Donald Trump and the Shadow of a Race War

According to some stunning new polls, Donald Trump's chance of winning the support of most African-Americans is practically zero.

Because Hillary Clinton just about owns the black vote. 

So with all the violent racial turmoil in the U.S., I've been watching that dangerous demagogue closely to see how he might react.

And sure enough he's already moving to take advantage of the situation.




By taking aim at the Black Lives Matter movement.

“The other night, you had 11 – think of it – 11 cities potentially in a blow-up stage,” he said. “Marches all over the United States. And tough marches. Anger, hatred – hatred started by a maniac that some people asked for a moment of silence for him. For the killer. For the killer.”

And blowing his dirty dog-whistle to demonize blacks, as he has demonized Mexicans and Muslims.

And so loud is that dog-whistle, Trump's very name has become a chant for racial hostility.

The chant erupts in a college auditorium in Washington, as admirers of a conservative internet personality shout down a black protester. It echoes around the gym of a central Iowa high school, as white students taunt the Hispanic fans and players of a rival team. It is hollered by a lone motorcyclist, as he tears out of a Kansas gas station after an argument with a Hispanic man and his Muslim friend. 

Trump Trump Trump

In countless collisions of color and creed, Donald J. Trump’s name evokes an easily understood message of racial hostility

He's playing on the fears and the resentment of white America.

The resentment among whites feels both old and distinctly of this moment. It is shaped by the reality of demographic change, by a decade and a half of war in the Middle East, and by unease with the newly confident and confrontational activism of young blacks furious over police violence. It is mingled with patriotism, pride, fear and a sense that an America without them at its center is not really America anymore.

He's trying to take that country back to a darker time...



Or a whiter time.

To the great delight of neo-nazis and other white supremacist groups...



In making the explicit assertion of white identity and grievance more widespread, Mr. Trump has galvanized the otherwise marginal world of avowed white nationalists and self-described “race realists.” They hail him as a fellow traveler who has driven millions of white Americans toward an intuitive embrace of their ideals: that race should matter as much to white people as it does to everyone else. He has freed Americans, those activists say, to say what they really believe.

And you don't have to be a weatherman to realize which way the wind is blowing. Or what might happen if another police officer is killed.

And Trump is able to portray himself as a champion of law and order.


And accuse Clinton, with her overwhelming support in the African-American community, of being on "their" side. Instead of on the side of the police who many whites count on to protect them from what they fear the most, the anger of blacks in racist America.

Nor is it hard to imagine what might happen if Trump should win, and heavily armed groups of white supremacists roam the country ordering anyone they think is a Mexican or a Muslim to leave. Or else.

You know, I keep hearing some Sanders' supporters say that they would rather vote for Donald Trump than Hillary Clinton because of his position on trade deals or whatever.

Which is an idea Trump is only too eager to promote...



But I don't buy that for a moment. I don't trust anything he says.

I think all progressives should unite to defeat that dangerous racist demagogue.

Before he triggers a race war, and sets his own country on fire...



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