At a recent meeting a story was related to us about a young child who is biracial with a white mother and Black father asking her mother, “If Donald Trump is elected president will Daddy and I become slaves?”
Tears came to my eyes as I heard this story. I asked myself what is this world coming to? Young children, regardless of race or class, are asking their parents the same question, what would a Trump presidency mean. Some children believe that a civil war is inevitable; others fear the return of slavery. These fears are real. They come from a place so organic and pure. These fears come out of the mouths of babes, and I am not sure how to quell those fears.
On this page just a few weeks ago, we endorsed Hillary Clinton for president. We began the endorsement by saying, “Our country sits on the precipice. We will either continue to rise up out of the ashes of the Bush presidency or go down in flames.” Now with Donald Trump as the presumptive Republican nominee, that warning becomes even more ominous.
Not only has Donald Trump divided the Republican Party, he is in the midst of fracturing the entire country. The language he has used, the statements he has made, the proposals he has put forth, all lead to one end, and that is not one America. “Make America great again,” his slogan, recalls a time in so many of our minds when racism was rampant. Back then civil rights, equal rights, women’s rights, and gay rights were nonexistent. There was no talk about equality because in the minds of those who led, there was no need. To their way of thinking, those who were different were inferior, another class, non-people, those who could just be discarded.
The whole world is watching, in disbelief, an election that is surreal. Never in my recollection or in the memories of those much older has there been someone so unabashedly vile and venomous, so eager to express his ignominious feelings in public.
“I have a great relationship with the blacks.”
“You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever. In my opinion, she was off base.” —on Fox News host Megyn Kelly, after she moderated a GOP debate.
“There has to be some form of punishment.” —on women who seek abortions (Trump later backtracked on this statement).
“Look at those hands. Are they small hands? And [Republican candidate Marco Rubio] referred to my hands—‘if they’re small, something else must be small.’ I guarantee you there’s no problem, I guarantee.” —on his penis.
“You know, it really doesn’t matter what [members of the media] write as long as you’ve got a young and beautiful piece of ass.”
“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems to us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.” —on Mexico and immigration.
“I don’t think Ivanka would do that, although she does have a very nice figure. I’ve said if Ivanka weren’t my daughter, perhaps I’d be dating her.”
And these comments from a man seeking to lead the nation.
But the scariest thing of all is that his ranting is resonating with a constituency so full of hate that to answer that child’s question is to tell them we just don’t know. But the only hope is that we come out to vote and that we make sure that he does not become president. The good people of this country can come together to oppose that hate with which he has infected the airwaves.