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Donald Trump's Legacy: It's ok to be a Racist [1]

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Date: 2023-09-08

The judge gave Proud Boy leader Enrique Tarrio a 22 year sentence for his role in organizing the Jan 6th insurrection. It makes one pause. In the space of about 10 years Donald Trump has turn our country inside out, destroying the fragile progress I genuinely believe we had made in marginalizing racism. Racism is back and out in the open. White supremacists are Trump’ henchmen. It is dangerous and capable of destroying us.

Racism is a tool for Trump to win

Trump has brought racism to forefront again and has stoked the passions that surround this issue. I think Trump’s position on racism stems from his intense drive to win, no matter what it costs. He sees it as advantageous to include extreme groups as part of his base and I do not think he cares what they believe or promote. His support for racism manifests itself in two ways. First, he repeatedly refuses to criticize racist groups’ violent activities and second, he encourages extreme expression. Through these behaviors he has provided tacit support to various racists groups and created an environment in which no idea is too extreme. Publicly saying whatever pops into your head is fine no matter how extreme, angry, or hurtful the thought might be. Much of his appeal is his willingness to say extreme things. He started a movement in which nothing is too extreme to say out loud. Now, we have representatives in Congress who heckle the State of the Union Speech and suggest that half of the country should secede from the union. But most concerning, we now have public figures openly embracing racism.

The Consequences

One could argue that the current environment is just revealing the racism that has always existed throughout our nation’s history. If it has been lurking just below the surface the whole time, what is the big deal with bringing it into the open? Bringing racism in to the discussion of ideas legitimizes it, and allows it to be a force in shaping laws and institutions. It emboldens hate groups to take violent actions. One measure of racism levels are the number of hate crimes committed. As the chart above shows, the total number of hate crimes basically fell during the first 3 years of the Obama presidency but started to raise again after 2014. There was a significant jump up in 2017, after Trump was elected.

Going through the Jan 6 trials while Trump in still on the campaign trail will continue to stoke racism and anger. He really needs to be disqualified as a candidate.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/9/8/2192180/-Donald-Trump-s-Legacy-It-s-ok-to-be-a-Racist

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