He Does Impressions
Eugene Robinson is one
of my favorite columnists. His most recent piece in the Washington Post is another gem, titled “If
President Trump is Not a White Supremacists, He Does a Good Impression.” I have
pasted his column in its entirety below. Well worth reading.
I share this because I
believe it is worth reading; we need to accept and wrestle with the fact that
our president is this kind of person…the kind of person his own words and
actions portray…that is, not a picture based on opposition sound bites and not
a case of the media not giving him a chance—this is a portrait of a president
in his own words.
At the same time, there
is a sense in this piece that the president is beginning to falter, his
coalition shrinking. I hope this is true. But he surprised the pundits with his
election win and Republicans in Congress continue to surprise us all with the
depths of depravity to which they are willing to descend to avoid actually
governing.
Our president has
repeatedly shown himself to be an angry, ignorant and dangerous old man. But he
also displays a brilliant huckster’s instincts. He will not go away quietly or
without great pain.
We should not assume the
hateful and ignorant cultural coalition that gave us Trump is shrinking. I hope
it is, but we need to remain steadfast and vigilante in our efforts to
strengthen the only alternative in a two-party system: the Democratic Party.
We need to win the House
in the midterms. Hopefully we will not find our young men and women fighting
& dying on the Korean peninsula just before that election and only because
our president wants to boost his poll numbers.
So, I agree with Robinson here
and also caution us all about assuming this man will self-destruct—that assumption
is one key factor that got us in the mess we are in right now. But let’s hear
from Eugene Robinson….
President Trump’s race-baiting attack on African American
athletes is nothing new. During the civil rights movement, blacks in the South
who dared to stand up for justice were often punished by being fired from their
jobs. Trump is demanding that National Football League team owners act like the
white segregationists of old.
It was gratifying to see the overwhelming rejection of
Trump’s hideous rabble-rousing by NFL players, owners and fans. But let’s be
clear: There is no reason, at this point, to give Trump the benefit of any
doubt. We should assume Trump’s words and actions reflect what he truly
believes.
His opening salvo, delivered Friday at a campaign rally in
Alabama, could not have been clearer, or
cruder: “Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody
disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a b---- off the field right now.
Out! He’s fired. He’s fired!’ ”
Trump was referring, of course, to players who take a knee
during the singing of the national anthem. The practice was started by
quarterback Colin Kaepernick — and adopted by a smattering of players around
the league, almost all of them black — as a way of protesting police shootings
of unarmed African Americans.
Trump claimed in a Monday tweet that “the issue of
kneeling has nothing to do with race,” but that is a lie. Kaepernick’s method
of protest had everything to do with race, as its intent was to focus attention
on racial injustice.
Trump was speaking to a virtually all-white audience in the
Deep South. About 70 percent of players in the NFL are African American. Some
political analysts put two and two together and concluded that Trump was
playing to the racial anxieties and animosities of his base. If this is true,
however, he seems to have miscalculated.
Hundreds of players, black and white, protested
during the anthem on Sunday by kneeling, linking arms or, in some cases, declining to take the field
until the music was over. Many coaches and owners joined in. Almost all team
owners released statements defending the players’ right to protest, including
New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, a friend of Trump’s who contributed $1
million to his inauguration committee and gave him a Super Bowl ring. Kraft
said he was “deeply disappointed” by Trump’s remarks.
Perhaps stung by the near-unanimity of the NFL’s reaction,
Trump sought refuge by appealing to an audience he might have expected to be
friendlier. “So proud of NASCAR and its supporters and fans. They won’t put up
with disrespecting our Country or our Flag,” he tweeted Monday.
But a half-hour later, NASCAR’s most popular driver, Dale
Earnhardt Jr., responded
by tweeting, “All Americans R granted rights 2 peaceful protests.” Maybe
next Trump will try his luck with the professional rodeo circuit.
Trump’s
intent, I assume, was to create a wedge issue, with patriots on one side — his
side — and non-patriots on the other. He did not realize that so
many people who might dispute Kaepernick’s position on police violence would
nevertheless defend the players’ right to take a stand, or a knee. We have a
president who does not understand our fundamental freedoms.
We also have a president who, if he’s not a white
supremacist, does a convincing impression of one.
On Saturday, he publicly disinvited the Golden State
Warriors’ Steph Curry — one of pro basketball’s transcendent stars — from the
White House. Curry had expressed reluctance to visit, and instead of reaching
out, Trump slammed the door. I suppose you could argue that rich and famous
athletes can take care of themselves.
But recall that Trump and his father were sued by President Richard Nixon’s Justice
Department for illegally refusing to rent apartments to black prospective
tenants. Recall that Trump continued to insist that the “Central Park Five”
— four black men and one Latino — were guilty of a brutal rape even after DNA
evidence had conclusively proved their innocence. Recall that Trump led the
“birther” movement, ridiculously claiming that Barack Obama was not born in the
United States. Recall Trump’s campaign appeal to black voters:
“You’re living in poverty, your schools are no good, you have no jobs, 58
percent of your youth is unemployed — what the hell do you have to lose?”
And recall his reaction to Charlottesville, where he
discerned some “very fine people” among the torch-wielding parade of Ku Klux
Klan members and neo-Nazis.
I don’t believe this can all be political calculation. I
believe Trump is telling us what he really thinks — and who he really is.
Read more from Eugene Robinson’s
archive, follow him on
Twitter or subscribe to his
updates on Facebook. You can also join him Tuesdays at 1 p.m. for a live
Q&A.
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