Make America Hate Again

"Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering." - Yoda

"It is never too late to give up our prejudices." - Henry David Thoreau

Our nation, much like the rest of the world, has a long and ignominious history of bigotry and intolerance.  From slavery to the Trail of Tears.  From "Irish need not apply" to Jim Crow.  From the KKK to race riots in the 1960s.  While the United States was nothing short of revolutionary in its system of government and the freedoms protected, that doesn't mean that our nation is without its faults.

Over the past 50 years or so, things have gotten better.  Overt racism became less acceptable (if not less common) and people learned to live, learn and work next to people of other races, ethnicities, religions, sexual orientations, etc.  However, over the past three years, the tide seems to have turned - and not in a good direction.  The primary reason?  The person who currently resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

From the earliest days of his campaign in 2015, Donald Trump made a habit of saying incendiary things and defaming other people.  From asserting that all immigrants from Mexico are rapists, criminals and drug smugglers to calling his opponents "Lyin' Ted," "Crooked Hillary," and "Rocket Man," to stating that there were "very fine people" amongst the white supremacists who marched in Charlottesville to his border security policies, his primary modus operandi has been to rile up his followers by playing on their fears and demonizing those of different backgrounds or political persuasions.  In a sense, he has made saying xenophobic things in public acceptable again and that is NOT a good thing.

(As an aside, during the Clinton impeachment trial during the late 1990s, I recall Republicans stating that Clinton's lies couldn't be tolerated or allowed because it would send the signal that lying under oath was acceptable.  However, many of those same people appear to not have any problem with Trump's antics which appear to send the signal that saying racist things is acceptable.)

Trump's behavior has unquestionably worked well for him so far.  He has appealed to the worst of human kind - our unfounded xenophobic fears - to foment disgust over things people do not like or understand.  I'm not even sure how much of what he says he actually believes but he understands that, like a dog whistle, he can draw people towards himself by playing on their fears, turning those fears into hatred and pushing his followers to act upon that hatred and vote accordingly.  While it has thus far proven to be a successful strategy, it is indisputably a negative thing for our country.  He legitimized hatred, bigotry and misogyny and, at the end of they day, no one benefits from that, regardless of your gender, race, ethnicity or religion.

Thanks for reading.