Eugene Robinson: We can't pretend this is a normal election

[Eugene]

Source: Washington Post

We can’t pretend this is a normal election

By Eugene Robinson
Columnist
July 22 at 6:23 PM

Bring it on.

If President Trump and the Republican Party want the 2020 election to be a referendum on unabashed white supremacy, that’s their choice. Voters who embrace the views of David Duke and other proud racists will have Trump to vote for. Voters who disagree will have a Democratic alternative. Simple as that.

At the moment, it is difficult to see the coming contest in any other light. Make America Great Again has completed its sinister transformation into Make America White Again, and it’s foolish to pretend otherwise.

No sensible person should want such a fight. In a sprawling, diverse nation such as ours, with such a long and troubled history on issues of race, a certain amount of pretense is necessary. We try to bury our ugliest fears and resentments beneath a nobler commitment to the pluralistic ideals enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. At our best, we subsume our private prejudices beneath a sense of civic responsibility.

But Trump is no sensible person, and he obviously does not represent our best. He is a demagogue with one highly effective political move: driving wedges. He is now trying to open a chasm between white and nonwhite Americans, and he wants to force his potential supporters to choose a side.

I hope and expect that Trump’s race-baiting will fail — but hope and expectations are not enough. ...

-snip-

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-2020-election-is-a-fight-for-the-soul-of-our-nation/2019/07/22/0db39cba-acc8-11e9-a0c9-6d2d7818f3da_story.html

[Haggis for Breakfast]

1. What trump really wants is an all-out race war.

Let HIM be the first casualty.

[King_Klonopin]

2. All false pretense has evaporated at this point.

The election really is this simple of a choice:

a) White supremacist, racist, fascist, authoritarian who supports American-style apartheid

b) Any Democrat

The results of the election will reveal a frightening, shameful truth about America.
At least 40% will choose "a".

It isn't about jobs, or the economy, or socialism, or trade war bullshit.

Trump and his cohort do not want anyone who is not a white, rich male to have
"a seat at the table". In their minds, they own the whole table and every seat
around it. This is what Trump is saying when he rails against "the squad of 4":
"Because you are women of color from another ethnic background, you don't deserve
a seat at the table. You should just shut up and leave the country."

He is profane and an offense to every virtue known to mankind.
Could anyone honestly identify just ONE virtue this cretin possesses ?