Donald Trump may well be mentally ill, but he's also an ignorant, fearful bigot
I'm inclined to agree with folks who say Trump looked and sounded like a crazy man at his Phoenix rally Tuesday night. But the thing is, he looks even more insane because he's expected to represent the nation like decades of presidents before him.
It's just that it's so shocking, and so completely unnerving to see someone mindlessly trash and discard the collective and evolving efforts of generations of presidencies to be as progressively inclusive and representative of citizens from almost every corner of the nation in their appeal and discourse, that Trump's lurid assaults against broad swatches of our population seem unhinged and demented.
Who, in their right mind, would deliberately alienate and enrage so many of our countryfolk with such debasing and demeaning language from the highest office in the land, while, at the same time, promoting and elevating the most divisive and destructive individuals and elements in our nation?
Donald Trump may well be mentally ill. His mind is certainly susceptible to the strains of age, but his words read like almost every ignorant, fearful bigot who has soiled this land since the first slavers with their captive cargo of Africans landed in Jamestown.
They read like every defender of the crown preceding the American Revolution; like every slave owner who believed more in their superiority than in the unity of the nation; like every reconstructionist legislating blacks out or political empowerment because they couldn't countenance equality; like every anti-suffragist who couldn't bear to live with women as equals; his words tear at the fabric of our society like every segregationist barring the door to opportunity and equality out of self-interest, fear, and outright hatred.
On his face, Trump is a run-of-the-mill, anti-social bigot who uses racism and hatred as weapons to elevate his own sordid view of himself, and also as cruel sport against 'enemies' who dare question why this megalomaniac is being allowed to systematically dismantle our democracy.
What happened last night in Phoenix was truly deranged. Pundits say he was in 'campaign mode,' but this was our sitting president openly heralding his returning America to a time in our history where his crippling insecurities about his fellow citizens were leavened by an equally insecure white, male majority willing and able to legislate *others out of the opportunity and protection they, themselves, enjoyed for decades.
MAGA. Is there any campaign slogan in modern history more repulsive than 'making America great' for the terminally-bigoted, xenophobic, misogynistic, homophobic, and racist still among us?
here's Maya Kosoff's take in Vanity Fair on Trump's "I know I told them I wasn't a racist, but I'm still a really big one, okay?' speech in Phoenix:
“The words were perfect,” Trump said of his own words about Charlottesville. “They only take out anything they think of, and all they do is complain. The media can attack me, but where I draw the line is when they attack you, the decency of our supporters. You are honest, hard-working, tax-paying—and you’re over-taxed, but we’re going to get your taxes down—Americans. It’s time to expose the crooked media deceptions and to challenge the media for their role in fomenting divisions. They are trying to take away our history and our heritage.”
For a speech that began, ostensibly, as a call for unity, Trump’s rally was filled with barbed attacks on all variety of people who he said had no place in America. Trump spoke broadly about “liberating our towns” from undocumented immigrants, citing Joe Arpaio, pledging to purge “sanctuary cities” of undocumented immigrants and leading the crowd in a “build the wall” chant. He threatened a government shutdown if the wall he wants constructed between the U.S. and Mexico isn’t approved. And, after the White House said Trump wouldn’t pardon Arpaio during his rally in Phoenix, Trump hinted that a pardon would come. “Do the people in this room like Sheriff Joe? Was Sheriff Joe convicted for doing his job?” he asked. “He should have had a jury. But I’ll make a prediction. I think he’s gonna be just fine. But, but, I won’t do it tonight because I don’t want to cause any controversy. Is that O.K.? But Sheriff Joe can feel good.”
Clearly, the 'history' Trump wants to protect and preserve is regressive and evil. It's a call to return to the days where a cliquish, white, male majority made all of the decisions for the nation and acted in their narrow, exclusive self-interest; back to a time where the press kowtowed to authority and was complicit with the government in obscuring the truth from the public; to return to an age in America where racism and bigotry flourished under an umbrella of segregation and Jim Crow; an era where dissent was legislated into obscurity.
It was President Woodrow Wilson (who applied Jim Crow, segregationist policies in the South to the federal workplace) who urged legislative action against those who had "sought to bring the authority and 'good name' of the Government into contempt." He worried in his declaration of war, about "spies and criminal intrigues everywhere afoot" which had filled "our unsuspecting communities and even our offices of government."
During his presidency more than 2,000 American citizens were jailed for protest, advocacy, and dissent, with the support of a compliant Supreme Court. The Wilson-era assaults on civil liberties; Schenck v. U.S.; Frohwerk v. U.S.; Debs v. U.S, Abrams v. U.S., were ratified by Supreme Court decisions which actually asserted that free speech in wartime was a hindrance to the efforts of peace.
It's amazing to me how the inhabitants of this land we call America - a country obtained and settled through force and deception by an immigrant, Anglo/Saxon pack of misogynist thugs - can assert their nationalism and detach themselves from the global influences that were essential, critical elements in the establishment of our nation and in the sustaining the people who settled here.
The Europeans were immigrants to this land. The original inhabitants comprised a vast nation of many languages and many different cultures that existed together for centuries. There is no reasonable argument that justified the American settlers systematic removal of these indigenous peoples from the lands that had sustained their ancestors for generations. Here in our own country, there was no reasonable argument for the destruction of the native inhabitants' culture, and the forced imposition of the settler's ideology.
If we're going to make America great (again), we'll need to either return to those troublesome roots, or, accept and build on the promises of successive generations hence who've made deliberate strides to include all of us in the weaving and coverage of the robust and diverse fabric of our nation.
One thing for certain, Donald Trump is a demonstrated enemy to progress in America. He threatens my family, and his actions threaten his rabid supporters' families as well.
= new reply since forum marked as read
bigtree, my sincere thanks. 
