A campaign volunteer for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump recently resigned after saying that “there wasn’t any racism before Obama.” In the midst of that resignation, the guests on Saturday’s “AMJoy” had some choice words about the nominee.
Donald Trump – ‘Epidemic Of Profound Ignorance And Stupidity’
Mark Thompson, the host of “Make It Plain with Mark Thompson” on SiriusXM, said:
“…They blame African-Americans for racism — she said that code word ‘responsibility,’ ‘personal responsibility’ … Unfortunately, the Clinton campaign, several in the staff had that epidemic of pneumonia. The Trump campaign has an epidemic of profound ignorance and stupidity … and that’s what he represents.”
Thompson is 100 percent correct. We can point to incident after incident after incident showing the “ignorance and stupidity” of the Trump campaign … and those three are just from this week.
One of the most frightening things about the entire Trump campaign, though, is how he has peddled racism from the beginning. Thompson called Trump “orange man with forked tongue” when addressing Trump’s idea to make the controversial “stop-and-frisk” laws a nationwide thing, saying:
“…The numbers show it failed miserably. And most of those who were found with contraband on their person were the white kids, not the black kids, even though Black kids were arrested at twice the rate … He’s trying to appeal to moderate Whites, moderate conservatives, to pretend as if he cares for the African-American community. But, as Tim Wise said, he’s also speaking to that alt-right. It’s a coded message.”
The “coded message” Thompson is speaking about is something that is simply politics-as-usual for the Republicans. Trump is now shouting these things, often eschewing the “code” completely, and he’s not too far behind in the polls.
Tim Wise Pulls No Punches
The alt-right is a White supremacist group that has been thrust into the national spotlight in this election. Once a group relegated to dark corners of the internet, they now attempt to pass themselves off as a reasonable group of “patriots.” And a big reason for their newfound fame is Donald Trump.
After Thompson’s statement about the alt-right, Reid turned to Tim Wise, asking him why he felt Republicans were comfortable with this relationship with such a group. Wise, a prominent anti-racism activist and author, had this to say:
“It’s the same thing that propelled David Duke to 55 to 60 percent of the white vote in Louisiana in ’90 or ’91. To his hardcore base he spoke one way, to remind them that he’s going to get tough with black folks. And to the folks he was trying to woo, he said, ‘Well, I’m not really a racist anymore, I used to be a racist.’ He talked in code. That’s been the game on the right for a long time.”
As for what Trump has been saying since the beginning, Wise commented:
“Notice, every solution he has for people of color, quote unquote, are authoritarian and racist. Keep Mexican-American folk out of the country, and immigrants out. To block Muslim folk, many of the disproportionately people of color, keep them out of the country. And for black folks to control them with cops and so-called law and order. That is why it is accurate to say his policies are institutionally racist … People say, ‘Well, do you think Donald Trump is a racist?’ I don’t know. It’s like asking if a drug dealer also uses their own drugs and is an addict. I don’t know if he gets high on his supply, but I know what he’s selling.”
Support For Trump = Embracing Racism
I don’t know how many times it can be said or how many ways it can be said, but anyone who is paying attention knows that Trump is peddling racism. Personally, I’ve noticed that most of the arguments in favor of Trump quickly devolve into arguments against Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. Clinton is not perfect, but there really should be no contest between these two. If you support Trump, you’re either perfectly fine with his racist and bigoted policies or you’re delusional. There really is no way around it.
Watch Thompson and Wise take down Trump on MSNBC here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1Lqts6deys
Featured Image via YouTube screengrab
