Is Donald Trump a Bigot and a Racist?
Over at the Washington Post, Dana Milbank does not “mince words” and unequivocally says so — and I tend to agree with him.
Some believe Trump is the greatest thing since slice bread, but people with a modicum of respect and empathy for others who happen to have a slightly different accent, skin color, religion, sexual orientation, social or legal status in our country or national origin must at a bare minimum question Trump’s glaring lack of it. .
People with the slightest bit of decency and decorum have to be offended by Trump’s vulgar comments about and mockery of other human beings’ physical appearances, disabilities and even female body functions.
While Milbank normally would agree that “name-calling is part of what’s wrong with our politics,” he believes that there is “a greater imperative not to be silent in the face of demagoguery.”
He points to the groups of people Trump has “gone after” : African Americans, immigrants, Latinos, Asians, women, Muslims and now the disabled.
I would add to the list of people Trump has disgracefully gone after, those we honor the most, our war heroes, and those we should pity the most, those fleeing murder, rape, torture, carnage and persecution.
Milbank recalls Trump’s actions many years ago when the mogul clamored for “the death penalty for ‘criminals of every age’ after five black and Latino teens were implicated in the Central Park jogger case.” “The young men, convicted and imprisoned, were later cleared by DNA evidence and the confession of a serial rapist – and Trump called their wrongful-conviction settlement a ‘disgrace,’” Milbank adds.
Milbank continues:
Since then, Trump led the “birther” movement challenging President Obama’s standing as a natural-born American; used various vulgar expressions to refer to women; spoke of Mexico sending rapists and other criminals across the border; called for rounding up and deporting 11 million illegal immigrants; had high-profile spats with prominent Latino journalists and news outlets; mocked Asian accents; let stand a charge made in his presence that Obama is a Muslim and that Muslims are a “problem” in America; embraced the notion of forcing Muslims to register in a database; falsely claimed thousands of Muslims celebrated the 9/11 attacks in New Jersey; tweeted bogus statistics asserting that most killings of whites are done by blacks; approved of the roughing up of a black demonstrator at one of his events; and publicly mocked the movements of New York Times (and former Washington Post) journalist Serge Kovaleski, who has a chronic condition limiting mobility.
On the bright side however, Milbank mentions that “[32] percent of Republicans supported Trump in the latest Post poll, which means 86 percent of the overall American electorate hasn’t embraced him.”
Also on the bright side:
Trump’s rivals for the nomination are slowly and haltingly finding the courage to call the man what he is. Chris Christie on Monday criticized Trump’s treatment of Kovaleski. John Kasich, after last week’s Neimoller video, issued an ad Monday showing Trump’s mockery of Kovaleski’s disability and saying Trump isn’t “worthy” of the presidency
Even more on the bright side, finally some news organizations — such as the New York Times and, albeit in a more nuanced way and with lots of caveats, even the Wall Street Journal –are getting the backbone to call out Trump’s lies, and to ask whether Trump is an honest person.
Is Donald Trump a bigot and a racist — and a liar? Caveat lector. More important, let the voter beware.
Lead image: www.shutterstock.com
Edited to add:”More important, let the voter beware.”
