Jimmy Carter called out Trump’s racism-fueled campaign in an interview today with The New York Times. The former president was giving interviews to bring attention to a Baptist race and social inequality summit he is planning this fall.
He said that Republican animosity toward President Obama had “a heavy racial overtone” and that Donald J. Trump’s surprisingly successful campaign for president had “tapped a waiting reservoir there of inherent racism.”
Republicans hatred of President Obama have elevated their most blatantly racist candidate to the top of their party’s presidential ticket.
Throughout Trump’s primary campaign, hatred turned to violence. Trump is “barely able to contain his glee at the violence that ensued” during his rallies.
Back in 2008, the press was saying that Obama’s candidacy demonstrated that America had entered into a “new, ‘post-racial’ political era” and after he was elected that “racism in America is over”.
Instead, what people who voted for Obama saw as a sign of the country’s progress, those who opposed Obama’s presidency saw it very differently. The Republicans in Congress, for example, quickly implemented a plan of nullification in an attempt to limit Obama to one term.
In 2009, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) saw 4 percent increase in hate groups from the previous year alone. A former KKK Grand Wizard told CNN in 2009 that “he despises Barack Obama” and “believes illegal aliens undermine the economic fabric of the United States.” The themes in Trump’s campaign stump speech are lifted directly from KKK statements mixed with inspiration from My New Order.
Since then, the number of hate groups has exploded. There was a 14 percent jump in the number of hate groups between 2014 and 2015 and this year, the SPLC aptly named Trump as the face of hate.
Carter describes this explosion of hatred a “heavy reaction” in the Times interview.
Mr. Carter said the election of Mr. Obama was a hopeful sign, but he added, “I think there’s a heavy reaction among some of the racially conscious Republicans against an African-American being president.”
He said recent reports showing high unemployment and incarceration rates among black people, “combined with the white police attacks on innocent blacks,” had “reawakened” the country to the realization that racism was not resolved in the 1960s and ’70s.
Trump was the candidate the Klan and other racists were waiting for. No more silent dog whistles for Republican voters. Rather, trumpets blaring hate was how Trump announced his candidacy. Speaking last July of Mexicans in America, Trump said that “they’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime, they’re rapists.”
Carter sees Trump’s speeches calling for a ban of Muslims coming to the United States and singling out Mexican Americans as a “violation of basic human rights”.
“When you single out any particular group of people for secondary citizenship status, that’s a violation of basic human rights,” said Mr. Carter…
And then Trump was only warming up for a primary of hate. As he switches to the general election campaign, Trump will be a nice, polite racist, backed by a growing party of hatred.