When DJT came down the escalator to announce his political career ten years ago, I notice two things.
1. His wife was in front of him on the escalator
Every gentleman knows that the woman must be ABOVE the man on a staircase, so he can catch her if she stumbles. When a couple descends a staircase together, the man goes first. Trump flunked Man School.
2. The campaign was defined by demagoguery
DJT immediately launched into a series of unfounded smears about immigrants from Latin America, calling them criminals, rapists, and drug smugglers. Later he would claim that Latin American countries were emptying their prisons and mental institutions and sending “the worst of the worst” to our country.
Immigrants commit crimes at lower rates than US-born citizens, but Trump and his supporters in right-wing media have perpetuated the myth of the “dangerous immigrant” as a way of scaring their base into supporting his authoritarian policies.
The Irony is that there’s a real problem in Latin America that Trump failed to mention: political violence. Run for mayor in Mexico, and a drug cartel will probably try to kill you. It’s dangerous to be a politician in Latin America.
And yet, the lasting legacy of the Trump presidencies is political violence:
- The siege of the US Capitol on January 6
- Speaker Pelosi’s husband attacked in his own home
- Democratic politicians shot in Minnesota
- Two attempts made on DJT’s life
- Arson at Tesla dealerships
- The plot to kidnap the Governor of Michigan
- Arson at the PA Governor’s Mansion on Passover
- Cars ramming crowds in New Orleans, Charlottesville, et al.
- A mass shooting at the July 4 parade in Highland Park, Illinois
Harsh rhetoric, conspiracy theories, and demonization of the other have brought us to this point. How will we find our way back to sanity?
