First!" at their rallies.
The people who emigrated from Europe back then came here seeking asylum, but we didn't really have anything known as asylum laws, we had immigration laws and they were in a state of flux. They became more restrictive and it was harder for people to get in the more people screamed "America First!" because some of those xenophobic bigots made it a point to be at the gates, since they didn't want "those people" in our country.
Some of them made it in. Some did not. Those who lost hope went back, and thousands of them died after returning.
Now I have to ask. Where was Trump's father. I know that when a Klan march was held in NY the permit they received prohibited the marchers from wearing a mask or any garment that would hide their faces, and Trump's father ended up getting brought to the precinct.
Did Trump's father shout "America First!" back then?
I do know that the racist overtones of the slogan being chanted at Trump's rallies are IDENTICAL to the earlier chants of that same slogan.
And our country is debased by it.
5
This administration is corrupt and has replaced the Swamp with their own Swamp dwellers - Lobbyists, Opportunists and Industry Insiders for Pharma, Oil, Coal and Other Anti-Climate Change believers.
Focus on how Trump along with his GOP acolytes including McConnell have put up young Conservative Judges ready to move back to the time when White is Might.
Please don't be fooled by the demagoguery and focus on the future of Democracy. The are not only closing the borders but they are also slowly destroying the people inside it if you are not rich and white. Trump is selling this nation piece by piece to it's enemies Russia and China (false tariffs).
Vote your conscience and for Democracy.
4
You are kind to speculate the Trump is being shrewd in his efforts to appeal to racism. Unfortunately I think it is Trump being Trump - he knows no other way.
3
Trump does not have an "edge" with white voters. He owns them.
4
He only owns those who support him, and rest assured, if Trump said go and die for me, they wouldn’t. Cowards don’t fight for anyone, they let others do the fighting for them.
Well, the President of the United States certainly meets my criteria of a racist down to his metatarsals but my guess is he sees himself as Pro White Male more than anything. This reminds me of the guys in Boston who wanted to hold a straight pride parade last month -- up with them doesn't necessarily mean down with "the other" in their minds.
3
It seems that it’s not only Trump, but this whole White House that in the throws of this disease.
When a special assistant to the President starts asking reporters “what is your ethnicity”, we are witnessing the start of something very ugly that the world has unfortunately seen before.
What’s next? Nuremberg-style laws requiring Americans to prove the percentage of their “whiteness” in order to live here?
7
I only listened to his rally for a few minutes. I can't watch this man. The sound was sort in the distance. What I heard was the same one I heard when I was a child in the 1940s. It came from our radio. It came from the Newsreels at our local theater as I waited for Margaret O'Brien to appear. The hate. The bigotry. The anger. That was the voice I heard. It was the same voice the Nazis had at Hitler rallies. I froze. Chills ran down my spine.
What has happened to my country?
12
I try to remember that the Squad are women.
There are male immigrants in Congress who are very critical of Trump and the status quo. Not asking them to go home.
So, is he racist..yes.
But, sexist..absolutely.
8
The focus should not be on whether Trump is a racist or not. He is, but so are lots of other folks. But unlike them, he uses it to engage in demagoguery. He is a racist demagogue, and an effective one.
4
As a European I can say with conviction that Trump is not seen as a fine President. He is destroying what made America great and making you the laughing stock of the globe. He is a school yard bully... but I believe in karma and when he eventually gets to those pearly gates in heaven, the gates will be firmly locked. It will not end well and he deserves all the misfortune we can throw at him. He is a disgrace and those that closely connect and associate with him should hang their heads in shame. We are expecting to see the removal of Melanie and her family from America soon... or did they get to buy their right to stay in America. Poor America.. I pray you get some release from him soon. We all pray ! Wishing you all a speedy recovery and return to normality x
16
Kevin McCarthy just gave a statement to reporters defending the president's comment as not racist. THIS is the problem.
Our country can withstand racists, even racist leaders, but when party leaders not only remain quiet, but like McCarthy, come out with a bold and blatantly lame defense of Trump's flagrant racism, the exceptional nature of America dies.
McCarthy and the GOP are a bigger problem than Trump. Trump is clearly a bigot. His Birther campaign told us all we need to know about how racist he is. He's also a misogynist, a nativist, isolationist, populist, and dare I say, a fascist. The GOP endorses that.
If Democrats are "socialists" and "communists", Republicans are fascists and racists. And they have attained fascist status. They've already slid down the opposite world slippery slope they're always accusing Democrats of creating by virtue of being "liberal" (translation: American; invested with Enlightenment principles).
Caring about our communities, the environment, the stability of the financial markets and the economy, extreme income inequality, economic mobility, the middle class, education, healthcare, women's and LGBT rights -- all of these things make us, according to their demonizing rhetoric, communists and socialists.
Well, they're fascists. They hate minorities, believe in racial purity, they're isolationists, regard education as elitism, and believe bankers (Jews) are responsible for the world's ills. Fascists.
7
America (at least at one time) had enough non-racists to pass laws that aim to protect people from hate crimes, hate speech, discrimination in the workplace, civil rights, etc. Let's hope there are still enough of them among us left to vote this racist demagogue and his ilk out of office so we can continue moving forward in these areas, and his emboldened worshipers can go back to grumbling in front of their TV sets.
3
I am waiting for our Joseph Welch moment / inflection point from the McCarthy era in 1954 , "Until this moment...I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness... Have you no sense of decency?"
I hope I am not waiting in vain - and instead hear of The Night of the Long Knives.
5
1st, funny angle, Nick: breakdown of Trump's racism, bone by bone, playing off his statement that he doesn't have a racist bone in his body. (Of course he might be right: racism would reside in his "heart" or brain, anatomically speaking, so he may not have any racist bones.)
The truly disgusting, frightening fact about all of this is that Trump is just espousing the racism of many, many Americans. Not just in the South, but in the Midwest, & even here in blue New Jersey. Shortly after moving here, my students set me straight about NJ's
racism. There are pockets of white supremacists both in northern & southern NJ. A decade or so ago a NJ man (& his wife, but perhaps she didn't have much say) named his son Adolf Hitler Lastname, & his daughter Eva Braun Lastname (I think that was it).
Prejudice is probably inherent, left over from the days when something or someone who appeared different might eat you (or be eaten by you). And, of course, it has been inculcated in generation after generation, even outside of white supremacist circles. (e.g., all the TV shows, movies, & news media that showed black men mostly as criminals, & black women as "welfare queens.")
However, whether through nature, nurture, or both, our inherent racism can be resisted through our conscious freewill self-monitoring. We can choose not to act in racist ways.
Sadly, too many Americans aren't conscious of their own racism, & many consciously choose to utter racist speech & commit racist acts.
2
Unspeakable disgust for both him and his chanting followers.
In my almost 96 years, he;s worse than Father Coughlin, George Wallace, Joe McCarthy, etc etc because he represents us as
president. And for good measure stick McConnell and all but five of the rest of the toadies in the same basket. Horrifying.
12
I’ve expected Trump to say, Segregation now, segregation today, segregation forever. And keep in mind, Wallace closed all schools when the Kennedys were enforcing the Supreme Court ruling Brown vs Board of Education. I’m sure Wallace was saying that will teach them, I just won’t educate ANYONE, so there, I took great joy when he was reduced to a wheelchair, his own venom had caught up to him.
Since Trump is a racist, and now even the very careful NYT says it, when will the epithet be (properly) applied to his many followers. You cannot overlook who Trump is, and then vote for him because you like his policy on taxes or regulations. His racism is incendiary and will blow this country apart. Whatever you may like about his policies, nothing overrides that.
6
YES Trump is deeply racist. But there's more. His election was a racist backlash against the former President Obama. He is the racist ICON of the 21st Century. If he is (the gods forbid) re-elected, it will be because the racists have taken over and won.
This racist icon must be defeated in 2020 and sent to the dust bin of history.
7
It's fascinating that Trump isn't trying to win anymore. Remember when he appealed to the working class and the forgotten poor? Those days are history. Now everything is about race.
3
You liberals keep playing your games, and calling your names, while we Make America Great Again.
Because if you haven't yet noticed, we really don't care anymore what you think or do.
52
America Aways Was Great
65
Apparently you do. Otherwise, why would you post a comment on this NYT’s article?
188
@Steve Crisp
Please be specific. How has he made America great again discounting trends that were there before he took office.
132
Dear conservative black people,
Trump is exactly what racism looks like. It’s not just that he doesn’t want you at his table, or that he doesn’t want you as waitstaff in his dining room, it’s that he wants you to leave the country. He denies your humanity and your patriotism, he uses your conservatism.
Quit voting for the “conservative” racist.
Quit saying it’s better for him to be an overt racist, than a covert one.
Quit turning the other cheek, he’ll only smack that one too.
5
According to Kristof, "Trump has taken two of the most ignominious threads in American history — nativism and McCarthyism — and woven them together in an outburst that is an affront to democratic norms."
Let's be brutally honest. This is not an affront to democratic norms. This is a threat to democracy.
[[For those who say "Democracy means 'majority rules', and since Trump won, he can't be a threat to democracy." I reply that democracy does NOT mean 'majority rules'. Hitler's Germany had elections. North Korea has elections. The hallmark of a democracy is not elections, it is support for individual rights. And Trump clearly doesn't support the rights of individuals who tell the truth about him.]]
7
"How can members of the party of Lincoln...." Easy. They are "conservatives" so they can do anything with impunity in this country. The cowardly media is obsessed with some pernicious notion of "balance." If anyone having politics to the left of Mussolini attempted to do what the "conservatives" do every day, the phony outrage would be visible by the naked eye from Jupiter.
3
What definitive methods were undertaken by the Obama administration to “reduce child poverty”, reduce “mass incarceration” or to attempt actually scientifically to understand the complex behavioral phenomenon of “drug addiction,” not limited by “race” or “sex.”? I did not see it happening, did you?
3
The claim—“No, it’s not racist because a lot of people agree with it”—is so patently and on-its-face ridiculous. Have not racists the world over, from time immemorial, had people agree with their racist bile?
Racist, and stupid. A terrible, terrible combination.
Protected by powerful people in the Republican Party, willing to bend and break laws to maintain power. Even more terrible still.
5
Without disputing the premise of Trump being racist, what happened to the fact that these four Congresswomen, or maybe it was only one of them, also called Nancy Pelosi a racist just a few days ago and Trump even went to Speaker Pelosi's defense? If you listen to some of his comments at his rally in N.C. his issues and some of his followers' issues go to the concerns about the, what used to be considered, radical political agendas of some of these women, not to mention an embrace of socialism; cultural ignorance and fears about people with multiple names or names not easily pronounced; lack of support or just anyone daring to criticize Israel. One of his followers at the rally in a sweeping gesture, which I assume referred to the media in the back of the auditorium, and I would think, liberals in general, as "A bag of idiots." Whether you think someone is a deplorable or an idiot, name calling shuts down conversation and then any chance to seek solutions to some of the problems facing any community. Trump, as politicians on both sides too often do, takes advantage of stoking the fears of people who want to see the scary world in black and white, and I am not talking about skin color. All law enforcement is not bad, every young black man involved in a shooting is not innocent, some women lie about sexual assault and some men are sexual predators.
1
So what? Just to play devil's advocate, what's wrong being a racist? You may think you are not a racist but just keep in mind the so called implicit bias. The great majority of the past great and highly accomplished people are racists, including Abraham Lincoln. You are free to be your own version of non-racist. It is a fool's errant trying to make other people your version of good people. Calling Trump a racist may only enhance your self esteem but accomplish little else.
2
Racist is not the only thing that makes trump unfit for the highest office in the land. He is a proven undeniable and habitual liar. He is uninformed and has a foul mouth. He channels resentment and hated. He divides people. He was born spoiled and entitled rich. Rules or the law do not apply to him. He bought his way out of trouble or sued because he could afford to beat people down with expensive lawyers. Why working people think trump is for them is the most absurd or all his lies.
8
Mr. Kristof, don't you know by now that cute columns such as this have diminishing returns, play into Trump's divisive strategy and reinforce the idea that left and right have their own echo chambers?
Instead, let's make a rational argument about the role of nativism in American political history and how we have overcome its harmful effects. Compare Trump's personality and approach to other nativists and point to their failures.
2
Trump's racist rants are calculated to provoke this sort of high visibility outrage in both the media and Democratic Party leadership. In the case of the latter, no amount of outraged reaction will convert a single vote among this bigot's irreducible core of supporters. Quite the contrary. So instead of allowing Trump to, as always, suck the oxygen out of the room in order to distract attention from his abysmal performance, wouldn't it be more effective to acknowledge and condemn the lying perversity of this creature, refuse to respond to his antics any longer, and focus on developing a platform and candidate that will drive him out of the White House and on his way to prison in 2021?
4
More than anything- he is draining the US Treasury and will leave with his trademark legacy: bankrupt using 'borrowed" money.
How anyone can ignore this carny barker with a Twitter accountant is mid blowing. We NewYorkers' know this clown well.
Notice he has not visited Queens, Brooklyn - the Bronx or Staten Island. His stench remains over Manhattan- since Studio 54 closed.
6
If I have said this twice , I have said it once (sic) , The NYT has convinced Exactly 2 former red team voters to switch to the blue team. Man that is a lot of wasted pixels and ion batteries. Are you really committed to change? Or just selling ads?
3
The Republican Party is now a hate group.
3
Yes; he's a racist; and his people love it. My children asked me on election night in 2016 how this happened. "People hate women." Even women hate women ... we learned how much. Our president is making it safe to come out from under a log and express full-throated hate again. The more he hates, the more they love him, and the more he unleashes it. It's like religious ecstasy -- the evil kind. I've never seen anything more frightening.
If we can name love incarnate on earth as God, then it doesn't take much to name someone capable of embodying and amplifying this much hatred in his fellow humans as an incarnation of Satan, everything that stands against and in contrast to a God of love. Remember, Nick, not believing your Yamhill friends were racists? Still feeling solid in that belief? This must have been what it was like to live in Hitler's Germany -- to watch decent friends and neighbors overtaken by a mad lust to harm someone they once saw as a fellow human. I only pray we'll snap out of it before something truly terrible happens.
9
Unfortunately, Trump likes being called a racist. He thinks it will endear him to white nationalists, neo-Nazis, Klan supporters and others of his ilk and help him win a second term. He may be right. Witness the rally in North Carolina where they were yelling "send her back."
3
No doubt the occupant of the White House will issue an executive order to remove this rule.
"The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission specifically bars employers from using “ethnic epithets, such as making fun of a person’s foreign accent or comments like, ‘Go back to where you came from.’”"the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission specifically bars employers from using “ethnic epithets, such as making fun of a person’s foreign accent or comments like, ‘Go back to where you came from.’”
2
Donald Trump is sucking the soul out of a America and leaving hate in it's wake. Going nuclear he is now igniting his racist agenda and nearly half of America supports it. The GOP might has well call themselves the "The White Nationalist Party" as they continue to grovel for Trump's approval. Democrats continue to fight a plodding battle of reason and facts as if they matter to Trump's supporters and the GOP who rely on them for their own political existence. Trump ruthlessly and with authority has unleashed a violence against the spirit of America in the form of symbolic racism by "othering" his fellow Americans. We have seen this dance of extreme nationalism before where the use of violence was used to achieve political objectives. Remember the Nazis' by the late twenties and early thirties had gathered enough electoral support to become the largest political party. I would think the time for timidity should be over.
6
"...what we now call McCarthyism, although it, too, goes back to our nation’s earliest days."
McCarthyism just got a rebirth, thanks to Senator Lindsay Graham, who called the "squad" (4 duly elected Congresswomen) Communists.
2
You really do wish liberals would stop the cries of -- racist! This, typically coming from the most privileged of the privileged....
Isn't it enough to describe behavior? Hateful, idiotic, calculated to give offense to some, pander to others....
For all anyone knows, Trump may *not* harbor racist-prejudices (unlikely as that would seem), however eager he is to to pander to those sentiments in others.
The centrists who are so eager to point out that the "far left" will ruin the Democrats' chances in 2020 are apparently deaf to how grating and self-serving the constant use of this word is. If you're a Jew who's ever been called anti-Semitic for criticism of Netanyahu and the behavior of the Israel Defense Forces, you'll know what this means....
The virtue police really don't need to ferret out thought crimes. Describing what's he doing. Leave the virtue mongering alone.
1
Sarcasm truly is the highest form of irony and the lowest form of wit.
The racism will stop on the day Trump goes back to under the rock he crawled from. That day will be November 2020, and it is only 18 months away.
3
"How can members of the party of Lincoln today protest the label of racism, but not the racism itself — in a man who for 45 years has shown himself to be a racist from his mandible to his metatarsals?"
All I can say is it must be pretty easy given the size of the Party of Lincoln or, the Party was not existent from the jusmp and just a convenient way to hid their racism.
They don't get it yet and maybe never will, but Trump is calling them all out and there is nowhere to hide.
1
i'm sorry, but are we really saying that racism in America only dates back to the 18th and 19th centuries? This article conflates the racism that Black people experienced with that of Italians and "other immigrants", which is entirely dismissive of the history of Black people in America. i appreciate the overall message, but, when writing about these issues, one must be more delicate and precise.
1
@Ashley B. "Italian" is not a race.
The one thing you can be sure of when someone says that "there isn't a racist bone in my body" is that the person is... a racist.
1
"I am not a racist. I'm the least racist person you have ever interviewed".
-Donald Trump 2019
“I am not a crook”
-Richard Nixon 1973
There seems to be a correlation there. Head to toe they're "two peas in a pod".
4
Seeing what is the same as different is why change is hard to come by. So let us set the record right involving our acute and highly dysfunctional political environment. I will point out that obscure metaphysical speculative discourse is safely kept in the background, as generally unneeded in public discourse. That is until obscure metaphysical speculation becomes the norm in public policy and debate. Then a history of the ideas that formed our world must come to set the record straight. The turn towards pragmatic metaphysics is the "Balm in Gilead' that heals. Really? You want the courts to decide when life begins? Really? This is the most impractical approach to solving problems that ever was. Communists among us? Communists lost and the response to the obscurity of, as one example, Hegelian Idealism, that led to Communism and Fascism, was solved in a truly pragmatic way, and was uniquely American. Take the Academic Left. Their hero by and large was the Frenchman Foucault, whose response to Idealism was to assert that reality is made by and only by humans, and this allows us to make up any nonsense we may wish to articulate. This is the foundation of much of the Academic Left; we make up reality to our liking, and given how 'reality' is made, we must control the media narratives, with all else that seems to influence one's mind. The Right is no different except now it is out in the open with Trump. Truth is what serves our purpose. Look closely at this idea, it will kill.
So, what else is new?
1
Yes and Ben Franklin was horrified by all the Germans in Pennsylvania. We are all racists. Accept it and move on.
1
@Dave Smith "German" is not a race.
1
I guess the fact that the Nixon administration Justice Department actually sued Trump for housing discrimination might be the most damning irony of all. If Trump was too racist for even Tricky Dickie`s boys; that is REALLY the ultimate test of how this sad pathetic little man continues to rewrite the history books on how far the G.O.P. and the Neo-Cons have created the Swamp. It will take years for anyone to drain all this garbage and the damage to American civility; IF it is even now possible to do so. It has become so tiresome to hear right wing fanatics trying to scream about socialism; when it is fascism that is destroying the good old U.S.A.!
1
The man is a pathological manipulator bent on division. He sows the worst in America. Get him out. Now.
8
Trump is one man, who cares about one man? The problem lies with ALL Republicans. Like McConnell who gets away with saying "Trump is not a racist", and no one calls out the very fact of saying that makes McConnell a racist because he believes that racist trump is not a racist. When you think racists are not racists - you are a racist yourself.
3
Trump has brought great shame on America and the Congress has increased that shame by refusing to even attempt to remove him from office.
These are dark days for America. The world is watching we Americans drag our country down into the sewer.
4
Racism bred to the bone in a man who has fractured society. Good to see you being so accurately blunt.
2
And he cheats at golf too.
8
This column is just brilliant, as are many of the comments - especially jsinc's (?). I truly believe that, as painful as the current period is, this is a moment for clarity and humility regarding our nation's history and determining its future. What will be our choice - the way of division, separateness and hatred of "the other", or living - finally - by the values expressed by Emma Lazarus on the Statue of Liberty? It couldn't be clearer.
2
If America was truly great and a “beacon on the hill”, we would be a moral leader for the world. That means we would be protecting the defenseless, eradicating homelessness, building a clean and healthy environment and infrastructure, providing superior healthcare and education. I don’t see that when I travel throughout this country. I see a president that thinks a great economy (that does nothing for our health, education, or immigrants) and enhances the lives of the rich. It is a definite split on what the definition of great is in this country. GOP see it as abundant wealth, and DEMs see it as moral compassionate abundance.
3
It is the brain that sends messages to the muscles that move the bones. It is Trump's brain that is racist.
2
Mr Kristof: How could you possibly have neglected Trump's relentless birther attacks on Barack Obama? Racist to the core.
6
Yes. He is a racist. But his actions are white supremacist. He is clearly looking to solidify the foothold of white, male, Christians as the power base of America for decades to come. Racist has lost its meaning. He’s a racist with an agenda.
4
For me It is always of comfort to the mind and to the heart to read Nicholas Kristof articles. This time I would like just to make a correction to the ending sentence of the article:”has shown himself to be a racist from his mandible to his bone spur “.
Thank you
3
It's a sad reflection on the third of Americans who still support their dear leader. You become the person you support or associate with, just as bad doctors hang with bad doctors, bad cops befriend bad cops and criminals associate with fellow criminals.
2
Instead of taking the bait put out by DJT and accusing him of being a racist, why don't Democrats respond by presenting balanced policies on comprehensive immigration reform. Or any other major issue.
Face it. Accusing DJT of being a racist is not going to accomplish anything positive. It just sucks up all the oxygen in the room (and media coverage). And Democrats have responding by reacting, not leading.
Instead, respond by maturely and rationally presenting Americans with actual balanced proposals to get address the issues facing this country. Take control of the narrative and lead.
8
I'm not sure its racist bones. Perhaps just racist muscle memory.
1
Mr. Kristof, I believe there may be one 'bone' in trump's body for which there might be an exception. But that would take a lot of research that's not worth doing, and you might not be able to include it anyway.
1
Trump supporters love his bigotry. Trump supporters love him for it, because it validates their bigotry. Now they think they can walk around their community verbally assaulting African Americans and Hispanics, because he does. Simple.
4
It is a well-documented fact that Trump is a racist. What's yet to be determined is whether this is a good thing or a gad thing. The 2020 election will answer this.
While praising the intelligence of the American electorate, he secretly knows that they can be led around like bulls with nose rings - only instead of bull rings, he uses their beliefs and prejudices to lead them wherever he wants.
If DJT doesn't destroy our fragile democracy, he has published the blueprint and playbook for some other demagogue to do it later. If a democracy like America's is going to exist, there will have to be a paradigm shift in human thought throughout the world.
In the near future, we will program the human mind in the computer based on a "survival" algorithm, which will provide irrefutable proof as to how we trick the mind with our ridiculous beliefs about what is supposed to survive - producing minds programmed de facto for destruction. These minds see the survival of a particular belief as more important than the survival of us all. When we understand all this, we will begin the long trek back to reason and sanity.
See RevolutionOfReason.com
3
Well, the grandfather seems to have made enough money wth houses of ill-repute serving the Gold-Rush. He would have returned to Germany to stay, but had to leave again because he has had the equivalent of bone spurs when he was of draft age.
His son, born in the Bronx, was bad enough that Woody Guthrie ("This land is my land..." wrote a song about him.
It is sad that more than one third of Americans need all this to erase the "disgrace" of having had a President whose father was a man of color.
4
Not only is Trump a racist he is also a fascist trying rule America as one of the numerous brutal dictators he fawns over. If you made a few bucks in the market are you ready to toss our democracy in the the dumpster to make some more until our deficit crashes our economy. Most of the old white republicans will not be around when pollution and flooding runs amok or when our economy crashes from debt so they are riding the trump train to the end.
4
The most upsetting part of all of this is that it does not, and will not matter. He is like a cockroach. He cannot be destroyed. He bought eight years, not four, and thinks he should stay longer than that. He challenges that. Unfortunately, it’s pretty evident that he likes this ‘president thing’. Arr! Yeah! Makes em’ feel lika KING! It’s his supporters that mystify me. How any thinking, feeling human being can stand behind this monster is downright astounding to me. These people don’t just stand behind him, they seem to worship him, further perpetuating his inflated sense of self, and the level of power he seems to think he has been granted. This man is DANGEROUS. He needs to go. I’m willing to bet that those who sold him this presidency are now reeling with regret. They can’t control their animal, and they can’t do a thing about him —short of killing him. I hate to say it, but if he went in his slobbery sleep would it be such a bad thing? Deplorable. He is deplorable, and he brings out the very worst in everyone. Including me. God, help me,
7
Trump claim not to have a racist bone in his body is genetically correct. Since we all can be traced to our ancestry beginning to women from Africa.
The racist beliefs are rooted in his brain not his bones..
1
I liked AOC's comment about Trump's racist bones even more:
“I think he’s got a racist brain in his head, and I think he’s got a racist heart in his chest.”
1
Us as Americans get the word "racist" and "ignorant" confused. He is way more "ignorant" than anything else. Speaking against congress is "ignorant", not racist. He says whatever comes to his mind at the time that will hype his side of the Republican party up. He does this anytime he wants without thinking. My advice: If you was born here, this is your country. I have a long list of military in my family since the Civil War who fought and died for this country.
My grandfather was in Germany fighting Hitler during WW2. So you going to tell me that this is not his and my country? Many minorites have paid their dues and their dues for this country more than he will ever think.
3
I think everyone, including our generally clueless blowhard of a President, knows he is a classic racist. What is even more troubling is that 40% or so of our population is thrilled about it.
3
The Democrats have made it very clear.
If you vote Republican you are a racist.
This is not about policy.
This is about racism.
4
There are many white supremacist racists in the United States, and they all support Donald Trump. At this point there's no excuse (actually there really wasn't in 2016, as Donald Trump doesn't hide his hate) but now, you attend the Nazi Trump rallies and proudly wear your MAGA dunce cap, because you're a racist. You defend the immoral, racist, pathological liar, Donald Trump, because you're a racist. You vote for Donald Trump, because you're a racist. Sickening reality.
4
Yeah, Trump is a racist. So what? What are you going to do about it? What can you do about it? Accept it and give yourself some peace and vote him out in 2020.
3
Yes, he’s racist. He’s also massively sexist. No accident that he felt so entitled to disrespect the Squad, who are all women.
3
I am afraid that it's worse, much worse, than the racism of trump and his moronic followers. the republicans have, in the last few days, revealed their 2020 campaign strategy, using the words 'socialist' and 'communist' to incite crowds against democratic members of congress.
trump is evil and stupid, but his handlers are guiding him into fascism, and that appears to suit him well. if he is re-elected, there will be open campaigns of white supremacist violence against minorities. it CAN happen here.
5
Racist, yes, and also a misogynist. His hatred of women and women of color is blatant.
8
I think money is to be made selling klan robes, nordic-nazi rune arm bands, white power music cds, and copies of Mein Kampf at trump rallies.
Stupid me, it's already being done out of the trunks of cars there. The MAGA hats are a polite version. But they have the other stuff if you know how to ask.
2
The consistent thread across American history is that politicians and power-hungry bigots will use hatred of 'the other' as a lie to gain power.
Whether by forming terrorist militias like the KKK, the American Nazi Party, the Proud Boys, and all the rest of the festering domestic terrorist groups, or by slinging mud in political slander campaigns, showing off their amoral depravity, vile racism, bigotry, and hatred, there have always been clever sociopaths who inflame hatred to divide and exploit Americans.
There have always been politicians eager to reinforce the ignorance of some; to delude the weak-minded into believing that, if only 'those others' were gone, their lives would be better.
"They don't share our values"; "they're not like us"; "they don't love America"; "they're communists..."; "they're socialists"; "they're for open borders..." we hear. Nothing said is based on facts, no truth in this -- but if they say it loudly enough, tweet it often enough, raise enough a media-grabbing fuss, there will always be those eager for quick solutions to life's challenges who buy into their con, and join in the "base".
Brainwashing techniques are well studied, practiced and refined to the nth degree by advertising, raised to a fine art by modern political campaigns, and used by these hate-masters to reinforce their own power without regard for the consequences to the nation, the future, or the public.
Trump stands at their front now, leading their ranks.
5
The common thread is Roy Marcus Cohn
4
Brother Hate's Travelling Damnation show...soon in a ragged near you.
2
“How can members of the party of Lincoln today protest the label of racism, but not the racism itself — in a man who for 45 years has shown himself to be a racist from his mandible to his metatarsals?”
Because they share his views, regardless of protestations, abjurations, deflections, “some of my best friends are...”. Members of the Trumpist (formerly, Republican) party have a choice to make. You couldn’t be a member of the Nazi or Stalin’s communist party in the 1930s and say (later) hey, I really liked Jews, (or Capitalists)it was just for political expediency at the time. Nope.
If you support Trump, you are a racist, too. History tends not to be kind to the Quislings. Real Leaders lead. And if their “base” is bigoted, they don’t servilely follow the base, they lead and teach the base. As we have seen the Trumpist party has one leader, and those in Congress are his lickspittles and lackies, not leaders. History will not treat them well.
3
Maybe the racism is in his bone spurs.
4
Let's be clear.
It is not if you don't agree with me, hit the road.
It is racism.
You're a racist.
If you are against the Green New Deal you are a racist.
If you are against illegal immigration, you are a racist.
If you work for ICE, Border Patrol or Homeland Security - you are a racist.
If you aren't for free health care, free college, you are a racist.
If you are for borders, you are a racist.
If you aren't for reparaitions, you are a racist.
If you aren't for Universal Basic Income, you are a racist.
If you don't side with AOC & her cadre, you are a racist.
10
There's a racist bone in this Bone.
Truer lie was never told
Than the lie you hold
George Wallace racism with a sprinkling of Red Scare John Birch Society birther-ism.
It works with them fine people. I was at the University of Alabama when Republicans from Indiana came a courting the Frat houses in 72. They actually said they were liberal Republicans but they were absolutely racist. Indiana at one time had an entire state government run by proud KKK members.
All of us indecent liberals watched all of them fine white mostly southern baptist conservatives catch and jump on the KKK klown car.
That was the seed of what we have today.
Be nice, lie at the edges, hide what your true intentions are. Classic long term insurgency used by Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Benedict Arnold, Nixon and now the racist trump cult.
I was born and raised in apartheid AfghanaBama a southern baptist. I was raised among racist white people. Some were deacons of my church. In 60 they elected the racist George Wallace and it got even worse in AfghanBama.
Racist evangelical churches caused the Civil War by telling whites it was their bible given right to own men, women and children. To treat them as nothing but grist for the mill based solely on the color of their skin. The bible was written by men. Worshiping the bible is worshiping man. It always ends badly.
Most Americans call people like trump white trash.
White evangelicals call him savior.
Jesus wept
Thanks for all the fish
Dave
USAF Ret
4
Fascism will come to America wrapped in a flag carrying the cross
9
Like millions of Americans, Trump was raised on racism. His father marched with the KKK.
7
Well said Mr. Kristof, well said.
The occupant 's a racist.
His language is racist and his actions are racist.
He's the poster boy of a despicable and disgusting example of American largesse and daily he exhibits why he is a complete disgrace.
How anyone can support this utter embarrassment is just laughable and illustrates how America how sunk into his sewage dump.
5
This president has no bones and no heart. He is weak but he knows he is a cooked goose politically. The only platter he needs to be served is the one that will lead him to jail. The sooner, the better. The party of Lincoln has no spine and no morals. Is Abraham Lincoln turning in his grave? I bet Senator Mc Cain is. This president is now allowed to speak like this, to act like a full blown racist. He is evil. His followers, pure bred trumpistas are just as bad as he is. Someone is going to be hurt because there are no adults in the room to put this man in the place where he belongs which is prison. Shame on you Republican party! I hope you lose big in November 2020.
3
It’s a shame we’re stuck with “racist” and “racism” as names for the disgraceful attitude we see assumed by so many people today. “Race” is a biological, not a cultural, concept. The Oxford English Dictionary traces “racist” and “racism” back only as far as the 1930s (“racialist/-ism” a few decades earlier). It was then used to describe the ideology of the Third Reich, which was based on presumed value differences among the biological sub-divisions of humanity. That a belief in the moral essence of biological differences stood at the heart of Nazi ideology is confirmed by the record of warnings given by Heinrich Himmler and by Hitler himself against making an exception for the occasional Jew (“whom we all have known”) who seems all right and looks and acts just like “us.” The evil, they said, is in the “Jew’s blood” (i.e. genes) and must be resisted, however appealing to a German’s sympathy an individual Jew might be. This attitude, I believe, is very rare among those we call “racists” today, whom we often hear saying things like “Oh, So-and-so is all right. He’s not like all those others.”
It’s a shame we can’t go back to calling this attitude what we used to call it: “race prejudice.” It is a form of bigotry, not anything so systematic as an ”-ism.”
3
@PL: I should add that, of course, it is too late. This extravagance of linguistic inventiveness has already given us “sexism” and “ageism” for prejudice based on sex and age. I have not yet heard anyone denounced as a “genderist,” but I expect that’s coming.
1
Wait a second - how are the words , “Go back where you came from” racist? Rude, yes but racist? I don’t think so. Wow are people using that term loosely these days.
2
He doesnt have a racist bone in his body.
He has a racist soul.
3
One is put in mind of H.L. Mencken: -- “As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”
There will always be some defective aggressive charismatic dangerous sociopaths hanging outside the norms of a decent society -like a virus trying to enter a cell -BUT like cells need their nuclei penetrated - Society needs tens of millions of defective citizens to open the gates for a life long grifter and racist and basically worthless human being like trump to penetrate.
The moral lowlife's in America have metastisized into a 40 million strong human cancer!
Their greed and stupidity and fear fed and unified by social media and America's first network propaganda machine devoted to the incomprehensible and corrupt and incompetent policies of trumpism.
The genie is out of the bottle and with the moral collapse of the GOP and the religious community:
We will just have to wait for the upheaval-coming soon -of the demographic changes which will save us AND cleanse our culture of the old white ex urban human bacteria (a virulent immoral strain of ignorance) whichhas infected it.
Once and for all!
5
Pitch perfect. I would have entitled your essay, 'Racist to the bone spurs."
2
Racist, not only to the bone:
Racist to the *core*!
3
Trump is a racist. Period. Defending a racist makes you a racist, which exposes the racism of the cowardly racist Republican Party. And then there are the Trump and Republican voters who now have nowhere to hide their racism.
A third of Americans are racists. Trump has brought them out of the closet.
4
djt is just following Melania's admonition: Be Best. He is being the best racist. Perhaps he will get a gold star for this in a WH ceremony.
1
Trump is the symptom. The problem in America is the White racists who support him. Make no mistake about it, if you support Trump you are a racist. As long as White America does not have its day of reckoning America will fall short of its ideal. All nations rise and fall, America is no exception. When history is written it will talk about how America was born in violence, discrimination, slavery and the inability to come to terms with the truth. Oh yes, also the genocide of the real Americans; Indians.
4
It is way past time for the media to stop covering Trump's rallies. They are just for show, and the hate and bigotry are the point. Why do we have to see these hateful, white faces with their stupid red hats screaming racist slogans? We don't. Just tell us about it in the regular newscasts. Don't show it. Don't give Trump a bigger megaphone than he already has. Just think how much oxygen could be sucked out of the room if you just pulled all the cameras out of his rallies. Let Fox News spread the hatred. Real journalists should take a stand and refuse to play Trump's game.
7
Anatomy aside, what makes America Great is that it always tries to be a bit better every morning than it was the night before. Our strength is our goodness and it will prevail in the morning like it always has.
2
For Trump, there is no such thing as good and evil, there is only power; and his version of ‘good’ is whatever meets his needs or achieves his aims. How that is achieved is, for him, irrelevant.
Like every demagogue, Trump knows that tapping into people’s anger, fear and hatred is a vote winner. When one of his rallies launches into some hate-filled chant or other his sense of gratification is palpable. He has created a political space in which his followers’ darker instincts are validated and approved, and they love him for it.
The problem is this. Like Trump himself, Trumpian America is crudely consequentialist: the end justifies the means, and they are using him as much as he is using them. Trying to argue or reason with that is as pointless as remonstrating with the burst sewage pipe that just slimed you. Save your breath.
The Democrats might want to consider a radical option: ignore Trump. Avoid getting sucked down into the vortex of his amoral vacuity. Address the issues he causes, not the man himself. So instead of “This president is an evil racist!”, try “Americans of colour / naturalized citizens need to be aware that this administration is seeking to disenfranchise them and daunt them into considering leaving the country. This will only get worse if they are re-elected. The Democratic Party, however, is committed to upholding their rights.”
My American friends keep telling me “this is not who we are”. I sincerely hope they are right.
6
Once again our President scores a "win" - focusing our attention this time on his opinion of four recent members of Congress and away from real policy issues like his tax reforms, his non-existent health care plan, his tariffs, his foreign policy, serious immigration reform, climate change, infrastructure funding, etc. Anything to keep folks from thinking much - or at all - about such issues is the major play in his, and his party's, playbook. We will see it again and again, especially as the 2020 election gets closer (keep a close eye on October 2020).
3
I don't know how many people remember this statement from Hubert Humphrey but I think we would do well to examine the country from that point of view.
"It was once said that the moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped."
For decades we have been failing on all counts of this statement. Now, with Trump in office and the GOPs unstinting support we can add returns of the following to our national resume: irrational fears of immigrants, open racism, misogyny, and religious phobias, deliberate race baiting, deliberate and malicious misstatements about history, people, etc. And worse yet, the deliberate lying about how people are being treated, incitements to violence by our president, and the silent complicity of the GOP.
Trump and the GOP are destroying America. Trump makes the statements and the GOP, in the background, carries out its own destructive agenda to further its interests and those of its rich donors. If we want this country to serve us we have to decide what's more important: electing a person who says what we want to hear or electing a person who is competent. The latter might mean voting out GOP members because they have opposed anything that could help 99% of us.
It's our vote and 2020 may be our last chance.
7/18/2019 12:02pm
6
I suspect Trump actually relishes being called a racist. It is for this reason that the Congressional resolution calling him out as a racist based on his tweets is unlikely to make any difference.
The only question that remains is whether a super majority of the population - obviously, a simple majority was not enough in the last election - feel racism is wrong and vote him out of office.
1
The President is reaching back in time for some golden oldies. Pulling an old rabbit out of the hat at his last rally. Channeling Nixonian times by giving an old platter another spin, Love it or leave it, to see how it plays with his crowd. Bumper sticker entrepreneurs are looking through old boxes for leftovers from the day.
2
And sadly, we now come to recognize that the occupant of the Whiter House was not elected despite his racism, but precisely because of it. Trump has unveiled the mask of America.
6
Bravo!
I also note that disseminating false charges against a group of people (in case of the Squad, women who are from minority groups unfortunately labelled "nonwhite"), thereby posing the realistic threat of violence, is, IMO, terrorism.
3
By its nature, politics is always arguable. A medical model may offer a bit of clarity.
This POTUS's most significant public service is its very reliable performance as a diagnostic instrument similar to the analog thermometer a vet uses to check your pet's temperature for symptoms and degree of illness.
The primary readout is the POTUS's spontaneous, compulsive, uninhibited speech and behavior which it exhibits . The diagnostic conclusions can then be drawn from lts results along with its public approval ratings and range of support within other branches of government.
The aggregate indications suggest we are a sick nation now experiencing a somewhat belated activation of its immune system responses.
History's record of at least marginally successful outcomes from similar episodes offers hope that our very gradual legal enforcement and cultural acceptance of civil rights have improved our potential capacity for healing and national health.
Personally, I'm encouraged to see that the most effective first responders to this crisis seem to be women determined to establish and conserve (!) decency in the character of our national governance,
2
If it is indeed true that Mr. Trump "does not have a racist bone" in his body, then I want to meet his surgeon. I want to congratulate him on a job remarkably well done in transplanting a skeleton for Mr. Trump. Mr. Trump is the first person I have ever heard of who has ever survived a skeleton transplant operation. That is major surgery indeed. Mr. Trump, the skeleton recipient is alive and well and in excellent health for someone who received a skeleton transplant.
1
The neo-McCarthyism is even more dangerous than the racism, because labels like "pro-Al Quáeda"and "Communist" stick and are more difficult to disprove. They create great fear among Trump's base and others, and are very effective propaganda.
2
Alas! That stench emanating out of WA DC is almost reaching the Left Coast.
Fortunately I left just north of Point Roberts, WA ( a wonderful peninsula that dangles south of Canada) and here the air is clean.
What is going on? Obviously The Donald does have one skill: manipulating the media and thus the public. Consider an alternate strategy.
Pay no more attention to the tweets and tirades. Why give him publicity for FREE. Let him pay for his commercials.
Then consider this strategy. With small children when they misbehave if you pay no attention they get tired or bored and are quiet. My Mother taught me this strategy as I began teaching. In my first year of teaching in New Denver, BC I returned from recess and lo and behold there was a hunting knife in the blackboard. I paid no attention. After awhile the students proclaimed: there is knife in the board and it is Sidney’s. We made a quick trip to the office. No more problems that year!
So, pay no attention to The Donald. No more free publicity.
No more angst and anxiety among the journalists. Write about other subjects: the plight of the farmers, Puerto Rico Climate Cnge, travel to Canada, or Point Roberts, WA. In short if The Donald does not PAY for PUBLICITY then do not give him any. His diatribes are dangerous. What better way than to Change THE SUBJECT and shut him up. Have a fun weekend. Laugh. Dance. Sing.Watch cartoons. Why let some silly old cheapskate upset everyone? Hmm.
4
When Trump focuses his inaugural address on "American carnage" and his spokeswoman declares that the US has a "dark underbelly," they're showing hate for their country. By their logic, they need to go back to where they come from.
4
I agree that we should be discussing policies (or lack thereof) being discussed and voted on in Congress. I also believe that those of us who see the blatant racism for what it is are somehow convinced that if we keep talking about it, those who are blind will now see. Sadly, I do not think this is going to happen. To watch a small crowd ("huge" in Trump's words) rant "send her back" is despicable - do those people chanting not realize first of all, these women they are chanting about are American citizens, and do they not realize that they were probably standing next to someone who came into this country legally or their ancestors came in that way?! But here I go, trying to believe someone who is full of hate will read this and understand. The country is being dominated (or so it seems) by idiocracy.
4
It’s not so much about labeling him, it’s about what to do about his base and him as a pernicious disease. Your Jefferson quote is right on, Nick. I now see clearly how Lenin’s tactics post-1917 were exactly correct- cut the disease out of the body, first by getting rid of the king and his family!
Well said Nicholas. Enough is enough. If we don’t vote this national disgrace out of office in 2020, we are truly a nation in decline!
2
As a journalism student, I was taught not to bias straight news stories. Hence, calling Trump, "racist," in a straight news story is bad journalism. Claims of this type belong in opinion articles such as this one by Nicholas Kristof.
The ideal in straight news is that you provide the readers the facts so they can reach their own conclusion. Calling Trump's words, "racist," is an inference -- it's not the reporters's job to make the readers's minds up for them.
5
Imperfect as we all are, you may harbor all the distrust and dislikes you might so long as you don’t use those to commit inhumane and cruel acts against anyone for matching your distrust or dislikes. To me the correct thing to do is to treat people individually. You might find that in those groups of your distrust or dislike there are nice, pleasant, decent persons.
1
Extremely well stated. Thank you.
1
In the modern era of media:
If you want to know how to 'get him', I recommend you read Daniel Petrocelli's book: The Triumph of Justice.'
If you treat any individual as a media star-like character as 'The Juice', that character will be almost Teflon skinned and nothing will stick to him. In fact, attacks on his character will only cause sympathy and his bizarre appeal will only grow. This game has already been run and it was very effective a la the Simpson criminal trial.
The MSK Law Firm ( in the civil case ) found out from focus groups that 'normalizing' Simpson was a key element. Try to keep the audience from thinking of him as a character that runs through airports while your family is eating dinner, making him another family member who needs their protection - For Example: His name is Orental James Simpson, not ' the Juice' and when he lies he leans back in his chair because he is fat and breathes heavily like a COPD patient. Instead, impeach him with his own words ( they used Simpson's autobiography ) and made him out to be a pedestrian con man.
Why do you think Trump protects his academic record so fiercely? At best, Trump was a fair student - and demonstrating that he couldn't even pass certain classes would make him look hopelessly stupid on a personal level - and that's how you start to normalize a media character.
Read the book for more details.
Right now, all the media does is make him bigger than life.
1
Deplorable to the Bone. And the Bone Spurs.
Sad.
3
Oh Nicholas, it just never fails to draw a laugh whenever someone refers to the present day Republicans as “ the party of Lincoln “! I mean, that joke just never gets old!
2
The answer to the question posed in the final paragraph is simple, they can defend Trump's racism because they are racists. Their support of Trump's racist tweets, speeches, and policies is tacit admission of their own deep, if private, feelings. At times those feelings are not so private. From where else could the chants of "Send her back" have come?
Trump is betting that his racist base, comprised of those both in and out of the closet, will give him another four years. He may be right.
This is only my view here but discussed with others of the same ilk and all agree that it is truly distressing to see America being trodden under foot by this malignant individual as he drags the country further into the mire on a daily basis. Nothing he will not trash, his tentacles in areas that have always been held sacrosant, manners, civility trampled under foot. The GOP seem to look upon him as some sort of modern day Svengali fearful of his poison darts while giving him to free rein to degrade the country further. Being on the outside looking in we see a distressing unhealthy scenario and fervently hope SOME thing will happen to stop the rot from the inside.
1
You can read here in the comments that Americans are getting more and more lost, conceptually thinking .
That is cary .
They cannot make the difference between different levels of argumentation, they mix everything into indifferenciation.
Either by profound ignorance or by refuge, both probably.
1
If only this were truly a culmination - but Donald Trump has no limit to his bigotry. This is but another step forward in his cynical attempts to instill fear in less educated white voters that not only is their way of life being threatened, but that the people who threaten their way of life are all violent criminals.
One further point: racism is not instinctual - it’s learned. We are not born racist, we are taught racism by the racist people who are the major influences in our impressionable young lives.
This whole to-do about what Trump said is fake. "Go back where you came from"? His entire campaign, along with his ensuing presidency, was and has been about "go back where you came from." Republicans will say Trump isn't racist no matter what he says, at this point. One could ask Trump point-blank if he's a racist, he could say "yes," and Republicans would still say he isn't.
But he's right that Ilhan Omar and the gang, squad, or crew, however they wish to be labeled, hate America. Now, just because someone criticizes America doesn't mean they hate it. I constantly criticize both the country and its citizens. But there's a certain threshold of criticism beyond which the "I criticize my country because I love it" excuse doesn't work anymore.
The squad looks like they've been reading Zinn, Chomsky, and listening to a little too much Democracy Now! There are leftists who would claim that Iranians burning the flag and chanting "Death to America!" love America. It's just a little mild criticism, after all. What's the big deal? Plus, 1953 and the Shah and all that. Just ask "the squad."
2
President Trump is racist?
President Trump is not so much racist as the conditions America has set, via the Democratic party, for a person to not be racist, is that you have to be as socialistic as possible, that you have to have an entirely nurture over nature paradigm of reality, that you cannot explain differences in performance between the races, ethnic groups, sexes,--anybody--in any other way than that some groups are in unfair position of privilege over others and the balance must be redressed by economic means, and if the groups in position of privilege refuse to agree to the socialistic agenda they are not only supporting capitalism but racism, sexism and all the other inequalities in life.
In short, America via the Democratic party can think of no other way to overcome racism, sexism, all the inequalities in life, and uphold the highest ideals of the Constitution than by as extreme socialistic means as possible, for it's the most committed socialist, the one who strives for exactly perfect equality who can be trusted most for not being a racist, sexist, etc. It's a paradigm which scapegoats all people who support or give reasons for inequalities that exist other than the preferred socialistic paradigm, meaning capitalists, scientists who point out biological differences between people and the like. It will be interesting to see how far this process goes, how many competition areas of life from football to chess are eliminated for being unjust to certain people.
2
@Daniel12
If you actually believe there are genetic reasons for what you label "differences in performance between the races, ethnic groups ..." you are by definition a racist.
For one thing, genetic differences among what you label "races" and "ethnic groups" barely even exist--they're literally skin-deep. Don't you know that for all our numbers, humans exhibit far less genetic diversity than almost any other mammal species? (We apparently went through at least one bottleneck when we were almost wiped out; the striking lack of diversity among us is an artifact of that.)
So there cannot possibly be "genetic" reasons for what you call "differences in performance."
1
Well, I think he is racist but more importantly he understands media and his critical base. He will continue to be outrageous because it draws the media and the response. EVERYONE knows what he is like and what he is about. The only question is what do we do about it? Instead of getting crazy along with Trump. Press the issues we believe in. Continue to excoriate the hysterical press for enabling Trump to dominate the airways. Don’t let them get away making money at our expense. Why isn’t EVERYONE getting off the Trump response and give him just what he doesn’t want - no platform.
Nicholas- you neglected to mention the bone between his ears.
1
It would be reasonable to expect bone spurs (or their residual) to show up on xrays of this feet/calcaneus...just sayin'
1
Is Trump racist, or is he just into domination and control? It seems for him there is only one race, the "Trump" race. You either be part of his race by making him look good, or he beats you down to gain power over you.
If he thought he could be president by using minorities and beating down everyone else, he would do it.
1
Everything he does, domestically and internationally, has to do with aligning our country with white supremacists. Absolutely everything is about white man's power slipping away under the demographics of multi-racial populations, and the growing power of women.
The targets are simple:
Male versus female (and rainbow.)
White versus other.
It is simple.
It is clear.
And it defines every one of us -, especially in government.
Steve Bannon spoke about this when he talked about the demise of patriarchy after the women's march.
That is the fight in this country. And in the world.
All strategy flows from that objective.
Maintain white male power.
Now that we conclusively have been shown the reality of Trump (had there been any question remaining,) it's time to change our tune.
The civil rights movement of the 60's was won through non-violent protest. That was how the hearts and minds of mainstream America were moved. We are now daily confronted with verbal violence from this administration and its allies. What would be the corollary response and action, using the great non-violent movements as a guide?
I think we need to stop railing against the racism and model a different way.
By the way, until now I have supported impeachment. I also generally agree with and fully support AOC and the others. But after seeing Trump dangerously double down on his attacks in his rally, I am seeing the necessity and wisdom of depriving him of oxygen and stopping playing tit for tat in the name of defending principles.
2
While you are resisting the rest of the country will quietly re-elect President Trump. You are too funny!
1
How could we ignore that President Trump has been a racist all his life. Just take a good look at all the pictures from his past taken at parties; gatherings and you’ll never see a black or brown person unless they are dignitaries. His personality traits are disturbing; he loves to fool people with his lies; doesn’t use logical reasoning because he has to argue; it gives him fuel to ultimately obtain victory over his opponents. To denigrate the House of Representatives he called 4 elected congresswomen of “color” socialists; that they should go back to their infected countries. He also asked all people who disagree with his views and how he governs to leave this country.
President Trump pretends to erase history; the America that was formed by people of different nationalities. In order to rule with a fist, he's to get rid of the Constitution.
Democrats should talk about the $1 trillion dollar in tax cuts President Trump gave to the rich that wasn’t paid by his “base” but by all Americans, including myself, a naturalized citizen.
1
If Kristof and his fellow Times columnists think that flinging the R word at the president day in and day out is going to result in his not being reelected, they’d better think again. The four Congresswomen he skewered on Wednesday night are a disgrace to the House, and it’s got nothing to do with their race. Besides, what race do you ascribe to them, Mr. Kristof? As far as I can tell, they are four different shades of color, like most of the American population. You hear from one individual about the Trump casinos, and you treat it as gospel truth? What kind of journalism is that? A friend of mine the other day said he had an idea for a book to be titled The Last Honest Journalist. It sounded interesting to me. Yes, he said, it will be some 200 pages, all of them blank.
2
The fact that Trump openly flings out epithets deemed inappropriate by the EEOC is the very thing that attracts the great uncouth to the great demagogue.
No enemy has damaged this country like Donald Trump has. No enemy has sought to do the damage that Donald Trump has sought to do & is succeeding in doing every single day of this godforsaken presidency.
4
Simple, they're all afraid of Trump.
2
Sorry for all of us. I'm sorry for people of color. I'm sorry for those chanting "go home" at rallies. I'm sorry for our kids. I'm sorry for Republican politicians who must make believe they can't see. I'm sorry for you.
3
There is a third thread in American history that runs along with nativism and redbaiting in trump’s character (or lack thereof) — that of hucksters, con men, and grifters, from snake oil salesmen to Barnum to Enron and Madoff, “There’s a sucker born every minute.” And now, 60 million Americans are letting the whole country get ripped off by the greatest swindler in American history.
3
What should get prominent publicity now is also this:
Huff Post --"Central Park Five’ To Trump: Death Penalty Ad Put A ‘Bounty On Our Head’"
The five were later fully exonerated after years of prison time. Rich Burns did a documentary on the case. They won millions in a lawsuit.
"Trump infamously took out full-page ads in NY newspapers calling for the reinstatement of the death penalty for the five teens accused of the rape of a white jogger in Central Park 3 decades ago. The case is now seen as an example of racial injustice in the U.S. legal system, but Trump has never apologized.
1
Instead of just saying it's McCarthyism and nativism, why don't we just come out and say that our president is a Fascist?
There are so similarities with Trumps so-called "campaign" speeches to those of fascist leaders.
What is truly frightening is that he has so whipped up his base that we can foresee the real possibility of a civil war.
While the timid Republicans deserve our scorn (Is it timidity or do they actually agree with Trump?), the Democrats doing nothing concrete to bring this country together only festers more division.
Hopefully, the Dems can get their act together and stop their own in-party squabble.
From my viewpoint, the Democratic partys tilt to the Left is not helpful.
Talk about reparations to ancestors of African slaves is mind-boggeling. How do you research who was descended from slaves and who came from Haiti, Jamaica, or more recently from Africa? Instead, make more economic opportunities available to all those who are disadvantaged.
Finally, the media is focusing too much on the Democratic primary candidates in the so-called "top tier"
Candidates that are not in the media designated "elite" group (those who rake in the most money early) are dismissed before they are given an adequate opportunity to really compete for votes from Independents and "moderate" suburban Republicans.
Trump wraps himself in our flag; it doesn't belong only to those who wear MAGA hats.
Recalling Rodney King's words: "can't we all just get along?"
There is a quote about at long last have you no shame. I ask this of all of us. I have voted Republican more often than not. I do not think I will ever do so again. The embarrassment and shame I have for what has lifted its ugly head bothers me to my core. I am no fan of extremists on either side of the aisle but this is beyond that.
Too many know this is beyond politics, this is our country, who we say we are. To have this, on this kind of scale, makes me wish I had someplace to go back to.
I find myself looking at the attrition rate, how many will die before the next election. Hoping enough will so they cannot vote for this obscenity.
McCarthy did a lot of damage, but at least he was never elected President. And he didn't hold enormous rallies whipping people into a frenzy of hatred and contempt.
This is worse than McCarthyism. This is incipient fascism. And if Trump wins in 2020, we might well be dragged into full fascism by 2024. This is a crucial inflection point in our history.
4
If you want to know why there is still a race problem in America , all you have to do is look at the response to Trump's tweets from fellow Republicans. They have decided that because Trump didn't spell out 'colored' in his tweet and used a coded "C" instead, nothing racist here. Just like just about everything else they do. They aren't preventing 'coloreds' from voting. they are 'preventing fraudulent people from voting' AKA 'C's. And so on down the line. And it is so, so easy to get the point across. Why you don't even need to put the 'C' on the paper anymore. There is a term for people like this... They ought to put Lindsey Graham's picture in the dictionary alongside the definition of 'weasel', you know 'W'.
Donald Trump is not just a racist. He is a domestic terrorist because he is trying to intimidate and incite violence against civilians, in this case a sitting member of Congress, in order to pursue his rotten political goal of winning re-election (and thereby postponing criminal prosecution for his myriad federal and state crimes) through any means necessary. He must be defeated in 2020 otherwise America's days are definitely numbered.
"As societies grow decadent, the language grows decadent, too. Words are used to disguise, not to illuminate, action: you liberate a city by destroying it. Words are to confuse, so that at election time people will solemnly vote against their own interests." -- Gore Vidal
4
I count on Democrats to try to “understand” the racism behind the Trump base. They will try to find a way to get along with them, beg them, promise them more governments handouts, to get a few of their votes.
There is no papering over this. They are irredeemably racist to the core. Unless Democrats abandon these miscreants and stick with their true supporters, they will succeed in re-electing Trump by demoralizing their own voters. Trumpism is a disease that must be defeated without compromise.
1
When anyone who disagrees with the (ever-changing) liberal orthodoxy is routinely labeled a "racist', it doesn't matter anymore. Columns like this are no more than the mirror image of Trump's tweets - red meat for the faithful; ignored by the rest of us.
3
I love how everyone is calling Trump a racist when he tells these people to go back to their country of origin (not their country of birth) and fix that country before trying to (fix) America, but Americans don't care about those other countries that are are killing their citizens to keep the dictators in office.
China continually tells everyone in the world to fix their own country before criticizing what China is doing, but the world doesn't care what is happening to the people in China as long as we can continually benefit from the cheap products they make. Shame On All Of You.
1
Even the thought of seeing DJT in his skivvies leaves me terrorized, to see through to his bones an act of unimaginable bravery.
1
If the Demo-socialist can't devise a better troupe than ever thing is about racism it's over for their out of touch platform. One more vote for President Trump.
3
Trump is NOT "Racist to the bone".
He is "Racist to the Bone Spur"!
He uses racism the way he used bone spurs - as a means to an end.
2
Yes indeed Mr. Kristof! The thing is, when the President says he hasn't a racist bone in his body, he merely means: How could I? Racism doesn't exist.
1
Why does everyone need to double down on the assertion of "racism". I don't know whether Trump is racist or not. Personally, I think he's just so unscrupulous that he'd murder his mother to get re-elected. He'd obviously say anything, no matter how ugly, divisive and debasing to the office of the presidency it might be. What he said is entirely unacceptable for a host of reasons - one is that he is addressing a duly elected member of the House of Representatives and he is insulting her and the constituents of Minnesota who elected her - and without any justification whatsoever. It insults our democracy for one elected official to treat another in this manner. It is deplorable.
1
The race card is getting old and is going to backfire.
It is already becoming a general perception that the racists in this game are AOC et al.
If they pull that card over and over and they are the ones who always use the term, it will stick to them and not to Trump.
It is already happening.
Just get off that "racist" bandwagon.
It is not helping.
5
You don't know what is in Trump's head. Remember, he called himself a Democrat in the early 80s when it suited him. To make racist remarks now maybe simply be his hamfisted way of appealing to a reactionary base that he may be totally deceiving in order to preserve the lunatic universe in which he is the one and only sun.
1
I watched Donald Trump's face at the Washington Correspondent's dinner when Barack Obama took out his stiletto and masterfully cut Trump to ribbons for all the world to see what a fool he really is. Obama had the moral clarity, the timing and the tone just right that night that happened to be the same night our special forces killed Osama bin Laden. He showed what a petty, shallow and intellectually small Donald Trump is as a person and a leader and Trump still hasn't gotten over the humiliation of that night. This is at the heart of his hatred of Obama. The idea that a black man humiliated Trump must drive him crazy every day, which is what we are witnessing as he brings our country down. I feel sorry for the poor Americans who can't see through him.
3
It's not just racism: Trump IS a horrible person, in many, many ways. Most thinking people knew that before the election. To not realize that you would have had to have been out of touch with reality.
Even so his general proposed policies (and mantra) were not entirely so bad, if you think about it: Reduced Government Regulation? I don't think any thinking person is ever entirely in favor of more Government regulation.
Reduced Taxes? Sure. Who could argue with that? It's always good to fund the government properly and reduce taxes, and not so much worse to reduce taxes. Nobody actually likes to pay taxes.
Getting out of foreign wars? Well, granted that wars are almost entirely foreign anyway, what's wrong with that as a plan? Why were we even in those wars, for all the good they have done?
As for getting out of the Iran deal? It is an imperfect deal. And the Iranians seem to be nasty people in general, and quite tiresome, threatening to destroy Israel at least six days of every week. Why not try for a better deal?
And the Mantra, Make America Great Again? We all want America to be great, and we all sort of remember the good parts of the American past and American ideal.
It was all lies and deceit: Trump is a con-man and a liar of epic, even heroic, proportions. He is in effect the leader of a cult. And many people, we could say most of them, voted against him or voted for him only with the highest hopes, despite his history. A truly horrible mistake.
Trump’s theory of American citizenship was if you were white, then you belong. Nicholas Kristof believes Trump has many racist bones in his body. Kristof names Trump's mandible and maxilla and says “these are the jawbones that Trump has to denounce Mexican immigrants as ‘criminals, drug dealers, rapists’ not to mention to refuse to criticize the Ku Klux Klan” (Kristof). In this statement, Kristof is showing how Trump is making false comments about Mexican immigrants. He later goes on and says “Frankly, I’m even more troubled by Trump’s policies than by his tweets, and I wish the reaction to Trump focused more on practical initiatives to reduce child poverty, treat drug addiction or end mass incarceration” (Kristof). Kristof is not talking about Trump’s policies positively, instead, he used words like “troubled.” Kristof believes Trump should focus on other problems instead of focusing on immigrants and racist comments toward people of color. I agree with Kristof’s argument. Trump shows his racism by many different actions, so he should not claim that he is not racist. I do not think that Trump should make a general assumption that all Mexican immigrants are criminals because he can’t prove that every Mexican immigrant is a criminal. I also agree that there are bigger problems that should be taken care of. I think it is unfair that Trump discriminates against people who are not white. I think he should be reminded of The Declaration of Independence "All men are created equal."
Please, stop what you do. At least until November4, 2020.
After we lose the 2020 election--and at this rate, we surely will--you will still have your job; instead of analyzing how racist Trump is, you'll then analyze how racist America must still be, ad nasueum.
In the meantime, nothing you are saying here will make any difference.
A lot of people, enough people, won't (and didn't) enthusiastically vote for Trump. They voted against "box-check-computer-pick" Democrats pushing a one-sided racial narrative that disregards their opinion and brooks no dissent. They declined to vote against their own self-interest. And for that they see themselves defined as racists, and worse.
You are trapped in the Trump bubble, thinking that, by remaking the arguments against him, only with more scathing observations, voters will realize that the only thing that matters is how unfair white people are to everybody else. And you expect white people (those who lack financial security) to embrace this as the major issue?
Is this really the scope of your concerns facing the nation in the next election? Or, is it merely the surer path to job security?
3
@Allen -
Do Kristof or readers here know any American of his mindset who does NOT plan to vote Nov 2020?
What concretely is your plan to motivate this demographic to 100% turnout Nov 2020?
Please outline and initiate this plan NOW.
I've noticed when trump is trying to make an exquisite point, he touches the tip of his index finger to the tip of his thumb, with the other three fingers extended though bent a little. Isn't that the white supremacists' secret hand signal?
1
Where did he get such magnificent opposable thumbs?
What if the American People elected Archie Bunker as President of the United States? Well now we know.
1
The GOP are spineless hypocrites who criticize a vote for censure of the Liar in Chief's racist tweets (remember the EEOC bars such speech as evidence of discrimination) And now we have the Liar in Chief calling these duly elected US Congressional representatives likely communists who hate the country and are pro Al Qaeda...It seems to me that this type of speech is incitement to violence which is not protected by the First Amendment.
We also now know that the GOP is going to conduct a name-calling smear campaign that they hope will rewin them the congress...I would rather hear about policies but then again the GOP has NONE and didn't even have any except helping the ultra rich in the eight years they dominated the legislative branch.
What is really scary is that 40 percent of US voters will support such hate-filled, non substantive attacks because their only source of news is Fox or the Liar in Chief himself. Or they are single issue Christians who could care less that TRump is without morals--do you think Fox news will play the 1992 video of Epstein and Trump? Will the base even care?
2
The Nicholas Kristof is using the same "Trump's a Racist!" playbook from 2016. There is still no reflection on how and why Trump got elected. NYT readers may have an endless appetite to hear this message but Middle America has tuned it out. Time to try a different tack.
1
For his base, and many more, his racism is not a bug but a feature.
1
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Why are we still talking about what we knew more than two years ago was the case? Why aren’t we talking about how to counter that with better policy decisions. About how to secure our borders in humane ways; how to provide healthcare, how to avoid dying in an environmental catastrophe that could end human life on this planet. Is it really *that* important that this one man is a racist?
The Democratic Party incites racial divisiveness for the short term benefit political benefit increasing the turnout of black voters. This tactic damages all Americans.
The term "racist" has been so overused that it has lost all meaning.
3
The President omits any mention of that "extremely stable" brain of his. There's the loophole.
1
To Republicans, racism is a feature and not a bug.
That’s why they support Trump.
1
In the Black Hills of South Dakota today, the weather is dry and sunny; no rain. Out of the granite eyes of the four American Presidents at Mount Rushmore, however, tears appear to be streaming down their cheeks.
1
Even the prospect of seeing DJT in his skivvies leaves me terrified, to see through to his bones a deed of unimaginable courage!
1
Great article, but please, please, please stop writing as though Trump is an anomaly in his Party. It is the GOP Senators and Representatives (minus about a dozen) that are racists in every bone of their bodies. Please stop giving McConnell and the rest of the Citizen’s Council a pass. In many ways, they’re much worse because they were supposed to be the gatekeepers of a demagogic, Constitutional-breaking President and instead they are enabling, aiding and abetting lawlessness.
1
There are Trumps to be found in every facet of American life. This one merely has the biggest megaphone and one of the weaker intellects in that calling. His racist targeting in real estate may be compared with the experiences had by many whom encounter the law, medicine, education and others. Trump and his quislings are merely like the pus pouring from an old abscess, a very large carbuncle. Too late for compresses and old wife remedies. No pain, no gain!
Let's not forget trump's "boneheaded" view that Obama wasn't born in the United States -- another outstanding example that is the very definition of racism.
Well argued and stated
Trump in the WH has proven to be one of the worst stains on our country in its history, but the saddest effect is that it has brought racism back in through the front door and made it acceptable again to half our population. That anyone can publicly back Trump at this point is an outrage.
Trump is not a racist: he is an American politician.
2
Trump's tweet was no more racist than Pelosi's comments to AOC.
If Trump is racist, then so is pelosi.
If Pelosi is not racist, then neither is Trump.
Can't have it both ways.
1
Very enlightening about Trump. And got an orthopedics lesson to boot. Great!
The GOP has not been the party of Lincoln at least since the Southern strategy of Nixon. The GOP is made up of tea party hardliners, Koch minions and a handful of lily-livered 'moderates'.
Well said Kristof! Important to point out his many year long racist pattern.
I would disagree, Trump is an Arsonist. He starts chaos any place for no reason to watch the fires burn. He plans where weaknesses exist and starts the chaos. He steals new cycles just because he knows how. He attacks like a bully. I don’t think he cares all that much to be called a racist or even a republican. He is ego driven at any cost so long as someone else pays the bill. There is no loyalty except to him! Never a Brutus when you need one. We will survive all this, but it won’t be pretty.
Trump keeps saying he doesn't have a racist bone in his body. Thanks for trying to explain the location of his racist bones. But really, we're not talking about his bones. We're talking about his brain. And, that very definitely is racist.
When we talk about his bones, we're talking about his cowardice and lack of patriotism in avoiding military service.
You forgot the jaw, identical to Mussolini's, protruding forward and up during speeches. Look at photos of Mussolini addressing its people from the balcony, and compare them to images of Trump at his rallies.
Who’s yer Daddy?
The virtue signaling is thick herein.
The reality is that anyone who criticizes a person ‘of color’ is, by ‘progressive’ definition, a racist. As such, much of the nation has tuned your endless accusations out.
Another reality is that the appalling DJT is so far inside your collective heads I suspect he can see with your eyes. He plays you like a fiddle.
The final reality is that Trump must be polling well among black voters due to record low unemployment and rising wages in that demographic. As such, expect even more stories about how ‘racist’ Trump and Republicans are.
1
They are chanting "Send HER back," not "Send THEM back." Just like they chanted "Lock HER up." So why is everyone only focusing on "racism" and America's history of white supremacy and not ALSO talking about misogyny and America's history of male supremacy? We blame the half of white women who voted for Trump, while we consistently deny or ignore the history of all the reasons all women of all colors should vote against him. Why would those women see danger in Trump if we don't talk about our history of male supremacy by all men towards women of their OWN race? Blacks vote together because they understand their history of oppression. Because we talk about it. Over and over. As we should. Most people don't even use the term "male supremacist." Yet until this year, it was legal to rape your wife in Minnesota. Wanna flip the electorate? Start talking about America's history of male supremacy. Start shifting female voters.
1
Good article, but it is really beating a dead horse.
Individual-1 ran a very public 5 year long birther campaign against a sitting black president.
This by itself, is the overwhelming preponderance of evidence proving that individual-1 is a racist.
What more is needed?
People who voted for individual-1 knowingly and willingly condone and are complicit in racism.
We must remember that Donald Trump's father was in the Klu Klux Klan in the 1920's. That explains a lot.
If you are American and if you identify yourself as a Republican but you also identify yourself as not a racist then you need to take a stand against this party. I suggest you resign from the party and register as an independent until the Republican party ends this.
No one, and I mean no one, believes they are a racist. Why? Because EVERYONE knows that being a racist is bad. And they are not a bad person, hence, they are not a Racist. QED. I have witnessed others where were clearly racist become upset when they were called out? Why? Because they are good people. When they label 'others' with negative labels, they are not racists, they are just telling the truth. Self-assessment, on most things, is notoriously unreliable.
129
@Bruce Maier I know a few racist who are proud to be a Racist. Have you ever heard of The Aryan Nation? Some folks wear Racism as a badge of honor. What would be the outrage if we were putting people of white skin in cages coming across our northern border?
11
On the contrary, I fully acknowledge I'm passively racist. I also have enough self-awareness to understand this is unfair and immoral in order to practice active tolerance.
14
@Bruce Maier
It's true that even Nazis found ways to rationalize the systematic genocide of the Holocaust. After all, they believed they were simply protecting their Aryan bloodlines from contamination and preserving the racial purity of the Fatherland, right? Trump's rallies are all too familiar to those who remember the Nuremberg rallies and the American lynch mobs of the early 20th Century. That's not hyperbole. Watch the rally coverage on Fox News sometime.
10
In our political world, there is no "silver bullet" that can take down Trump.
When it comes to 2020 voting his base will elect him because they love the way their 401K's have grown OR, if they are not part of that class, because they love his tough talk (which supersedes his lack of any useful benefits to them).
Many recognize him for the creature he is. And they do not care. To try and change their minds is a fool's errand.
Those who want change had better focus on Electoral College math and getting out the vote in those critical states.
This is not a moral quest- it is political reality.
3
See, this is why Mr. Kristof is a journalist and I just make comments. He actually found bones when all along I thought Mr. Trump was a jellyfish.
6
Perhaps Trump’s greatest racist trope is his birtherism nonsense that helped propel him as a presidential candidate on Fox News. What’s more frightening are his constant denials of racism and the ease with which his followers accept all of his lies. This will make it difficult to beat him in 2020 since the truth aka “facts” is meaningless for his followers.
Trump is the most openly racist President since Woodrow Wilson. While Trump's racism and misogyny is frightening, what is even more frightening is the fact that the Trump presidency has shown how many Americans are also racists, bigots, xenophobes, and misogynists. All of our progress toward decency and equality is increasingly being shown to be a sham.
5
Far out, I even think he is proud of this. For a leader to lead like this is truly sickening. The Germans suffered greatly under Hitler and continued for generations. For example, my best friend in high school was German (her family immigrated when she was 5), she had nothing to do with the war but was deeply ashamed to be German. I know Trump supporters don’t care and Trump doesn’t but this ugly behaviour tends to come back badly maybe not directly back on them but maybe their children or grandchildren will suffer like my friend who was called a Nazi to her face.
I doubt he's a racist, and I hate jumping to his defense on the matter.
- His daughter and her children are Jewish.
- He dated an African American woman for two years before marrying Melania
- Jesse Jackson needed office space for a project, Trump gave it to him for free.
- Out on sunny Palm Beach his club is the only one with no entrance restrictions in regard to race, sexuality, etc.
So if you see a hunter with a gun going into a duck blind and you then hear quacking coming from the blind does that mean the hunter turned into a duck? Ducks think so, but they have the brains of birds. Or "birdbrains" if that is more familiar term.
1
Look, everyone knows Trump is a bigot and a liar, racist to his very rotten core. Republicans know it, Democrats know it, Independent and Libertarians know it. Whites know it, Blacks know it, Hispanics, Muslims and Jews know it.
Why keep pointing it out, when it is his disastrous and destructive policies that he is trying to distract from. Frankly, not everyone is as aware of the corruption and rot, as they are of his racist, hateful bigotry. Move on, point out daily, loudly, how everyday citizens are being hammered by his selfish, uneducated, narcissistic policy choices. Every aspect needs to be highlighted, every single day. Every day, every vote, every interview, every debate, over and over. Tax cuts, healthcare, trade policy, farm policy, foreign policy, education, economic inequality, budget deficits, transportation, drug prices, national parks, food safety, mine safety, and the relentless assault on the environment including the irresponsible rollback of all kinds of important regulations. I could go on. THIS is what must be addressed to get this clown out of office. Once he is good and gone, we can and will address the hate he has made mainstream and relegate it to where it belongs, the historical dustbin of lessons learned.
3
Well said!
I do not disagree with a thing that you say, but the history of this country has often been to look the other way when presidents are concerned. For example, who turned away a boat of Jewish refugees after Hitler started his purges; who put US citizens of Japanese heritage in prison camps during WWll; and who refused to integrate the US military when his vice president did so after his death? FDR, supposedly one of our greatest presidents. He is not to me. He is no Trump, but he was no Lincoln and no LBJ.
1
Except that Donald Trump is part jellyfish and cartilaginous ray and thus has no bones racist or otherwise. Trump is all racist by nature and nurture right down to every cell, molecule and atom than animates him.
2
Thank you. You put it well: “ a lifetime with a narrative arc of bigotry.”
What about his bone spurs?
4
@Upstate Albert
Good point! And what about a spine? Any evidence that he has one?
And, the skull - did you find anything within it?
1
It’s worth remembering that the personal nexus between the odious, eventually disgraced McCarthy and our White Nationalist Fake President was the infamous lawyer Roy Cohn, who apparently influenced Trump in all the wrong asocial, despicable ways. He learned his vicious, unforgiving “take no prisoners” approach at the side of a master. And the country is now paying the ultimate price for this inhumane tutelage.
Slobodan Milosevich fanned the flames of ethnic and religious difference in the Balkans, after the disintegration of the communist state of Yugoslavia, into a genocide against the minority Muslim population. He did it so he could get elected President of Serbia. That's it. It was all about him and his power no matter the outcome, no matter the price. The United States had to put an end to it and has to again, here, before its too late.
1
trump has that amazing combination of bigotry and ignorance.
We’ve had bigoted presidents before (Nixon, Wilson, etc) but very few of them were as dimwitted as trump.
1
Trump has never referred to any race in an insulting manner. The most devious racists are the ones who don’t make explicit racist statements so that you have to accuse them based on stuff you make up.
Nothing Trump says is ever true. So if he says he is not a racist, then obviously he is a racist. That is how Trump works.
You are really going to extremes here, Kristof, ramping up the polarization. You need to calm down.
1
I don't believe Trump is racist.His rhetoric is repugnant bigotry, but Trump is an amoral opportunist. He is an opportunistic infection, and the USA has Acquired Immune Deficiency against opportunist infection. It was acquired from FOX news, and Vladimir Putin, the carriers of deficiency. Trump is Kaposi's Sarcoma, an ugly blemish on an otherwise beautiful political body that expresses art, music, theater and love.
Doesn't Mr. Kristof ever read anything about the present state of Trump's party that used to be called the Republican Party?
They back up his lies, rape anything he does because they're afraid of losing their jobs if they criticize him.
The 18th century means the 1700's, not 1844. Good grief. Basic historical knowledge. Racism long precedes 1844. This country was founded as a white supremacist, male nation (and THAT was in the 18th century). Read the Constitution. I agree with your sentiments entirely, but your lack of historical knowledge would be embarrassing in one of my freshman students.
This is the start of the thumber movement.
The X-ray is not the president’s.
The X-ray shows that this is thumbone else.
Mr. Kristof:
Excellent!!!! You have put in words what all Americans think and believe deep in their hearts! Those Americans who long for an end to this never-ending barrage of tweets from our Commander-in-Chief which are laced with venom directed at whomever or whatever he seems angry with at the moment. America is better than this crippled leadership - we deserve a President who will stand for integrity and dignity - not a spoiled "brat" of a man who spews out lies and deceit, while claiming to be the poster child of evangelicals everywhere! America, get out there in 2020 and vote this man out of office!!!!!!!!!
By electing and supporting Donald Trump the Republican Party has chosen to become the party of white supremacy. White supremacy has poisoned our country from its founding. It led to the bloodiest war in our history, left the South in ruins, and caused tens of millions of Americans to be treated as less than human for generations after that war. If there is one unforgivable sin in American politics, it's supporting that ideology.
Pretending that "go back where they came from" isn't racist requires forgetting about Barrack Hussein Obama, the Muslim from Kenya. Trump didn't use the N-word then, either. Trump's reelection strategy is based on demonizing people of color and Muslims.
Those who justify supporting Trump because of "the good things he's done" haven't got a leg to stand on – for example, pro-life people who say they had to support him because he was the pro-life candidate. Surely, in the Republican Party it's possible to find a candidate who is as antiabortion as Pope Francis but who isn't a racist.
There were about 16 other active candidates for the Republican nomination ranging from conservative to very, very conservative. Republicans chose the most racist and misogynistic of the bunch, and continue to support him. That's what the modern Republican Party is all about.
1
You forgot the bone spurs in his heels. These were the bones that allowed Trump to dodge the draft, while others joined - or were drafted. Many were White, to be sure, but also Black and Hispanic, even Muslims, while Donald ate quiche. In fact, your average Muslim in America is more patriotic than Donald Trump:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/saluting-muslim-american-patriots_b_7039866
Since you are wondering, I don't think his actions are a shrewd plan. He is not shrewd. They are the result of his racism and the careful words placed in his ear by Stephen Miller who is a malignant, flagrant bigot and especially good at manipulating a narcissist.
1
"Frankly, I’m even more troubled by Trump’s policies than by his tweets, and I wish the reaction to Trump focused more on practical initiatives to reduce child poverty, treat drug addiction or end mass incarceration," sez you.
"me too,"sez i.
but you. not i, are are the one with the column, so, what's holding you back?....maybe, bones being the thing today, a skull too thick to grasp your own lament?
it is of course you and your ilk (the "clown car" deniers) who gave us trump (letting hRc get away with deplorables/irredeemables, the actual words of the candidate, way worse than a few trumpers in a crowd chanting their disapproval of a lot who have made their disdain for anyone not them clear...including both those of color who disagree with them (like tossing them out of their race!?) and those whitewashed, if you will, as supremacists...sight unseen.
the suggestion for here is for you to pick one of the issues, grant your own wish, and show us how a proper "reaction" should go.
how about the homeless? advocacy would help here, and so would an occasional visit to a street-dweller with a hot meal and maybe a bag of apples...call it an example of personal reaction in the absence of institutional action...
simply being "troubled" will only give us more trump...
This is America?
As a son of a German Jewish father who left Germany just in time (many members of his family did not survive the Nazis), I guess this is how it happened.
Three years ago the chants were "lock her up". In a terribly short period of time, the rhetoric is now normalized and chants of "send her back" from a sitting US president about a sitting US Congresswoman, are just part of a new day.
Mitch McConnell and his entire GOP Reichstadt is goose-stepping right behind Trump.
This is exactly how it all played out in Germany less than a century ago. If history provides any guidance here, we are all in for a rough ride.
3
At 82, long-retired Licensed Family Therapist and Lutheran pastor, I am weary of “ President” Trump’s ubiquitous presence
as America’s Center Of Attention. I tire of watching as he,
successfully Plays his American constituents in day after day...
Daily exposing his beloved, worshipping followers to his shifting
“Presidential” scenes from the Oval Office and the massive
Empire over which he Presides. I tire of Daily watching him
Enjoy Being the treasured Master of the Moment.....Every
Moment. We, the People, repeatedly Analyze this phenomenal
Phenomenon......the preposterous “President”....the “Best Ever”.
I believe that He is beyond Treatment, and We, the People are
in Need of it! Way back in 2017, 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Heath Experts produced “The Dangerous Case Of Donald Trump”, Under direction of Bandy Lee, M.D., M.Div. The Book was published by St. Martin’s Press. We need Leadership
that actually Serves the People. Tragically, our “President”
is in Office with intent to serve Himself. I believe we need a
Diagnosis....more than we need more Analysis. President Trump
is amazing; he may be am amazing Sociopathic Personality
Disorder. He cherishes being the Center Of Attention; that
“Presence” does Not have to be in the Oval Office.
Irony of ironies, a 'racist bone' named Donald J. Trump, in a classic fascist mode (radical authoritarian white nationalism, masked as patriotism) to incite his mob- base, to awake and express old resentments towards 'the other' (read, black and brown): 'send them back', lock'em up, and other hogwash nonsense. Given that the 'McConnells' of this world (republicans) have been complicit in Trump's toxic license to belittle anybody who dares criticize him, no matter how constructively, it behooves the democrats to take the lead...and restore our trust in democracy, however flawed, but with social justice for all.
1
President Trump's racist bufoonery, his calculatedly "outrageous" remarks, the never ending bragging and macho bullying, are all standard tactics from the Limbaugh/Hannity playbook. 20 years and more of such daily, hate-filled rants on Talk Radio, by hundreds of local radio, right-wing thugs, fill the airwaves across the country, telling the white workers that their miserable economic prospects are are the fault of Mexican immigrants or African Americans or feminist women. The Liberal Establishment's sabotaging of the reformist social democracy of Bernie Sanders has brought about the victory of Fascism.
Yes he is a "pigot." Disgusting for a POTUS, but it does not pass the impeachment test which is just a list of charges that won't lead to a conviction by the Senate.
The remedy is to ensure he doesn't get re-elected. Instead the Dems unite the right by showing how disunited is the left. Feel good? In November 2020, the feeling will be bad.
BTW, Mr. Kristoff, where is your outrage at the Anti-Semitism Squad. Just consider the acronym. Lol. Or are they forgiven on race, gender and religion grounds. Let's see some intellectual honesty and moral clarity from those who claim both.
1
I hope 2016 Trump voters will recognize their racism as evil and vote Democrat this time but hate dies hard and my hope will likely be rebuffed.
I'm ashamed to be American.
Yes indeed Mr. Kristof. Although this may be a (gorgeous) case of overthinking...When "Prez Trumpet" says he hasn't a racist bone in his body, he merely means: How could I? Racism doesn't exist!
1
The progressive left has come unhinged. Everything is racism.
Go back, fix it, come back and show us how you did it?
That's racist now. Ok.
This strategy isn't working.
Maybe try something new.
Metropolitan progressives and the press are going to chase every last Democrat out of the party.
Seriously, try something new.
The Republican Party has been dead since Reagan.
The Democratic Party is kaput. It's just gone.
All America is left with is Trump.
Offer something ... seriously ... offer something.
I've yet to hear anything. Nothing at all. RACISM!
Lead, follow, or get out of the way.
1
Nicholas Kristof has just fallen off the credibility cliff. Regardless of the Presidential tweets lacking tact and civility, editing tweets to falsely justify this incessant crusade of political correctness, thereby reducing racism to the commonplace and apparent to all at the drop of a hat or crude use of a phrase is right out of the Marxist playbook. What is next Mr. Kristoff? Turning in your neighbor or relative perhaps, even a spouse or child for an inappropriate use of language in the heat of the moment.
This Clinton inspired reckless disregard of free speech apparently allows only one side to condemn the other, based not on what one does, but merely on what is surmised. The true moral depravity is on the accuser, who in their zeal to condemn and destroy reduces the true suffering on the racially afflicted, by falsely and randomly accusing anyone and everyone with a different political point of view of racism for their own divisive agenda.
1
Don't forget the link that leads from Joe McCarthy to Roy Cohn to Donald Trump.
Racist to the bone . . . and his 'fans' love him for it. Tells you something about the good, old US of A, don't it.
Don’t sell him short. He’s more than just a racist. Donald Trump is an equal opportunity hater. His pathology directed at any one who gets in his way. Any avenue of vitriol on race, sex, religion (the list is endless) he can stir up and divide people is business as usual in that cranium.
I loved your use of Anatomy to illustrate the many ways racism is manifested by #45. I would take it even one step further, and say that the racism of this president (and his administration) is deep in the marrow of the large bones he uses to swing his golf clubs on the taxpayers' dime. Thank you for an entertaining and eviscerating article on the topic.
And the best bit? The US' grubby, hateful underbelly laps it up, salivating.
It's gonna be a second term, no doubt.
Nicholas Kristof launches his opinion piece with a lie. Tump did not instruct “four women of color in the House of Representatives to go back where they came from,” as he asserts. Trump’s tweet did not mention skin color or the House of Representatives. He referred to foreign-born “Progressive congresswomen” who belong to the Congressional Progressive Caucus, which includes senators as well as representatives.
Trump did not mention a number or name names, but his tweet would not apply to three of four women Kristof names. It would apply to Progressive Caucus cochair Pramila Jayapal, who was born in India, and Ilhan Omar, who was born in Somalia. Both are harsh critics of Trump and his policies. Omar publicly said “We are going to impeach the [expletive deleted].” But Trump did not “instruct” them to “go back back where they came form.” He asked, "Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.”
Kristof could have written that, in effect, Trump “instructed four women of color to go back where they come from,” but that also would have even a lie. Trump, in effect, said two, or perhaps four, immigrants who criticize America or call him vulgar names should return to their homeland. This is wrongheaded, but it is not racist. Trump probably objects to white immigrants who agree with Pramila Jayapal and Ilhan Omar, but none have been as vocal.
1
@William Case
Nonsense! The majority of people who understand English knows that Trump’s tweet was racist.
I think, even now, the large majority of Americans underestimate the danger of this moment.
Last night is an example: When a US President has crowds howling hateful slogans ("send her back") as they did last night, in response to his escalating attacks on four women of color as somehow not belonging here, we may be nearer to an American version of Kristallnacht (the first open, physical Nazi attack on the Jews) than most of us would like to believe.
What will be next, ramapging through minority communities? Actual acts of violence against individuals? Riots in our streets? New, and much larger Charlottesvilles - an incident this president has already blithely and memorably dismissed?
When a president does everything in his power to incite such hatreds - and his own party stands, remarkably, almost unanimously mute in response, we have entered dangerous times almost unprecedented in our history.
I am 65; I can say with authority that even in my adult life such actions would have automatically and swiftly ended a politician's public life. It boggles my mind that we have come to this.
1
Nicholas Kristof wrote:
>> … four women of color in the House of Representatives <<
Rashida Tiaib's DNA rises from the land area of the eastern Mediterranean shore known today as Palestine. Palestinians collectively, typically, are known as Caucasians. Pending receipt of edifying personal information from Ms Tiaib, it's a good idea to conclude she is Caucasian, NOT a "person of color."
OK, I realize it's Democratic party good marketing to lump women who comprise "The Squad" into one colorful band of righteous lawmakers though rilly, Mr. Kristof, I don't think it's a good or diplomatically sound idea to term the Palestinians ... and by default, their next door neighbors, the Israelis, as "people of color."
1
Donald Trump is racist. If one supports him they must be okay with racism and thus racist themselves. The Republican lawmakers who did not vote to condemn his abhorrent comments are racist as well and should be opposed for their un-American attitudes. Call out your representatives who support Trump and let them know you will not be supporting them in the future.
Nicely written.
Let’s stop arguing over whether Donald Trump is racist. Let’s vow to remove him as President in 2020, since the Congress isn’t going do anything about him before that. Fact: If any of us did what he did in the workplace, we’d be drop-kicked into the unemployment line. Why? Here, in the words of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, is why: “Ethnic slurs and other verbal…conduct because of nationality are illegal… Examples of potentially unlawful conduct include insults, taunting, or ethnic epithets, such as making fun of a person’s foreign accent or comments like, ‘Go back to where you came from’…” (See: https://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/publications/immigrants-facts.cfm)
...or mewled another way: "I don't have a racist bone spur in my body." -D.J. Trump
Trump's racist rants and suggestion that these nonwhite America haters should go back to where they came from are even more insidious. Distilled to their essence, their message appears to be: TRUMP = AMERICA. Ergo, LOVE TRUMP OR GET OUT.
Greensboro may go down as our very own Kristalnacht. I fear we are in for an election cycle which will incite hatred and violence, yes violence. We must all look in the mirror and ask, how did we become a nation of hatred and division?
Yes, yes, and yes. Thoroughly racist, sexist, and every other vile thing his behavioral indicates. I just don't understand how anyone can be ok with a rapist, sexist, racist, greedy, climate-unaware, and morally depraved person at the top of our govt! I've been told they attribute it all to 'fake news' but really?
The question I want to ask some of them: would you leave your daughter or granddaughter alone with this depraved person?
Twenty women have had the courage to tell how he abused them,
all at great cost to themselves because our country does not yet care that women are raped and molested at astonishing rates (1 in 3 women will suffer some kind of sexual abuse in their lifetime).
Decent Folks (not aka Republicans): what is WRONG with us? Why do we not speak out daily against this monster?
That’s all we (NYT, MSNBC, CNN) talk about how outrageous Trump is, disgusting, vile, fascist...but he keeps going, without shame or rebuke from his Republican cohorts. The Democrats need to get their act together or we are doomed to another 4 years. They need focus, leadership and a cogent strategy or we will be spending another 4 years writing about his more outrageous acts and the demise of a a once great country. After that look for Don Jr. or Ivanka running for President.
Truman constantly uttering n word, Eisenhower playing rounds of golf at restricted Augusta National laughing at jokes told by racists denigrating blacks. Yet both compartmentalizing personal prejudices: Truman desegregating Armed Forces, Eisenhower ordered National Guard into Little Rock.
1
While half of the country is agitated about racism, the other half is not. Luckily there hasn't been an flare up of tensions to cause race riots during this short, hot summer. Digging up old bones always grabs headlines, and the results may be known by the next election.
Trump is not a racist. He hate all who disagrees with him. He is an equal opportunity guy.
1
Wonderful article, thank you. You have indeed managed to name the Racist bones in Trump's body. Another Trump Racist syndrome is in the core of his being, for it is thoroughly rotten.
1
There is no doubt that Donald Trump is a racist. One only has read his tweets or read his past statements to see that he is racist to the core, an absolutely vile and despicable human being. What is truly terrifying is the silence coming from the Republican Party! Weren't the Republicans the party of integrity and good, old fashioned honesty. You know, salt of the earth people. Why aren't they speaking out about the racism displayed by the President? Why aren't they joining the Democrats in censuring Trump? Why isn't Mike Pence, noted Christian spokesman, denouncing Trump's anti-Christian messages? Let's vote all of these hypocrites out in 2020!!
Talking to Trump supporters and listening and reading interviews with them, I have given up believing that we will ever get through to them about Trump's racism. if they admit this, they will have to own up to their own racism, and they just can't bring themselves to do this. The harder we press Trump's bigotry, the more resistant the "base" becomes. And, of course, this ignores the hard-core bigots for whom racism is a badge of honor.
So, it is time to abandon this tack. Let Trump rage and blow himself out with hate and vitriol. If he gets no reaction, or becomes so over the top ridiculous, his invective will lose its power, and eventually his supporters may see him for the hot air balloon he has come to embody.
Real solid issues are the only thing that will dislodge this monstrous child. He has no ideas, no solid plans, and he is what his own people have called him--a deranged moron. Give him rope and he will hang himself. Reponding to his schoolyard taunts will only empower him further.
1
Turning Americans against each other is the way to control the people. Nazi sympathizers weren’t Nazis, but they assisted the murderous terrorizing because they were afraid for their own lives. It takes fearless courage to turn back this horrifying tide.
I am reading this piece as the same time as mr Trumps Rally is on the TV.And I have chills,as a child pf Holocost survivers,this trump rally is very much like one of Hilters early rallies.He is carrying on about the four woman congressmen riling up the crowd about them vs us.My husband is sitting next to me telling me I am nuts,his opnion only changed when I pointed out to him that my dad had once told me a similar story about my grandfather who stated that he would outlive Hilter and there was no reason for Jews to be afraid,well he ended up dying in the Ibeza ghetto and is probably buried in some ditch in Poland.My dad was lucky he was sent to england on a kindertransport shortly before the border was closed.
And I also ask,why does the Us government pay for these rallys?why must airforce one be used?This has nothing to do with the running of our government,It is a campaigne rally and mostly a woe is me poor president rally for Trump to complain how badly he in his mind is being treated by anyone who opposes him and his values
The man is obviously racist. The bigger issue is that many people are ok with that. Maybe even most voters. That is the heartbreaking reality of where we find ourselves in 2019. A racist, sexist, xenophobic bigot is so wildly popular that he is unimpeachable and possibly will be re-elected.
Some people say that they support him despite his behavior. I wonder to whom they are lying? Us or themselves? Either way, the Trump presidency has been painfully revealing about what my fellow citizens believe or, at the very least, are willing to tolerate.
It doesn’t matter now. Trump has nothing to hide regarding his racism. He has nothing to hide regarding his obstruction of justice and his colluding with the Russians, whether legal or not. He has nothing to hide regarding his continuance of lies to the American people. He has nothing to hide regarding violating campaign finance laws with pay offs to women he cheated with. He doesn’t care. He thinks America doesn’t care. He thinks most white Americans are racists. This is now more about who Americans really are than who Donald Trump is. It might be time for all of us to look in the mirror!
1
White people, can you please stop staying, "I don't have a racist bone in my body"?
First of all, you're the only ones who say this, which makes it all the less credible.
Secondly, unless you're in the medical field, it's a bit absurd to claim the ability to inventory all of your 206 bones...
Here's example #1,271 of how the mainstream media still doesn't understand the Republican Party of the last half-century. Why are Republicans supporting a racist? Because they're racists. Go back and look at the party's positions and public comments for the past 50 years. Trump is simply the logical conclusion.
90% of Republicans support Trump; every time he does his racist shtick, his support goes up. At this point, Republicans clearly know what he is and they like what they see. Only a handful have opposed him and they're attacked by the rest.
So, if you're a Republican, you support racism and white nationalism. That makes you a racist. That's your choice, so wear the label proudly...stop whining when people call you that.
We are where Germany was in the 20s . Will the middle and conservative population stay with the fascism or will there be a response . The fear of communism drove Germans into Naziism will our fear of “socialism” ( really just social democratic capitalism ) drive us into trumpism . VERY SCARY !
“They came for the immigrants and I did nothing , they came for the people of color and I did nothing , they came for women and I did nothing they came for LGBTQ and I did nothing then they came for me — too late ! “
All through history in the US, the worst racists have been blue collar KKK types. They are uneducated people who feel threatened by blacks.
Then there are those concerned that black neighbors will bring down their home values. And, of course, there were slaveowners and segregationists who needed to keep blacks subservient and so treated them with hatred.
But the wealthiest among us have nothing to fear from blacks, so if they are racist it is gratuitous. The Rockefellers were abolitionists and supporters of Spelman College. The Carnegies were great supporters of Tuskegee Institute. Not all of the 1% have been charitable. But if there are any in KKK costumes that would be a huge surprise.
If you think Trump is a fan of lynchings, if you think he considers blacks to be genetically inferior, and if you think he is against intermarriage and thinks that blacks lack intelligence, then prove it. Because he sure hasn’t said it. He’s filthy rich and he has no reason to hate blacks. And those who call him racist confuse his political beliefs with his racial attitudes.
Even when Trump is trying to be humorous, like he was while addressing the Republican Jewish Committee during the 2016 Presidential campaign, he is racist. Which means that the racism in his bones extends to his funny bone as well.
I don't think Trump is a racist
but he plays to segregationalistic tendencies in everyone.
After all the most segregated Public Schools are
in Manhattan and Washington, D.C.
- bastions of Liberalism.
2
You may wish to focus your venom on Ilhan Omar and her anti-Semitic comments that were not uniformly condemned by a Democratic House majority. There is no proof that Trump is racist. He was quoted out of context and suggested that these individuals go back and come back. Regardless, you and The New York Times are helping Trump's re-election efforts. People are DONE with being told how to think and they are inured to the left-leaning media's constant anti-Trump message.
1
Excelent! It is the best radiography of the malicious ignorant, named Donald J. Trump!
We are at a point that if a white person accuses a. non-white person of something that is not even remotely connected with race, this person is accused of racism. I think anti-racism has gone crazy. The pendulum has swung from Hitler’ murderous racism almost as far to the opposite..
Nicholas Kristof begins his column with a lie. Tump did not instruct “four women of color in the House of Representatives to go back where they came from, as the author asserts.
Trump tweeted: “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 (if they even have a functioning government at all), 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.”
The term “Progressive Democrat Congresswomen” applies to Democratic congresswomen who are members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Membership is not limited to the House as the author appears to think; it includes senators.
Trump’s tweet dod not mention anyone by name, but it would apply only to Progressive Caucus cochair Pramila Jayapal, who was born in India, and Ilhan Omar, who was born in Somalia. Both are harsh critics of Trump and his policies. Omar publicly said “We are going to impeach the [expletive deleted].”
Trump did not tweet “persons of color” should go home. He tweeted that certain immigrant congresswomen who criticize America, call him vulgar names and criticize his policies should go home. That’s not racist, just wrongheaded.
1
And don’t forget the finger and hand bones he admittedly used to grope, violate and insult women...recorded on tape!
or he's a jelly fish.
It would help if the Democrats could actually formulate a platform for 2020, and soon! get those issues out there for discussion or even just ridicule. I know it isn't going to happen; all you have to do is look at who's leading in corporate donations, Biden and Buttigieg, both of whom are deliberately noncommittal about what they believe. They both hearken back to the worst aspects of Obama. Biden wants to coast on Obama's unimpressive record, and Buttigieg is hoping we will reprise 2008, when we elected a black man with a thrilling narrative arc who turned out to be Wall Street's cats paw - instead, now it will be a gay man, who will be Wall Street's cats paw. How far we've come!
I'm more concerned about the lack of back bones in his previously "moderate Republican" enablers. Susan Collins et al - you're days are numbered (I hope). Funny that those Republicans who had the least to lose by standing up to Trump will probably be the ones who pay the price in 2020.
If Trump thinks that three native born and one naturalized citizen should go back where they came from, maybe he should take his own advice. He has exactly one US born ancestor, his father. By his lights that makes his less American than AOC et al. And of course he is a person of color -- orange. The only problem is that I doubt either Germany or Scotland would take him.
2
Another unfortunately true piece, Mr. Kristof. I only disagree with one thing. This recent outburst is not the culmination. I dread and assume that he will find some new height in insult to Americans and our values.
1
Because they're not the party of Lincoln. You, of all people, should have an understanding of various political platforms in that era. It's goes deeper than a name.
1
Nicholas Kristof, there is no other columnist that I am familiar with that is as alert to the suffering of people around the world and the barbaric actions against them. Donald J. Trump and the republican party have fueled white supremacy for the past three years. It was a political weapon of Ronald Reagan and now it is being wielded by president Trump. There have been many of this stripe before him, but this is now, and it is with many Americans cheering him on. The safety of America and the people are at risk. We must consider the danger this presents. So far the responses from the free press, the clergy, social justice organizations, women's groups -- you name it -- are weak. The 'underbelly' of this country is shouting hate. How far will this go?
Mr.Kristof, your explanation of racist bones is excellent and graphic.I would just add that Trump’s foot bone is connected to his jawbone most of the time.It is too kind to say that he has “foot in mouth disease” because his racist rants are calculated and intentional.Because racism is so close to the surface of the American psyche he feels emboldened to use it as a campaign tactic.The Republicans who support him and the people at his rallies who cheer are complicit in resurrecting some of the bad old days of racist violence which many of us remember vividly. McCarthyism and racism is a toxic mix!
5
In clinical determination of mental disorder, there are not just lists of behavioral criteria but also designations of how behaviors are shown. Trump demonstrates ample behavioral features of a serious, dangerous mental (behavioral) disorder. How they are shown is exactly what Mr. Kristof accounts: their duration, frequency and intensity. Lay people can look at the criteria and view them like a horoscope, as those things can be applied to just about anybody. But for most people, only some of those criteria may be applied, as well as only briefly, and only now and then. Trump demonstrates his hideousness from far back, very frequently and about very serious matters (intensely). People who refuse to see this evidence of psychopathology may unfortunately have their own mental/ behavioral problems.
5
Maybe, just maybe... the 'attacks' on Ilhan Omar are in regards to the many things she says, and not the color of her skin? Just maybe? Has anyone ever considered that?
3
Ever heard of the first amendment? A lot of people disagree with the Tea Party. Are they all being told to go back where they came from?
There is a right way and a wrong way and any decent, moral person knows the difference.
1. The statements Trump ascribes to Congresswoman Omar are false. She did not praise terrorists, etc. Trump is lying about this.
2. Telling someone to "go back where you came from" is an unambiguous attack. There is no debating this point; it is rooted in history and specifically cited as an example of bigoted harrassment in federal law.
3. Lots of American citizens have all kinds of critical comments about America, including Trump, but who does he target to "send them back"? Four women of color.
4. How does he target them? He lies about what they said and then uses explicitly bigoted speech.
So, no, this not about what Omar has said. its about the fact that she is an African American Muslim. Trump is exploiting Congresswoman Omar's racial identity to foment hate for political power.
I have lived through many different events in history. Lets face it I'm old. This is the first time I have wondered if our country can survive as a democracy.
Mr. Trump sells hate, bigotry and lies. We could survive him but when I see so many people acting just like him I'm not sure if our democracy will survive.
He is the face of hate, GREED and intolerance.
Sooner or later we will pay the price for his sickness.
9
Trump can only wear one MAGA hat and vote for himself only one time. Trump is not in the audience at his hate filled rallies. Isn't time we stop dancing around the real issue and get honest? We are not the post racial America that we want the world to think we are. Trump has become the defender of White Priiledge and we would be fooling ourselves if we say he is not. Trump knows few in his base are repulsed by seeing children in cgaes as long as they are brown. Trump relishes in being called Racist because it lets his base know he is one of them. While The Left fights over an impeachment that is DOA in The Senate Trump is laughing all the way to another term. Calling Trump a Racist is like saying The Sky is Blue. Almost half of the nation has no problem with Trump being Trump. Trump is only a sympton of our disease.
292
@Steven McCain Correct. I cringed thwe other day when one of his fenmale supporters was being interviewed. she justified her support iof him because "I love the way he hates". god help us!
24
@Steven McCain Indeed, racism and nativism has always existed in the US. Trump is unique in being the only President since the Civil War to actively encourage it and use it for political advantage. People who used to be circumspect about their ugly impulses are now free to lose their inhibitions, they have found a champion. Unless Trump is thoroughly discredited we are in for a very ugly period in coming years. Him losing the election will not be enough.
29
@Steven McCain
Although one's survival is a natural, inborn, instinct, I do not believe humans are "wired" for racism even at a small, or trivial, level. I believe it is a "learned" emotion and then intellectualized into a belief. Hence the necessity, imperative, for multiracial social education from PreK to graduate level schooling in order to nullify and neutralize racism.
15
Most writers who feature Trump and his blatant racism are missing the big picture. Time to call the Emperor naked. Mental illness comes in various formats, and we are now dealing with something that isn't the deliberate plan of a devious mind to win votes. He isn't evil as his behavior would seem to justify. He's sick, and we'll see further deterioration as time goes by.
3
Keeping blacks out of white neighborhoods is a widespread practice of mortgage bankers, neighborhood leaders, real restate agents and the general public. The practice is known as redlining and it could be called a dirty little secret if it weren’t so widely known. If a real estate agent tried to break the pattern, he would be forced out of the neighborhood.
This was a pervasive practice that proved that all whites were racist, not anyone in particular.
Mr. Kristof is right in calling Trump a racist, but Trump uses racism as a way to rally his supporters and distract us from other important matters...like the Mueller report.
To the utter shame of the Republican Party (or more accurately stated "traitors"), they overwhelmingly join Trump in every ugliness that comes out of his mouth. All of us must oppose this pip-squeak – even his supporters – in removing Trump from the White House.
1
Watching tonight’s rally, like the other despicable Trump rallies, filled me with loathing for him and his bizarro supporters. Republican politicians will find a way to defend Trump and his calculated hate mongering. They know better. They betray America every day.
5
Most of us realized long ago that Trump is racist, among many other faults. Now there can be no doubtWhat many of us still fail to realize, is that a huge % of Americans are closet racists (and xenophobes) and will continue to support him, perhaps not publicly, but certainly into the voting booth.
4
There is not an ounce of love for mankind in Trumps body.
3
Only in Wonderland is Trump not a racist. Once again the right is seeking to rationalize the irrational. It does seem to work for them though because all they have to do is say the racist is not a racist and their blind lemmings eat it up. Wonderland must be a blissful place because I can think of no other reason any self respecting human would want to live there.
4
If I step into an elevator occupied by five 70 year old white women, my reaction is completely different than if I step into an elevator occupied by five 6-foot black teenagers. That's definitely a racist reaction and I recognize it as such, and also that it's unfair. I'm 70 years old and won't change, but I hope self awareness and tolerance among white people of my generation will contribute to creating a society where reflexive racism such as mine will be a source of bewilderment in future generations.
3
The president of the United States is so low he is beyond description.
6
It really seems silly to keep saying that awful is awful. Where's the news?
The question is: How do we save the country from this swelling, lofting, looming, dark menace? Or is the question; Does democracy naturally tend to these type leaders in the long run? Is the death of democracy built into the birth of democracy; like life itself? Do people want more in so many ways, and in acting do they create less? And, should we interfere with the death of democracy; Who are we to say what is good for the people? Perhaps some sort of instinctual Fascism is built into the species and it is natural that it will ebb and flow until the species extinguishes; One leader will kill the last; one ruling family will exterminate the last; One party will massacre the last. One region will enslave the last; One religion will suppress the last... Perhaps the South will rise again?!, and again and again.
Stick with what you know which obviously is not Trump's inner feelings.
Kristof, you’re descending to the level of Trump with your ad hominem columns. That's the level where he wants to engage you because he is the world's expert at that kind of discourse. Stop it. Focus your energy on what's important to cleanse our culture of trumpism, and put a suitable replacement in office. Don't play his game. You'll lose.
Dear Mr. Kristof, the answer your final question is simple: because they are in charge.
1
“We’re left again with the question: How can members of the party of Lincoln today protest the label of racism, but not the racism itself — in a man who for 45 years has shown himself to be a racist from his mandible to his metatarsals?”
Answer: They can’t, because racism is all they have left to motivate their base, the same base they’ve made poorer, sicker, and dumber while picking their pockets. The GOP needs scapegoats to take the blame and distract their victims. This is what the southern strategy was all about. Ditto for Fox and talk radio.
The GOP has been doing this for decades. With Trump they can now say it out loud, instead of using coded language and dog whistles. The media needs to recognize the Republican Party has become a hate group and report it accordingly.
Trump is going to turn the 2020 election into a Civil War. He started by demonizing immigrants - he’s now extending the same hate speech to Democrats. Right wing media and the GOP have been paving the way for years; Trump intends to take it as far as he can.
The aging white leadership of the Democratic Party has been conditioned to accept bad behavior from the GOP and discount it as just what they do. The Squad, the progressives recognize the threat it is, and are ready to fight back. God help us if they fail.
There is no middle ground; denial is not a viable strategy. The old question returns: Which side are you on?
2
You forgot the bone spurs in his heel. These were the bones that allowed Trump to dodge the draft, while others joined - or were drafted - and served. Many were White, for sure, but also Black and Hispanic, even Muslims, while Donald ate quiche. In fact, your average Muslim in America is more patriotic than Donald Trump:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/saluting-muslim-american-patriots_b_7039866
7
I agree that D. Trump is a racist. Furthermore, D. Trump controls his essentially white working class base by carrying out racist actions that are thinly veiled communications to this base that he, D. Trump, and his ilk, will continue to pay the white working class base sub-standard working class incomes.
By doing this, Trump is also communicating to his base that if they do not support him, D. Trump and is ilk will bring in "the Other" to work for even lower wages; this leading to the white working class getting even lower incomes.
The reason D. Trump and his ilk do this is to insure that they, themselves, who they believe have the right to rake-in inordinate unnecessary amounts of money and wealth for themselves while most others of all skin shades suffer.
How sad it is that the white working class which supports D. Trump believes that this is the truth about way things are.
Do not let the greedy, selfish, mean people inherit the Earth.
3
The whole thing is just so sick. the lies this man makes up against the Squad, are appalling because it's so easy to fact check them all.
Trump has concocted a prototype of evil based on gross exaggerations of, and certitude he's just making up on on the fly.
They hate America? How so? They hate Israel? Because they dared to question the lock AIPAC seems to have on the conservative party?
Trump said, " I don't have a racist bone in my body. " He's right--it's not "a" racist bone, its many.
And now the ugly chant, "send them back". I just hope and pray nothing happens to these freshman representatives--because the president has just finished drawing a huge target on their backs.
8
how to characterize trump's latest political,racist and bigoted 'go back home' rhetoric directed at the four democratic congressmen, women.minority, colored and muslim, the combination trump and his supporters hate. just one word:
nonsense
1
Dem bones, Dem bones. It is time to move on and for Trump to be dismissed.
2
Trump can deny that his bones are racism free. However, it is the racist riddled grey matter contained in his alleged racism free skull that we should be discussing.
2
It seems that the President always needs a woman to be the "bad (guy) he needs to run against, whether it was Clinton, Pelsosi (very briefly) or now Omar. Is that a reflection of his cowardice, his hatred of strong women, or simply an appeal to white males as his base? Maybe all three.
5
If it's so bad, let's do the same thing the folks in Puerto Rico are doing. Storm the government and clash with riot police to make a point.
I don't see that by liberals.
1
Call him a racist, and be outraged, but all you do it play into his hand. The left is hanging on to a loosing strategy.
If you want to hurt him, you have to assume the midset of a supporter. Call him un-American, for hurting American's economic interests, call him a big-spender for the deficit, call him un-Christian for being a liar (forget about "false" and "unsubstantiated" statements, they laugh at you).
1
It is more than just obvious Donald Trump is a hard core racist. And so are his enablers the GOP.
4
Trump is no doubt a racist and he uses it to rally his deplorable supporters to great effect. His words and actions have forced me to also see that the US is a racist nation which I no longer believe will ever change.
If racism is being employed to rally white voters it is not working in my case. The current administration with its hate and lies disgusts me and certainly doesn't incline me to vote for any Republican ever again.
I also agree that we need to focus more on their vile policies and not on the carnival like side show that they present to the public.
2
With his latest rants and rally Trump gets his just place in history. He has brought the GOP out of the Lee Atwater closet. Code words and dog whistle substitutes are no longer necessary to rally GOP troops. That is passe. We are all now deaf, dumb and blind witnesses to big, bold and proud racism in the GOP. They will not stop with just a few women of color in the Democratic party? Things are moving quickly. You will have to check in often to see if you made their hate list.
5
Is Trump racist to the bone?
I went to collagen the seventies, yet I’m still not certain
Not sure what’s anato-my? I don’t feel well today
Hope I’ll feel better to-marrow
If Trump is truly not a racist, then he would be a completely amoral opportunist. In no way is he a decent man or even an ordinary flawed man. He is as bad as it gets - a man who will do anything for his personal success.
10
We all know that the President’s words and deeds are forbidden for all of us in our workplaces. Our employers would investigate, the HR Dept would recommend disciplinary action, and the attorney would defend against a claim or lawsuit. It happens all the time in the modern American workplace.
Also, every appointed official, and every elected local or State official must adhere to to same standards.
And yet, the highest elected official in our country is immune to the laws that all the rest of us must work within every day.
This fact shows a serious failure of our vaunted system of representative government: we do not have an HR department for the Executive Branch.
What is the disciplinary action for these violations? Rebuke, condemnation, Censure, impeachment, election. Vote him out to send him back!
10
@Disciplinary Action
Trump is above the law, proof is, he is still in the Oval Office!
Too often, it seems that President Trump’s mandible and maxilla (jawbones) and his tongue have lost contact with the vital contents of his cranium and, in typing his Tweets, his phalanges and metacarpals (bones of the fingers and hands) also seem to operate independently.
When a leader’s mind, mouth and messages via Twitter don’t coordinate, the garbled output can generate misunderstanding—maybe even provoke hostility. Let’s hope that somehow the President or his advisers sense this after the reactions to his ugly attacks on the four Congresswomen of color.
2
They won’t. Not gonna happen.
And the question one ought to ask is this: why is it that whenever this disconnect happens, what always comes flying out of Trump’s mouth or Twitter finger is some kind of attack on people of color, or gay people, women, or commies?
Once in a while wouldn’t something else come belching forth, if he were really being random?
@A Southern Bro
No garbled messages, he means every word, he is a racist,
through and through!
Everyday Trump says something disgusting, demeaning and insulting. And everyday the media and the democrats respond to that so it becomes non stop Trump news. It has been like this since Trump announced his candidacy for 2016 election. He is getting the free publicity he wants. Aren't there other important issues that will impact our lives that we need to know. As for the Democratic party and those running for president, are they proposing practical solutions to the many problems we face? What is being proposed by some such as Medicare for all is not doable. College for all by taxing the rich? It will never happen and eventually the average taxpayer would end up paying. So, please, please Democrats, wake up, come up with solutions that make sense to the average Joe lime me because I don't know how I would be an!e to take another four years of Trump
7
Trump is a dying ember in a fire that has consumed everything around it and now faces extirpation. A random breeze might temporarily ignite its glow but it will soon be gone. We can only hope that when its light goes out, it leaves a remnant from which the rest of us can rebuild what is left of our country.
2
Outrage, historical moral high ground, and condemnation of a known racist may not win the WH back. The more important question is why was a racist elected to the highest office? The reason may lie in that the policies of open borders with unlimited immigration and government can buy its way out of all social ills without any responsibility from individuals are as out of touch with reality as that from the right.
2
Are non-"white" US citizens worse off since Trump moved into the White House?
An honest answer to that question makes all the outcry about his (atrocious) style irrelevant, and contributes to his re-election next year.
But, outcry has replaced news on these pages.
7
Okay, honest answer.
Worse off? Well, there’re a number of dead black folks, Jews and Muslims who got murdered by racists that are worse off. The people who live downwind from obsolete coal plants are worse off. A lot of Puerto Rico is worse off.
The folks whose health plans got yanked or whose premiums went way up are worse off. Your kids are worse off, though they won’t know it until Trump’s gone and they get presented with the bills...
There’s a long, long list. How much time you got?
1
Ending racial segregation in NYC public schools would go a long way in showing Trump supporters the error or their ways.
Other OP-ED writers have been writing about "white intransigence" as the roadblock to integrating public schools.
The forward thinkers at the NYT and the self-avowed liberals in NYC would seem to be the perfect instruments for showing the fruits of racial integration in public schools. I would think Scarsdale would be included in the plan judging from the progressive thought, compassion and empathy put forward in Kristoff's columns.
Or you could just continue to hammer on Trump supporters in flyover country and continue to pretend their complete perspectives on race are something you would never entertain.
Give it a year and see which of the two paths have been taken. Any guesses on which one it will be?
3
It’s a funny thing. You guys spend so much time slanging everybody else, that you never seem to get around to presenting your, “complete perspectives on race.”
Pity, too. I bet they’re doozies.
@Robert: I'm not the one preaching like Kristoff and the NYT. They key word is hypocrite.
Just asking Kristoff and fellow forward thinkers to lead by example. But that would mean desegregating NYC public schools.
Which they won't do ... just like in flyover country.
Get it?
You should stop calling the GOP the "Party of Lincoln." There is a party today that calls themselves the Republicans, but they are almost entirely different from the Republicans in the 19th Century who nominated Abraham Lincoln for President. Similarly, and I know you don't do this, it is completely inaccurate to portray today's Democratic Party as the party of Andrew Johnson and other Southern racists. Both parties should really change their names.
1
"It was grotesque to see Republicans who had been mute at presidential bigotry suddenly protest that the backers of the resolution violated rules of decorum."
Indeed. One can't count on reason when dealing with these guys, so the next best thing is facts. With the censure passed, Democrats need to focus on the issues that got them where they are.
God knows the other side isn't doing that--unless they were sent to Washington to focus on hate. And maybe they were.
The new McCarthyism is Trumpism: a toxic brew of bigotry, exclusion, and violation of American values. It's government by the few for the few, and anyone with a twinge of color, accent, or mien need not apply.
Our original sin of slavery has turned from a national stain to an open sore festering throughout the body politic. Trump appeals to the very worst of human nature, and so far he's succeeding in creating diversions from the ugly policies designed to inflict maximum damage on those he claims "don't belong."
8
The president again proves that there is no nadir to his hate and ugliness. How dare anyone publicly endanger an American? You don't have to support Ms. Omar's politics. However, if you are a true American you must defend her right to speak.
His rallies begin to resemble Germany in 1933. If you watch news reel with no sound, there is no difference. At these rallies, the president's countenance is a smug sneer that is as horrifying as Jack Nicholson in The Shining.
7
Re: bones
when last checked approximately 50% of the members of Congress were without a back bone or a head bone
1
Don't waste energy feeling sorry for Mr. Jefferson. The election of 1800 was as nasty as any in our history, or worse. Yes, Jefferson was denounced as an atheist, but his supporters, with his connivance, denounced Adams (and Washington) as monarchists seeking to end our liberty. As Trump never denounced the KKK, Jefferson never withdrew his support for the French revolution, even during the Terror.
I wish we, and especially the Supreme Court, would read some history and realize that the "founding fathers" were not godlike in their unquestionable wisdom and virtue, and spoke with one voice. It's our foundational national myth, but they disagreed, often bitterly, on just about everything, including whether to ratify the Constitution.
2
Trump's bone spurs racism and all sorts of bigotry and discrimination. His bone spurs fear, anger, and hatred. Any bone he can find to pick, his calcified need for attention and grandiosity will spur the worst. Make no bones about it, all those who don't condemn his words and actions are complicit in all that his bone spurs.
4
In response to jrinsc of South Carolina I would like to say that I share those feelings completely. I frequently mute the television or leave the room when he speaks. Ever since the campaign It has been a struggle not to let this hate and darkness, this destruction of truth, democracy and decency take over my life. How could this happen and how blind can his followers be??
6
Everything in this column is true, but I think it’s time to move on. By now every potential voter in the country knows what kind of person Trump is. The election is a little over 15 months away. If Trump is to be removed from office, it’ll be by the voters. IMO the best way to do it is to talk about healthcare, Nick has written many great columns on the subject, one memorable one about his friend who died w/o insurance. There are 133 million Americans w/ pre existing conditions. It’ll take about 70 million votes to take Trump out. The Republicans have teed this issue up perfectly for us by their stance on the ACA case, that will come before SCOTUS next year. Every time a Democratic politician speaks, they should work healthcare into the discussion. To paraphrase Bill Clinton’s mantra, “It’s about healthcare stupid”. Once we vote him out we can get to the next phase, which is LOCK HIM UP,
2
Trump is Trump, as despicable a human that has ever walked the earth. Having said that, what is more troubling is the people who go to his rallies, scream "send her back" or "lock her up". This is what is truly frightening. This is un-American. On the other, more scary scenario, perhaps this behavior IS American.
I used to blame a lot of it on FOX, but it goes way beyond FOX. Obviously, FOX knows what this crowd wants to see and gives it to them. I pray for this country if Trump gets in again. He will make his first term seem like the good ol' days. I don't think there is a point for his followers that would be a "he's gone too far" moment. I never would have dreamed this ignoramus could sway so many people, but I underestimated the intelligence and sense of Americanism of a large portion of the voting public.
As Ben Franklin so fortuitously said, it's "A Republic, if you can keep it". The next few years will tell.
6
"How can members of the party of Lincoln today protest the label of racism, but not the racism itself"
Why? How? Because the Trump Party [ex GOP], as Max Boot recently concluded through unveiled eyes about his once beloved party, is brewed and steeped in brutal racism, seething grievance, and authoritarian fever. Alas, there is no remedy in view. Even a Trump Party defeat in 2020 [growing more unlikely as white hatred heats?] will not freshen the sewer so foul and fetid with animus venom. Alas, the apex of hate we have not yet seen. But rest assured.
We will.
2
"Never grow a wishbone where your backbone ought to be:" wise words from the mother of a dear friend. We must stop wishing and hoping that Republicans will be motivated to reject Trump based on his racism, sexism, lies, and/or corruption...
To win in 2020, Democrats must unite and stand strong, with a constructive, motivational and inclusive campaign that gets every voter to the polls.
2
I think we need to take to the streets. I think we need a national strike.
3
Whatever what you want to call Trump, he is intolerant, horrible, etc., etc. And, he is justifiably being called out for being a racist.
That said, I believe we need to be much more careful with how labels (racist, homophobic, misogynistic, etc.) are used. In my opinion, they are being overused to the point that it causes many good, middle-of-the-road, non-racist people, Democrats and Republicans, to separate themselves from those who use the term indiscriminately. They are too often used to describe anyone who simply doesn't wholeheartedly agree with a particular way to think about racial or other issues. We must begin to differentiate between beliefs that most would think of as outright racism and those that are simply differences of opinion.
For example, some would call anyone who doesn't believe in racial quotas or affirmative action racist. But are they, necessarily? Even if one believes so, should they be put in the same camp as neo-Nazis, who most of us clearly acknowledge as being racist. Should everyone who criticizes Israel automatically be called an anti-semite. I am Jewish. I don't. Some Jews do.
A new understanding of how these labels are used will, I believe, help go a long way toward more understanding and less hatred in this country.
2
President Trump racist?
I don't think it's possible, from the Democratic party perspective, for especially white males today to be anything but racist, because the Democratic party paradigm with respect to race allows no way out for especially white males from this condition. The democratic party definition of racism, and their interpretation of how it is to be overcome, makes of especially white males no matter how they twist and turn racists.
Essentially the Democratic party views inequality between people, which of course includes inequalities between races, entirely through the lens of socialism, so automatically we get concepts such as whites being 'privileged', and the only reason other races lag behind whites is because of oppression, therefore automatically whites in this paradigm are considered racist, and they can prove they are not racist only by agreeing to this definition and by succumbing to the demands of the offended party.
And if whites in this situation attempt to explain inequalities between races in any other way, not to mention bring up biological differences between people, or that some cultures are better than others, well then they are considered even more deeply racist than they already are. It's essentially a no win situation for whites here, there's no way left open for whites to be certain of not being considered racist. Of course if Democrats object to my criticism here, please then give us an exact definition of NOT being a racist today.
4
@Daniel12 OMG, now whites are victims? That is how Trump won in 2016 by portraying whites as victims of President Obama's trying to create bipartisan legislation to benefit All disadvantaged people regardless of race or ethnic background.
There are better candidates and better solutions than Trumps festering this division of the races.
As hard as it will be to do, the media MUST stop reporting on Trump's tweets.
Every time Trump's tweeting gets a headline or a column or a news segment, it feeds his ego. Rallies his base.
Ignore the tweets.
Don't comment on them or acknowledge them.
Talk about Trump's lies - and call them lies.
Talk about Trump's failed policies, his losses in court.
Report Trump's actions, but not his outbursts
Talk about immigration. Talk about Social Security.
Report about the rapidly expanding National debt under Trump.
Talk about healthcare, schools,infrastructure, trade and international relations.
Do not let Trump's tweeting drive the conversation.
Trump thrives on it when we do.
His appalling disgusting rally last night is proof.
The more we react, the louder Trump and his ugly followers roar.
Don't react.
Vote Democratic in 2020.
The voting booth is the place to show our disgust for this.
Till then, vent in the privacy of your own home.
I do, every single day.
Talking and reporting about Trump's tweets give him power.
Don't do it.
9
@D. DeMarco Yes, and perhaps a boycott of his rallies might be a good thing. Why publicize hate?
1
All you have to do is look at Trump’s facial expressions. The main emotion I always see is contempt. He is always sneering, grimacing, or shouting.
4
I will tell you a story...
During my residency in IM (2000), I was a kid, alone in New York, and my nurses took a shine to me. Spencer and Morgaan, (I called them by their last names, a Brit habit hold-over to call nurses staff or by last name) especially looked out for me and yes, both was middle aged black ladies.
I remember I came back from vacation and ran to the 6th floor, I had missed them so much.
I usually am not so demonstrative but I recall hugging Spencer and kissing her on both cheeks (everyone knew I simply didn't do such displays).
I loved her then, I love her now.
Later in the day, two respiratory therapist (Caucasian blondes) came by to give followup on patients, and I realized they wanted to talk about something considering the way the looked at each other before saying the following...
" You really like Spencer, don't you?"
I said, of course, how could you not.
She said, " Oh, I didn't know you liked blacks."
I remember I felt stunned, I was looking at labs on the computer, it took me a moment and said... "what?"
Both just remained silent.
I recall well their eyes, an odd tightness in the expression of their eyes.
I decided to be perverse (I was cheeky then), and said, "Is Spencer black? Good to know. With that heart of gold, the glow is so bad, I can barely make out that 100 watt smile."
Of course I knew they were black.
And I had thought NY was beyond such racist thinking.
It exists everywhere, among people closest to us.
4
It is an insult to any thinking human when Trump and his supporters keep saying he is Not a racist. On the contrary He and many of his supporters are racists to the bone. It is not up to them to decide they are not racists it it is up to the honest patriots who they insult on daily basis to decide if these people and their grand leader are racists. After all Racism is in the eyes of the beholder.
1
The Republican Party has not been the party of Lincoln since Lincoln.
3
Wish the accusations of racism wouldn't be thrown around so blithely. Recent articles in this very paper regarding school and housing segregation show no one party or individual has a monopoly on this problem.
1
Nicholas Kristof rightly includes nativism along with racism in analyzing Trump's infamous tweet. These two isms are not exactly the same: nativists can be hostile to persons of foreign origin of the same race. There is a history of white native Americans telling white European immigrants to go back where they came from -- Irish, Polish, Jewish, Italian, Greek, etc.
1
Trump is unable to love, a lost soul in every respect. Do not let him destruct your tolerant, open-hearted system. Money and winning is not everything. Your constitution holds priceless, timeless values worth to be protected from his attacks. Get rid of this demagogue.
3
@Felix
Thank you.
Mr. Kristof,
A very clever analogy but I have to disagree.
The only color Putin's friend knows is green. The issues in the 70's were more than likely his Dad's feelings on his rentals and Trump didn't buck him.
Does anyone really think that if a 100 black or brown people showed up to buy his expensive condo units that he would turn them away. Not a chance!
This President is echoing what he knows are the gut feelings people have about immigrants taking their jobs and tax dollars for benefits while they suffer.
The more outrageous he is in his rhetoric, the more these people, who feel their suffering has been ignored, believe him.
Trump is not a racist. What he is, is an immoral person who will stop at nothing to get what he wants including manipulating people for his advantage even if it started a race war. He doesn't care!
@Blanche White
Right about the immorality.
Wrong about the racism.
@Nicholas Kristof, you should have emphasized the biggest bone responsible for two of Trump's biggest failings: his skull.
The only two things he seemed to have learned from his father is 1) how to cheat the system, i.e tax avoidance, discrimination against minorities etc. and 2) become a racist par excellence.
He probably exceeded his father's expectations of his son. I did read an article on how he would not have minded his son run over by a bus but that is another story...
2
Democracy and the Presidency are imperiled by the demagoguery and dishonesty of Trump. He is odious and evil and as you have correctly pointed out combines the ugliness of American nativism with the
hysteria of McCarthyism. It is incredible that a major political party is so desperate to hold on to power that it appeases him and supports this toxic demagoguery. Are tax cuts for the rich and conservative judges so important as to sacrifice the honesty and civility necessary for a functioning democracy? It is unbelievable that in this modern era his hateful brew has any appeal with the voting public. I guess it can happen here.
Trump’s methodology is in the Fascist tradition.
He and his Republican appeasers must be voted out of office for this demagoguery and their unwillingness to formulate policies to deal with our numerous problems such as healthcare, climate change, infrastructure, social and income inequality,
housing. Democracy cannot survive demonizing the opposition. It requires civil discourse, pragmatism, and compromise. Presidential leadership is mainly effective when it is aspirational and inspires our better angels. It doesn’t work with Trumpian hatred and lies!
2
Trump's history of racism is well known, so the GOP must simply be ok with it. It has been a racist party for a long time. Even during Reconstruction, the white members of the GOP were generally not willing to denounce racism, which is the underlying reason why Reconstruction did not last long. Today, all people should know better but the GOP chooses to still be racist.
2
I wasn't real happy when Joe Biden recenty claimed that he doesn't have a racist bone in his body, either. Scientists have been arguing for years about whether racism is hardwired into all of us. It seems to be a universal phenomenon.
The question isn't whether deep down we harbor some level of mistrust or discomfort toward people of other races (or religions, or sex, etc.)
The question is whether a person is able to set aside those feelings and acknowledge everyone's equality and commit to fair and dignified treatment for all.
317
@Ponderer Racism and xenophobia are the extreme versions of suspicion of the Other, which is a survival trait when you live near the border between your tribe and the one across the plain or river.
But humans are able to choose to act counter to their hard-wired gut-reactions. "Slow thinking" is also a survival trait, because it enables us to trade with those strangers across the plain or river.
Folk wisdom as shown in cliches and proverbs reminds us that slow thinking is not only possible but often necessary. We all need to calm down, think twice, count to ten, take a deep breath, etc.
19
@Ponderer What matters is what to do about this universal "feature" of the human mind. I agree it's hardwired, there's nothing we can do about that (a favorite Progressive project that has always ended in failure and suffering). Our impulses are to exclude someone for something, but the someone seems to evolve as culture shifts. It is not trivial that the Irish (and most everyone else not 'pure' WASP-English) were spat upon and considered sub-human during the 19th century. Now? Not so much. Now, others are "obviously sub-human", and visual cues make the effects much longer-lasting. This travesty of reason is baked into us, the ONLY thing a culture can enforce and control is behavior, through its law. Progressives make a huge mistake thinking that Political Correct Though Control will work and not backfire, as it has. Purity of thought and heart is not possible with humans.
12
@Ponderer
That was really well put , your last paragraph. Thank you!
"Send her back."
There used to be a time in America when we were taught that it was a fundamental principle of our democracy that even if "I disapprove of what you said, I will defend to the death your right to say it." (Voltaire).
Sadly, Trump's supporters have flipped that noble principle on its head.
2
I keep finding it fascinating that through out my years of protesting against policies of the US that I disagreed with, people would tell me to "Love it or Leave It". This is a country founded on a disagreement about governing: The Declaration of Independence.
"When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation."
Not planning to separate from the US, but declaring the issues that drive my protest, seems a uniquely American thing to do. Funny how Trump and his sycophants try to label others as "unAmerican" when they are doing what our founders fought against.
4
Trump has used his twitter stream to vilify many white male and female US citizens. However, I am unaware of any instances where he told a white US citizen to "go back to your own country." That's because even though he detests Nancy Pelosi, Paul Ryan and Chuck Schumer in Trump's racist view they are real Americans, despite their views, and they belong here. However, African Americans, Latinas and Muslims are in Trump's racist view not real Americans. When they speak up and disagree and in Trump's racist view don't know their place he must tell them to go on their way out of the US. That's a textbook definition of racism...differential treatment for those with different ethnicity.
344
@LPalmer--The general population of color, have roots, in our country, that go much farther back than dRumpf's. 400 years (in many cases) vs. dRumpf's 80-90 years? And Puerto Rico IS the United States, knuckelheads. Ever heard of the Virgin Islands? Or any of our other territories, that are also United States-ian. How about HE goes back to where he came from, only they wouldn't want him.
16
@LPalmer excellent point. You're correct. Notice too that he picked on women for this, not the men. It's very telling that he chose to tell women to go back to where they came from. In my opinion it demonstrates how little respect he has for women in general.
21
@hen3ry
You are correct and I'm surprised this point hasn't been made by more people. He is really telling these congresswomen to go back to where they belong, which is not in the House of Representatives. He's a very insecure man, as the British Ambassador said, and a lot of women see through him and his vile language, actions, and opinions.
3
More evidence: his affinity for Andrew Jackson.
1
During the entire Obama administration trump did nothing but advance criticism of this country and what was happening out of Washington, coupled with his 2016 campaign slogan MAGA.
Can you imagine the outrage if our African American President had said trump and his ilk should go back from where they came from if they didn’t like was was being done?
trump’s mother was an immigrant from Scotland, there is still a town in Germany bearing his families original name and 2/3’s of his wives are not native born.
1
How about we try this: the old bromide of "Hate the sin / love the sinner."
Let's no longer say "Trump is a racist," but content ourselves with "That Tweet is racist."
It JUST might help us pursuade those on the fence that we, unlike 45, are not stooping to name-calling but, instead, stating facts.
81
@Jerry Except that it's not "name calling" when it's true. We offer our jugular to people who whine about "political correctness" when we treat them with political correctness. People who feel entitled to do and say anything they want aren't going to change because we say "please stop."
24
@Jerry I get where you’re coming from, but “hate the sin, love the sinner” is typically deployed by people with reprehensible views trying to sanitize their ideas by making them more abstract and less personal. For example, “I don’t hate homosexuals, I just think homosexuality is wrong.” That is a regressive view, and people should be rightly ashamed for holding it.
Trump is a racist. The Republican party is racist. We shouldn’t try to distance ourselves from that. It is an ugly truth that needs to be repeated loudly and often.
56
@Jerry
I agree. Early on many news outlets refrained from calling the tweets racist because they didn't want to speculate about what was in Trump's head. And House Republicans made the same argument in condemning Pelosi for violating rules of decorum. But both make the mistake of confusing Trump's subjective feelings with the objective, public meaning of his language. If words mean anything, and aren't just whatever the speaker claims he or she meant, then that meaning is determined by the whole community of speakers, and there is nothing wrong with that community, via its representatives or the media, labelling language as racist.
10
Trump could be ejected from the White House on many fronts - misogyny, tax fraud, money laundering, gay bashing, lack of even the most basic leadership attributes etc. But the one thing that will likely unite all Americans against him, except maybe those that still flock to his incendiary rhetoric laden rallies, is racism.
So keep heaping praise on MLK Jr., Barack Obama, Rosa Parks, and other prominent African American figures - past or current. That will work him up and he will foam and froth and keep saying racist things that might astonish even his closest associates who are probably already used to his Supremacist rhetoric.
The man wants to Twitter rage. So let us provide him with more rage - to pour gasoline on himself.
3
Well said, smartly said:
"If anyone doubts that Trump’s statements were despicable, note that the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission specifically bars employers from using “ethnic epithets, such as making fun of a person’s foreign accent or comments like, ‘Go back to where you came from.’”
5
The evidence of his behavior shows that he is a racist. Many of his supporters are drawn to him precisely because he is a racist and is making it acceptable to say so in public again. Until we thoroughly examine and root out racism in our society as a whole, his support of white supremacy is dangerous. The whole Republican party is infected with the disease and they show it in their failure to condemn his outrageous behavior. At least from the "southern strategy" on the party has striven to divide black and white and to sew hatred and fear. Vote against all of them.
4
Brilliant writing! Trump's despicable presidency has certainly drawn inspired and fiery responses. Keep up the excellent work, Mr. Kristof.
3
Like AOC’s out of context statement that “they’re drinking toilet water” your statement related to the EEOC barring comments such as “go back where you came from” is also out of context. These statements are only “illegal” if they create an intimidating, hostile or offensive working environment, interfere with work performance, or negatively affect job opportunities.
Please note that this is in reference only to the workplace… Just like the incoming freshwater pipe both services the sink and toilet bowl.
1
@Rob
I am a hard working person. The US of A is my home. Trump comments are creating a hostile work environment for me when each moring I head out for work, I am hearing/seeing hatred spew from the White House.
@Rob
Illegal and unethical or immoral are not synonyms.
Trump tweets unethical, untrue and immoral sentiments on a daily basis. It has made our entire country a "hostile environment".
Nonsense. Trump did not create the "Squad"; the media did. Trump did not initiate any discussion of race; the Squad members did by complaining about white racism in the US. Trump swatted back at them by basically saying, "Love it or leave it." There is nothing in his tweets that refers to race; it's all about loyalty and conformity. And, by the way, isn't there something screwy with an orthodoxy that insists on "women of color" but holds "colored women" to be offensive? The best thing for all Americans of any race would be to obliterate the precious racial sensitivities of people like Nicholas Kristof.
1
@Bob Roberts
Huh, well now that is one way to look at it. White mans way. Not in my nature to conform and be loyal to racist but that’s just me. Trump didn’t “swat” back, he attacks, degrades, debases the office of the president and those who are complicit (republicans) in this. But honestly, you knew all that but he’s your man, conformity and loyal to the end with a big old heaping of complicity on the side.
1
@Bob Roberts
Bob, I suggest you increase your awareness of racism and act to counter that scourge, rather than continue in blissful ignorance of its existence. Sweeping the ugly facts of slavery and Jim Crow under the rug will not solve any problems.
Tennessee has free adult education programs, but that is not the only avenue for your gaining knowledge. There are great histories, biographies and studies which you can find on your own. Start with David Blight's biography of Frederick Douglass. Check with your local NAACP for further suggestions.
Trump has tapped into the fact that most people are lazy thinkers and that fear and hate are stronger than love and pleasure in most people’s brains. There are a lot of different ways to describe this fact and tons of research to back it up but once fire is lit it is very difficult to extinguish. Scary times ahead my fellow Americans.
4
Politics ain't beanbag. And the victor writes history.
Few now remember Bush Sr.'s despicable use of black convict Willie Horton to smear his opponent in a racist attack, only Bush's presidential achievements. Republicans are now winning as long as they can put far right 40 year old conservatives with lifetime appointments onto the federal judiciary. As long as they can, Trump's bad manners are merely bad manners in a capitol filled with nothing but.
Democrats moral outrage is wearing thin, and their losses mount as they profess great umbrage at Trump's acts of hate. Any thinking person by now knows who Trump is. Nominate a candidate to beat him, not a far left to his far right, not an open borders candidate. Stay away from a McGovern right now. America is a moderate land and you can not beat his excess with left wing excess.
127
@AG
I sure agree that”politics ain’t beanbag”. Well I remember those Willie Horton ads. As to your conclusion as to who might defeat Trump, there is only one candidate who will ( in my view), and that is Bernie Sanders. “Centrist” is shorthand for compromised, corporate Democrat- that was tried in 2016. It didn’t fly then and won’t fly now. Sanders is an honest broker who will stick up for the decimated working class, along with the shrinking middle class. I called the last election right ( either Trump or Sanders) so my batting average is pretty good.
12
@AG
With the enormity of the problems facing America right ow, we can't afford the luxury of moderation any longer. Climate change really doesn't care about political moderation, and the conflicts tat will arise from competition for ever more scarce resources requires bold and determined initiatives, not milk-toast compromise. Otherwise our children won't be able to have nice armchair debates like this - they will be too busy struggling for basic survival.
19
@AG In High School we tried to emulate Lincoln Steffens both stylistically and politically!!
Old Codger
I am 69 years old and have aways been a follower of politics since I first voted in 1972. Throughout these many years I have known and sometimes been friends with Republicans, even while vigorously disagreeing with them on many issues.
I worked for a retired Army Colonel for thirty years, kind and generous despite his political opinions. We discussed and argued, took hikes and shared beers. Only once in the heat of the Iraq War and the Abu Ghraib disaster was our discourse less than civil with emotions overcoming us briefly.
I have always believed in this civility, but today it all lies in ruins. Put very simply, you can be a decent, moral person or you can be a supporter of Donald Trump. You cannot be both.
1609
@Chuck Burton
Wow.
Thank you for saying it so well.
I am going through the same issues among my circle, and it is painful.
163
@Chuck Burton:Sorry Trump has policies I approve of like stopping illegal entry into the US. I approve of his intent to get out of Syria and Afghanistan which was unfortunately changed by the war mongers in both parties. I approve of his policy to keep US companies here and make it economically possible to get US firms to return here. I approve of his policies on the trade deals, etc, etc. Isn't it funny these politicians have no problem calling Trump all kinds of vile names(racists, rapist,illegitimate fraud etc) but if he offends them they are screaming bloody murder..
4
@Chuck Burton
You can disagree with what Trump tweets
and still share a desire for him to shake up
the political establishment which ignores the
needs of the lower classes.
You may be mistaken in your hopes, but then again
all Politicians seem to favor those who give them
the money they need to run for office over and over
again.
Congressmen can swear they do not have.
'Racist" bone in their bodies, but how many of them
send their children to Washington, D.C. Public Schools ?
Some Trump supporters are the most moral people
I know, it is not for you, Chuck Burton, to make
absolute judgements upon them, but it behooves
you to understand why decent people voted for Trump.
[ I wanted to vote for Bernie, but the DNC and Hillary Inc.
made that impossible. ]
4
"An affront to democratic norms." A most excellent way to describe what is happening in OUR country. It has been stolen away from the decent people who have been in charge for 240 odd years and handed over the the lawless bunch headed by a crazy man. This theme should be repeated by the Democrats at every occasion in which they speak of the harm done by the Republicans. That is what is missing in today's world. It is so simple and something we have all respected in the past. It is a way to return to the normalizing of the destruction created in the past few years. It is akin the what happened in Germany in the build up to World War 2. The destruction will not end until it is stepped on and crushed by Americans who believe in the rules that have guided us found in our Constitution and Bill of Rights. We are in an existential moment but we have been there before and survived.
1
Sure Trump is much much more awful than most, but others are bad too.
It doesn’t matter who you are, human nature makes you stick with your group.
If you are part of the group, you don’t even hear how racist you are.
If you listen to the squad and are not part of their group, they say some pretty not great things too.
In the end we need to get over this “you’re racist” thing.
Everyone sticks with their group. Just how it is.
And we need to get back to:
“Sure you are different, not part of my group, not even sure if I like you, but either we hang together, or hang apart, so let’s make this work”
That’s America.
30
@Jane: Since the "Articles of Confederation" the UA has been in a state of civil War, if not The Civil War, and that is called "POLITICS."
Only when faced with external threats are Americans conscious of being "American." The idea that "making this work" does not have winners and losers is utopian. If there is a benefit there is a cost, if there are winners, there must be losers. Slogans to the contrary are elevating, but lacking in content.
Politics in a democracy requires apportionments, balances, that are acceptable to the majority. Let's hear about some.
2
@Jane
I think you are describing tribalism. It's true, the human race has practiced tribalism from our very beginning. It has caused many waring nations, many have died because of tribalism. You would think we would have evolved by now.
7
@Jane It's one thing for a person to feel more comfortable with a person who looks and talks like him or her or even to be afraid of the stranger. That probably is part of human nature. It's another for a person, let alone a president, to encourage people to hate The Other and to support excluding The Other from the country. Decent people must never remain silent about such divisive, destructive behavior. Speaking out does against Trump's vile comments does not imply that his listeners are lesser humans.
3
But his racist diatribes thrill his core supporters. Trump is not the problem. Pervasive national racism is the problem Trump would never have been elected, and would have been removed by now, if we were not a nation of racists.
2
What's important to remember is that it's not just Donald Trump. Whether elected by a true majority or not, he was elected. He is enabled by the Republican party. His supporters stand behind him no matter what.
For all that she got wrong in her campaign, Hillary Clinton was right about one thing -- Donald Trump is so deplorable, his supporters are indeed deplorable, by definition. Here's the problem. This is creating an irreconcilable divide. I certainly can't cross it. And I see no evidence that anybody on the other side can cross it. I fear for the nation.
7
he was not elected. Hillary was elected. He was criminally hacked into office, hence illegitimate
1
There’s a deeper complexity to Trump than critics are acknowledging and this is to theirs detriment. The media did not cover Trump’s recognition of a black civil rights activist and the civil rights movement in his July 4th speech or his welcoming. - and kissing- two black women a couple of days ago at the White House for his anti media summit. Trump is not a racist - remotely - but rather an opportunist who manipulates emotions when it’s to his benefit. While the left puts all their self absorbed anger into a word, their ignoring the bigger picture- and danger- of Trump.
5
First of all, any words read by Trump on July 4 were not his, they were written for him in an effort to moderate his usual vile and spontaneous drek, and say nothing about his beliefs. Are you honestly suggesting that by welcoming and “kissing” two Black women at the White House in any way negates the incontrovertible and incessant evidence of his racism? He is a performer, and little more. And, I do agree, quite a danger to this country and thee world for a whole host of other reasons.
Hillary's controversial phrase "basket of deplorables" turned out to be blueprint and aspiration for trump and his party and supporters; an aspiration realized. I have , as far as I know, nothing to do with them because their values are destructive and toxic. And, ironically, run diametrically opposed to the very biblical teachings so many of them thump. If only they could see how they are getting played... I think of them as the party of self-loathing, hatred and destruction. How does one go about deprogramming a massive cult? We are in deep trouble, with no clear way out.
6
If this were not a country filled with racists, Trump's appeal to race would fall flat. How many of us white folks have heard a person who is seemingly a believer in equality start an observation with "Why do black people..." Having other-ed an entire race, before he or she says more, it is clear that both feet are firmly planted on the racist side of the line. There is no way this conversation ends well. And when you call them out on it, they are shocked. The better ones realize they indeed betrayed their sense of self. But there it is, in the heart for all to see. Now most of us of a certain age were brought up homophobic, and yet many of us managed to overcome that particular form of alienating behavior just as soon as we realized we had neighbors, friends and family members who were gay. Walled off by patterns of housing discrimination, how many of us white folks have black neighbors, friends and family members to give us context? And so, racism as deep as our bones continues, hidden, below the surface, but all too real. We have work to do.
3
For all who have just read Kristof's column please read Tom Friedman's column from yesterday's NYT. If the dems don't corral the actions and comments of the "Squad" as well as their extreme policy proposais, then 2020 is a lost cause. Pelosi knows what she is talking about PLEASE Dems get some common sense. Counter all of Trump's venom with rational policy proposals. Shut down his control of the media by focusing on the major issues.
2
You can’t forget his friend and one time co-campaign director. Carl (Trumps) Paladino.
1
In all fairness he insults everybody. He even turns against his rich friends who are no longer useful to him. Hillary was wrong. It was not his followers who were despicable, it was Trump himself. I cannot understand how America got to this point where half the population supports this type of person.
3
And can’t the Dems get on the offensive for once? They have such a target rich environment in DJT. Should be easy but the Dems don’t do easy.
Get ready for at least eight years of DJT as so called president.
2
It's still the voters of the Congressional Districts who elect their representatives, correct?
The People's choices are not validated by the President. These officeholders are not bound to the President. Their power to fully participate in Congress does not fall under the thumb of the President.
Yet.. our highest official is casting aspersions upon several Districts' representatives.. that they hate America.
Not-so-astonishingly, the House's Resolution provoked Mitch McConnell to preach a lesson for all:
“The president’s not a racist. And I think the tone of all of this is not good for the country. But it’s coming from all ideological points of view. To single out any segment of this I think is a mistake. From the president to the speaker to freshman members of the House, all of us have a responsibility to elevate the public discourse. Our words do matter. We all know politics is a contact sport, but it’s about time we lowered the temperature all across the board.”
Openly hostile language using racist "go home" remarks to question elected officials' right to serve their nation and their constituency.. was sent by this President.
McConnell filed it under ALL SIDES; and last night, Trump supporters in Greenville, North Carolina were chanting "Send Her Back!"
2
Given: Donald Trump and much of the Republican leadership represent the worst characteristics of mankind. Period. There is no need to fall for the bait and continue to chronicle one bad act after another. Why preach to the choir when the concentration of wealth and thus power is the single most destructive force and danger to democracy both here in the US and across the world. Let's keep our eye on the prize and take back our Country from the .01%.
4
What Trump is doing is an extreme version of the longstanding Republican strategy of using social issues to inflame fear, to dominate the national conversation and to obscure the nuts-and-bolts issues of economic distribution, judicial fairness, civil rights and national security. It is Nixon's Southern Strategy applied to the whole country. And it's been used by every dictator in history. There are many reasons why Trump won in 2016, not least being the sheer novelty of his grotesque showmanship and the presumption that Clinton would surely prevail despite her serious shortcomings. This time around, those two factors are off the table. The most powerful antidote to Trump is a rousing call for national unity and the restoration of America as a democracy based on the checks and balances and rule of law laid out by the Founders. And that antidote should first be applied to the Democrats, whose current divisiveness is doing them no good.
3
I don’t think Trump is any more racist than the average guy on the street. I do think he’s using race as a deliberate reelection strategy, but that’s more of a calculated effort. If there were an honest poll of the American people, which is impossible given the subject, I’d be willing to bet that a strong majority have thought someone of a different ethnicity should go home if he, for example, was speaking Spanish in public or wearing a hijab. It’s just human nature.
2
@DRS
That’s not human nature. That’s a choice, we all came from somewhere. No one has ever told me to go back to where I came from, Norway and the Netherlands, but pretty sure it’s only a matter of time because socialism. Yep been accused of being a socialist because of my ethnicity like it’s in our gene’s or something. I have never been able to wrap my head around people who get triggered by hearing Spanish, French, or by them wearing whatever they want and think it’s a direct affront to their Americanism. No one owns America and it’s symbols of freedom they belong to all of us who emigrated at some time in history to get here.
1
I inadvertently hit the wrong button, cutting off my comments on Mr Kristoff’s observations on how Trump’s must recent attacks on the Squad employs the twin tools of racism and anti communism to divide people. To continue, During the McCarthy period, when the communists who built the labor unions, union and peace movements were ousted, all of these forces were subsequently weakened. To allow any one group to be persecuted, as Niemueller pointed out in his famous statement, creates the conditions in which there will be nobody left when the attacks turn towards us. The best way to combat Trump’s and his acolyte Lindsay Graham’s redbaiting is not to debate the accuracy of the smears, but to show it for the assault on our first amendment rights that it is.
9
Mr. Kristoff says, "I’m not sure whether this new McCarthyism is instinctive and unthinking, or these bilious rants represent a shrewd effort to manipulate voters into seeing the 2020 presidential campaign through the prism not of issues but of racial identity, in hopes of winning Trump an edge with white voters."
I think it's both. And it's magnified by those who gain when the people of the US indulge that propensity for division. We saw that happening during some of the Russian meddling in the last election. Trump himself has a long history of using the technique as do his Republican stooges.
4
Mr. Kristoff makes many sound points in his well written article which begins with humor but then moves on to the gravity of the current situation facing us all. However, his comments on how Trump’s remarks speculating on whether the Squad may be Communists are reminiscent of Joseph McCarthy labeling leftists of his day as Communists do not sufficiently deal with the dangers of both the past and present redbaiting and why it is more important than ever to combat it. While many on the left were falsely accused of being m from the unioncommunists under McCarthyism, and suffered the loss of livelihoods, careers and tragic personal consequences, it was also unfair, and subsequently judged illegal, to prosecute the actual communists, jailing them andostthe
2
trump is everything we have fought against force for years. trump is everything wrong with America. He is not the first leader to hold these ideas, but he better be the last leader to do so. America can never be truly great until racism is overcome. America can be great when we treat all people as equal. trump cannot treat people as equal because he does not see any of us as his equal. trump does not see the Constitution as a great doctrine. He openly disrespects the First Amendment and Article One of the Constitution. trump treats people seeking asylum in the most inhumane way he can think of. trump must go and so must any republican who enables trump’s un-American presidency.
To republicans, decorum in Congress is standing up for American ideals, not refusing to hear the word racist. Bravo to Al Green, Nancy Pelosi, and Eric Swalwell for standing up and saying what needs to be said. Now follow through with action that needs to be taken: impeach.
7
Lets get real pretty much everyone of us reading this piece repeated trumps exact words to our coworkers we would find ourselves in HR and swiftly out the door. The fact that this example is being set by a president and supported by his party shows the depths we as a nation have sunk too.
25
Frequently one sees the words like racism, nativism, etc. thrown out when someone disagrees with a policy or an idea from another. What gives this column real impact is the examples of behavior that support the label. Would that there was more focus on actual behavior that discriminates, judges, and imposes real limits on others. Ideas and thought processes are open to interpretation and some nuance actual behavior less so.
8
It is time that the Democratic Party use his racism against him. The party leaders should make it a priority to elicit support from minorities of color for the next election. If the party can convince them to vote, as a block, against the Republicans, the election will go to the Democrats. Focusing on the needs of middle class whites is important, but people of color have the most to lose if our current president is re-elected.
14
@Michael Trainor
Exactly. During the 2016 campaign, Trump asked the African American community what they had to lose by voting for him.
Now, surely, they know.
4
@Michael Trainor. Lowest unemployment rates EVER for Black and Latino Americans. Wouldn’t a racist suppress these numbers? Expect a mass exodus of Dem voters of these voter blocs. And expect a Trump landslide.
1
The thing is is that his base doesn’t actually expect him to accomplish anything, really. “Lock her up!” “Build the wall!” “Send them back!” and the rest are just community chants. Slogans they all scream in unison. They don’t care whether or not he does them.
his base doesn’t really care about the economy, or whether or not he brings back manufacturing industries and jobs, whether he brings peace (or war), whether or not he cleans up or destroys the environment. None of it matters to them - he can never disappoint them. As trump said, he could go out on Fifth Avenue and shoot someone dead, they wouldn’t care. As long as he continues to spew hate and fear, he’ll remain their champion.
21
To my many conservative colleagues who support the President I have these admonitions.
First, Trump is not grateful for what you have sacrificed for him. In fact he won't even acknowledge it and he certainly feels no debt to you. Second, there will be many more tweets as we approach Election Day 2020 and each more toxic than the one before. He won't stop until you his allies stand up to him. I should not be surprised if he starts making inflammatory remarks about the entire Democratic Party.
And finally, every time you excuse the execrable, it will be that much harder to object the next time. It is already nigh unto impossible and surely not possible without a severe consequence. So kudos to the four courageous Republican representatives.
The time will come when everyone associated with this man will be ashamed of themselves.
40
@Drew
A postscript to the above: I now think Trump will neither stop nor tone it down no matter who confronts him. So actually, standing up to the President isn't about him. It's about us.
3
There is only one way to get rid of Trump and that is get get rid of Fox News, the true power that controls and fuels the Republican Party. Not one Republican dares to step out of line because Fox News will destroy them. Republicans made a deal with the devil when they created a propaganda machine and became subservient to it. Unfortunately the only way to eviscerate Fox News is for corporate American to diminish advertising to the network. We know that will not happen and so the problem of Trump does not end with Trump. In fact our problems have only begun. We are repeating the 1920s and 1930s. Only far-right, Christian fundamentalist, conspiracy theory believing candidates and political leadership survive and flourish in the Fox News ecosystem-a feedback loop that supercharges gfar-right solutions.
52
@BillC Apparently it hasn't occurred to them that they could step out of line en masse.
3
@BillC
Fox News is the government now. Their commentators are his advisers, his shadow cabinet. He consults them. And the only reason we aren’t at open war with Iran at this minute is because Tucker Carlson talked him out of it by reminding him that his followers are sick of war.
Never thought I would thank Carlson for anything, but I thank him for that. I don’t care if he did the right thing for the wrong reason, it was still the right choice.
6
@BillC
So many “Recommends”? Fox is an attractive target for the left (kind of like Trump targets CNN). But truth is that Fox is a conservative version of CNN or MSNBC.
It has some strong journalists, and is well represented among women and minorities. The left is well represented by the aforementioned partisan networks and has the MSM generally on its side. Having a network with a conservative slant is “fair and balancing”.
Why so desperate to silence voices you disagree with?
1
Racism is an unending thread in every human mind and like stranger anxiety in children it is an inevitable consequence of the way we are wired. We can not hope to ever erase it but we can remain alert to it and try to understand how it puts limits on the fullness of our lives. If I am correct in this then we should not hate those who cannot confront their own frailties for certainly if they could do better they would do so.
Those who see themselves as free of racism are just not paying attention. I don't mean to say that we should spend every conscious moment on the subject but when such ideas enters our consciousness we could at least take a moment to reflect.
6
Great X-ray. Is that a human hand? Or perhaps a non-human primate? Reptilian even?
"We must acknowledge, as it seems to me, that man with all his noble qualities...still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin." - Charles Darwin
Regrettably, we remain primitive. To say racism is in our DNA is not metaphorical; it is literal. Evolution will decide if love wins out over hate.
7
@Paul
You are spot-on with your comment about DNA.
Racism is part of Tribalism - which has part of the human condition since the beginning. It has served as a way of protecting and promoting the evolution of the Tribe - by creating Fear of the Others. It's been imbedded into our DNA - it's in the core of each of us.
This served us humans well - very early in our evolution. But now, with almost 7 billion humans crowding onto the planet, with no signs of a leveling off or reduction of this population growth, our Tribalism (with its inherent Racism), may take us all down. Not one of us wants to give up "what is rightfully ours" - our little patch of the planet.
The U.S. is in a unique situation - as a multicultural society fighting the blending, or integration, of the tribes into a homogeneous society - we are a laboratory creating the future. Natural evolution of our DNA takes eons. The immediate future doesn't look too rosy.
1
Don’t forget about Trump’s bone spurs, which kept him out of Vietnam! While he paid off a family doctor to contrive this malady (which has not recurred since, nor slowed him down a bit), that war claimed the lives of a disproportionate number of blacks and other disadvantaged minorities. It is the height of hypocrisy to hear allegations of disloyalty to America from someone who lied and used his economic advantage to avoid military service.
41
If, even with Russian help, Trump loses the election, he will claim fraud. During the transition he will proclaim a "national emergency" in order to cancel the results. A president has no authority to do this, but a dictator doesn't care. I hope my prophecies are wrong but I am very afraid.
13
@Cassandra possibility! We must not be afraid or acquiesce to that kind of action. Period.
3
Nicholas, stop trying to add a Thirteenth commandment. Sure people are different.
I always just thought the white working class Republicans who vote against their economic interests were either:
1) religious; and/or
2) simply uninformed.
I may have been wrong.
I think they ARE just, or also, racist.
AND totally scared of democracy working against them (or so they think), to bring about socialised programs nationwide.
It is almost like they are expecting a race uprising.
But the beginning and the end of it is, THEY DO NOT WANT TO WORK AS A NATION.
I am just not sure if they want to pull the nation apart on purpose, or, again, are they just incited by Fox.
25
They have been brainwashed over years by Fox and right wing media. I know. They are most of my family. It is very upsetting.
Referring to Donald Trump and his vociferous peers as “racists” actually diminishes the extent of their feelings of superiority. Donald Trump and his peers like Mitch McConnell are bigots. Not only does Trump act in ways that are harmful to people of color, but also women (regardless of color), LGBT men and women, non Christians, and all others who don’t support his warped values.
20
It seems like our country has turned the sins of rage, fear and self-pity into virtues. The State Of the Union is not good.
6
I think it is clear that Trump plans to run an overtly racist campaign. He must think he can win with that. We all have to prove him wrong.
29
Wonderful piece Mr. Kristof. Would those thumbs be his "non-opposing thumbs"? It's as if this president* is experiencing a denigration of his DNA and he's reverting back many generations to a more base, knuckle dragging variant of humanity.
6
Where are the Woody Guthries, Marie Travers and Pete Sergers who will sing songs like Deportee?
This President has been emboldened to openly express racist views that no politician has dared to in 50 years. The recent surge of illegal immigrants has created disquiet among millions of Americans, both black and white. This fear of becoming a demographic and religious minority has created a situation where a President coming up for re-election is confident that xenophobia will carry him to the winners post.
If immigration is fixed, the xenophobia will also die down. If democrats don't address this problem, right wing leaders in the US will seize power just like they have done in Europe, Australia, Israel, Turkey and India. Supporting open borders and disbanding ICE, CBP etc. is a recipe for electoral disaster.
5
I am convinced of Trump’s racism and cynicism. Mr. Kristof states, his life is proof enough.
That said, this current event goes way beyond racism!
Telling elected officials of any party to either go home to a country, or their districts, is an attack on the Americans who voted for them! It is a direct attack on the most fundamental aspects of our democratic-constitutional-republic, the right of citizens to choose their representative and trust that those representatives will represent them in the halls of power where policies are legislated.
I think that alone makes Trump impeachable.
19
"It was miraculous. It was almost no trick at all, he saw, to turn vice into virtue and slander into truth, impotence into abstinence, arrogance into humility, plunder into philanthropy, thievery into honor, blasphemy into wisdom, brutality into patriotism, and sadism into justice. Anybody could do it; it required no brains at all. It merely required no character.”
― Joseph Heller, Catch 22
To me, this is a perfect description of Trump and his ability to sway a certain percentage of the population.
52
I've come around to the conclusion that Trump's most outrageous tweets are intended to divert public and media attention away from problematical subjects. I suspect that Trump got wind of the imminent release of video showing him partying with Jeffrey Epstein and a bunch of football cheerleaders. So he preemptively changed the subject.
11
Please remember - the solution to reduce racism, especially in the White House, is NOT to stay home BUT TO VOTE with your heart and mind. When one political party is fairly silent on the ineptness and hatefulness of our president, they as well as their Leader need to go.
8
"Frankly, I’m even more troubled by Trump’s policies than by his tweets, and I wish the reaction to Trump focused more on practical initiatives to reduce child poverty, treat drug addiction or end mass incarceration."
By now we should have learned that Trump has no policies. Other than self aggrandizement. The real intent of his so-called policies is to signal an indulgence for racism, sexism and xenophobia to sympathetic eyes and ears in order to facilitate a second term and even more self aggrandizement.
11
Trump and his republican party are now as one. As long as he is president, they are relevant. When he is gone, so is the republican party. No amount of rationalizing can ever excuse their behavior over the past two-plus years. History will not be kind.
10
“Racist” is an explosive term that should never be lightly flung as an epithet, and it is more likely to end a conversation than clarify it.”
From the article.
And the USC provides that no member of Congress can be held to account by any law anywhere for what they say on the floor of their chamber. Only the members of that chamber may hold them to account.
Speaker Pelosi, second in line of succession to the presidency, was found to have broken the House rules of civil discourse in her resolution condemning 45, and the motion to strike was defeated, along the same party lines that passed the uncivil commendation.
What can we make if this?
4
Do Democrats want to win or do they simply want the moral high ground? We have already seen that moral outrage is not an effective political strategy. If you want to win,then do what works, not what makes you feel better. That is, propose centrist, workable solutions to problems like healthcare, border security and disparities in income. Democrats also need to attack Trump where he is vulnerable, not where he wants to be attacked. Criticize his tax plan that favors the wealthy and creates huge governmental deficits into the future. Point out the chaos of his administration, how he has alienated our allies and weakened our hand in dealing with China. Show how his cabinet is made up of corrupt, incompetent billionaires who bought their offices. It is ironic to think that Trump actually is more strategic in what he says and does than Democrats who react reflexively and largely without regard to what their responses accomplish politically.
26
@ron l
The moral high ground is a nice place to be. If we Americans would rather lie in the gutter, we will get the president we deserve.
As a resident of America, I would like to be proud of my president, but when he verbally bashes people based on their race, that goes against everything America has worked to change. I can get behind the idea of Trump being racist and racially profiling populations which are beyond wrong. I agree with the statement that it is easy to get hooked on the next new thing Trump has tweeted, but we are so blinded by this that we overlook the policies only benefiting a certain group of people. Kristof uses comedy to relieve the tension created by the serious tone also helping the reader understand the extent of Trump's racist nature. He uses comedy to gain the trust of the reader and by comparing his point to something we all know about-bones. Kristof also has a question-answer type of format which typically resolves any questions the reader has such as: How could this relate to Trump? By eluding to past political scandals, such as McCarthyism, it increases the reader's sense of Logos. People's opinions on Trump proves to be interesting because of the extent of diversity in the opinions. In America, it is common that you either highly support or oppose Trump's presidency, so it is intriguing to hear peoples opinions. I am typically fascinated when reading articles about Trump because I wonder what the reasoning behind his inexcusable actions is.
1
As a resident of America, I would like to be proud of my president, but when he verbally bashes people based on their race, that goes against everything America has worked to change. I can get behind the idea of Trump being racist and racially profiling populations which are beyond wrong. I agree with the statement that it is easy to get hooked on the next new thing Trump has tweeted, but we are so blinded by this that we overlook the policies only benefiting a certain group of people. Kristof uses comedy to relieve the tension created by the serious tone also helping the reader understand the extent of Trump's racist nature. He uses comedy to gain the trust of the reader and by comparing his point to something we all know about-bones. Kristof also has a question-answer type of format which typically resolves any questions the reader has such as: How could this relate to Trump? By eluding to past political scandals, such as McCarthyism, it increases the reader's sense of Logos. People's opinions on Trump proves to be interesting because of the extent of diversity in the opinions. In America, it is common that you either highly support or oppose Trump's presidency, so it is intriguing to hear peoples opinions. I am typically fascinated when reading articles about Trump because I wonder what the reasoning behind his inexcusable actions is.
"Go back to your country" is unacceptable to say to _any_ American, regardless of race. So why does the race of the targets matter? Focus should be on the unacceptability of saying this, period.
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@Ilya Shlyakhter
The race of the targets matters because there is a long and specific history of American white supremacist groups saying precisely this to brown American citizens.
All political opinions aside, I believe there is a bigger problem developing in our country, and President Trump is simply accelerating it. The rhetoric may not explicitly be racist, but the undertones are. It is giving people reason and approval to say things that would otherwise be offensive to someone else. But it also shows the president's bad judgement. Three of the four women he insulted were born and raised in the U.S., and the fourth has been a naturalized citizen for decades. Look, we can disagree with the so called "squad" on their ideas and principles, but it is up to us as Americans to stand up to people like President Trump to condemn the hatred and bigotry that is deafening our country. I fear that his remarks will be hailed by his supporters as many GOP lawmakers fret their political survival if they speak out. There have been a few good souls in the GOP who have spoken out, but it is a shame that the number is almost invisible to the naked eye. I cannot stress enough, lets debate policy. Leave race, ethnicity, and personal looks out of the equation. Even most Democrats will agree that these four progressive women's policy proposals are very left-leaning, but they show that they will stand up for humanity over petty politics anyday, which is what I look for when I go to the ballot box.
22
When will we really believe that both Trump supporters and the Republican legislators will never get upset at Trump for anything he says or does? If we understood that we would stop these cries of outrage every time he stoops lower.
Please stop writing about Trump's misdeeds. He loves it, don't give him what he craves.
Please discuss his tax policies, American manufacturing, effect of tariffs on the farmers, the steady decline of retail jobs, etc.
Talk about how other countries are galloping fast while all we do is talk about Trump and his antics and our divisions.
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@InTheKnow
"Please stop writing about Trump's misdeeds. He loves it, don't give him what he craves."
I admit to falling into despair when I see venues such as this newspaper and cables shows on MSNBC doing exactly that. How many times have I seen the cable host opine about the dangers of "taking the bait", only to spend the rest of the show discussing some vile tweet, complete with (rightfully) outraged guests who can offer nothing BUT outrage?
7
You're spot on, Mr. Kristof. I have one question though: "Frankly, I’m even more troubled by Trump’s policies than by his tweets..." How are we able to distinguish between policies and edicts?! Of course there is no hint of prudence in these uncivil proclamations. Yes, you're correct: these fly by night off the cuff "policies" should terrify us all. But wait; the tweets and the policies are nearly indistinguishable: the implementation is terrifying.
16
...policies, edicts: early diktats by a wannabe.
He has no policies
Just DE-Obama everything
Yes. I had the same thought. This is 21st century McCarthyism.
33
If the media would completely shut up about Trump, the man would implode, solving some of our immediate problems. Of course we would be left with all the problems that led directly to his election. But one thing at time.
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@Carla
Trump will never stop. His narcissism demands it.
1
I seriously doubt it.
1
I wish Democrats would not count on moral outrage to bring down Trump. They need to remind Americans about the GOP tax cut for the wealthy, his ongoing campaign against Obamacare, and the rampant chaos, scandal, and incompetence of his administration. Stick to those three. Repeat daily. Put him on the defensive. Let him explain why he isn’t bragging about that tax cut, or the GOP healthcare plan (there isn’t one). Trump has sown the seeds of his own demise.
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@GK
Good thinking. I'd add : Focus on inequality and the best way to get people thinking: asking questions. For example: Are you better off since Trump became president? How have you been affected by extremes of weather in the past 5 to 10 years? What are your top three concerns about life in America today? What is the Trump administration doing to address your concerns?
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@GK Yes. And why is our infrastructure crumbling? And FIMA over-extended? And coal miners in worse shape?
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@GK
Not just his tax cuts for the rich, we need to point out that tariffs are a tax on the middle and lower classes. He's raised taxes on the people who can least afford it, while showering money on those who do not need it.
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President Trump hates a lot of things. Now he says that those who disagree with him, or who want to fight to make our country better in ways he doesn't like, must hate America. And they should just leave. Like all authoritarian leaders, Mr. Trump needs an enemy, some "other" around which to rally his base. Evidently, he's found one, as well as his malevolent sales pitch for 2020.
To my sorrow, Mr. Trump has affected me in a personal way I'd rather not admit. He's taught me to hate too. I hate every vile utterance that comes from his mouth or tweets. I hate his racism and ignorance, his unending anger and divisive rhetoric, his wallowing in power and greed, his amorality, his careless destruction of democratic norms as well as our environment, his smug arrogance and base stupidity, and his dragging our country into a political cesspool to serve his own reelection purposes. And I hate that I feel this way.
But I refuse to be defined by Mr. Trump's hate, nor will I yield to his black hole of negativity. I will do everything I can to fight for the country I love, and I will not leave or be silent. As Martin Luther King said, "Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars...Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that." To which I would only add, so can the 2020 elections.
1385
@jrinsc -- I'm not going to 'love' Trump, despite Dr. King's words. I -am- going to love the day he leaves office. And I'm going to pray every day that is Jan. 20, 2021... and I'm -for sure- going to vote.
168
Great commentary. I know exactly how you feel. The other day, I saw some teenage boy wearing a Trump shirt while eating at a Mexican restaurant. I was overwhelmed with HATE. I really wanted to say something or do something, but the “better angels” of my nature held me back. I don’t like feeling like that, but I get the same feeling when I read the news. God help us.
136
@jrinsc It's a quandry. Trump, Miller, McConnell and the rest of that crew indeed do trigger brain chemicals that I'd rather not have to experience. So, I struggle to listen and not lose my compassion.
There are always the underlying questions, "What causes you to fear so much that you act this way?" "Why do you value hoarding resources above empowering humans?"
I'll stand with you.
40
I have just completed a mandatory training course on discrimination, as it is defined by the federal government. From this experience I learned that I would be fired immediately, demoted, or otherwise strongly disciplined for behavior that trump and his supporters consider a winning strategy. I work for a private organization, trump for the federal government. Why is he still employed as POTUS?
181
As I'm nearly finished reading Jill Lepore's magnificent one volume history of the US, "These Truths", I'm struck by degree to which Trump embodies the most divisive and destructive strains in our history -- racism, nativism, isolationism, and a wanton disregard for reason and truth. As we approach 2020, I hope a sufficient number of Americans realize that the pending election represents a truly existential choice -- we will either embrace the principles on which the nation was founded or repudiate them.
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@Greg Colbert
Won't happen. People don't care about that stuff. A better way is to try to convince people that Trump will take away their Medicaid.
150
At the end of the day, the 2020 election will come down - as it inevitably does - to voter turnout in WI, MI, OH, NC, PA, FL.
The Times would do well to analyze the impact of Trump's racist and related inflammatory statements on likely turnout rates.
Sadly, I don't think that what Trump has said or says from here on out will have any impact on the outcome.
I'm hoping that a new silent majority will roar next November and that country will raise out its malaise, but I'm not optimistic.
179
@Greg Colbert,
If the Democrats were smart, they would make democracy reforms an essential element of the campaign. In addition, voters should recognize that restoring a working government isn't just about getting rid of a dysfunctional president. Congress needs to be changed wholesale as well.
79
This is not just Trump. This has always been the Republican Party. I am old enough to remember Nixon’s southern strategy, Reagan’s regaling us with stories of welfare queens and young bucks on welfare (not to mention announcing his candidacy in Philadelphia, Mississippi), George H W Bush’s Willie Horton ads. The only difference is prior to Trump, the GOP only flirted with racism. Now they’re married.
1509
@Mickey Topol
Well said, Mickey.
And (as I love to say), your comments carry the added benefit of being true.
32
@Mickey Topol I was in junior high when Reagan ran for president. When I heard about the speech in Philadelphia, MS, I thought, "Well surely that's an oversight. A mistake. No Presidential candidate would do that." Now, as an adult, I know that people operating at the level of Presidential politics don't make those sort of mistakes. It was a message. The election of Ronald Reagan was when this country went down the wrong path.
152
Never forget: it was the Reagan Administration that ruled was ketchup was a “vegetable” when used in school lunch programs.
41
I really do appreciate this column, (I really do) however I would like to point out that you, others in the media and pundits are really only NOW starting to use the correct terms, when really ALL of you should have been doing so BEFORE he was elected.
There are other terms that should have been used as well, such as ''liar'', considering we are well over 5000 verifiable ones (and counting).
The English language is a vast one, but it is also a precise one, There are innumerable words that have fallen out of fashion and are not used anymore, but there are some simple ones that have immense, immense weight brought to bear when they are uttered.
Let's start calling it what it is and attach it.
1470
@FunkyIrishman
Agree.
Media didn't call him a liar and a racist, until he has been shouting in their faces to make them believe.
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@FunkyIrishman
In times like this, the urge to lean towards 'politeness' can be a negative. Just say the words that fit.
28
@FunkyIrishman - concur. And at this stage I think that the modifiers "unrepentant", "compulsive" and "serial" are in order.
62
Trump says no "racist bone in his body". What he said was racist. If he wants people to believe he isn't- change rhetoric. You figure the walk like a duck, quack like a duck-must be a duck slope he is on--- pretty Slippery.
5
Mr. Trump is just smart enough to know that calling Rep. Omar pro-Al Qaeda increases the chances of someone shooting her.
11
@Jim Holstun- more likely than that, him being re-elected.
1
Someone’s death is the inevitable culmination of the ratcheting up of his hateful tweets and rallies. Who or what will stop him?
Trump is a racist. That’s old news. The Republicans in Congress are as racist as he is. That’s sad news for both their party and our country.
38
@Sledge
And don’t forget Nancy Pelosi. The left wing of the Democratic Party believe her a racist too.
1
People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones, and the President should be careful about where he throws the Communist epithets. His father-in-law, Melania's Dad, was once a Communist. A biography states, "After his chauffeur job, Viktor became a traveling salesman for a state-owned car company. "In contrast to the privations that so many suffered in Communist times, the Knavses lived well," GQ reports. While Viktor was reportedly a card-carrying member of the Sevnica Communist Party, Trump campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks told the New York Times last year that Knavs had never been an "active member" of the party." And we are supposed to believe Hope Hicks?
31
No evidence of a backbone...
16
Trump will use ANYTHING to get his way. It's just that at this point racism works well for him.
8
Americans' worship of money meant that, instead of going to Vietnam and mercifully not ever coming back, Donald Trump is now president of the United States of America.
As you are, you will be governed.
9
America is a racist country and always has been. Donald Trump views are a symptom of it. I recommend reading Gore Vidal’s 1993 essay, Race Against Time, for interesting facts. He even predicts Brexit.
13
Yes, brought to you by a man who embraced the "birther" conspiracy theory - and has set about to destroy anything Barak Obama did - in a way that is beyond political differences - it is totally about racism.
76
Thank you, Mr. Kristof, for this column.
12
Did anyone ever have any doubts, from day one, what that little racist really stands for? And now his supporters feign shock - while still applauding him.
The man has fully exposed his nature - let us make certain that the ballot box will be his deserved undoing.
10
I am disgusted, sick and heartbroken; and scared for people of color. The rally tonight in NC has people CHANTING: SEND THEM/HER BACK.
36
@KatieBear I am married to a naturalized citizen born in the UK. I am a one-eighth American Indian (with the papers to prove it) and my husband made an amazing comment when this latest outrage started last week. He said if “send them all back...” was really true, the only rightful people who can say that authentically are native Americans! Everyone else from other countries, are after all, immigrants! Let’s share that with all the haters! YOU GO BACK TO WHERE YOU CAME FROM! HATERS! (My caps!)
Racism violates, shreds, mocks every one of the ideals we consider American. What is going to happen to us if we can't even come together to protect our commonweal against this kind of attack?
11
On top of all that, Trump's son-in-law (that would be the despicable Jared Kushner) is Jewish and Trump's daughter converted to Judaism - and yet, Trump continually panders to virulently anti-Semitic right-wingers.
17
Its silly to claim that trump is a racist because he refused to once again denounce the kkk in response to a reporter's question. By mr. Kristof's reasoning, congresswoman omar must like al queda because she refused to denounce them at the recent press conference. Progressives like to make everything about race.
6
@R.P.
It may not be effective for progressives to mention race, but it is indeed true that the United States has been racist since before the first slaves were brought to Jamestown in the 1400s The Civil War was fought for slave-holders. Reconstruction was ignored within a decade after the end of that war, with the ascension of the Southern-sympathizing Democrats. Jim Crow is still practiced, though more subtly, not just in the South, but in the North. Nixon's Southern Strategy and Reagan's tactics, as mentioned in previous posts, were the transition of anti-black racism as a strategy to to the Party of Lincoln.
Raised in a white, Southern Baptist, conservative (Republican and military) family, it took me a while to recognize the above facts.
Do you think White Privilege exists? If not, and you are white, then you are one of Trump's racists, whether you realize it or not. I suggest David Blight's biography of Frederick Douglass for your edification. The literature of black history holds many truths you and those like you should learn.
2
I am not a medical doctor, but I am pretty sure that racism is not a bone.
3
“No-one kicks a dead horse.” The more gallons of vitriol thrown at Donald Trump I read of here at the NYT, and its re-throwing in the comment pages, the more convinced I am that Trump is going to win in 2020. You good people do not understand the American psyche. America is a brutal, racist country and always has been. I say that as an observation only. There are lots of good things about America.
7
Why am I paying for another one of his campaign rallies in North Carolina? How is he allowed to get away with this? Are the inmates running the whole asylum, even the accounting office? He is an abomination. Does he know how many of us hate him and make fun of him everyday. I just received a text with a photo of Kim Jung Un and trump in Speedos standing in some shallow water with their arms on each other’s shoulders - hilarious! Looks like a Summer Camp yearbook photo from Camp Outta’ Shape for weird politicians with bad haircuts.
10
Nice take Mr Krisfof, but I can’t help but remember the piece you wrote on Feb 23, 2017 titled “trump Voters Are Not The Enemy” where you defended trump’s supporters as nor racist.
As an example, you described the people of your hometown of Yamhill, OR as “decent and non-bigoted people” after they overwhelmingly voted for trump. Moreover, you used the phony “economic anxiety” myth to justify their motivations.
Well, Hillary crushed trump among voters with the lowest incomes... It was never about “economic anxiety.”
White liberals and “moderates” in the media created that excuse to deflect & defend their friends and relatives who voted for trump.
Supporting a racist makes you one.
9
Very well written!
2
If Trump is so racist how could he date a black woman for two years? She herself avers that he's not racist. Blind spot.
@rpe123
I am not aware of that "fact", but a having a black friend or two cannot cleanse a racist of the stain.
"We should seek by all means in our power to avoid war, by analysing possible causes, by trying to remove them, by discussion in a spirit of collaboration and good will."
Those words by Neville Chamberlain.
trump is a racist and misogynistic bigot. Worse, his appeasement of N.Korea and Russia and dealings with China and his bungling in the Middle East has endangered us all. We know this. And the time for talking, for appeasement à la Chamberlain are way past.
American citizens need to take to the streets. Work stoppages. Sit-ins. Highway blockages. Airports. If you don't stop this, now, it'll be too late in a few years - and the US will be shattered beyond recognition.
The dems and reps in their Houses, will not do a thing - they're myopic and concerned only about their jobs.
All good people of the US; white, black, latino, Christian, Jewish, Muslim: take action now. Act.
10
Put it this way. If Trump indeed has no racist bones in his body, then his racism must be the result of a profound out-of-body experience. IMHO, Trump enying that he is a racist is itself an impeachable offense inasmuch as it demonstrates that he has a dangerous lack of self-awareness. Time for Rep. Green to tee up another impeachment article. This one's got a real shot.
Not.
2
@Jay Orchard
Trump's lack of self awareness is painfully apparent. Again, the emperor without clothes but nobody will tell him. Kellyann Conway joined him today. He is pulling them all under. Barr, too, is getting caught in the undertow. If he lies to Congress, he will become the new Manafort.
Today's ignominious Republican party bears no resemblance to the party of Lincoln - none at all.
18
" ... and woven them together in an outburst that is an affront to democratic norms."
Trumps very existence is an affront to humankind.
I don't believe reasonable decent humans can say anything more damming that what has been said to date, about this vile creature who has taken possession of the seat of world power, and who is slowly and deliberately sowing his innate hatred wherever fertile ground exists, and here in this badly damaged United States of America, it seems nearly 50% of the population is hard and fast aligned with this evil creature.
Our one hope is that this creature, so full of his admiration for himself, is that one of these days, believing he can do no wrong, he will make such a profound error that Congress will have no alternative but to remove him from office, and place him in an asylum for the criminally insane.
I tend to think that his arrogance, his hubris will undo him.
18