Opinion: Our race-baiter-in-chief strikes again
By using the anthem and flag to cloak his race-baiting, Trump does them far more disrespect than any player could.
Opinion: Our race-baiter-in-chief strikes again
By Jay Bookman September 23, 2017
Last month, white supremacists and neo-Nazis marched in a torchlight parade in Charlottesville, chanting "Blood and soil!" and "Jews will not replace us." After violence broke out the next day, a white supremacist drove his car into peaceful counter-protestors, killing one. ... After all that, President Donald Trump professed to find very fine people on both sides of the conflict.
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We also have Trump, our president, casually applying the term "son of a bitch" to U.S. citizens in a public speech before thousands of listeners and millions watching on TV. People who would slap their kid across the mouth for uttering those words in their presence now stand and cheer wildly when their president says it. That's how quickly our public discourse and standards of decency are degrading thanks to this man.
Note also how deftly and instinctively Trump separates "we" from "they," and "people like yourselves" from "those people."
Which people? You know which people. This is barely coded race-baiting, and by using the national anthem and the American flag to cloak his own ugliness, Trump does them far more disrespect than a player on bended knee ever could.