The 2024 choice: Build up or tear down
Inclusion only threatens bigots Permit me to begin with some positive messages: The Washington Post reports, “Trump’s presidential bid has the support of only half of his Cabinet.” A T-shirt reads, “Voting prevents unwanted presidencies.” Simone Biles tweets, “I love my Black job” after her thrilling Olympic gymnastics comeback.
James Baldwin, whose 100th birthday was Aug, 2, wrote that “ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.” And here we are with an ignoramus seeking to replace the American presidency with a dictatorship, aided by many who should know better but are intoxicated with the prospect of power.
The Trump phenomenon is a blend of know-nothingism, bigoted appeals and theft. If every news cycle becomes a question of how Democrats will respond to his latest mud-slinging — such as by obligingly refuting his claims about Kamala Harris’s birth certificate — we are playing on his ground.
If we let a lying sociopath be the arbiter of authenticity, we are surely lost. Trump says millions are crossing our southern border in an invasion, but border crossings have actually gone down.
