The Real Threat of the Melania Moment

I got back home just in time to watch the New York delegation push Donald Trump over the top.

And make him officially the Republican party's candidate for President.

And while it was no surprise, and it was some consolation to know that everybody was talking about this.



It was still a scary moment, for that plagiarism only underlines how unprepared Trump is to be President.

It must raise questions about how he can run a country, when he can't even manage a campaign properly.

But what worries me the most, is that all the media coverage the Melania moment is receiving, can only help obscure the dark message of the convention's first day.  

If Donald Trump is elected president, it’s not going to matter whether, or why, Melania Trump’s 2016 Republican National Convention speech lifted a paragraph from Michelle Obama’s 2008 Democratic National Convention speech. 

But what is going to last beyond Election Day — whether Trump wins or loses — is the conviction, shared by a deep swath of the American population, that all unauthorized immigrants are (potentially dangerous) criminals; that Muslims, no matter where they were born, are not to be trusted; that it is important to declare that the lives of police officers matter but that to declare that the lives of the African-Americans those officers stop matter is an unacceptably radical and potentially terroristic act.



It was an incredibly dark, even apocalyptic message: that America is under constant attack from enemies within and without, it’s losing, and soon it will be too late to rescue at all.

As well as take the focus off the most extreme Republican platform in living memory. 

Tailored to Mr. Trump’s impulsive bluster, this document lays bare just how much the G.O.P. is driven by a regressive, extremist inner core. 

For beyond the racism and the xenophobia there is also this:

This majority has triumphed in securing retrograde positions that include making no exceptions for rape or women’s health in cases of abortion; requiring the Bible to be taught in public high schools; selling coal as a “clean” energy source; demanding a return of federal lands to the states; insisting that legislators use religion as a guide in lawmaking; appointing “family values” judges; barring female soldiers from combat; and rejecting the need for stronger gun controls — despite the mass shootings afflicting the nation every week.

An all-out assault on secular values, the planet, and the rights of women and gay Americans. 

The platform also makes homophobia and the denial of basic civil rights to gays, lesbians and transgender people a centerpiece. It repudiates same-sex marriage, despite strong support for this constitutional right in the nation at large. The party invokes “natural marriage” and states’ rights for determining which bathrooms transgender people may use, and it defends merchants who would deny service to gay customers.

So who cares about the Melania moment? When we're facing this fascist moment...



You know, I'm still hearing some progressives talking about voting for anyone but Hillary Clinton, even if it ensures a Trump victory.

And I can't imagine a worst mistake.

For Trump is a fascist, he threatens the future of millions of Americans and the very survival of the planet.

And he must be stopped, by whatever democratic means necessary...

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