I'll say one positive thing about Trump

[nadine_mn]

He is destroying the myth that "racism is dead in America" - and we need to face the ugly truth that racism isn't just in our past, but in our present and looking more and more like it will be our future. And we need to face it to change it.

In the past there nudges, hints, whispers, dog whistles in campaign speeches etc. Email jokes of fried chicken, watermelons, and monkeys, pictures of lynchings - but all under the "just a joke" excuse.

Or maybe it was just a few isolated "extremists" - no one takes seriously, or uneducated rednecks.

Or maybe the politically correct are just reading too much into things and being over sensitive.

They ain't even trying to hide it anymore - it's like Trump finally freed all of the hatred that these awful people have been stuffing in and has mobilized it. It is the scariest thing and I never thought I would see it. They are PROUD of their hate, their racism and their bigotry.

The MSM can not (but they will) deny that these racists and Trump's appeal to racists are fringe numbers (despite blaming protesters for the violence - what the hell is that about) for much longer.

I am in my 40's and when I was a young college Democrat, if you told me this was where our country would be today, I would have laughed in your face.

[First Speaker]

1. I'm 62, and grew up in the 60s...and I really felt that we had gotten past certain things...

...but no, here it is all over again. I'm glad my parents are dead--everything they fought for their whole lives seems to be erosing away in front of my eyes...

[JFKDem62]

2. Everything we worked for in the 60's seems to have evaporated. nt

[leftofcool]

3. Racism never died in this country

It has always been alive and well. Trump is just bring out the worst of the worst.

[rbrnmw]

5. yes it has

[awoke_in_2003]

16. Yep, it went underground

for a while. I exploded to the surface on 20JAN2008

[pampango]

20. Was driving it underground a step in the direction of eliminating it?

Eliminating racism completely may not be possible, any more than eliminating crime, misogyny, homophobia, slavery, etc. seem to be possible. But at least driving racism down so far that society can function without a constant reminder of its negative power?

Driving it underground was not easy - by any stretch of the imagination - but perhaps it was a necessary but not sufficient step towards eliminating it. Driving it from underground to nonexistent (again to the extent possible) may be an equally difficult second step.

[JFKDem62]

4. I wish this would shame the GOP into a major overhaul, but somehow I doubt it. nt

[Kath1]

6. He is a racist bigot with a lot of support.

I graduated from high school in 1976. I never could have imagined this would be going on 40 years later.

[Jenny_92808]

11. Spot on

"He is a racist bigot with a lot of support"

[Kath1]

12. Thank you Jenny.

I find it all very scary and don't like it at all.

[BlueStreak]

7. Trump is the real deal. He doesn't just hate blacks

He has contempt for all "others".

We must have Trump as the GOP candidate. It is time that those bastards are forced out into the open. Trump will put it all on display. I refuse to believe that America is 51% skinhead. America will not elect this guy.

(I guess a lot of people said the same thing about Hitler's chances too.)

[nadine_mn]

9. I remember how many people (me included) thought Trump would flame out by now

So many people think - no way can he be president. I am worried that people will be so disgusted or so apathetic they will stay home.

He has riled up so many to come out to vote, the reality is real that enough could elect him while everyone else stays home in disbelief.

[BlueStreak]

17. I don't want him to flame out. I want him put on display

Let's have it out once and for all in 2016. The only difference between trump and the rest of the GOP is that Trump says things out loud and proud. Let's have the debate and if this is what America really wants, well at least we know where we stand.

[phleshdef]

18. My view on Trump is even more cynical than that. I don't think he personally hates anybody.

Its worse than that. I think Trump is mentally deranged. I don't believe that he gives two shits about race or religion. I think he only gives a shit about Trump. He is an old man himself, almost 70. He knows, as anyone would, that he only has 1-2 decades, give or take, before he dies. He has spent his entire life self aggrandizing and this is his final act. I doubt he has any personal hatred toward any particular group. He just knows how to work people who think with their "lizard brain" and is taking advantage of that. Instead of calling for people to listen to their better angels, he is the guy that is kind of giving people political permission to give in to their basest instinctual demons in order to win votes. He doesn't believe any of the shit that flies out of his mouth and he doesn't give a damn about the people that do. He is using their ignorance for the sake of his own vanity and hopes that it will propel him to his one last big swan song before the inevitable. That is what I believe Donald Trump's candidacy is all about.

[BlueStreak]

22. I agree with that mostly

But this disdain for everybody else comes naturally for him. My point was that he isn't yuor normal racist. He has disdain for everybody, but he finds it very helpful to organize his disdain into racial groups for purposes of discussion.

And I have no doubt he has this same disdain for his fellow elites. But he just don't work that into his stump speech very much.

[madamesilverspurs]

8. It's damned horrifying.

I'm a few days away from turning 68, and when I was in college, had you told me this is where we would be today, I would have sat down and wept.

Strange, what with the Reagans being in the news again, I've been thinking more about how all this came to be, how the stage was set for a progression of politicos that would lead inevitably to a Trump. Our task, it seems, begins with confining the tragic consequences to the party that generated him.

[Kath1]

14. Amen!

I'm 57. I never could have believed this is where we would be in 2016. I would have cried, too.

[book_worm]

10. That myth was destroyed when Obama was elected and the racists came out

of the wood shed.

[ScreamingMeemie]

19. Agreed... the election of a black president made it trendy to be openly racist

again, all the while claiming not to be.

[Phentex]

23. Yes and this is now throwing kerosene on the fire...

It got particularly ugly during the Obama years and now it's just gotten worse.

[spanone]

13. he's playing a dangerous game...and it may not end well.

[UTUSN]

15. Their attack on "political correctness" is code for racism, bigotry. Used to be "Silent Majority"

When they say OBAMA is the one dividing, translation: "He's BLACK"!1

[pampango]

21. They have brought back the term "Silent Majority" too.

They have significantly added the bashing of 'political correctness' (that bashing is, as you say, racist and bigoted in nature) to their use of 'silent majority'.

The strict father logic extends further. The basic idea is that authority is justified by morality (the strict father version), and that, in a well-ordered world, there should be (and traditionally has been) a moral hierarchy in which those who have traditionally dominated should dominate. The hierarchy is: God above Man, Man above Nature, The Disciplined (Strong) above the Undisciplined (Weak), The Rich above the Poor, Employers above Employees, Adults above Children, Western culture above other cultures, Our Country above other countries. The hierarchy extends to: Men above women, Whites above Non-whites, Christians above non-Christians, Straights above Gays.

There are at least tens of millions of conservatives in America who share strict father morality and its moral hierarchy. Many of them are poor or middle class and many are white men who see themselves as superior to immigrants, non-whites, women, non-Christians, gays — and people who rely on public assistance. In other words, they are what liberals would call “bigots.” For many years, such bigotry has not been publicly acceptable, especially as more immigrants have arrived, as the country has become less white, as more women have become educated and moved into the workplace, and as gays have become more visible and gay marriage acceptable. As liberal anti-bigotry organizations have loudly pointed out and made a public issue of the un-American nature of such bigotry, those conservatives have felt more and more oppressed by what they call “political correctness” — public pressure against their views and against what they see as “free speech.” This has become exaggerated since 911, when anti-Muslim feelings became strong. The election of President Barack Hussein Obama created outrage among those conservatives, and they refused to see him as a legitimate American (as in the birther movement), much less as a legitimate authority, especially as his liberal views contradicted almost everything else they believe as conservatives.

http://yonside.com/why-is-trump-winning