Nicholas Kristof: Donald Trump Is Making America Meaner

[babylonsister]

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/14/opinion/sunday/donald-trump-is-making-america-meaner.html?_r=1


Donald Trump Is Making America Meaner
Nicholas Kristof
AUG. 13, 2016

snip//

Among any nation’s most precious possessions is its social fabric, and that is what Donald Trump is rending with incendiary talk about roughing up protesters and about gun owners solving the problem of Hillary Clinton making judicial nominations.

Trump only mildly distanced himself when an adviser suggested that Clinton should be executed by firing squad for treason, and his rallies have become toxic brews of hatred with shouts like “Hang the bitch!” The Times made a video of Trump fans at his rallies directing crude slurs not just at Hillary Clinton, but also at blacks, Latinos, Muslims and gay people.

We need not be apocalyptic about it. This is not Kristallnacht. But Trump’s harsh rhetoric tears away the veneer of civility and betrays our national motto of “e pluribus unum.” He has unleashed a beast and fed its hunger, and long after this campaign is over we will be struggling to corral it again.


A delegate with a “Trump Wall” hat attends the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia in July. Credit Lucy Nicholson/Reuters

“We’ve spent the last 15 years fighting bullying in schools, and the example set by the Trump campaign has broken down the doors, and a tidal wave of bullying has come through,” said Maureen Costello of the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The center issued a report documenting how Trump’s venom has poisoned schools across the country. It quoted a North Carolina teacher as saying she has “Latino students who carry their birth certificates and Social Security cards to school because they are afraid they will be deported.” Another teacher reported that a fifth grader told a Muslim student “that he was supporting Donald Trump because he was going to kill all of the Muslims if he became president!”


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http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/14/opinion/sunday/donald-trump-is-making-america-meaner.html?_r=1

[Wounded Bear]

1. Which is essentially their interpretation of the term "stronger"...

Speaking for Trump supporters and most of the RW punditry.

[CrispyQ]

2. Kick for truth.

“People now feel that it is O.K. to say things that they might not have said a year ago,” she said. “Trump played a big role.”

It started with Palin, but Trump has ramped it up.

[AgadorSparticus]

3. Not surprising. When you have this very low level ignorance about what power and strength are,

You believe the kind of shit that Trump stands for. It's not like these people think their way through things. Hell. They are even against it.

We have to remember they have been organizing for awhile now. They have had hate radio and years of putting people in their respective places carrying out their agenda (i.e. kkk infiltration of law enforcement).

So this is bound to happen. But more importantly, I see the change that is upon us. While Trump has made these asshats more vocal, he has also, ironically, brought national attention to this social wart.

Trump is the opposite of the midas touch. With the crumbling of the racist republican party, i think we can expect to see improvements in this area.

[lastlib]

6. Two wolves...

A Cherokee elder was teaching his grandson about life.

He said to the boy, “A fight is going on inside me… it is a terrible fight between two wolves. One wolf represents fear, anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, hatefulness, and lies.

The other stands for joy, peace, love, hope, humbleness, kindness, friendship, generosity, faith, and truth. This same fight is going on inside of you, and inside every other person, too.”

The grandson thought about it for a minute. Then he asked, “Which wolf will win?”

The Cherokee elder replied…

“The one that you feed.”

Trump and the GOPee are feeding the wrong wolf.

[AgadorSparticus]

8. That wolf is being fed with or without Trump.

Even if they didn't feed this doesn't mean it doesn't exist. It is still there growing like a virus as it has been for decades.

P.s. I don't think Trump's rhetoric has made people become more racist. They already ARE--and getting worse every year. For the most part, I think economics and education okay a larger role in it. But it is harder to fight generational racism.

Quit frankly, I would rather see it, talk about it, and address it head on. And it starts with a bational conversation.

[barbtries]

4. but that meanness is quintessentially republican.

just look what they've done in NC with their super majority. 60 or so votes to strike down obamacare? i date it to reagan's "welfare queen" but it probably dates much further back. it's very republican.

[ananda]

5. Not true!

Just his stoopid idiotic base!

They don't represent me or America!

[pansypoo53219]

7. america gets CHEAP produce because the illegals will work for shit pay.

broccoli is probably $18 per lb in australia now. was $17 a few years ago. the farmers know better.