“Therefore thus saith the LORD: Ye have not hearkened unto me, in proclaiming liberty, every one to his brother, and every man to his neighbor: behold, I proclaim a liberty for you, saith the LORD, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine; and I will make you to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth.” (Jeremiah 34:17)
By Rasheed Z. Baaith
While it has not been surprising, it has been interesting to watch President Trump do all that he can to destroy the dream of America’s Founding Fathers. At least destroy it for those who do not look like, behave like or think like him. He does not want his supporters to just label those unlike them. He wants his supporters to hate them. He believes the foundation for your political activism should be the deepness of your hate for someone.
His core supporters, like him, have decided to close off America both from within and without. They have decided to make this happen employing the political process and unleashing as much verbal hatred as they can. Faces contorted with anger, voices raised as loud as possible, and fists punching the air, they believe they are making America great.
It is clear that it does not matter how many people are assassinated, how many buildings are invaded by some deranged person who believes he is doing the will of the President or how many letter bombs are put into our mail delivery system. He has shown the ranting and lies will continue. Simply put, President Trump does not care what he looks and sounds like. Nor do those who imitate what he says and behave as he does. There is on his behalf, a complete aversion to decency veracity.
President Trump has made it undeniably clear he does not represent all American people nor does he want to. He is not interested in broadening his political base, or closing political divides. Neither does he want to unify America. His goal to govern through a policy of “them vs. us.” All who are considered “them” in the minds of President Trump and his supporters, deserve as much odious vilification as his lips can utter.
By the time you read this, the Midterm elections will be over and we will know if the majority of America will support a man whose behavior reminds much of the world of Adolph Hitler. Or if America has had enough. We will also have learned if Black folks will have voted in the numbers needed to elect Black governors in Florida and Georgia. Too, we will have learned if the numbers of White progressives are what many assert they are. And we will have learned if Black women once again leading the charge for real will not be denied change.
We are living in a very dangerous time. People believe it is within their right to question the legitimacy of Black people to shop, eat dinner in public, lease an apartment, wait for tow trucks or enjoy a park. Let alone be in the environment of good college. Even our children are not excluded from this race based behavior.
It is not just the depiction of a caravan of desperate people as “invaders” or his refusal to even mention the Black people shot down in Kentucky, which happened the same week as the mail bombs and the Synagogue murders that should scare us.
What should scare is how welcome many Americans are of accepting the vision of a intellectually diminutive man whose vision is like that of a kindergartner. He only sees in colors.
