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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsBrilliant prose from GWB speechwriter
This is from President George W. Bush's chief speechwriter.
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"I had fully intended to ignore President Trumps latest round of racially charged taunts against an African American elected official, and an African American activist, and an African American journalist and a whole city with a lot of African Americans in it. I had every intention of walking past Trumps latest outrages and writing about the self-destructive squabbling of the Democratic presidential field, which has chosen to shame former vice president Joe Biden for the sin of being an electable, moderate liberal.
But I made the mistake of pulling James Cones 'The Cross and the Lynching Tree' off my shelf a book designed to shatter convenient complacency. Cone recounts the case of a white mob in Valdosta, Ga., in 1918 that lynched an innocent man named Haynes Turner. Turners enraged wife, Mary, promised justice for the killers. The sheriff responded by arresting her and then turning her over to the mob, which included women and children. According to one source, Mary was 'stripped, hung upside down by the ankles, soaked with gasoline, and roasted to death. In the midst of this torment, a white man opened her swollen belly with a hunting knife and her infant fell to the ground and was stomped to death.'
God help us. It is hard to write the words. This evil the evil of white supremacy, resulting in dehumanization, inhumanity and murder is the worst stain, the greatest crime, of U.S. history. It is the thing that nearly broke the nation. It is the thing that proved generations of Christians to be vicious hypocrites. It is the thing that turned normal people into moral monsters, capable of burning a grieving widow to death and killing her child.
.....
When the president of the United States plays with that fire or takes that beast out for a walk, it is not just another political event, not just a normal day in campaign 2020. It is a cause for shame. It is the violation of martyrs graves. It is obscene graffiti on the Lincoln Memorial. It is, in the eyes of history, the betrayal the re-betrayal of Haynes and Mary Turner and their child. And all of this is being done by an ignorant and arrogant narcissist reviving racist tropes for political gain, indifferent to the wreckage he is leaving, the wounds he is ripping open.
Like, I suspect, many others, I am finding it hard to look at resurgent racism as just one in a series of presidential offenses or another in a series of Republican errors. Racism is not just another wrong. The Antietam battlefield is not just another plot of ground. The Edmund Pettus Bridge is not just another bridge. The balcony outside Room 306 at the Lorraine Motel is not just another balcony. As U.S. history hallows some causes, it magnifies some crimes.
What does all this mean politically? It means that Trumps divisiveness is getting worse, not better. He makes racist comments, appeals to racist sentiments and inflames racist passions. The rationalization that he is not, deep down in his heart, really a racist is meaningless. Trumps continued offenses mean that a large portion of his political base is energized by racist tropes and the language of white grievance. And it means whatever their intent that those who play down, or excuse, or try to walk past these offenses are enablers.
Some political choices are not just stupid or crude. They represent the return of our countrys cruelest, most dangerous passion. Such racism indicts Trump. Treating racism as a typical or minor matter indicts us."
<
H/T Susan Tiss
hlthe2b
(102,134 posts)oregonjen
(3,334 posts)Horse with no Name
(33,956 posts)highplainsdem
(48,917 posts)https://lacrossetribune.com/opinion/columnists/michael-gerson-the-return-of-america-s-cruelest-passion/article_0d1c3d53-9054-5725-b9eb-946e5ff5eeed.html
Dennis Donovan
(18,770 posts)Horse with no Name
(33,956 posts)Dennis Donovan
(18,770 posts)tblue37
(65,227 posts)strategy has led to.
Horse with no Name
(33,956 posts)JHB
(37,157 posts)They did to get enough votes to win.
Having fed and nurtured that hellbeast, suddenly they're surprised it won't stay on its leash?
sharedvalues
(6,916 posts)In 1980.
sharedvalues
(6,916 posts)Butterflylady
(3,537 posts)And he taught him well.
sharedvalues
(6,916 posts)And Reagans assistant campaign manager.
The rot is the GOP goes right to its heart.
UpInArms
(51,280 posts)Getting Nasty
"Have you no sense of decency, sir?" That was the question Army counsel Joseph Welch asked Joseph McCarthy 35 years ago when the Senator ruined the lives of those who did not agree with him by impugning their character and patriotism. The same question could be posed to Republican National Committee chairman Lee Atwater, his communications director Mark Goodin and Congressman Newt Gingrich.
Acting directly or through subordinates, this trio last week worked to spread a long-standing unsubstantiated rumor designed to humiliate new House Speaker Thomas Foley. Just as Foley was poised to take the gavel from departing Speaker Jim Wright's hand, a memo from the Republican National Committee was circulating to state party chairmen and G.O.P. Congressmen. Titled "Tom Foley: Out of the Liberal Closet," the memo compared his voting record with that of Congressman Barney Frank of Massachusetts, an acknowledged homosexual. For days, an aide to Republican minority whip Newt Gingrich had been calling more than a dozen reporters trying to get the homosexuality rumor into print.
An effective smear has at its core an outrageous charge that would be devastating if true. The author must be both coy and cowardly: he must make the charge stick while retaining deniability. Although Goodin, Atwater's friend of a decade, took the fall, the tactic bore the unmistakable Atwater stamp. As Bush's 1988 campaign manager, Atwater specialized in character assassination: last summer Michael Dukakis was dogged by rumors that he had been treated for depression. In a similar incident in 1980, Atwater was managing the campaign of South Carolina Congressman Floyd Spence when a reporter asked Spence's Democratic opponent whether he had undergone psychiatric treatment. When the Democrat accused Atwater of planting the question, Atwater said he wouldn't respond to charges made by someone who had been "hooked up to jumper cables." Atwater's candidate won.
AdamGG
(1,286 posts)His partners, Stone & Manafort, kept riding this strategy full throttle for decades after.
sharedvalues
(6,916 posts)Moreover, Atwater went public. He told us what was going on.
If only more Republicans were willing to do this now.
John Dean
Lee Atwater
Bruce Bartlett
Max Boot
They all not only left the GOP, they publicly spoke about the problems it has.
Thats what we need from wimps like Will Hurd and Jeff Flake.
Quit: but go public.
Ferrets are Cool
(21,104 posts)BSdetect
(8,995 posts)teach1st
(5,932 posts)Horse with no Name
(33,956 posts)Response to Horse with no Name (Original post)
scarletwoman This message was self-deleted by its author.
manhattan123
(302 posts)...in his latest Washington Post column. He (and the WP's Jen Rubin) have become some of the most articulate, outraged, clear voices among the Never Trumpers sickened by their former party. Nicole Wallace on MSNBC is pretty good too.
Traildogbob
(8,683 posts)Visualizizing those men, women and children cheering, while burning this innocent widow of the man they hung, then cut out and stomp that "Fetus" they so care about. Probably damn sure all bible holders. But don't you damn black sports performers take a knee and disrespect the Flag. Where the hell is that all loving God when that occurred. We were always brainwashed to pray for him for safely, care for us through that dark fucking valley of death. 250 mass shootings this year while Christians claim God sent trump, tells me he does not have a fuck left to give for the human part of creation. Maybe 7 days was not enough effort to have any conviction to this planet. He be blessin the ones he spent a few weeks on. We where just a prototype to iron out the issues. His other planets are human free zones. Fuck white terrorism and those whites. I am white and sick of this continued history of hate and murder, by my "superior" race.
friend of m and j
(220 posts)Unfortunately most of them are not longer in office. Some have resigned from the party but others have remained Republicans in hopes of rebuilding the Republican Party into a honest respectable party after Trump is gone.
volstork
(5,399 posts)If they continue to support that party, blood is on their hands.
murielm99
(30,717 posts)That is why he does not have a dog. He has the vicious beast of racism as a "pet." That beast is poorly leashed and untrained. He lets it get away to commit unspeakable crimes over and over.
live love laugh
(13,081 posts)wyldwolf
(43,867 posts)blueseas
(11,575 posts)We need so much more good in this tired world.
onecaliberal
(32,780 posts)democrank
(11,085 posts)zentrum
(9,865 posts)Why doesn't he speak out? I realize he's a war criminal but he fancies himself a non-racist. He should be speaking out, lifting a finger to redeem himself, instead of hiding in his bathtub.
cilla4progress
(24,718 posts)The whole Republican establishment - the whole party, is complicit. Especially the Bush family. Romneys. And etc.
I had been willing to give mainstream Rs, nevertrump Rs, a pass. But no longer.
Haggis for Breakfast
(6,831 posts)and his evil spawn daughter, Liz.
not fooled
(5,801 posts)george pee bush issued a statement. He's the one they're building up to be the face of the next generation of this vile family, en route to getting him into national office. And many Americans are just stupid enough to fall for it.
busterbrown
(8,515 posts)Play it safe George and please keep it up with your paintings..Simply Beautiful!!
And I'll always be grateful for your wonderful leadership....
Maybe George, you can obtain some sort of pride by sticking your head out of your beautiful Texas Ranch and perhaps site some inadequacies of our Idiot, Racist, Prez.
Lonestarblue
(9,958 posts)They need to condemn the actions of this president in his racist stoking of hatred and anger.
friend of m and j
(220 posts)no text
BonnieJW
(2,258 posts)has issued many statements regarding The Monster. He pulls no punches.
"Former President Jimmy Carter says Donald Trump is an illegitimate president "
https://www.vox.com/2019/6/28/19127475/jimmy-carter-trump-illegitimate-president
"Jimmy Carter: Trump only won in 2016 because of Russian meddling"
https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/450877-jimmy-carter-trump-only-won-in-2016-because-of-russian-meddling
"Jimmy Carter claims Russia won Trump the White House"
https://www.apnews.com/efb1356067ca46528c7401a474f32886
Celerity
(43,121 posts)cilla4progress
(24,718 posts)words
bobbieinok
(12,858 posts)Susan Calvin
(1,646 posts)Trump is but a link in the chain of what the Republican Party hath wrought.
peggysue2
(10,823 posts)That's some essay. Deserves to be read and read and read. Everyday, all day until the madness stops. And even then, reviewed, stamped in memory so we don't forget.
friend of m and j
(220 posts)some Dem friends who I know that have some Repub. friends that might not like Trump but will vote for him because "economy is good and unemployment is down". I asked those Dem friends to send the essay to their Republican friends in the hope they will open their eyes to the racism and hate that is growing in our country and the only way to stop it is to get Trump out of office.
peggysue2
(10,823 posts)Because if this isn't stopped we're all headed to a very dark place.
Btw, I agree with your suggestion upthread. A statement from our former presidents would be powerful indeed.
Just realized it was Lonestarblue's suggestion. I'll third it.
raging moderate
(4,292 posts)This is not the only time this happened. I am sure that I read the horrific story of a Black World War Two veteran. He came home to his southern home town after the war. The "white" people there thought he was now too "uppity." So they lynched him, murdered his very pregnant wife, and stomped her baby to death.
Dear God, we should have kicked these people out of the Union, along with their copperhead northern sympathizers.
bigbadR
(49 posts)Trump spews hate speech even single day. He must go NOW.
Cha
(296,857 posts)description of what's going on with trump inciting racism and Violence!
How many has he been responsible for killing so far? How much blood does he have on his hands in only his 1st term.. 2 1/2 years in?
Beringia
(4,316 posts)volstork
(5,399 posts)God help us. It is hard to write the words. This evil the evil of white supremacy, resulting in dehumanization, inhumanity and murder is the worst stain, the greatest crime, of U.S. history. It is the thing that nearly broke the nation. It is the thing that proved generations of Christians to be vicious hypocrites. It is the thing that turned normal people into moral monsters, capable of burning a grieving widow to death and killing her child.
"It is the thing that nearly broke the nation." Problem is, white supremacy isn't done with the breaking yet. It's alive and well, and being fed to fatness on a steady diet of hate and racism from one of our two major political parties and its ostensible "leader."
Much better minds than mine have tried to see us through, or around, or over this enormous obstacle in our history and have failed. Will we ever find the way forward?
volstork
(5,399 posts)"I had fully intended to ignore President Trumps latest round of racially charged taunts against an African American elected official, and an African American activist, and an African American journalist and a whole city with a lot of African Americans in it. I had every intention of walking past Trumps latest outrages and writing about the self-destructive squabbling of the Democratic presidential field, which has chosen to shame former vice president Joe Biden for the sin of being an electable, moderate liberal."
Ignore. IGNORE. Just like the publican and the pharisee. Look away, and pretend it's not happening. Pretend that these taunts don't have real-life consequences for those at whom they are leveled. Pretend that the evil spewing like a fire hose from the anus-mouth of the poseur in the White House is anything but that, that it's just business as usual. This ignoring is in large part what has brought us to such an awful pass, and everyone who looks away, who refuses to confront and call out this evil is complicit.
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. ― Edmund Burke.
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)We cannot let this hate and cruelty continue. Trump is not the only racist in this country, but his rhetoric, his tweets, his rallies are like pouring gasoline on a fire. He is encouraging and stoking this evil. He needs to go by whatever means possible.
BobTheSubgenius
(11,560 posts)Awe-inspiring. Just brilliant.