At first Trump's openly racist tweets seemed comically stupid. Just Trump being Trump.

They are racist. U.S. law says so. Racist guys yell, “Go back where you came from!” to girls wearing hijabs. All four targets were citizens, three born here. The fourth has been a citizen longer than Melania Trump, but has a darker complexion, a refugee kid who rose to Congress. It ain't about citizenship or loyalty, but color.

The tweets seemed especially foolish. Trump attacks women's soccer forward Megan Rapinoe and helps unify UWWMT against him – then sees Dems bickering, steps in to show them what a real enemy looks like. Unifying Dems. Frightening Republican Senators from swing states. 

But as Trump doubles down and Republican campaign officials ape his tone, you realize it's more serious. As the crowd at his rally enthusiastically chants “Send her back! Send her back!” like some southern lynch mob, or an early Hitler crowd, you sense that a decision has been made: we'll campaign in 2020 on racism, hatred, and insults.

Even more clearly, the constituency is white, male, preferably uneducated, and the message is that dark folks who talk funny are why our world isn't as it once was.

I think that strategy loses, ultimately. Might ratchet up fear and bring out a few more supporters; but the U.S. is changing. For my Hispanic friends who voted for Trump, will this be a bridge too far? Decent Republicans may actually speak up.

Am I deluding myself that human decency is a value for the majority of us? 

Experts keep saying Trump should run on the economy; but our economic chickens may come home to dump on his campaign by mid-2020. Maybe he's taking his best chance. Hatred is always in season.

The Democrats, true to form, may help him. Democratic leaders, sure they know what's politically prudent, may again treat dissenters badly, and weaken support for the ultimate nominee. A Democratic candidate making promises that Trump's “base” abhors might push some Republicans back into Trump's camp, despite their loathing for him. 

I do know that this is another critical election. 

Whoever wins, the country has already lost.

Since 2016, we've lost any semblance of a neutral Supreme Court, for a long time. We've lost critical years to make our national footprint smaller and more sustainable. We've lost much of our protection from bad food, poisoned air or water, dangerous drugs, dangerous airplanes, and dishonest banks and financial advisers. Our obscene wealth inequality has deepened. The Republican War on Science won't help us crest the next big technical wave. 

An extremely strident an election campaign will continue our disintegration as a society. Even if Trump loses, will Republicans learn from it? If Republicans don't lose the Senate too, we'll repair little of the damage. And if the financial consequences of Trump's carelessness and greed hit us after the election, will 2024 find voters blaming the wrong folks? 

A Trump win would bring devastating economic, environmental, and political consequences. The Federalist Society owns the courts. If Trump won big, with coattails, there could be enough Republican-controlled states to call an Article 35 Convention – eliminating a lot of our freedoms and protections, and maybe letting presidents run for a third term. A new constitution drafted by Koch staffers?

The cat jumping into my lap reminds me the desert sun is low enough that I can water the vegetables. Something true!

                                                           -30-

[The above column appeared this morning, 21 July 2019, in the Las Cruces Sun-News, as well as on the newspaper's websitethe newspaper's website and on KRWG's website.  A spoken version (available on KRWG's website) will air during the week on KRWG and on KTAL, 101.5 FM (Que Tal Community Radio --  www.lccommunityradio.org).  (Coincidentally, KRWG's site also had an opinion piece on the same subject by New Mexico in Depth journalist Trip Jennings called Trump Tweets Beg Question: What Kind of a Country Do We Want?] and another by Dennis Delaney entitled "Unthinkable Behavior by Elected Officials".)]

[I wrote this Thursday.  Friday, thehill.com reported that Republican officials wee "rattled by the Trump's rally."   The intra-party reaction led Trump to claim he found the chant distasteful, although he sure didn't look terribly appalled while inducing the chant and listening to it.)  Many Republicans are genuinely offended or see Trump's apparent campaign strategy as a losing one.  Or both.  Almost all are appalled by the constant furor Trump creates -- and having to answer questions about Trump's character and conduct, rather than about the economy.  Reading some of the comments in the  "thehill" piece, one almost imagines they might manage to rein the guy in.  I suspect they'll just mumble in their beards or complain anonymously to reporters, with the likely exception of Milt Romney, but who knows?
Romney called the chants "offensive" and said they'd probably hurt the party and the country..  Mitch McConnell and Republican Whip John Thune mumbled. A Republican aide said (anonymously) that strategists "feel like quitting because they're tired ofwaking up every day and twisting themselves into pretzels to rationalize what the president says."  For many, I'm sure, aside from political fears, the sight and sound of the North Carolina rally sparked memories of newsreels or movies with other demagogues preaching hate in other countries.  It usually doesn't end well.
House Republican Vice Chairman Mark Walker, from North Carolina was one who probably was genuinely offended.  He said:

“I’m offended by ‘send her back’ or ‘send them back’ — they are American citizens. I can’t sit here as a former pastor who’s worked in refugee camps, who cherishes the wonderful minority communities there are that have supported us and continue to support us without saying, ‘That’s offensive.’”

Even Lindsey Graham urged Trump to drop the personal attacks on the four congresswomen, saying, "All of these congressmen won their election.  They're American citizens.  This is their home as mine" though he added, "I think everyone should tamp it down."  Many Republicans have evaded specifically criticism of Trump by saying "everyone" or "all sides" should return to civil discourse.  Which is of course true, but isn't the point.  Trump is the primary offender, and the most powerful. 
For his part, although Trump claimed the chant made him "not happy," he defended the "patriotism" of his chanting supporters: “These are people that love our country. I want them to keep loving our country. And I think the congresswomen, by the way, should be more positive than they are.”]

[Saturday I spoke to my aunt, who's 95.  I asked her if she felt any different lately about Trump.  "No, but he sure has his hands full with those four Congresswoman, who keep shooting their mouths off."  She didn't think "Go back where you came from" was racist, but was appalled that "they said we're like Nazis."  Bottom line, though she doesn't approve of everything Trump says and does, she's very thankful "we don't have Hillary!"   We did agree we love each other, and it was great to hear her voice; but the riddle of so many decent people not seeing that Trump's a disaster for us remains.]