When I was a kid, my dad would tell tales of his growing up during the Great Depression and World War II. He often wondered how the people of Germany could have fallen for a Hitler and his philosophy of hate. Growing up, I always wondered that as well. How could so many people have fallen for it?
Watching what has been happening over the last few years here in the United States, I now understand how the Nazi party rose to power: the German people fell for a con man who knew where to place the blame for the nation’s problems. That blame was aimed squarely at people perceived as different.
Fast forward to Make America Great Again: can you smell the racism in that slogan? With a black man in the White House, Donald Trump could use racism as a keystone in his campaign, and he did. Make America Great Again by electing a hateful old white man. On the campaign trail, Trump did not hide his racism.
When Trump announced his campaign for president
“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems …They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists, and some, I assume, are good people.”
At a South Carolina rally five days after the San Bernardino terrorist attack
Trump called for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what the hell is going on.”
“Well, just so you understand, I don’t know anything about David Duke, okay? I don’t know anything about what you’re even talking about with white supremacy or white supremacists. So I don’t know.”
Pointing to a black man surrounded by white Trump supporters at a campaign rally in Redding
“Look at my African American over here. Look at him.”
Presidential debate with Hillary Clinton
“Our inner cities, African Americans, Hispanics are living in hell because it’s so dangerous. You walk down the street, you get shot.”
Those are just the high points (or low points) of the Trump campaign. That alone tells you that people were comfortable voting for an openly racist candidate.
Should it come as any surprise that the people who voted for Trump are okay with separating children from their parents, and blocking members of one religion from entering the country? That they are okay with the naked racism we see every single day in this country?
Someday, the photos, and words will come back to haunt those who have supported this racist president. They will regret their choice—but they will never admit it.
As a kid, when my dad told me the stories of how the Nazis rose to power in Germany, I wondered how it could have happened. In high school and college, I wondered if I would have been duped by a two-bit con man. Would I have followed orders? Would I have followed the pack? Today, I know the answer: no way, never in a million years. Even if Trump had run as a Democrat and agreed with me on the issues (or said he did), I would not have voted for him. He is a vile, racist human being. He sold our country out to Russia for the presidency. He does not give a shit about America, or its people. He will use and abuse whoever he can to get whatever he wants.
History is written by the victors, and the history books will not be kind to him. How do I know this? I will let Dan Rather answer that question:
Right now, it seems as if we cannot stop Trump and his cult. But the tides will turn, and the backlash will be strong. He and his sycophants will crawl back under their rocks, and we will write the history books on him. There will be no schools, no roads, and no airports named after him. He will go down as the man who almost destroyed America from within. We are stronger than him, we outnumber his followers—and we are on the right side of history.