Donald Trump is a Throwback (and Not in a Good Way)

In 1963, the United States was a segregated nation. In many communities, Black people were not allowed to drink from the same water fountains as white people. They were not allowed to sit at the same lunch counter or attend the same schools. But things were beginning to change.

President Kennedy was pushing a new civil rights law that would put an end to Jim Crow laws, desegregate schools, prohibit discrimination, and strengthen voting rights. The idea of a new civil rights law was becoming more popular, but not so much among the voters in Alabama.

In 1963, Alabama voters elected George Wallace, an outspoken racist, to be governor of their state. In his inauguration address, Wallace uttered one of the most famous quotes ever uttered by any American politician. During this address, the self-proclaimed white supremacist  said,

“In the name of the greatest people who have ever trod the earth, I draw a line in the dust and toss the gauntlet at the feet of tyranny, and I say segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.”

Today, most of us rightly find Wallace’s statement abhorrent. It is obviously hateful and racist. Wallace wasn’t trying to hide his racism. He was proudly proclaiming it, making it clear to anyone who heard his words exactly how he felt about blacks and other minorities. And sadly, many people agreed with him and cheered on his racist rhetoric.

It seems unbelievable that today, more than sixty years after Wallace’s inaugural address, that we are witnessing a similar phenomenon with Donald Trump. His rhetoric is a throwback to a darker, less enlightened time.

When Donald Trump first descended the golden escalator and entered the political stage, he immediately launched into a racist rant about Mexicans, calling them “rapists” and “criminals.” He falsely claimed that “thousands and thousands” of Muslims cheered the September 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, and he implemented a Muslim ban as one of his first acts as President. More recently, he has condemned Haitian immigrants in Ohio–who, by the way, are in the United States legally–claiming that they are stealing and eating family pets; spreading disease; and committing crimes, including rape and murder, none of which are true.

Sadly, just like followers of George Wallace, Trump’s supporters cheer on his racist rants, calling for laws that favor white people (especially the straight, Christian variety), and encourage him to deport or jail people who don’t look like them or think like them.

This is what the Trump Campaign means when they say “Make America Great Again.” They view the time before the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act as a time when America was great, and they want to take us back to that time. They want to go back to a time when blacks, Hispanics, non-Christians, LGBTQ+ people, and other marginalized groups were treated as second class citizens, who didn’t enjoy the rights and privileges of “preferred” citizens, and to a time when it was much more acceptable to be openly and unapologetically racist.

It seems incredible to me that we are re-fighting this issue again. Even more incredible to me is the number of people on the other side who are fighting to take us back. This isn’t a fight over policy preferences. It is a fight to define our national identity. Are we a people who believe and support the opening lines of the Declaration of Independence, that say:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.”

Or are we a people who don’t believe in the words of the Declaration of Independence, who don’t believe in the rule of law, and who believe that some people should be preferred in the eyes of the law, while others are left out, or thrown out?

Those days of segregation and open racism were not good for anyone. They were dark days for the nation as a whole and none of us should want to go back, regardless of the color of our skin, the God we follow, or the person we love.

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