Trump plumbed new depths of depravity this Fourth of July
IT SHOULD be no surprise that President Trump has chosen to center his reelection campaign on appeals to racism and the demonization of his opponents. After all, that is what he did from the opening of his 2016 run with his invocation of Mexican immigrant “rapists,” and before the 2018 congressional midterms, when he decried a supposed “invasion” by “caravans” packed with “bad hombres.” Still, Mr.?Trump plumbed new depths of depravity in two speeches he delivered over the weekend, nominally in celebration of the July 4 holiday.
On a day when presidents typically extol the values that bring Americans together, Mr. Trump launched an unhinged attack on the movement for racial and social justice that has surged in the past month. “Angry mobs are trying to tear down statues of our Founders, deface our most sacred memorials and unleash a wave of violent crime in our cities,” he claimed — an obscene misrepresentation of the mostly peaceful marches by millions of citizens in hundreds of cities and towns.
“Their goal is not a better America, their goal is the end of America.”
As The Post’s Jennifer Rubin pointed out, Mr.?Trump’s description of “the radical left, the Marxists, the anarchists, the agitators, the looters” who want to destroy the country closely echoed the rhetoric of George Wallace, the avowedly racist 1968 independent presidential candidate. Mr. Wallace won only five states in the Deep South, and half a century later a solid majority of Americans reject such hate speech. Polls show a majority support the Black Lives Matter movement and want monuments to Confederate leaders removed.
Even many Republicans believe that Mr. Trump is wrong in calculating that he can eke out a victory in the electoral college simply by remobilizing the white voters who carried him to victory four years ago. But whether or not it is politically wise, the president’s renewed attempt to polarize the country along racial and cultural lines is despicable.
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