Halloween brought fresh scares to Florida as Donald Trump traveled to the state to bring a message full of an invasion. An unstoppable invasion that has already arrived at the homes of Americans. Not a few hundred immigrant families stumbling toward the border in the mistaken belief that America still represents hope of escape for brutal violence. But an invasion of racism and fearmongering that’s the monstrous final step of the Republican plan to hang onto power.
After Trump’s visit to Pittsburgh on Tuesday, Tree of Life Synagogue Rabbi Jeffrey Myers was asked about the disruptive presence on a day when heartbroken families were planning or conducting the first wave of funerals. Did he think that Trump had actually lived up to his promises to tone down hateful rhetoric?
Rabbi Myers: I would say the answer to your question would be to take a look & see post-visit, what has the president continued to do. And I don’t need to answer that.
As the rabbi said, the answer was in Trump’s own actions. And Trump’s first action after the Pittsburgh visit was to … turn the dial of racism and anti-Semitism up. Trump hasn’t backed away from using the just barely coded term “globalists” in describing Democrats and their supporters. He’s continued to embrace the not at all coded “nationalist” in describing himself and his policies.
And Trump has made it clear that this is the election of “Kavanaugh and the caravan.” This is the election to prove that white men can still get away with anything, and immigrants can be repelled at gunpoint. That is Trump’s announced theme. And they’re thrilled with how it’s working. They’re even thrilled with this article. Because as long as we have to work at pointing out that the Republican Party has declared their utter dependence on not just racism, but violent racism, we can’t focus on health care or any of the real concerns facing Americans. We can’t do that because Republicans are forcing the election to be about fear by being absolutely despicable. And yes, that’s worse than deplorable. As CNN reports, this is much worse …
In the most racially charged national political ad in 30 years, President Donald Trump and the Republican Party accuse Democrats of plotting to help people they depict as Central American invaders overrun the nation with cop killers.
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It’s an ad that makes the Willie Horton ad seem completely reasonable and makes it clear that racism and fear isn’t just the GOP’s central play. It’s their only purpose for being.
This is the ad that Trump is supporting. And … it’s Horton turned up to 11.
Trump’s effort to generate fear, conflating events and images and stamping them with lies isn’t just blatant and disgusting. It’s a signal that there is nothing else. Trump said it himself. Republicans have no outreach to voters. No message of hope. No promise of a better day.
They have fear. And racism. And fear.
The Trump campaign ad is the latest example of the President's willingness to lie and fear-monger in order to tear at racial and societal divides; to embrace demagoguery to bolster his own political power and the cause of the Republican midterm campaign.