The torch-light march of hundreds of men around the statue of Confederate General and racist supreme Robert E. Lee exists because Trump gave them a voice to exist. They have been searching for their lucky break since Lincoln Rockwell and Charles Lindbergh of the 1930's era took up the Nazi cause. Now they have, in this era, Trump and solely because of him occupy advisory seats in the oval office. White supremacists are, after all, a large part of Trump's 35% base and he will never abandon them because he has no one else.
The violence in Charlottesville is nothing new but what is new is giving voice to those that were pushed initially to the political periphery and discounted as too extreme. Now Trump has changed that and allowed an extreme rightwing philosophical Neo-Nazi, KKK, anti Semitic, anti-immigrant nativist base to take up residence in the White House. While the Steve Bannons, Sebastian Gorkas and Steven Millers within the Republican Party get to occupy advisory seats in the White House at taxpayer expense our nation can never be free of this right wing extremist menace and its ugly, cruel and inhumane politics. They must be roundly defeated.
I believe the Democratic message is one that is shared by most in our nation accounting for Hillary's 3 million popular vote advantage in the 2016 election. Yet our Republican opposition keeps winning those positions of power in local, state and national elections. We must run for positions of influence, we must work tirelessly to get out the vote, and, most importantly, I believe, we must electorally overthrow the Republican usurpation of those important seats by intelligently looking at how districts are drawn.
Our power in numbers is the reason we can spontaneously get out a million people to march on Washington. It is the reason, too, behind the 3 million popular vote win by Clinton and yet with all of that we are unable to retain majorities in both the House, the Senate, while losing in state houses and governorships around the nation as well.
Along with us who have occupied the progressive base for decades, I am ultimately counting a new generation to be handed the baton of leadership winning races for progressive causes across the country. Nothing less than the light of national survival is at stake.
Monday, August 14, 2017
The Hate He Dares Not Speak Of-- NYT editorial August 13, 2017
White supremacists see President Trump’s failure to condemn them as a sign of implicit support. Which of course it is.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)