Congressman John Lewis Has A Warning About The Rise Of Donald Trump

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There are few people in this country who qualify as true heroes, but one of them is Congressman John Lewis. During the 1960s, Lewis was one of the main organizers and leaders of the Alabama Freedom Rides, and for his efforts he was beaten, teargassed, and nearly killed by the Ku Klux Klan.

Now Congressman Lewis is speaking out on the rapid ascent of Donald Trump’s political star.

Speaking during a visit to Los Angeles, Lewis remarked:

“I’ve been around a while and Trump reminds me so much of a lot of the things that George Wallace said and did. I think demagogues are pretty dangerous, really. We shouldn’t divide people, we shouldn’t separate people.

“Sometimes I feel like I am reliving part of my past. I heard it so much growing up in the South. I heard it so much during the days of the civil rights movement. As a people, I just think we could do much better.”

How right Congressman Lewis is! Trump began his campaign by making derogatory comments about Mexican immigrants. Then he trafficked in the fear around the Paris attacks by spewing out hatred and intolerance of anyone who practices Islam. He has said horrible things about women and anyone else he happens to disagree with.

I have said on several occasions over the past few months that Trump is indeed the most divisive political figure since George Wallace, and I have also compared him to Hitler because he seems to delight in scapegoating the weak, the oppressed, the vulnerable. His bully tactics have the classic ring of a tyrant who wants to fuel his own rise to power by dividing a nation so they will be ripe for conquering. He is a malignant cancer on this country.

As John Lewis noted, as we learned decades ago from both Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. we can only heal the problems which confront us with love, cooperation, and caring. Hatred will only serve to rip up apart and scatter us to the winds.

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