Thank You, Donald Trump

Thank You, Donald Trump
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I supported Hillary Clinton against Barack Obama in the 2008 Democratic primary because she knew what she was up against. Obama spoke eloquently of coming together, shared values, working toward the common good. But I thought that was bullshit. Republicans had shown themselves leaning in on the practice and tolerance of radicalism and race hatred. They had worked to gut civil rights laws, nominate judges who ignored American history and the American present to promote policies with outsized negative impacts on black and brown Americans. Their contempt for “political correctness” struck me as little more than nostalgia for the days when they could openly call me a “nigger,” and spit on the dreams of those who looked like me.

Obama spoke of shared values, reaching across the aisle, and working together. It was bullshit. Before he so much as settled behind the oval office desk, Republicans had sworn to do all they could to ensure his failure. Obstructionism began on day one, and it never ended. Their supporters launched viciously racist attacks against Obama and his wife, while upright, suit-and-tie wearing Republicans grinned in response.

Trying to point this out, I was smacked down by a tsunami of “post-racialism.” It took most of two administrations for liberals to finally abandon that post racial idiocy and realize that much of the Obama opposition was animated by good, old-fashioned fear of an contempt for black Americans.

Now, Donald Trump, who insisted that five innocent black men should be executed for crimes they were proven not to have committed, who called Mexicans “rapists,” who said he liked to grab women by the pussy without their consent, who was successfully sued for refusing to rent property to blacks—Donald Trump has been elevated to the presidency by a coalition of white men and women, college educated and not, who seek a return to a misty past when they held all power, had guaranteed first place in line for all the good things in American life, and feared no competition from those with darker skin or funny names or high heels.

Thank you Donald Trump for sprinkling glitter on the racist glue that still coats America so that it sparkles and shines blindingly with our every step backward.

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